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What's the To-Do App To Rule Them All?

mivara

mivara

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 6, 2015
112
24
Denmark
I can't seem to find a to-do app that I want to keep for more than a couple of months. I've practically been through them all: Clear, Todoist, Trello, any.Do etc.

My needs:

- Pretty and minimalistic interface
- Possible to set time (and perhaps location)
- Different lists/folders
- Compatible on both OS X and iOS
- Possibly integration with Evernote

Right now, I'm using Todoist for everything but I'm contemplating shifting to Trello for work/studying/projects + Clear for personal stuff.

Which to-do app do you use and why?
 
Been there myself, more than once.
I've now settled on using Reminders and GoodTask (actually just a Reminders client).

Why Reminders?
- Reminders is simple, minimalistic and straightforward to use
- Drag a task to the calendar to schedule it
- Drag emails right into Reminders to make it a task (with a link to the email)
- Never to worry about updating the iOS and my task manager not being compatible
- cloud sync
- the app's limitations force me to simplify my task management, to think simple and clear

Why GoodTask?
- shares database of tasks with Reminders
- the interface looks nicer IMHO
- few more options like alarm times next to due times
- quick actions like adding a tag, shifting a due date by a week
- list management, sort and filter options
- Focus on Today, This Week, This Month

Typically, when I'm at work I will run GoodTask and hide my private lists.
At home, and exclusively on my iPhone, I just use Reminders and focus on nothing but my private lists.

If you're into GTD, Things might be worth looking into. The interface is a bit old fashioned but still beautiful to work with. If you need it on all your devices, it becomes somewhat pricy. And Cultured Code is notoriously slow on developing. Things 3 should come in a brandnew interface and of course lots of improvements, but has been announced for several years now.

If you'd like "Manage my tasks" to be your main task, OmniFocus is there for you. Powerfull, sure. But it had me Getting Nothing Done (except organizing my tasks).

For now, I'm pretty happy with my choice. I have about 10 lists in Reminders. 6 of them are projects, 4 are so called area's (something I took from Things). I also added a small Automator task to my system that allows me to add any selected text to my Reminders inbox (of course with a shortcut: Ctrl-R).

Recently, I read a line somewhere that said: "Real men don't use tags". So I stopped using tags :-D
Neh, I have a few: the initials of my team members, so I can add them to my tasks in case I need them to finish.
In Reminders, I can do a search on them, in GoodTask I have smart lists.

The GoodTask developer is a nice person, willing to listen and quite responsive. He's working on GoodTask 3 at this moment - can't wait to see what that will bring. There's a free version, a trial and a full version on iOS and OSX.
 
Omnifocus.

I find GTD Apps like clothing in terms of personal preferences, only solution is keep trying one until it fits your workflow(s)...
 
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I use Wunderlist which is simple and aesthetically pleasing. Works across a range of platforms/devices and has a nice browser based version.

It has multiple lists with subfolders and within that tasks with sub tasks.
 
Last edited:
mivara said:
I can't seem to find a to-do app that I want to keep for more than a couple of months. I've practically been through them all: Clear, Todoist, Trello, any.Do etc.

My needs:

- Pretty and minimalistic interface
- Possible to set time (and perhaps location)
- Different lists/folders
- Compatible on both OS X and iOS
- Possibly integration with Evernote

Right now, I'm using Todoist for everything but I'm contemplating shifting to Trello for work/studying/projects + Clear for personal stuff.

Which to-do app do you use and why?
Click to expand...

My needs are similar to yours, although I also want the adding/deleting of tasks to be as fast as possible (the fewer clicks the better) and recurring tasks.

At the moment I alternate between Clear and Wunderlist. Clear wins outright for simplicity, speed of use (tap to add, swipe to delete) and design. On the downside, it doesn't support recurring tasks and the iCloud syncing to the OS X app has been pretty unreliable.

Wunderlist has more functionality, including recurring tasks, a nice design (although I'd prefer more control over typeface sizes and better use of screen space) and far, far better syncing (including a web interface). But I find it less quick and simple to use (more clicks to add a task, no way to bulk delete completed tasks, etc).
 
Thanks for all the replies!

Omnifocus (2) and Things seem great but they are pretty expensive – $45 and $57 respectively for the OS X apps alone in the Danish version of App Store.

Wunderlist might be the way to go. I've stumbled upon it a couple of times over the years and it's packed with functions and looks decent.
 
mivara said:
Thanks for all the replies!

Omnifocus (2) and Things seem great but they are pretty expensive – $45 and $57 respectively for the OS X apps alone in the Danish version of App Store.

