SmartyTask runs on David Allen's Getting Things Done® method. There are only three moves to learn, and you'll repeat them forever:
This tour takes about two minutes. Use the arrows or your keyboard.
Every page has a quick-add box at the top. Don't organize while you capture — just get it in. It lands in your Inbox and you'll deal with it later.
Capture is supposed to be dumb-fast. If it takes more than two seconds, you're overthinking it.
You get a private capture address (find it in Settings → Email to Inbox). Send or forward any email to it from your phone, Gmail, anywhere:
Subject becomes the title, the body becomes the note. Save the address as a contact and capture is two taps from anywhere.
The Inbox isn't a to-do list — it's a holding pen. For each item, make one decision:
Inbox zero isn't a flex here. It's just the system working.
Hover any task and the controls appear. Click the title to rename it. Drag to reorder. The tag assigns context/project in two clicks; the pencil opens the full editor:
Everything you've decided to do, grouped by context. At your desk? Work the @computer list. Running errands? Open @errands. No re-deciding, no scanning a giant list.
Give anything a date and it files itself into the right bucket automatically. Nothing with a future date clutters today's view — it resurfaces when it matters:
This is the digital version of the classic 43-folders tickler file — minus the folders.
Delegated something? Waiting on a reply, a check, a delivery? Set the status to Waiting and forget it — the list remembers for you.
Scan this list once a week and nudge whoever needs nudging.
"Launch the new course" isn't a task — it's a project holding a dozen tasks. The Projects view shows each one with its open-action count; click in to manage its actions.
The golden rule: every active project needs at least one next action. A project with zero next actions is stalled — your weekly review catches those.
Someday/Maybe holds ideas you're not committing to yet — organized into themed lists so they don't rot in one pile:
Altitude is David Allen's Horizons of Focus — an outline for the thinking above your task list:
The daily digest email summarizes what's due, what's overdue, and what you starred. Configure it in Settings — pick the hour, and choose what's included:
Power move: star your must-dos each evening and set the digest to "starred only." It becomes your daily hit list.
Prefer a ping to an email? Turn on notifications in Settings and your digest also pops up right on your phone or computer. On iPhone, add SmartyTask to your Home Screen first (Share → Add to Home Screen) — then it works just like a regular app.
Everyone knows the weekly review is what makes GTD® work. Almost nobody does it, because staring at your lists wondering "am I done?" is miserable.
SmartyTask walks you through it — seven short steps, your real lists, one at a time:
It even shows you which projects have no next action — the #1 way systems silently die. Find it in the sidebar: Weekly Review. About fifteen minutes, once a week.
Two more quiet conveniences: any action with a due date has an Add to Calendar button (Google, Apple, or Outlook — one click, no account hookups), and every list has a Print button that produces a clean paper checklist. Yes, paper. It still works. (On Android, one more: Share → SmartyTask from any app drops it straight into your Inbox.)
That's the whole system. Capture everything, process daily, review weekly — and your head stays clear for the actual work.
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