Here’s why:

Keeping it REALLY simple

All Anxiety does is allow you to add, view and check off to-do items. No reminders — that’s what Task.fm is for! — no email, no integration with web apps. Just a clean list.

Living in your menubar

Anxiety doesn’t have to be in the dock to function. It just sits in your menubar, waiting for you to pop open the attractive, compact HUD display. Keeping it out of the dock means it’s not distracting, but putting in the menubar means it’s there when you need it.

Playing nicely with others

Anxiety doesn’t replace your iCal or Google Calendar, but you can choose to have your Anxiety items listed as to-dos in either iCal or Apple Mail. That way, if you need to assign dates and times to them, place them on your calendar, add reminders, etc., you can do it fairly quickly.

Going easy on your system resources

Anxiety only uses 7 or 8MB of memory on my system, compared to 24MB for iCal and 55MB for Mail. It’s as if you don’t even have it open.

For me, Anxiety is basically a list of article ideas and pitches to send out when I have time. You could really use it for any kind of list, though. Certainly, it’s not going to be enough for some people, but it’s worth considering if your organizational style  is fairly loose and lightweight.

What’s your favorite to-do list app? Let us know in the comments.

Jay is a freelance writer based in Seattle, WA. He writes about software for Download Squad and contributes interviews to Geek Monthly magazine, among others. You can also follow him on Twitter and at his blog.

7:00 am – Gmail

I have 3 inboxes all provided by Google.  One on Gmail and two on Google Apps.  Apart from the smart way gmail groups conversations, the search is just killer.  Plus im also using gchat more and more.

8:00am – Clicky

after spending an hour (probably more) going through emails, I head on over to Clicky to check up on the latest stats.  Clicky is real-time, which is invaluable for me.  If im ever feeling bored, I just watch the “spy” stream to see visitors move around the app.

9:00am – FriendFeed

This used to be Twitter. But now I just use FriendFeed as my Twitter client.  I have saved searches for keywords like task.fm and I have also built a special room which tracks pretty much every mention of our product.  From here I go out and comment on the blog posts, Twitter mentions etc.

10:00am – Task.fm

Obvious I know. I mainly use Task.fm through email to create new reminders but I also keep my to-do list on Task.fm open throughout the day.  Plus I get to play with the latest release

11:30am – TheSixtyOne

TheSixtyOne is a music site for hardcore music files.  You find Coldplay on their but all the hottest indie bands and some of the best music being released on the internet finds its way there.  I use TheSixtyOne instead of Pandora (which is blocked for us Aussies).

1:00pm – WordPress

I have tried other options, but for me nothing beats WordPress for full on (as opposed to micro or tumble) blogging.  I write my daily post for iDezy.com and then head on over to this blog to draft up some ideas.  I usually take a few days to write a post like this.

2:00pm – ZenDesk

ZenDesk is a hosted help desk.  I use it for Task.fm support. Its clean and easy to use which I like.

3:00pm – MailChimp

I try and send out a weekly newsletter for Task.fm (only if we have launched a cool new feature) and Mailchimp does an excellent job at managing this.  Its not the cheapest option available, but it does have more features and is targeted towards startups with features like A/B testing.

4:00pm - Twitter

I usually head on over to Twitter to catch any @feint or @taskfm replies that I might have missed on Friendfeed.

5:00pm -  Google Reader

I don’t use Google Reader as much as I used to as FriendFeed catches many of the rss feeds I subscribe to anyway.  I do use reader to keep track of some video podcasts and of blogs that I don’t want to miss a post.

6:00pm – Present.ly

Present.ly is your own Twitter.  The WordPress folks (another virtual team) use P2 which is their own version of a private twitter client.  I use it to get updates from some of the Task.fm team members.  Not all of them use it yet….but they will eventually come around to the idea.

7:00pm – Google Talk

gChat has replaced messenger for me as most people don’t use it anymore.  I find my friends use Facebook and the developers use gChat.  Most of the developers for Task.fm will wakeup when im supposed to be going to bed – so gChat will be open well into the night.

8:00pm – Google Docs

I use Google docs for various documents related to Task.fm.  Being able to quickly share docs is vital when working with a virtual team and the built in chat is a killer feature.

9:00pm – Tumblr

Tumblr is a super simple way to blog.  I use it for the Task Tips blog to quickly push out a lot of content.  Its not good for long articles but great for short snippets.

10:00pm – iPlotz

iPlotz is a wire framing tool which I use to to create the rouch sketches and wireframes of all Task.fm features.  These are then shared with developers.   If you build a web app you need to do wireframes!  Funiily enough I also do all my wireframes late at night when im feeling creative.

Props to this great post for the inspiration behind this article.