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It’s a bit embarrassing to count how many task management type apps or online to-do list tools I have tried over the years, but Things (Mac) is the only one I’ve stuck with as an alternative to a pen and paper for planning and organizing my own projects. And it has an iPhone version that syncs nicely.

I did stick with one other to-do list service, though (in addition to Today). TeuxDeux is a nice one if you float between different locations/computers. Also has a good iPhone version.

My favourite to-do and calendar app, Today sits in the menu bar and integrates with iCal - very useful.

When doing a content audit or inventory it’s often necessary to copy and paste a very large number of web pages from a client’s existing site to organize them into one document that’s easy to comment on and edit.

QuickCursor is a small app that lets you select any text in a browser and quickly edit it in your selected text editor - in my case WriteRoom - before dumping it into something like Word to format it.

For pages that have a lot of graphics or frames, I also use the Safari Reader tool in Safari to bring up a clean page of text first. Safari Reader also does a great job of stripping out the text from PDFs, which can be a formatting nightmare.

Instapaper does a similar job of providing a page of clean text, but in more steps. The Readability Add-on for Firefox also works well, but not on PDFs.

Out of all of the ways I’ve tried to keep organized while working on multiple projects over the years the Pomodoro Technique is probably the best for shutting out distractions like a video of a gorilla walking like a man or a dramatic squirrel.

Designed by Italian procrastinator Fransesco Cirillo, the PT uses a timer that looks like a tomato to help you focus on specific tasks and get more stuff done. Strange as that might sound, it works!

All you need is a pencil, a note pad and a timer (Pomodoro is Italian for tomato and a tomato-shaped timer was all Fransesco had to hand when he invented his technique). You list your tasks at the start of the day, prioritize them and then work on them in 25-minute chunks, with a 5-minute break between chunks.

It works best when you have loads of little tasks to work through, although I’ve also found it useful for working through a longer content project that can be broken into sections.

Of course, this being 2011 there is an iPhone app. I got the Mac app, which does the job until I find somewhere that sells tomato timers.

I have three email accounts I like to monitor - two business and one personal. Notify (Mac) sits quietly tucked away in my taskbar and lets me know when I get a new email whether or not my email program is open. I can read and reply directly from the drop-down window, which has tabs to make it easy to flip between multiple accounts.

When I started freelancing I had serious trouble focusing when surrounded by all the many distractions of the home - toaster, kettle, TV, sofa, those kinds of things - not to mention the Internet.

I found solace and productivity in cafes and did become one of those people hogging a table and staring at a laptop screen. Sorry. Although to be fair I did always choose a quiet coffee shop and take a small table. But I can only really drink two cups of medium strength coffee a day without going a bit doolally. And all the muffins gradually took their toll.

Then I found WriteRoom. It blanks out your computer screen (choice of backgrounds and text colours) and lets you focus on just the words for a while. It’s for the Mac only I think and the iPhone version is pretty good, too.

My favourite ‘save to read later’ tool. Works well with iPhones.

www.instapaper.com