[ale] Personal Productivity Software

[Thompson Freeman]

My appologies if this is the wrong forum to ask.

For years, I have been looking for, and not finding, software to support the
individual with five to fifty separate and mutating projects on his plate at
any one time. A ToDo list manager doesn't quite seem the right thing to use
(especially if the individual is part of a team or group, although that is not
my personal condition at the moment), nor is a tickle file, and a full blown
project manager addresses the wrong problem entirely. Essentially, I want to be
able to overview projects in hand, or tasks which are currently possible to do,
or the tasks and dates related to a given project, or (possibly) the resources
needed for a project or task. In the best of all worlds, such software would at
least be inexpensive to cheap and available for Linux (especially since I'm
trying to move all of my computer work to Linux!)

To try an clear up my desire - consider that I have "projects" related to two
of my children I'm home schooling which have tasks on a daily basis; I'm the
program chair for a local professional society which means setting up the
monthly meetings and two annual reports; I'm also the editor of that group's
newsletter which entails getting the whole newsletter out to 800+ members and
sending out the bills for advertising (damn volunteer job); co-treasurer of a
square dance club with weekly duties; and supposed to be getting active in the
section's National Chemistry Week activites for this year.. Toss in the odd
consulting gig, and I find that I'm dropping tasks into /dev/nul which I
shouldn't, and staying behind schedual. Worse, my nominal "ToDo" list is
incomplete, and stays somewhere around 30 overly general entries, which leaves
me feeling a little discouraged because progress is so hard to see.

I'd _like_ some computer help, and I don't think that my needs are that unusual
either. Of course - I would _really_like_ a Linux based concept, since I'm
running Caldera now, and enjoying the experience over Windows & DOS & Mac.

Thanks in advance for either pointers to an effective place to ask, or for
solutions to the puzzle.
God gave man two ears and one tongue so that we listen twice as much as
we speak.
		-- Arab proverb