The tastes and work approaches for task management tend to be quite different. One person simply needs a sheet of paper or a long document in a word processor to jot down what's important. Someone else might carry around a thick planner or use software with a fixed structure to keep track of activities and tasks.

Nitro [1] is a task manager that differs from other programs in many ways. A few years ago a new approach called "Getting Things Done" (GTD, [2]) began to win favor in task management.

This approach proposed categorizing tasks by solutions appropriate for them, or even by location, instead of assigning priorities to the tasks themselves. Thus, to get professional and private tasks under one roof, they need to go on separate lists.

Nitro supports this approach, without necessarily clinging to it. Whereas the GTD inventor eschews assigning priorities, Nitro permits prioritization along with setting deadlines.

Nitro is an exception among current software in that the program is available only as a standalone application for Linux and the Mac.

Windows users have to fall back on the appropriate extensions for the Google Chrome browser or manage their tasks exclusively online through the browser. Those interested in the web interface don't need to be subjected to a long registration process; however: An account with Dropbox or Ubuntu One would suffice.

Installation

You have two ways to install the latest version of Nitro on Ubuntu. The easiest approach is to search for "Nitro" in the Software Center: The app is offered for purchase but is virtually free. The alternative to Software Center is that developers also provide the installation from a personal program archive (PPA) (Listing 1).

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cooperjona/
  nitrotasks
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install nitrotasks

After installing the software, look on the Dash for Nitro and run the program. You'll initially get a blank program window. If necessary, change your language settings at this point on the Language tab by clicking the gear icon.

Unlike what you might be used to, the setting does not immediately take effect based on your choice. Exit the dialog and exit the program. When you restart Nitro, the language settings will be in effect.

Creating Tasks

Nitro has different methods for creating tasks. To add a template for a new task, for example, click Add on the icon bar or File | Add Task – or better yet, click Ctrl+N. Note the title or the actual task name. Experts agree that it's more motivating to use an active formulation for the title, such as "Add screenshot of Nitro task!" Press Tab to move to the next field.

Like many other task programs, Nitro supports organizing the tasks with tags or keywords (Figure 1). You can assign multiple tags, separated by commas, to a task.

Figure 1: Nitro organizes tasks by priorities and tags.

Another Tab takes you a drop-down list of priorities to choose from, which you can choose with your mouse. And, another Tab takes you to a field to set a optional due date, where you can open a calendar and choose a date with the keyboard (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Nitro opens a calendar to choose an optional due date.

In the last field, Note, you can add an optional description – for example, more about the task and what you want to achieve by it. Finally, press Esc or click outside the dialog, and you can set up the next task.

Lists

It wouldn't be clear just to store all the tasks in a simple series in the software. To get a clearer view, organize the tasks in lists. In File | Add List or by clicking Add List at the bottom left of the window, you can add an appropriate list name.

The way you structure tasks is up to you. You could distinguish between work and home tasks or create a list for each major project. Or, you can hold to the GTD philosophy and distinguish between resources and locations.

To add an entry to a list, you can click the list in the left navigation pane and click Add or use any of the other alternatives.

Views

With the help of the entries in the navigation pane, Nitro wants you to concentrate more on the essentials. One way is to navigate among the lists.

The optional Focus item at the top of the navigation pane groups the tasks without regard to lists. Thus, you can see which tasks you should perform based on their due date. Next shows you tasks that are due soon. To see all your tasks, click All Tasks .

One way motivate yourself is to occasionally visit the Logbook (Figure 3), which contains the tasks you've already completed – provided you add them to the logbook. If you add a check mark to a task or an entry in the Focus area, you mark it as completed.

Figure 3: You save completed tasks in the logbook, which removes them from lists.

Changing to the logbook shows you a note of how many items you've completed and which could be added to the logbook. Clicking the note adds the items to the logbook.

You can also switch focus from item to item using the View menu or by pressing Ctrl+1 through 4 – with each number being the item in the navigation pane. To view All Tasks , for example, press Ctrl+4.

