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Trying to find an app to replace paper planner

vrillusions

vrillusions

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 8, 2007
227
2
Cleveland, Ohio, US
I am trying to basically have a digital version of this planner. The key things are:

  • Weekly view
  • no set times (I don't care about a time just that I do it that day)
  • some way to mark that a task is done or abandoned (like it got moved to a ticket system or something)
  • move unfinished tasks to next day

The built in calendar app doesn't really work like this. Sure I can just set some arbitrary times for things but there's no way to say I actually did that task on that day, like on the paper one I put an X. It's helped a couple times when I did something at work and not sure when I can look back and see. So maybe a hyped up task list manager? But a task list that looks like a calendar. Meaning every task has a due date and there's some calendar view where I can see the week ahead, see what's coming up in a couple weeks, etc.

I've used GTD style apps before but I don't care for the way they do tasks and stuff. The contexts part is nice but if I don't have a list of 3 or 4 things that I can see I marked that I'm going to do them today I'm not going to do it, or pick the easier tasks that aren't as important.

So I'm guess what are some good task management apps for ipad since that's probably the closest group this would be in.
 
So after looking around I found a couple that are close/may work but looking for more ideas or just opinions on these.

do it (tomorrow). This is SOOO close to what I want. Problem with this is it's too simple. You either have today or push it to tomorrow. A lot of times I'll be going through my list and decide to push a task several days ahead or even a week or two. This is purely today or tomorrow

2Do. This seems like what I'll end up using. But they just had a sale last week and they seem to have one once a month, so have to wait till then (I love app shopper and hate it at the same time...). The thing this doesn't look like it has is no way to set status on tasks anything other than done. So I can't set it to deferred or on hold or something.
 
My iPad replaced a similar Filofax system that I had running for years, when I bought it last year. I played around with a bunch of stuff ( SO many £s wasted!) , and the closest I found to what you are describing you're after were 'Todo' and 'Pocket Informant'.

After using the iPad for quite a long time, my workflow has shifted quite considerably now, and I find iCal and Things do what I need.

Have a look at those two - PI is pretty good - tasks integrate with the built in calendar really smoothly.
 
I use Evernote for this. I create a new note for each day, or break it out into other categories like week to-do and weekend to-do. The Mac version of Evernote allows you to add checkboxes beside each task, waiting for that functionality on the iPad version! You can shift the view so that you can see most of several lists at the same time. It also syncs across my home/work computer, my Android phone and my iPad.

I sold the iPad a week ago and my organization has gone out the window once I am home because I don't tend to look at the computer or phone as much as I would double check tasks on the iPad. Evernote is free, so it is worth checking out to see if you can make it work for you.
 
Wish they made it easy to quote multiple posts. o well:

@franmatt80 Todo looks like it's iphone only. Pocket Informant looks nice but it's doing a lot more than I really need... usually. I have a meeting that's actually scheduled maybe 2 or 3 times a month and usually it's being told at 10:00 AM we're going to have a meeting at 11:00 AM... For actual events I'd set an alarm. (rant)Things looks nice too but I've always been annoyed--and now that I have an ipad even more so--with companies doing "HD" versions of apps. Just give me retina-sized graphics and the iphone version would look fine albeit I could use the app from across the room. (/rant)

@windupbird I use evernote for reference information, although I've been using simplenote a lot lately. I've tried using evernote for planning and it just never seemed to work right for me. It always felt like I was trying to make evernote do something it wasn't meant to do although I've heard plenty of people use it as a GTD/planning system just fine.

I'll probably end up trying 2Do. Even if I don't wait for the price drop $7 is cheaper than the $20 I paid for the paper one I'm trying to replace. Just wish there was a 7 day no questions asked return policy or something. Worried that like franmatt80 I'll spend all this money on apps that don't do what I wanted and stuck with them.
 
vrillusions said:
Wish they made it easy to quote multiple posts. o well:

@franmatt80 Todo looks like it's iphone only. Pocket Informant looks nice but it's doing a lot more than I really need... usually. I have a meeting that's actually scheduled maybe 2 or 3 times a month and usually it's being told at 10:00 AM we're going to have a meeting at 11:00 AM... For actual events I'd set an alarm. (rant)Things looks nice too but I've always been annoyed--and now that I have an ipad even more so--with companies doing "HD" versions of apps. Just give me retina-sized graphics and the iphone version would look fine albeit I could use the app from across the room. (/rant)

@windupbird I use evernote for reference information, although I've been using simplenote a lot lately. I've tried using evernote for planning and it just never seemed to work right for me. It always felt like I was trying to make evernote do something it wasn't meant to do although I've heard plenty of people use it as a GTD/planning system just fine.

I'll probably end up trying 2Do. Even if I don't wait for the price drop $7 is cheaper than the $20 I paid for the paper one I'm trying to replace. Just wish there was a 7 day no questions asked return policy or something. Worried that like franmatt80 I'll spend all this money on apps that don't do what I wanted and stuck with them.
Click to expand...

Just use the "Multi-quote" button (the button with the quotation marks just to the right of the "Quote" button. Select it on all the posts you want to quote, then hit the regular "Quote" button on the last one that you're quoting. All of them will then show up in the Reply to Thread box (correctly formatted) that appears on the next page.
 
OK I bought 2Do and it's been working good enough. I have it sync to toodledo and it's on my ipad and iphone so I can keep things fairly up to date. The only thing it doesn't really have is a way to mark the progress of a task--it's either done or it isn't. I suppose I could make a project and then have multiple tasks in there. Also no way to manually arrange tasks although you can rate it between 3 different priorities (and no priority). So if anyone is looking for a task based option, give 2do a try.
 
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