Dig into them and you’ll grasp how useful context and the ability to scroll back through lists and text can be to task management. Smartly, Agenda includes several sample projects, which show off how the app can be used for everything from planning to journals. Two sidebars can be pulled in from the screen edges: from the right, you get a calendar and links to recently edited and related notes from the left, you can access notes you’ve placed in the ‘On the Agenda’ overview, today’s tasks, search, and projects. So within Agenda, tasks can have any combination of text, headings, lists, tables, photos/scans, dividers, tags, and even freeform sketches. It’s like someone greatly expanded on the basic organization elements in Apple’s Notes. Either way, TickTick is a novel take on a task manager that successfully does something a bit different.īest for freeform tasks with context and historyĪll task managers afford you some flexibility, but Agenda is the most freeform around. However, there is a paid tier – $28/£26 per year – that unlocks alternate calendar views, filters, checkbox item reminders, themes, and white noise, along with the means to set task durations so tasks don’t clash. Generously, much of this functionality is free. TickTick also has a tab where you create and track habits, the app’s creator reasoning that they can often be more beneficial to you than dealing with timed goals and defined projects. Another tab features a Pomodoro timer, for distraction-free work sprints you can optionally place your phone face down while the timer runs, like with Bear Focus Timer. The Today view shows what’s going on today and has a button to trigger a focus mode that encourages you to deal with urgent tasks one at a time, swiping them away when they’re complete. What makes TickTick interesting is its range of built-in features designed to help you focus and reduce stress. The main view resembles a basic task manager, where you add items with due dates, tags, and priority flags, and then dump them in the inbox (to later sort) or a list. But if you feel restricted, you can opt to pay $36/£36 per year to up active projects from five to 30, increase collaborators from five to 25, attach larger files, use more filters (150 rather than just three), and set reminders for tasks.ĭespite sporting a moniker that suggests a bomb’s about to go off, TickTick has a lot going for it. The free tier is generous too, and may be enough for a solo user. However, it is available across a range of platforms – including the web – which is ideal for collaboration. What you don’t get is much ‘Appleness.’ The app feels comparatively basic and doesn’t pull in Calendar data. But the app really excels when you collaborate with others, adding links and attachments, making comments, and digging into a task’s history. There’s natural language input, so you can type in the likes of “Lunch with John on Friday” or “Update weekly schedule every Monday at 10am #team” and let Todoist deal with the drudge work.įor the solo user, there are additional notable features: filters you save to the main screen that adjust your view based on user-defined criteria, and a ‘karma’ system for working up a streak of getting things done. Adding new tasks is swift, due to a responsive interface that enables you to quickly assign tags, priorities and deadlines, and file tasks accordingly. That said, this is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and the creators have to date provided four years of regular updates beyond that, the app’s elegance and efficient nature set it apart from its contemporaries.īest for speed, efficiency and working with others The app isn’t cheap either: beyond the iPhone version, it costs $20/£20 on iPad and $50/£45 on Mac. Custom views are limited to filter-based searches. This is solo fare – there are no collaboration features – and you cannot attach files nor location data to tasks. There’s also great clarity in the app’s design, not least in the excellent Upcoming view. You’ll revel in the tiny pie charts in the main screen that denote how complete each project is, the integrated Quick Find feature that helps you rapidly access tasks, and how intention-based tasks roll over when incomplete – rather than the app stressing you out by adding them to an overdue list. Further organization comes from tags that link arbitrary tasks, projects that collate and structure larger goals, and ‘areas’ to separate different elements of your life.įrom a visual and usability standpoint, Things is superb, with a friendly, almost playful interface. You start by stashing ideas in an inbox, and each can optionally have a hard deadline or a more abstract ‘intention’ regarding completion – be that today, tomorrow, or ‘someday’. Things manages to simultaneously be about small details and the bigger picture.
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