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App for Task Management

N

Niko91

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 13, 2011
90
0
Italy
Hi ! :)
I know that there lots of threads that are about app for task management.
But I would like an advise based on what I will do with that.

I'm an university student and I'll use it for:
- everyday tasks (like clean the house, feed the dog, something like this)
- university tasks (like read that book)
- projects for university
- "general" projects (like prepare s.valentine's day)
- exams
- projects for politics (I'm in "politics", so something like prepare the debate)

I also have a Mac, so if there's a way to sync the app with it, it would be wonderful!

Thank you! :D

(P.S.: Sorry for my english, I'm italian)
 
You can do what you want free with the Reminders app that comes with the iPhone and iCal in OS X to track the same reminders (tasks). You can make a group for each like school or personal. Get a free iCloud account to sync them over the air.
 
The app that I've been using for over a year now is AwesomeNote. It's $3.99 on the app store right now.

I like the fact that you can keep notes as well as make to-dos in the same app. You can make multiple folders in the app. So for instance I'll make a folder for lists. In my lists folder I'll have documents for things I want to buy, films I want to watch, music I want to download, a list of things I need to pack etc.

I also have another folder for To-Dos in which I can put due dates and alarms on them. I have another folder for keeping a Journal, and there i'll make a document every day keep a daily diary (like the Momento app)

The problem I have with this app is that it doesn't have an app for Macs or PCs. I currently sync with Evernote, but I don't want to use Evernote entirely, because it doesn't have To-Dos like AwesomeNote does.

My main problem with the AwesomeNote app is that I've been creating a note every day in my "journal" folder (I've accumulated 548 notes in that folder already), and when I open that specific folder it will lag considerably. That's what gets annoying.
 
Appigo's Todo. Available for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

I have tried literally every task management app in the App Store and I keep coming back to Todo.

Just my $0.02 and no, I don't work for them. Just a satisfied customer.

Steve
 
Home Routines or 2Do will work for you. Both are AWESOME apps. Home Routines actually has a web interface for adding tasks if needed. I tend to use 2Do more though.
 
Omnifocus has the most features and has cross platform syncing but it takes a while to lean to use all it's features and it's expensive. 2Do has less features but costs less. Evernote is free but it's not a task manager by itself.
 
Ok, I'm trying to decide between Omnifocus and Things.
I like OF for the amazing support and because it has lots of features.
Anyway, I find it a little complex, the UI is not so beautiful and the sync is slow.
Things is simple, has a nice UI and I'm in beta, so I have the iCloud sync, and that is wonderful.
Anyway, it doesn't have alarms (but I can use each of Them with Reminders, so it isn't a big problem), has less features and I don't know if CC is as good as OmniGroup.

Price isn't a problem at All.
 
Last edited:
Personally I'm using Omnifocus, mostly due to the hype surrounding it. It's pretty awesome in that you can structure your tasks etc. any way you like in it, it's very flexible.

Dislikes - slow startup. When I want to just add a quick thing I need to buy at the grocery shop, it sucks to wait 5-10 seconds for the sync etc. Wish it was as fast as Clear.

Anyway, shameless plug - my app, Ideas - Idea generation assistant allows one-button-touch exporting of your ideas as projects to both Omnifocus and Things :)
 
Another vote here for OmniFocus. It took me awhile to choose OmniFocus and I am glad that I did. It's syncing with my iPhone and iPad is seamless and the Mac version is very powerful. yes it is expensive to get all three versions, but with that said it is well worth the money. There is a learning curve involved and I would highly suggest watching the video tutorials on the Omni website. You can set up OmniFocus pretty much any way you want.

I was a huge fan of Appigo's ToDo app when I first got my iPhone back in 2008. I've followed the app and I do have all three versions now (Mac, iPhone, iPad). The problem I have with them is syncing is extremely slow and if I complete a task on the Mac, it does not sync back to my iDevices. Everything else I do does sync. A previous post said that the OmniFocus sync was slow, but the ToDo sync is 3 times slower than OmniFocus, and that is when it actually does work.
 
Thank you all.
Well, I don't really know.
I've tried OmniFocus for Mac and the UI isn't so.. nice.
Anyway, it's a great product.

Also 2Do is a nice task management app.

Uh, I'm a bit confused.
 
I would go with Things. I'm using it for several years no and it works great.

(If it is an option to split in different apps, I would recommend iStudiez Pro for University stuff. I am doing it this way)
 
Ok, I'll sum up what I think about these task management app.

