I've been looking into options for improving task management with Basecamp, given my frustration with Basecamp's lack of due dates or task details.

Basecamp is what I need to manage the big picture of projects, keep in touch with clients, and assign tasks to my team, subcontractors, and client staff. I wrote up a pretty detailed picture of how we're doing this in my post about our Basecamp workflow.

But Basecamp is not a good tool for personal task management. That's why I use -- and quite like -- Remember the Milk, a very sophisticated yet intuitive task manager. RTM lets you categorize tasks into categories (lists) of your choice, tag any task, associate tasks with locations, assign priorities and due dates to tasks, share tasks with colleagues -- basically anything you might need to do to manage your tasks effectively. And it has lots of nice add-ons, like an iGoogle widget that you can even use to view RTM tasks in your Firefox sidebar.

As it stands, the combo of Basecamp and RTM is pretty unsatisfying. I have to manually copy my Basecamp to-dos into my RTM lists. And then when I complete a task, i have to mark it complete in both places.

Since many of my tasks are independent of particular client projects, it doesn't make sense to manage all my tasks from within Basecamp (especially considering the limitations of the Basecamp task system). What I really want is to create and manage most of my tasks from within RTM, but still be able to include my Basecamp tasks in the RTM system.

I'm hoping the RTM team will make this possible by building a bridge to the Basecamp API. Ideally RTM would first introduce nested lists, so that each Basecamp project could be an RTM list (tab). A basecamp to-do list could become a nested list on that tab, with tasks listed inside the nested sublist.

It's a little trickier without nested lists, but I'd still settle for a dump of all my tasks in a given project, directly into an RTM tab/list of the same name. I'd lose the in-between layer of to-do list names within Basecamp, but I can live with that -- especially if completing a task in RTM marks it complete in Basecamp.

The RTM team is the obvious gang to take this on, especially since they are looking for value-added options that would induce people to pay for RTM Pro (I'd happily pay more than $25/yr for Basecamp integration, myself -- I could imagine $10/month as a fair pricepoint). 

But the RTM folks are busy, busy, busy. So I'm hoping there are other developers out there -- people who could use the RTM and Basecamp APIs to build this sync function without the official blessing of either service. If this sounds like you, let us know how we could help make this happen. And if this mashup sounds like something you'd want, leave a comment so we can figure out whether there's enough interest to warrant a development bounty.

(Aaron and I prepared this review together. He's responsible for the first half or so, plus the roundup; I'm mainly to blame for the milk-related puns. –Rob)

October saw the Social Signal team hunting for some new task management software. We'd been using (or not using, as the case may be) Basecamp for quite a while, but it made task management an almost unmanageable task. For instance, we like to work together on specific tasks, so Basecamp's inability to assign tasks to multiple people was a real problem. That, plus the somewhat buggy interface and the lack of RSS feeds made us decide that it was time for something new and better.

Enter Remember the Milk, a free web-based to-do list service. Aside from having a catchy name (which is almost a Web 2.0 prerequisite these days), RTM is an incredibly slick task management application that comes jam-packed with great features.

Adding lists and tasks is a snap, you can sort tasks by tag, share lists and tasks with other RTM users & groups, and you can upload task lists by email. As if that wasn't enough, there's Atom, RSS and iCal feeds, integrated geo-location, and email/IM/SMS reminders.

All this killer functionality is wrapped in a clean and pleasant interface and supported by a dynamite help section. All well and good.

But there are places where the milk curdles - especially for a team. The interface sometimes feels counterintuitive, with crucial feedback messages and dialog boxes appearing unobtrusively when they should be working harder to grab your eyeballs. Sharing and assigning tasks relies on a pull-down menu and, while we were testing it, had more than one glitch show up.

Notes are a crucial way to share information, but they're tucked away and not readily apparent. I badly need an at-a-glance view of all the tasks on my shared lists; RTM doesn't have it.

The thing I miss the most from Basecamp is the way its architecture constantly reminds me that I'm part of a team. (A team hobbled by Basecamp's task management interface, maybe, but still a team.) With RTM, the team is pretty much invisible; it feels very much like a service designed for individuals, with collaboration as kind of an afterthought. The collaboration tools themselves can be powerful, but their workflow and interface need a lot more attention before they'll become second nature.

Still, for all of those shortcomings, "RTM" has become a verb around here. (Someone comes up with an idea for a blog post, a feature for a project, or a prospect we should contact, and one of us will say to whoever's taking notes, "I can do it. RTM that for me.") It's no "I'll Google it" yet, but for now, RTM is our task management tool of choice.

At a glance:

• Great things about RTM: Tagging, Atom and RSS feeds, iCal integration, nice interface, GREAT help section, bookmarklet, smart lists, notes, geo-location, email, IM and SMS reminders, list sharing, email upload, keyboard shortcuts
• Bummers: task assignment/sharing is weird, categorization is tricky to manage, notes are tricky, no 'overall' view of all the tasks on all my shared lists, feels 'isolated' -- no 'team' feeling, à la Basecamp

What do you think? Is Remember the Milk the cream of the crop, or do you know a task manager that provides an even better toolset, an even smarter interface, and a name even more ripe for puns and metaphors?