I have continued to work diligently on testing out task list / to do applications. To date, these are the six I’ve tried (and I’m including OmniFocus even though it wasn’t recent because I think I have enough experience to know what it can do), and this is the preferred order so far:

1) Toodledo — extremely powerful, but simple enough to use in a basic way; good training videos

2) Wunderlist — best for free usage; has sub-task support that is better than Remember the Milk (“RTM”)

3) RTM — sort of a toss-up with Todoist (the latter of which has a nicer interface), because the RTM iOS app is actually pretty nice once you start using it consistently; the huge issue is that the free version permits syncing only once per 24 hours, so unless you pay, it’s really useless

4) Todoist — really great interface and design for heavy usage, but terrible handling of sub-tasks

5) Any.do — probably the cleanest, and if I only needed to keep simple grocery lists and personal around-the-house reminders, this is what I’d use; but the interface is not intuitive on iOS or the browser version; it also lacks a lot of the more advanced features that I intend to use the To Do app to manage (i.e., personal project management of both work and personal tasks as well as reminders, errands, and “someday” items)

6) OmniFocus — unfortunately, this is still an Apple/Mac-only program without web-based access, and therefore is not helpful for a person who works in a locked-down PC office environment

In short, even for GTD devotees, Toodledo can accommodate it (e.g., contexts and location).

And although Toodledo is among the least aesthetically beautiful, it’s incredibly functional and powerful. For example, you can set “optional” tasks and optional recurring tasks. For the former, it’s things like “there’s a MoMA event on Feb. 25th that I might like to go to if I’m free” — and if it passes, Toodledo automatically just removes it because it’s irrelevant and it was optional. But some things are weekly tasks that, if the week passes, you want to keep but don’t want the lingering outdated item. So for the latter, the program just advances the deadline. An example might be “Complete weekly journal entry” — something that you’d like to do, but it’s fine if you don’t. It also handles items that recur at irregular intervals (e.g., Clean coffee grinder every four months.)

That’s the update so far…