Modern life means that most of us have to remember a large number of appointments and deadlines every day of the week, and in many instances a traditional diary or calendar will not suffice. One option is to turn to a personal information manager (PIM), but these have a tendency to be large, complicated beasts which are overpowered for what they are needed for. Many PIMs are also somewhat limited in the way in which they handle the creation of tasks, and this is where Task Coach may be able to help.

In essence, the program is a simple To Do list manager, but it has been designed with one important idea in mind - one which is all too often overlooked. The program is capable of handling composite tasks - an entry on a To Do list which is made up of several individual components - which means that it can be used to manage simple tasks and well as more complicated projects.

Tasks that are created can be assigned a start and end date as well as a priority level and a search facility is on hand to make it easy to track down information that may have been attached to a particular item. Saved in XML format, Task Coach files can be imported into a range of other programs, but on its own it does an excellent job of handling both small and large lists of tasks that need to be completed.

Note that this is the portable version of Task Coach that can be taken on the road.