Been a while.

I've tried various GTD systems over the years, and found that while many of the elements (Collect, Process, Do; Inbox Zero;) very helpful, I found myself benefiting from a different style and dream of an app suited to it.

I've moved onto a backwards calendaring style of task management, which provides the vital (for me) step of visualizing scope of a project and indicating to me when and how I should act. My basic style is to input "Lines" (deadlines and startlines) in iCal alongside my appointments and daily schedule and then (on a weekly basis, often tweaked daily) schedule actions in the "empty spaces" of the calendar with the Lines as guides. It works well, but I'm having a hard time with task management. The actions are usually taken of a quick scrap-paper list of tasks, which gets the majority of important stuff done, but leaves little tasks and if-I-have-time style projects on the wayside.

My dream app would be a calendar program that also tracked tasks by first prompting me for my Lines, and automatically laying them out, and then allowing me to input actions with time durations. Then it would make a palette of my actions represented as time-blobs that I could drag and drop into place in the calendar. As far as I can figure, nothing like this exists.

Does anyone else think such a app would suit them? And do any of y'all have some suggestions for a simple down to earth task tracking system that would work well with this kind of process?