Searching and Finding

The usefulness of a task manager very much depends on its search and sort functions. Users who adhere to the GTD way of doing things in particular may have 100 or more tasks open at one time. The GTD approach is namely predicated on keeping all your work and private tasks listed at all times, to better clear your head.

In addition to organizing by lists, Nitro organizes by tags. The tags for a task are listed immediately after the title field. You can add tags by double-clicking on the task item. You can add multiple tags by separating them with commas.

Unfortunately, Nitro doesn't provide autocompletion of entries, so you explicitly need to enter the tags each time. One keystroke too many and you might create an unwanted extra tag, such as Project and Projects . A mouse-click brings up all the tasks with the same tag assigned. Clicking a tag in the list does the same thing.

The search function of the program is impressively fast. Press F to move focus to the Search field. Now you can enter a term or part of one. The search begins even while you type, and you start getting a hits with the first character alone. The search relates to the currently active list only, so it helps to have All Tasks showing before performing the search (Ctrl+4 followed by F).

To search for an entry based on a day, you can prefix the search term with the pound sign (#). Often, however, you may not be so interested in a specific task or keyword but instead want to filter a list. Nitro developers thought of that and provided a sort function, which is available with a mouse-click on the icon bar.

In all, five sort options are available. You can sort by task title, due date, or priority. Two entries in the list differ from what's found in other applications. If you choose Manual , you can sort elements anyway you wish.

This approach is not very useful, however, because you can always change the search elements to another order with the mouse. Because of a bug, Nitro doesn't make the manual sorting persistent: If you move to another area and return, default sorting is restored.

A Nitro filter missing in other applications is the Magical sort, in which Nitro tries to group the open tasks through an algorithm based on tags, due dates, and priorities. Try it for yourself, and you're guaranteed new insights into the tasks.

Synchronization

No version of Nitro currently installs on a smartphone, so you will need a mobile browser. However, if you're working under different operating systems on different computers, you can set up synchronization among them. This approach works either through Dropbox or Ubuntu One. Unfortunately, the latter is being phased out by Canonical, so you won't be able to use it for much longer.

The setup is identical in both cases. Click the gear icon to open the settings and go to the Sync tab. Choose between the Dropbox and Ubuntu service to set up Nitro Sync (Figure 4). If you don't yet have an account for one of these services, Nitro can create one for you.

Figure 4: You can choose between two services to synchronize tasks between systems.

After making the choice, a little window opens so you can enter the URL for the service. Next, log in using your credentials. After you're in the system, you need to set up access to the service for the app (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Both Dropbox and Ubuntu One ask whether you want to authorize access to the data, which you need to do on each system.

Be sure to choose a name that you can remember. If you want to prevent access by external applications to the cloud storage later, it's good to recall which computer had the access.

Once the system accepts your authorization, you're prompted to close the window. At that point, you start the synchronization process. You need to repeat the authorization steps on each system where Nitro is installed. In the options, you can choose between manual synchronization or doing so at regular intervals.

New Looks

You can change Nitro's look in the settings. Simply click on the gear icon (or View | Preferences ) and then on the Theme tab. Nitro provides various themes from which to choose. Without a doubt, the developers were inspired by the Wunderlist theme popular on Macs, which is why the eponymous theme exists in Nitro.

If you have any website design experience, Nitro lets you develop a completely unique look (Figure 6). Themes consist of graphics and CSS files in the opt/nitro/share/nitrotasks/media/app/css directory that are basically templates. Always keep backups, though!

Figure 6: You can change Nitro's look with themes. If you know anything about creating CSS files, you can even create your own.

Conclusion

Nitro is missing a few features that keep it from being an all-around perfect task management system. It might not have occurred to developers that a user might want a printout of the task list – perhaps to carry around in a day planner. Yep, the PC program has no print function. You can only print from within the browser version.

You can access your tasks from anywhere, but the appearance may change from device to device. At the top of most users' wishlists is probably to have Nitro develop a mobile client for Android and iOS so that task lists are available on tablet PCs and smartphones. This functionality would be icing on the cake.