OmniFocus - Excellent product.
Pro: It has lots of features, amazing support and is rock - solid.
Cons: Really complex (I'm afraid to lose myself fiddling with it), UI not really nice (above all, the Mac version) and slow sync (it's slower than Things Cloud sync).

Things - Pro: Simple and clean, it has a very nice UI. The Cloud sync is AMAZING.
Cons: It doesn't have alarms for each tasks and Cultured Code seems a "little" slow.

2Do - Pro: beautiful UI, it is intuitive and has very good features.
Cons: It doesn't have an app for Mac yet (even if it will probably come out this month) and I don't know if support is good. Sometimes I find it too.. colorful.

Reminders - Pro: very simple and fast. It's made by Apple, so it will have all new features Apple will introduce.
Cons: It doesn't have a "real" desktop app (even if it will come out with Mountain Lion) and I can't create projects.

That's all.
Now I "only" have to choose.
Damn, I'm not getting things done.
 
Little update: I eliminate 2Do, which I find a little too colorful and confusing.
I eliminate also Reminders: I need to create projects.

So, there arr Things and OF.

What does Firetask have that other apps don't have?
 
Niko91 said:
Things - Pro: Simple and clean, it has a very nice UI. The Cloud sync is AMAZING.
Cons: It doesn't have alarms for each tasks and Cultured Code seems a "little" slow.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean with alarms, but you can set a due date for each task and the iPhone will tell you each day with a notification if and how many taks become due today.
 
OmniFocus would be your best bet. It is great for setting up projects!
My advice is to watch the videos on the Omni website. Also, I believe, they offer a 30 day free trial on their website.

OmniFocus is my primary to do list application and I have tried 2Do, ToDo, Pocket Informant, Toodledo, and I looked at Reminders. It's a shame that it took apple to finally have a todo application on the iPhone, but at the same time it did give me the chance to try out many of the others.

Before I got the iPhone I had Pocket Informant on the Windows Phone platform and loved it. Love it on the iPhone as well, but it doesn't sync tasks with the Mac.

ToDo is a really nice App and I like many of it's features, especially the list feature, but the sync is extremely slow and very erratic. If I mark items complete on the Mac they don't sync to the iPhone and iPad, yet they sync perfectly fine when I mark them complete on the iPhone or iPad.

Toodledo is a web based service that is free for it's basic features and has really good iPhone and iPad apps. It will also work well with ToDo and Pocket Informant but there is a charge for it's advanced features. The fact that it is web based means you can actually access your task list from any computer, but after using the service a few years before settling on OmniFocus there were times when my task list was corrupted.

OmniFocus is the only one that syncs seamlessly. I wouldn't say the sync is slow, it could certainly be faster, but compared to what I have experienced with ToDo and even Toodledo the OmniFocus App is the best and fastest. OmniFocus also has a safari plug in where you can send/create task items directly from Safari.
 
Niko91 said:
Little update: I eliminate 2Do, which I find a little too colorful and confusing.
I eliminate also Reminders: I need to create projects.

So, there arr Things and OF.

What does Firetask have that other apps don't have?
Click to expand...

Firetask has free OTA, which Omnifocus has and Things is still in beta, but the one feature I love about Firetask is the ease of which projects are created, tasks are created... It has an excellent calendar function on the Mac desktop version. Plus, the app lets you mark tasks as "in progress" instead of just "complete" or nothing at all. I love that feature.
 
Check out Producteev

Producteev comes in iPhone and Mac versions (and others).
It is fast to use. It gives reminders. It syncs. You can form groups on it and sync tasks with others. The designers appear to have taken task managers and rethought the concept.


For individual use its FREE! When in groups there is a charge.

(No I am not connected with the makers).

:)
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I have tried most of the apps mentioned.
I settled on OmniFocus.
Have you considered iProcrastinate, Wunderlist and Wunderkit?
 
After I've tried these apps in these days, I can say:

- Wunderkit & Wunderlist aren't for me. Wunderkit is too "social", Wunderlist hasn't repetitions.
- Things isn't for me. I need alarms (what I mean for alarms? I need that if I have to write an essay at 18.00, Things reminds me that at that hour) and Cultured Code are just too slow. It lacks some features.

- I like OmniFocus. I'm only afraid that it's just "too much" for me.
- I like also 2Do. It's simpler, but a little prettier.

- I would not also discard Reminders app. The only thing I hate, it's that you can't create projects or subtasks. But, anyway, it's simple, it has iCloud, it integrates perfectly with the notification center and it's perfect with Siri.

