In short, if you are busy and have troubles focussing all the errands of your personal life, this one is made for You. It allows to keep complex To Do lists that matter in your personal life. And Life Balance is available almost everywhere -- on Mac OS 9 & X, the Palm Pilot and on Windows too.

You can make a break-down structure of complex personal projects, where you apply powerful filtering techniques to see the To Do items you need to see at that place and time. All the things that eventually have to be done at a later point in time can be kept in one storage that maintains itself with just a little input from your side.

The Palm version also integrates with the Palm calendar and To Do list, if you wish. Hot-sync then makes this also available to iCal.

LifeBalance has quite a learning curve. Of course there's the big Outline that groups all your tasks and reminders by your goals. Your tasks can be detailed with more tasks or text notes. You assign order and priority relative to each goal. Plan tasks as one-shot, routine jobs or by due date. In the end, the effort to complete the task is taken to build your Balance of Achievements.

Then there are the Places, and you better plan those early and well. Many suggest a two-tier system. You will generate customized todo-lists for a few Meta-Locations (at work, customer, home), prefix them with a special sign to sort them first in the list (":Work", "!Home"). They will include several of the other places or requirements ("Mall", "Telephone") where you can complete your specific tasks.

Of course there are issues. This tool is for personal, not for project management, so it does not track hard facts like worked hours our completion dates. Also, setting up your outline and getting it right WILL take some serious times. Especially you can modify only one task at a time, which can get tedious.

I find the tool quite suited to the job, but it does not have the glamour of Cocoa or (gasp!) the metal look. It's functional, though.

On the plus side, it helps you decide for yourself what task to tackle next and be satisfied with your life. It can remind you to learn habits.

Llamagraphics have a great trial mode, which runs 30 days without limitations during that time so you can see if it fits your demands. They also have an excellent help manual built in that explains the subtle details. And of course, it runs everywhere. The Hot-Sync is good, and you can put your data-file on a memory stick and plug it into any computer you regulary use!