Ghost Action GTD app: simple, slick, syncing
Ghost Park Software has released a simple, slick and polished app “for keeping track of your to-dos using the simple and stress-free Getting Things Done method”.
It comes from the “lean and mean” end of the GTD app market and looks more like Actiontastic than Midnight Inbox 
and other “eye-candy heavy” apps:
Context, Project and Action views provide powerful and flexible ways to carry your to-dos forward.
The developers give a lot of attention to syncing, which is good. Ghost Action has full two-way synchronization with iCal. It can also synchronize with any iSync-compatible device — a PDA, an iPod or a phone.
Syncing options are provided in the app’s Preferences:
One user provides Ghost Park with a full praise for its clever syncing:
I love the fact that Ghost Action recognizes the
project name in the to-dos imported from iCal (like “some task [Project 
X]â€). Very handy, that means I can enter to-dos on my Palm and and they will be properly synchronized to Ghost Action through iCal. Cool! — Ksenia Marasan
Ghost Action is an universal binary and shareware (USD 19.95). You can get a free 14-day demo from the developer’s web site.
It seems like just yesterday that I wrote up “Ten Mac Tools for Getting Things Done“. Now it could easy be twenty Mac tools, all of them high quality solutions.
Ghost Action has the edge in sync options. Actiontastic gets brownie points for Quicksilver integration.
Tags: getting organised, getting things done, gtd, iCal, isync, not apple mail, Productivity, syncing, task management, to doRelated posts
February 7th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Hi Tim– thanks for this glimpse at Ghost Action.
I thought you would be interested to know that I’ve started writing a new column for ATPM, called “Next Actions”. In it I discuss how to use the software tools available to Mac users to implement GTD well. (Ghost Action is on my list.)
You can get a look at my column here: http://www.atpm.com/13.02/next-actions.shtml
February 7th, 2007 at 1:20 am
Very interesting! I’ll need to keep an eye on that. Looks like it appears monthly. Is that right?
February 7th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Thanks for the post … very interesting. I might give it a try. Check out My GTD implementation and my latest GTD posts: 5 Ways GTD Helps You Achieve Your Goals and Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task. I’m bookmarking this site for future reference!
February 7th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I have been using various GTD setups since 1996, and have been a GTD user since before it was GTD (was Managing Actions and Projects - MAP) and arranged a Fast Company party for David when he was in Japan in 1997. This ap is much better than any of the other implementations out there. Despite being version one, it is as close to a perfect GTD interpretation as is available anywhere.
It allows you to slice and dice by actions, projects or contexts. I usually sit in the project view and enter projects (option control N) and the next action (control N). I do need to use the mouse to set the context from a pop up menu. Hopefully version 1.1 contains keyboard selection of context selection.
Printing to notecards is as simple as control P. Each card is separated by context and each action has a checkbox . My only criticism of the program is that the project and the action are not paired on the printed version. The developer has said he is working on this implementation.
After beta testing one version I paid the $19.95 fee. I don’t know if I will use the syncing functionality, but I am very happy with my purchase.
February 7th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
To clarify the syncing praise: I am using Missing Sync, so each iCal calendar(context) maps to DateBook category on my Palm. Default Palm conduit doesn’t have this functionality :)