5 Simple, Yet Effective Online To-do Apps to Get Stuff Done
Darren
I’ve decided my primary focus this year to be on improving my productivity. Almost 4 months have passed. Lots of lessons learned. One of them was: do not make things complex if they can be kept simple. Same with to-do lists. Below you have 5 very simple, yet powerful online to-do tools you might find useful.
I’ve done my best to help you make an informed choice by listing and reviewing the best tools I found so far.
1. TeuxDeux
What is TeuxDux: A very simple web app where you can make to-do list for your next 7 days. I guess they did this because they recommend to plan your week upfront (which makes sense).
Why is it useful: It’s simple and easy to understand. Also it’s very user-friendly. I was able to start using it after 30 seconds literally without any confusion.
My experience with it: I’ve decided to play around with it and create a simple to-do list with not-so-simple-to-do items :). Take a look:
Okay :), not the best list in terms of breaking things down (I’ll let you know what I mean by that later) but gives you a pretty good idea on how can you make your list. You see how intuitive the interface is?
2. Ta-da Lists
What is Ta-Da lists: This is a tool created by 37 Signals, the guys who are responsible for inventing Ruby on Rails . As you can suppose, Ta-Da lists is also created with this programming language.
Why is it useful: Simple, easy to understand and very intuitive. You can create lists for a group of tasks and share every list easily. Sign up required 10 seconds, as you can see from the above picture (my experience also confirms this.)
My experience with it: I’ve played around with Ta-da lists and found it very easy to learn. Again, here’s a simple to-do list:
Oh well, I live in a village, you know :)
3. HiTask
What is HiTask: This is a bit more complicated web tool than the previous two. HiTask is a detailed tool, you can set up tasks at exact time on an exact day.
Why is it useful: You can set up projects, invite team members and easily turn HiTask from a simple to-do software to a powerful team management tool. It’s your choice whether to keep it simple or go more complex (remember, if you don’t have to, don’t over-complicated stuff.)
My experience with it: Their interface left me a good impression. You have a screen shot below:
Next!
4. Remember The Milk
What is Remember the Milk: I would say this is a semi-complicated (using it in context where simple is a “to do checklist” and nothing else, see #1 for an example) application for getting stuff done. You can categorize your activities in different categories, the default ones are Personal/Study/Work.
Why is it useful: Remember the Milk is useful if you need lists for things to do at home, school or work. No default set up is required to organize these tasks.
My experience with it: I’ve played around with this application a bit, here’s a screen shot below:
5. Todoist
What is Todoist: Another great web app for to-do items. The unique thing here is that you can create sub-projects and have a calendar you can utilize.
Why is it useful: Well, they were kind to answer this question instead of me:
My experience with it: …has been great so far. Very intuitive and easy to understand, as you’ll see from the screen shot below:
2 Things To Remember When Making To-do lists
I told you I’m a productivity freak. Here are 2 useful things to remember when doing to-do lists:
- Break things down. For example, if you write ‘clean out the office’ and think that’s a to-do item, well, you’re wrong. That’s more like a project. ‘Clean out the office’ is a COLLECTION of tasks, not a task itself. So if you have this ‘project’ in mind, then break it down into several ‘to do items’ like ‘shred unneeded paperwork’ and so on.
- Don’t be vague. When you write your to-do items, be specific. For example, if you need to add an effect to a Photoshop image, don’t write ‘add Photoshop effect.’ Write down WHICH effect you need to add. Possibly, also write where you need to add it. Your purpose is to look at the to-do item and know immediately what you need to do without thinking very much.
By the way, the principles above are from a book I own named “Upgrade your Life” from LifeHacker which I found very useful for improving my productivity.
Congratulate yourself because you are already taking action and are in the next stage where you’re learning how to take action more efficiently. I hope this article helped you with that.
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Nathan
Posted 116 days ago 27I use this Chrome app called TodoWe.
Leena
Posted 123 days ago 26http://onlinedolist.com .
Just wanted to share this simple online to do list .
Thanks.
Flyakite
Posted 144 days ago 25http://btodo.com/ is another great online to-do list app.
Ryan
Posted 215 days ago 24I’m wondering if you’d do a review of
http://mylists.creativitygames.net
It’s got a few features that are quite useful such as templates, the ability to merge lists and a side window so you can always see your lists.
Ari Arsyadi
Posted 392 days ago 23This one looks promising and I use it: http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist/
and oh, the integration with iPhone is what I find helpful. Would definitely recommend this one.
Brett Widmann
Posted 438 days ago 22This is a great list of apps. Thanks for sharing. These should come in handy.
Simon H - Way Fresh
Posted 483 days ago 21Nice list, cheers. I have used a couple on there already, but will have a look at the others.
