To-do list application / task management software

July 6, 2015 2:59 AM

I need a good task manager. I thought Todoist was it, but I hate their Android client (plus typing out the due date/time every time gets old quite fast). So what's the current state of the market?

What I want:
- web + Android support
- periodic/repeating tasks
- multi-level subtasks as proper tasks seen in the main task view (e.g. todo.ly, Todoist), not as checklists or notes inside tasks or something else (eg. Asana)
- sync between web and Android
- reminders with snooze or reschedule on Android
- ideally no "natural language processing" for dates or at least an option to enter the date/time manually (it's easier to look at a calendar and pick a date from it than think about and type out "next Wednesday at 3pm" - especially since English is not my first language - and then double-check the result)
- some way to categorize tasks by project (e.g. tags or folders)
- no need for collaboration/sharing (I'll be the only user)
- ideally free or low price tag
- no-hassle installation (not prepared to install my own server or anything like that)
- bonus: a way to plan what tasks I'll be working on today (eg. tags or stars)

I'm willing to compromise on the second part of the list if the first part is good enough.

I tried Any.do (hate their web UI), TickTick (no proper subtasks), Wunderlist (no proper subtasks), todo.ly (would be great if they had an Android client), Todoist (fantastic on web, but bad UX on Android), Asana (too complex, no proper subtasks), Trello (Kanban as a tool doesn't work for me) NirvanaHQ (no subtasks), Doit.im (it had issues with sync and weird bugs back when I was using it), RememberTheMilk (no proper subtasks), Workflowy (if I wanted just a list, I'd be using Evernote), Toodledo (I can't remember what bothered me about it, but I think it was the lack of subtasks?) and probably some more which I no longer remember.

What are your suggestions?

posted by gakiko to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Have you tried ZenDone and SmartTM?
posted by kschang at 3:57 AM on July 6, 2015

Thinking Rock claims to have 6 levels of goals in the paid version, and you need paid version to use the Android companion.

http://www.thinkingrock.com.au/index.php
posted by kschang at 4:04 AM on July 6, 2015

When did you last try Todoist on Android? They announced a major redesign about two weeks ago. I use an iPhone, so I don't know if the new design will help, but might be worth a shot.
posted by third word on a random page at 5:25 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

I switched to 2Do when it was on sale recently and I've been very happy with it, after being a long-time user of Things.

I think the only thing missing from your list is web-based task management, but it has good native apps and can also use Google Tasks and I think even Outlook as a syncing backend, with some limitations.

The main reason I like it is the ability to have multiple sub task lists and layers of grouping. So I can have a work group, with lists for specific clients, then projects, individual todos and checklists as I need them below that level. It's really nice after the really rigid model Things has.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:31 AM on July 6, 2015

Toodledo has subtasks in the paid version.
posted by grouse at 5:47 AM on July 6, 2015

Best answer: I think GQueues might hit all or most of your requirements.
posted by Leontine at 7:01 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all for your suggestions. I'm currently trialing GQueues and it seems to work well (although the mobile reminders are a bit clunky - would be happier if they didn't work through GCalendar).
posted by gakiko at 3:05 AM on July 7, 2015