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If you spend lots of your time at a keyboard, there are at least 12 types of tools you need. This post covers tasks, projects, notes, and documents. I’m outlining simple and sophisticated options, so you can pick what suits you.
Tasks
Simple to-do apps let you easily add and check off tasks without complicated menus or confusing features. They’re easy to use, free, and require no setup or training.
- Apple’s Reminders lets you add tasks with your voice, create as many lists as you need, sync tasks between devices, and organize to-dos by priority or project.
- Google Tasks is useful for Android (or Apple) users and shows up conveniently in the sidebar for Google Docs, Gmail, and other Google apps. It works well with Google’s voice assistant.
- Microsoft To Do is handy for those devoted to Windows and Outlook; it’s easy to add and organize tasks with Microsoft’s voice-assistant, Cortana.
Sophisticated task apps offer fancier features at a price. One feature I like: a custom email address, so you can forward tasks in from your inbox.
- Todoist has pro capabilities like productivity visualizations, templates, and team task sharing, which is a strength of Any.do as well. Todoist works on any platform.
- Things is the most elegantly designed task app for Mac and iOS.
- Sorted for iOS and Mac builds a handy day plan for you given task time estimates. I like using this to map out my workday.
My bottom line: I’m happy with the simplicity and reliability of Apple Reminders. It helps me stay focused on completing tasks rather than organizing them. I play with fancier task apps periodically, but as of now, I’m staying put.
Projects
Once task lists multiply, it’s helpful to have a way of organizing them into projects. Advanced task apps like Todoist, Things, and TickTick have project features built in. But dedicated project apps enable more collaboration.
Simple project apps allow you to get a quick view of what you’re working on and move things around visually as you progress.
