Editor’s Note: This is the first intallment in a quick 3-part series on web-based task management applications. Today we take a look at Highrise from 37 Signals

As I continue to learn about the practical application of GTD in my everyday work and personal life I have realized that task management is going to be critical in many respects. Because GTD is so task oriented and because so many things in today’s work environment are collaborative in nature it is essential that you have the ability to track not only your own tasks and deliverables but those of the people to whom you’ve Delegated something as well as those someone else may have delegated to you.

So far I haven’t found the perfect task management solution for me but I have come across a couple of strong candidates. Today I’ll give you a quick rundown on three and see if perhaps someone can help me see which one would be best for GTD use.

First up is Highrise

(click the image for a larger view).

Highrise is a strong contender for sure. It is a lot more than just a task management utility and in reality should probably be classified almost as a lightweight CRM tool since it has a substantial number of features oriented towards contact management in addition to handling tasks. The thing is, these features make it especially good for managing the deliverables of delegated tasks. I also like the task dashboard that makes it possible to see your whole list of tasks broken down by when they’re due as well as their other associations. Is the task an email, does it relate to a document, or perhaps it is tied to another person? All of these scenarios are accounted for in Highrise. Another thing I liked about Highrise is the fact that you can see at a glance what needs to be done today and horror of horrors, what SHOULD have bee done yesterday (in case you’re Not Getting Things Done as quickly as you needed to).

Task entry is quick and easy which is something you should demand from any task management software - after all, if it’s any more difficult than writing the task on a piece of paper it probably isn’t going to be efficient and that should be cause to consider seriously if it will actually help you Get More Done or simply chew up valuable time while you futz around with the software.

The two issues I had with Highrise are the depth of the application (it really is more suited for teams than individuals with all these features), and the price. For the lowest cost setup that I though would be adequate for my needs they have a solo special (for Freelancers, they say) at $29.00 per month. This is almost as much as I pay for my 6 Meg pipe and it seems a little steep considering that some applications with nearly this much functionality are free.

Google has yet to come out with Task Management but they’ve so spoiled me with some of their free applications that these days I have a much harder time opening up the old wallet (and especially to the tune of almost $30 Bones a month just to manage my task list.

Tags: Contributors, Downloads, Oliver Starr, Software //