Help me get out from under all these piles of to-do lists!

November 15, 2009 3:52 PM

I'm looking for a productivity app that can help me manage both my projects and my time.

I use google for email and calendars (my employer uses google apps, plus I have a personal gmail account). I use two computers, both of which are PCs, and an iPhone.

I have a job where I have up to 10 different projects going on at any given time, all with varying timelines and complexity, and many involving other people. My current system of making to-do lists of the things that have to get done today is really not going to cut it anymore.

Here's what I'm looking for in a productivity app:

- Something that can sync across all the platforms I use on a daily basis (iPhone, gmail/google calendars, PCs)

- The functionality to easily take big projects and break them into smaller tasks. For instance, if the project is "Go grocery shopping with Susan," I could break it up into: "ask Susan what time works best for her," "make a meal plan for the week with needed ingredients," "Check pantry to see what I already have," "make shopping list," "go shopping."

- The ability to give these tasks a deadline and/or schedule, and then integrate them into my calendar. So if something needs to be done at a specific time, it automatically goes on the calendar at that time. Bonus points if I can easily take a day's to-do list and slot the tasks into empty spots in my calendar (drag and drop, maybe?)

I'm willing to pay a bit for such a program if necessary. Also, I'm already mucking around with Remember the Milk and Evernote - both of these are appealing, but don't have the ability to easily break projects into tasks and neither integrates the way I'd like with calendars. Although I'm new to both, so let me know if there's something I'm missing!

posted by lunasol to work & money (6 comments total)

Have you tried Pivotal?
posted by null terminated at 4:00 PM on November 15, 2009

Check out Toodledo. It does EXACTLY what you want. The pro version lets you create "sub-tasks" as part of a larger task. It's also got loads of different ways to sync your information, including ICS files that go to your calendar. I just use the free version with the (paid) iPhone app, and it's perfect for my needs.
posted by web-goddess at 5:24 PM on November 15, 2009

Just realised they have a useful comparison chart which shows the features of the main web-based To Do lists...
posted by web-goddess at 5:26 PM on November 15, 2009 [1 favorite]

I like todoist.com. It's web-based, you can provide deadlines and sub-divide stuff as much as you like, you can also specify deadlines etc.

It has integration with a few different things but I don't use any of them. Some of the fancier bits are in the paid-for version.

Still it's pretty easy to try it and the free version does quite a lot so give it a go and see if it fits for you.

Be sure to read the help regarding shortcuts you can type in to specify repeating dates; item priorities etc. I really like these but I only found them once I'd been using it a while.
posted by southof40 at 1:27 AM on November 16, 2009

Cant link but check out daylite on the iphone. Theres something about a sever based version too, but not hd a chance to look into it.
posted by Iteki at 11:09 AM on November 16, 2009

Thanks for the tips. Toodledo seems like the closest to what I'm looking for.
posted by lunasol at 11:09 PM on November 26, 2009