The only one I have got along with ok is todoist. Really just looking for one where I can store:
Client
Task
Duration
Priority
and display in a grid with the ability to sort/filter by priority. Don’t need much other than that Just using Excel for the mo :)
Warner
Posted 596 days ago 20Yes again, thanks for the effort. I’ve been looking for something like this as well.
Kristin
Posted 598 days ago 19Paprika (http://www.getpaprika.com) is a brand new organization tool that cuts out distractions and lets you get back to your actual work. It’s really simple, text-based, and even lets you share your projects via a short link. Plus, it’s easy to integrate into other apps you use.
Jae Xavier
Posted 676 days ago 18Nice article… considering that the iPad has already come out. Are you Mac fanboi?
Google Apps does a good job too.
Julianntrott
Posted 678 days ago 17Have tried RTM and Ta-da-list! but I’ve never liked it! Not so easy and I don’t have any iPhone to use with…
I just do everything with Gmail and Google Calendar
Justin Carroll
Posted 678 days ago 16Something a little more well-rounded makes sense to me like iCal or something that has a few different things to tie in to your to-do list like Mac Mail. I can’t see wasting my time logging into a Web site to put together or check a to-do list. Maybe if these sites had a widget that I could use from my dashboard it would work.
.-= Justin Carroll´s last blog ..Fearnet =-.
Helen
Posted 678 days ago 15I tend to overcomplicate stuff and have too many apps so I use this http://nowdothis.com/
for an everyday list.
That is I write 1-5 things I must do today (tomorrow when I plan) which might be taken from my other organizeeverythingthe wholeyearapps. Also good to split todo into very small steps because it feels good to just see one thing to do, concentrate and then click “done”.
Vitor
Posted 678 days ago 14Aminezia.com is a easy and different way of managing to-do and goals.
Thanks,
Vitor
Dainis Graveris
Posted 678 days ago 8ah, there are really a lot of such small sites, I guess we just need to stay with one which works for us the best or change if do not works :) Thanks for sharing though.
Lourens
Posted 679 days ago 7Hm, I prefer my analog notebooks for things like this. You’re not depending on batteries or internet that way :)
Dainis Graveris
Posted 678 days ago 9I agree! :) I am using my moleskine and take it wherever I go, though when I am working on computer it’s not always the best way. If I need to save links and texts from Internet,it just do not work so good. I prefer just to use both :)
Web Risorsa
Posted 679 days ago 6It’s a good collection.. But have it online if it’s offline one then that would be great… because every one cannot get into website to enter their works and get ‘s updated.. if it’s a local and offline then they can have it all the time…
.-= Web Risorsa´s last blog ..Tutorials on Image Editing and Actions in Photoshop =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 678 days ago 10I would suggest to use then old-school paper and pen to plan :))
Nishant
Posted 679 days ago 4Hey, very nice post darren. Keep it up.
Jacob
Posted 679 days ago 3They all suck ! Why ?
Darren is right, Break things down ! But to do this… You need to either pay for the sub-items option or some of them simply don’t offer that option.
Piece of paper and pen is still the best way…
Nate Chastain
Posted 679 days ago 5@Jacob One thing you could do is get yourself a Remember the Milk account, create a task, and list all of its subtasks within a “note” on the task. Then, if you forget what the next step is towards completing the task, you can reference the note.
I would say that Remember the Milk is the obvious choice for a to-do list, for ALL purposes – daily tasks, long-term tasks, etc. It not only has the best web interface (in my opinion), but it has pretty decent customer support + forums where the users post a lot of interesting tips for using the service. Also, most phones now have Remember the Milk apps available – these sync with the Web interface, so if you add a task from your phone, it also shows up on your web service and vice versa. My 0.02
Dainis Graveris
Posted 678 days ago 11Integration with phone is very good – I am not trying Teuxdeux and TodoIst, in next week will test Remember The milk fully too :) thanks for sharing and opinion!
Dainis Graveris
Posted 678 days ago 12I wouldn’t give up so fast, there are a lot of promising apps and seems you just haven’t found the right one yet.
Paper and pen works for me though as well daily.
Jared Detroit
Posted 679 days ago 2HiTask looks like the one that would work for me. I would like something that is easy to use and keep track of items. Right now my desk is full of post-its and that’s not working.
.-= Jared Detroit´s last blog ..Get More Traffic From Local Search Results =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 678 days ago 13Good luck into organizing your stuff! Daily business planner is a good choice as well .
Lena Tailor
Posted 679 days ago 1Appreciate your efforts in putting this together.Really useful share. I was searching for this list weeks ago…
Thanks…