Experiments & Expressions

How do you manage your daily and ongoing tasks? Are you able to easily categorize your tasks for your different clients or roles (i.e., personal and work)? And what about access? Are you able to read and manage your tasks no matter where you are? If you’re ready for something different like I am, try a web-based task manager.

For me, I use Outlook and sync to my phone. And on my phone, GregSoft’s TaskPlus software gives me a lot of what I need. However, I’m relatively limited (read: I don’t like how it works) if I want to use it for different roles and multiple clients.

Again, it can be done and I do it. The effort to manage the complexity of my tasks just isn’t efficient enough for me. I’ve even tried paper lists. Those just get crumpled in my pocket yielding little personal accountability.

When all else fails… I turn to the Internet.

In an age of Web 2.0 apps, I decided to put some constraints on my search for the perfect task manager. Bare minimum requirements are:

• Multiple list support
• Categorized tasks
• Tag support
• RSS support
• Mobile (Phone/PDA) view support
• Deadline capable (You can set a deadline for the task)
• Must be simple (no enterprise-level, project management, or multi-app integrated systems)
• Hosted (No setup or installation necessary)
• Free

In addition to the bare minimums, these “added features” would be nice, but not necessary:

• Mobile edit support
• Task prioritization
• Drag-n-drop support (to reprioritize or move tasks to other categories)
• SMS/text message reminders
• Repeatable events
• Sharable, password protected lists

To Do Lists: Making the cut

There are many web-based to-do lists out there. These are a few that I found so far. They don’t necessarily have all the bare minimums, but they are at least worth a look.

• Ta-da List
• Bla-bla List
• Tudu Lists
• voo2do
• Remember the Milk
• Orchestrate
• Rough Underbelly
• Wallnote
• WebToDo List
• ToodleDo
• tasktoy
• Time Tracker
• ListPool
• TaskTHIS

I will be briefly reviewing each of the applications. If they make the first cut, then I will review them for a longer, one week period. When I make a decision, I will post the winning task manager with my review.

If you have any other online to-do list application that is worth reviewing, please let me know. Also, please feel free to share your opinions about what task management system you use.