For those of you who don’t know, ToDoist is an application that is a free (with some “pay for” premium features) to-do list application. It has revolutionised the way I handle things I have to do – both at home and at work. I honestly don’t know how I was able to get everything I needed to do done before I found this tool. In fact, I know I wasn’t, because I was constantly forgetting things!
My first major point in it’s favour is that it’s available on multiple platforms: Windows, Mac, Chrome, FireFox, IE, Android, iPhone, GMail, Outlook…you name it, I’m pretty sure they’ve built it. And if they haven’t, mention it to them, I’m sure the wouldn’t mind opening up a new market! I personally use it in Chrome, Android, GMail & Outlook. As a cloud to-do list application, everything is synchronised seamlessly between my different platforms.
I feel almost like I’m shilling here, but I honestly can’t help it – if this app can assist one person after reading this, then I’m happy. Because while the app may make something from you (personally, I forked out the cash for the premium version because the premium features are extremely useful) I truly hope it will assist you and make your to-do list seem far less scary.
Two examples – how it’s useful been useful in work and how it’s been useful in my personal life:
Work – I use this to help work out what needs to be done on a given day as well as scheduling in those long term jobs that will take a while, using priorities and reminders. This has made my work life amazingly more efficient, because I can see exactly what needs to get done on a given day and in what order I need to look at doing them. I’m not kidding when I say that my stress levels have dropped significantly.
Personal – I find that I’m using it just as much (if not more!) for personal tasks than I am for work. I schedule almost everything in here that needs to get done, including chores so that they do actually get done. I’ve shared one of my projects with my better half (our holiday project) so that things don’t get missed and so he’s doing the things he needs to do as well! I also use Todoist as my shopping list (I have a separate project for “Shopping”) so that I never forget anything when I’m out.
To give you a better understanding, I’ll do a pros and cons listing – just bear in mind that this is from my perspective and your needs may differ.
– Pros –
- Usable on almost every platform you could possibly want – as mentioned, I use mine on my Android phone, in my Outlook client, inside my GMail and in Chrome (both home and work)
- Very simple to start using and understand – there wasn’t a big learning curve, I could put tasks in straight away and understand how to give them a deadline and how to mark them as done
- Great features – labels, projects, reminders, priorities are all really useful
- Very easy to share tasks to other people – sharing is simple and easy to do and it’s easy for the other person/s to be able to view the tasks (though they do need to sign up as well)
- Simple to move task due dates – moving a task from one date to another is easy! When you click on a task, it does give you the option of shifting to normal dates such as “Tomorrow” or “Next week”
- An extremely user-friendly mobile client – This is really important to me and makes it really easy to use when you’re out. This is handy for my ‘Shopping’ project 🙂
- Their support site is very easy to navigate – was confused about reminders and found the answer I needed almost straight away
- They have a vote functionality where new features can be voted upon to be implemented – have voted for the calendar function to be implemented because it looks awesome!
– Cons –
- Not every single platform is supported…yet. I’m sure there is a platform out there that doesn’t have a plugin that someone’s going to complain about. If that’s you, mention it to them, I’m sure someone would be interested in trying to tap into that market!
- It does take some time to get used to their date method (e.g. tod for today, tom for tomorrow, ev day for everyday) – this was the only little niggle I had, as it did take a little while to get used to this, but now I’m fairly proficient. My only concern is if I go to a different program and it doesn’t support this format…then I have to re-teach myself all over again!
- There is no simple “copy task” function – this honestly drives me crazy, as I’d really REALLY like to be able to copy tasks so I can edit them slightly. Most of my tasks have everything: task, label, project, due date, priority and reminders (as well as assigned to, in my shared projects) and it would be nice to be able to copy settings from other tasks so you didn’t have to manually go through the process of creating each task individually
- The import/export is very manual and you’d only do this if you were familiar with tab delineated files – I didn’t have a problem with this, but I’m sure some users will if they’ve never played with TDF’s before.
- Every task needs to be assigned a label – similar to the copy issue, there is no inheritance. So if a task is inside a project, it doesn’t automatically inherit it’s labels etc. I can see why, but it is a bit irritating.
In my opinion, for the small outlay ($29/year) the premium version was well worth it. It’s improved both my efficient and effectiveness (and I promise I’m not playing buzzword bingo here!) and I know of at least three other people who’ve started using it and are also converts. If you’re looking for a decent to-do application that can manage your todo lists, this is your app.