Wunderlist might be the way to go. I've stumbled upon it a couple of times over the years and it's packed with functions and looks decent.
Click to expand...
Yup, I agree on the fact that they are expensive, but once you get more into Wunderlist, you'll soon find out you actually need the pro features..and buy a subscription. Which in the end might cost you more.
 
spitf1r3 said:
Yup, I agree on the fact that they are expensive, but once you get more into Wunderlist, you'll soon find out you actually need the pro features..and buy a subscription. Which in the end might cost you more.
Click to expand...

True :) Now though I'm really, really impressed by Trello. I'd just wish they had an OS X app.
 
"To do" software has been a big interest for me; I have a lot of critical appointments but a terrible memory. After trying many apps, I discovered Due. It's minimal and sits in the menu bar on the Mac. It syncs well with its iOS versions. Best of all for me, when an alarm goes off it leaves an obvious notification on the screen which doesn't go away until you dismiss it. The alarm sounds are also loud and unique; with Due I'm *much* better with my appointments.
 
Omnifocus was good, but just got a bit greedy around one of their releases. The addition of an Apple Watch app was put in to a bundle so you basically had to buy the app again to get the watch app, after buying the Mac & iPhone version and being faced with another £30 to pay for it again to get a glance view, I realised its going down the route of Parallels and their "F U, Pay Me" approach. Considering I'd already spent like £50-£60, I'd think an app for ticking boxes would be running on my Mac and all iOS/WatchOS devices.

So binned them off.

Gone back to Reminders. But have tried pretty much all of them, including 2Do, Awesome Note, Things (on a par with Omnifocus for me, very good) and so on and bought most of these and used them for a little while each.

I think Simonsi put it best;

simonsi said:
I find GTD Apps like clothing in terms of personal preferences, only solution is keep trying one until it fits your workflow(s)...
Click to expand...

I just got irked at the cash grab that Omnifocus tried to do because of the watch app.
 
spitf1r3 said:
What money grab? I had OmniFocus, and I just got it (watch app) as an update...
Click to expand...

I have Omnifocus for iPhone then they released a separate iPad app, then they released a combined iPhone, iPad and watch app, not sure what the status is with the Mac apps now (I do own a copy, whether thats the latest one or they've brought another one out and want £30 for that, who knows) but I blanked them out as they were taking the piss IMO. Very Parallels-esque.
 
I like 2Do. It's similar to Things, but used to be updated more frequently (don't know if that's still the case) and syncs to iOS and android. Good functionality with lists, tags, etc. I prefer it to OmniFocus, which I used a few years back.
http://www.2doapp.com/mac
 
DavoteK said:
I have Omnifocus for iPhone then they released a separate iPad app, then they released a combined iPhone, iPad and watch app, not sure what the status is with the Mac apps now (I do own a copy, whether thats the latest one or they've brought another one out and want £30 for that, who knows) but I blanked them out as they were taking the piss IMO. Very Parallels-esque.
Click to expand...
I don't get what you're saying..
There is OmniFocus 2 (legacy support version) originally made only for iPhone, without iPad support, and OmniFocus 2 (universal app). You can upgrade from the iPhone-only to universal app using their bundle - it counts what you already paid for an iPhone-only app and reduces the price of the universal app by that amount of money.

As for the Mac app you can buy the same version on the AppStore and directly from them.
 
I dropped Omnifocus for 2do. I used to manage my to do list about 50/50 on my iphone vs my mac, and found omnifocus has let their iphone app go from the best thing out there to an overly complicated exercise in taps and swipes. The lack of visual cue that there is a note associated with a task is a bit aggravating too.

I think the worst thing (for me) was the lack of knowing where a task came from once it's in the today screen; it's just a task with no upward reference other than the project it came from (but not the parent task). It meant I had to adopt a special naming convention referencing the top level subtask - adding more work to an iphone app that could really use a refresh in usability, and not just a cosmetic change.

Like someone above said, I had the v2 of the app, then they changed it to a bundle and I would have had to shell out even more money for the premium bundle (ability to access power-user functionality), and just couldn't justify it.

2do is well thought out on the iphone, and I've shifted to a 70/30 usage on my iphone vs my mac. So easy to reschedule (press and hold to see an actual calendar, not that inefficient scrolling thing), visual indication of notes, and a reference to the parent task for subtasks. Admittedly, 2do only allows (I think) 3 levels of subtasks, but somehow that's been enough for me to use this for simple lists at home and more complex projects at work.

Both of these apps can be used for easy task management, but if you want power and customization (like I do), then I think 2do offers more, and looks better doing it.
 
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