Thanks all for the help ! :D
 
Niko91 said:
- I would not also discard Reminders app. The only thing I hate, it's that you can't create projects or subtasks. But, anyway, it's simple, it has iCloud, it integrates perfectly with the notification center and it's perfect with Siri.
Click to expand...

I use BusyTodo in place of Reminders on iOS. It still uses iCloud to sync with iCal, but I find it more capable than Reminders. It does not do subtasks, but for projects you could create a separate list for each project and perhaps get by?
 
Hi Nico

If you are going for a clean, colourful, upbeat app, I would go for Firetask, which I think is better than Things. See my review for details.

If subtasks are important, you want to consider ToodleDo. It has nearly the same functionality as Omnifocus, but is much easier to use. Again, my recent review provides more detail.

Good luck with choosing something that works for you!

Ozengo
 
Niko91 said:
After I've tried these apps in these days, I can say:

- Wunderkit & Wunderlist aren't for me. Wunderkit is too "social", Wunderlist hasn't repetitions.
- Things isn't for me. I need alarms (what I mean for alarms? I need that if I have to write an essay at 18.00, Things reminds me that at that hour) and Cultured Code are just too slow. It lacks some features.

- I like OmniFocus. I'm only afraid that it's just "too much" for me.
- I like also 2Do. It's simpler, but a little prettier.

- I would not also discard Reminders app. The only thing I hate, it's that you can't create projects or subtasks. But, anyway, it's simple, it has iCloud, it integrates perfectly with the notification center and it's perfect with Siri.

Thanks all for the help ! :D
Click to expand...

I tried Omnifocus too, and I think it's too much for what I have to do. Firetasks is the best one, and it's got all the features that you need.

Anyway, if you want something simple, intuitive and catching..you should try Taskflow! As I said, it's very simple and basic. You can add daily tasks, work tasks and notes.
You can add reminders...and it's got the "alarms" you were looking for.
Nothing otherwordly, I use it for my daily tasks only, not for work (for work I need something more complete)...but I definitely like the graphic of taskflow, and the fact you can play with icons, change them and sort of customize them.
 
Since iCloud sync I like Things the most.

I've probably spend $100 on task management apps, so I speak from some experience. I'm also a recovering GTD addict.

Heres the thing. You can relate these task-management apps to women.

Omnifocus is a fantastically robust piece of software. It does everything you could ever want in a to-do app. But it's also bloated. So bloated in fact, that it becomes a lot of work just maintaining your tasks.

So you feel like you are getting stuff done when you are just managing your to-do lists.

When was the last time a robust woman got your heart racing? A woman that was well-rounded, thorough, not too pleasing on the eye but made sure you were organised.

Doesn't sound like much of a fun girl right?

Omnifocus is the sensible woman. The one who will always stand by your side. The one who will always cook you a good meal. You can trust her, she's always there giving you reminders.

But she's a bit high strung, requires a lot of maintenance. You need to reassure her you love her every morning.

She gets jealous when you check out the hot new thing that just walked by, flicking her hair and saying that skank doesn't have what she has.

Things is the hot thing walking by.

You can't help but to look at her, carefully trying not to drool as she struts past.

She's sexy, but you know she's smart too. She knows it as well. Sure, she may not be as reliable and maybe she can't do everything Omnifocus can, but so what.

There's just a few things you need, right?

Looking back at Omnifocus, you start realising she just isn't fun to hang around with any more.

You see the wrinkles on her face. The jeans that fit a bit too snug around the waist.

You start hanging around with Things on the weekend. What a rush, she's just so much more fun, and a lot more relaxed and easier to deal with.

She gets you so quickly, you just need to say a few words and she understands. Unlike Omnifocus where you have to spend a lot of time explaining and reassuring her.

Sure, she's not quite as bright as Omnifocus. She can't cook you a good meal. She won't clean the toilet.

She even has the odd tantrum and you think that maybe you two are too incompatible.

But she drives you crazy. Her smell. Her figure. Her allure.

This is what you have to decide when it comes to task management apps.

Do you want the sensible, reliable, does everything app? If so, get Omnifocus.

Do you want the sexier, easier though not as robust app? If so, get Things.

What turns you on?
 
i0Nic said:
This is what you have to decide when it comes to task management apps.

Do you want the sensible, reliable, does everything app? If so, get Omnifocus.

Do you want the sexier, easier though not as robust app? If so, get Things.

What turns you on?
Click to expand...

ahah This is the most brilliant way of choosing ever!
Like it :)
 
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