Help me make my life a little bit more obsessive.

July 13, 2010 6:37 AM

Can you recommend a calendar/to-do app for the iPod Touch or the iPad? I want to be able to schedule events in my calendar, but I also want to be able to specify a list of tasks within each event that can be crossed out as they are done. I don't care about reminders or syncing.

I'm seriously starting to think I should learn how to develop apps for the iPhone/iPad and just write these things myself.

I've been using ToodleDo, which is great for projects, but not so great for a visual planning of how I'm going to spend the rest of my work day. I'd like to be able to specify that I'm working on "Updating Website" from 5PM to 8PM, and that within that 3 hour slot I want to copy edit Pages 1, 2, and 3, and add Page 4. It'd be awesome if I could check off the tasks as I finish them.

Normally I would schedule to-do items as calendar events, but that gets highly tedious if a time-sensitive project has a bunch of tiny tasks to do. Entering them in the 'notes' field of calendar events is a sort-of-okay kludge, but having to click through to the event to see the notes is really annoying.

Ideally this app would be available for the iPad, though I'll take it for the iPod Touch. I don't care if it syncs or if it gives me reminders. I don't really care how it handles unfinished tasks in past events... ideally it would just ignore them and let me schedule a new event/project for them. Does my dream calendar app exist?

posted by Phire to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Pocket Informant sounds like it would fit the bill for you. And there's an iPad version too.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:03 AM on July 13, 2010

Response by poster: Unless I'm missing something, based on the screenshots it seems like Pocket Informant only allows you to view your tasks in the same window as your calendar events. I don't see an option to create tasks for an event.

Thanks, though!
posted by Phire at 7:08 AM on July 13, 2010

"Things" is available for the iPad. Its price is steep at $20, but I bought all 3 (Mac, iPad, iPhone) versions because I love the syncing capabilities, which you are not interested in. "Things" will do what you want, but there may be cheaper alternatives out there.
posted by santaliqueur at 8:49 AM on July 13, 2010

Just popping in to say that, while I love it, "Things" will absolutely not do what you want, which seems to include scheduling tasks on an hourly basis. You can schedule a due-date with Things, but that's it; it doesn't work as a day-planner.
posted by EL-O-ESS at 8:54 AM on July 13, 2010

Yeah, Thing's is not definitely not going to help you out. And sadly, I can't think of anything else that meets your requirements. If you have an iPad, you might want to use the daily planner and notes fields, though this is as you say a bit kludgey. All of the to-do applications I can think of are more GTD-style than what you are thinking about.

Have you seen the web-app Teux Deux.
posted by chunking express at 9:06 AM on July 13, 2010

Response by poster: I do use Teux Deux (it's actually my homepage, sadly enough) and it's awesome for little one-off things that you need to get done throughout the day, but not great for breaking down larger tasks. I've tested Appigo's ToDo and the 2Do app, which both come sort of close to doing what I want (breaking down a project into separate steps and specifying a duration/time for it, even if I have to work backwards from the time due), but they don't have a calendar/day view, which makes them less ideal.

I've heard nothing but good reviews for Things, but it doesn't quite mesh with my workflow.

Thanks for the responses so far! Maybe I'll just go back to pen and paper...
posted by Phire at 9:13 AM on July 13, 2010

You may need to use to Apps in conjunction.

I really like OmniFocus, except that it doesn't have a visual calendar (you can set deadlines). I'll put everything I have to do in OF, sort it by due date, and then copy the items on to either my paper agenda or TuexDeux.

Also, google calendar has both Tasks and hourly Agenda view, which may be exactly what you want for $0.
posted by jander03 at 9:19 AM on July 13, 2010

Best answer: Dunno if this helps, but TeuxDeux just put out their iPhone app.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:41 AM on August 6, 2010

Response by poster: Thank you for the update, Happy Dave! Downloaded! It even has multi-account support, which I may just hack to get what I want.
posted by Phire at 8:20 AM on August 6, 2010

I use Life Balance for this sort of thing. There's an iPhone version, and it lets me break tasks into sub-tasks. There is also a lot of philosophical stuff about balancing your life between various sorts of tasks, but that's pretty easily ignored.

Just another possibility to get this one out of the "Stumped" queue.
posted by DaveP at 5:14 AM on September 12, 2010