I was thinking about making a more advanced GTD system in Numbers other than just using Reminders in macOS. This post lays out this idea in more detail.

First, create two tables for lists

We can store next actions of a GTD system in Apple Numbers by creating two tables for “Next Actions” and “Projects”.

• The Projects list is just a list of projects with a completion checkbox, a title, and an optional due date field.
  
  • We could add optional notes or a project support field to link notes and other assets or link them using the title field.
• The Next Actions list contains a completion checkbox, a title, a due date, a context, and an optional project field.
  
  • The context field can be a drop-down listing of all of our contexts.
  • The project field can be linked using a formula for the projects table title field.
    

Add groups for contexts

• Grouping on the next actions table can be used to group next actions by context.
  
  • Contexts groupings can be folded, depending on where we are and what we want to see.
  • We can create sums for the number of next actions in a group.
    

Optionally, sync with Reminders

Writing an AppleScript for syncing with Reminders should be possible.

• The script can create different Reminders lists for each context like Kinless GTD did for iCal back in the day.
• The due date field should be assigned as a Reminders due date.
• Next actions can be added to each Reminders list using the following format:
  
  • ✓ Next action title [Project Title]
    

Questions

• Could it be possible to sync changes from Reminders back to Numbers using AppleScript?
• How would we store task-related notes?
  
  • A new field can be long, but we can’t have fields under row without merging rows or columns.
• What would be the benefit of this system other than just using a proper task management app like OmniFocus or Things?
  
  • I guess the reason is that Numbers is more flexible than Reminders and comes with every Mac.