So far i have the chance to investigate 2 Task Management Software:

1. Appigo ToDo [Review Here >>]
2. eToDo [Review Here >>]

For sure, these are not the only lists around and the fact that the competition is so hot means there is only one winner here, which is you the consumer!

Action Lists is brought to you by Daze End Software, you may have come across another of its software which is ListMaker and this one is working on the same formula as List Maker.In fact you can say that action Lists is building on the same formula as List Maker.

Action Lists, like most task management applications on iPhone enables you to follow the GTD Workflow by David Allen but for me, it can be much more than that.

How much does it cost?

There is a free version for you to try that is FREE. However, it only enables you to create a limited number of tasks and projects.

The paid application cost USD9.99, which is the same cost as Appigo Todo and Things.

When you cost that much, you gotta be as competitive as them. Here we will see if it measures up.

How does it work?

Action Lists does task management according to the GTD workflow, but you have the flexibility to do it in alot of ways.

Typically you start off by doing a sweep to collect any thing that you can think of. Any thoughts that translates to actionable tasks will go into the Inbox.

Task entry is similar to Appigo ToDo in that you can use a Quick Add button to add a task without detail specifications. But most would prefer to use the detail entry screen.

Here you can enter the

1. description of your task
2. start date of the task
3. end date of the task
4. notes for the task
5. context/categories of the task and
6. which project it belongs to
7. set task to repeating

whatever a good todo list have, Action Lists have it for you. You can specify your own contexts and later you can filter by them.

The repeating task is abit special. You can set them to continous repeat, and the tasks will be generated either when the day have been reached, or when the task have been completed.

the options that you can have for repeating tasks

I find this to necessary in the past to have the task recur on its own when the day comes but i realise that doing this, you can very likely litter your todo list should you fall off the to do list bandwagon and attempt to hop back on.

The preferred method will be to recur when you have complete the task. Either way, once you marked a task completed, a new recur task is added to the Inbox

new recurring task is in inbox

This is abit different but its Action Lists way to make sure that all new task is handled at Inbox level. some people will like this, some will not.

Nested Projects

When you are organizing your tasks in your inbox, if the task needs more than 1-2 steps to be handled, you will create a Project to group them together.

This is where Action Lists differs from all task list on the market. Action Lists enables you to have unlimited projects within projects and there will alot of folks who appreciate this as you can really group your tasks by:

1. Personal and Work
2. Strategic Goals
3. Area of Responsibilities
4. Project Milestones
5. Small Projects

I used to want this nested feature alot as i think it makes alot of sense. Even the Desktop ToDoList that i have created based on Nested Tree List. People that are in software development would have use Microsoft Project and it enables you to have nested task. If you look at your life as one big project then having nested list will really help.

first level has 2 projects. we go into work

second level have 3 area of responsibilities. we go into the first area of responsibilities

third level have 2 more projects. we go into the btm project

fourth level.the tasks

Not having it is not end of the world. In fact most people will just make do with 2 levels: the first level being your Area of Responsibilities be it Project A, Being a good family man and the second level being your Project milestones to achieve that area of responsibility.

Task Status and Doing the Task via Context

How you perform the “Do It” after “Organzing it” will be based on 2 things: the Status of the task and the Context.

setting the status will determine whether the task shows up in action lists

When defining the task you can select the status.

Setting the Task to Waiting will cost the task to pop up at the Waiting Tab (notice the increase in number badge indicating the number of waiting task) for me this is good as it really provides a clear seperation of tasks that are currently waiting. Currently with Appigo ToDo, i have it as one of my Tags and while i have said Appigo toDo main problem is that you need to go into the tags to see how many unfinish task you have. With Action Lists you don’t have this problem.

set status to waiting will show task up at waiting tab

The Same goes with Someday. Once you decide to do a Someday task, just switch the status to Active or Next Action

As i have said, you hop on over to Action Lists Tab to go through your context to see your next action.

contexts provides the navigation depending on your current location/person you are with

You will note that there aren’t alot of task queued here. Why is that? This is because only task set to Next Action Status will appear here!

Its a novel way of filtering away all the freaking task and only show what you have to do next.

There is abit of a problem here. So lets say you completed a task, what you need to do next is go to the Projects tab and go to that particular project and set the next task status to Next Action from Active.

what happens when your task is so deeply nested inside?

This is where Task Queue comes in. Touch the blue arrow next to each project folder and you will see the option “Queue Next Actions“.

Toggle it on and after you finish one next action, it will immediately set the next earliest due task to Next action from Active. This may not work well if you have tasks that have dependency not based on time of completion. the jury is still out if this performs well enough

auto queue the next task to process

Synchronize and backup to ToodleDo

Action Lists enables you to back up your tasks and folders to Toodledo. I have not tested how well this works since my ToodleDo syncs with Appigo ToDo but i have a feeling it will be another case that ToodleDo will act as a backup rather than allow you to use it both online and on your iPhone.

Do tell me your experience with syncing.

enter your toodledo info to sync.

Where to improve upon

This App have alot of potential i feel.However here are some things that they need to iron out.

Full Calendar selection – We cannot rely on the roller to select the date! As we are setting dates, we want to see clearly which day of the week or which weekday we set upon. Using a roller selector is not good for this.

rolling datepicker in Action Lists

ToDo's calendar date picker implementation

More Description details – from the picture below you will see that its very difficult to tell at one glance what you need to do. you will have to go into the task itself. I feel this needs to be expanded

Notice that there are truncation that will hinder a quick review of task. you will need to go in to know more.

Conclusion

On the whole a very good to do list i feel. Does everything the competition has and a very niche and competitive feature in Nested Projects. Fix the problems that i mention and its well worthed the price.

For one that have program a todo list, i can truely appreciate this product and its difficulties. We hope that the next 1 month users will give ample feedbacks to increase the stability of the software. Appigo Todo have this problem for all versions, due to the complexity of to do lists in general.

so do contribute and highlight the issues to make this a good todo list!

eToDo have in recent weeks zoom to the top of the productivity category on app store. So what makes etodo so appealing?

eTodo as a late comer to this task management and to do list space have to really distinguish itself from the competition.

What it offers is to carry out task management GTD way in the simpliest way. but that doesn’t mean that it is shitty, rather I see that it appeals to users who aren’t thY big on gtd and just want a simple way of managing tasks

The Presentation

eTodo have the nicest to do list interface I have ever seen, but you may disagree with me. Take a look at the screenshots below and you will see that it’s high on the colors and funky icons.

eToDo Front End

let’s be frank here. I am an engineer by training an while I like to prefer functionality for my todo list over beauty, it will turn me off if it’s really ugly. thankfully I don’t see many of those at the app store. at the configuration you can change the background wallpaper as well.

The Front end

eTodo provides task bins much in the Gtd way. If you guys are familiar with my post on Appigo Todo you will know that Appigo provides lists which houses projects and tasks. these task bins are like this list, only thing is it’s fixed based on what is required by Gtd.

• Inbox- basically your starting point. any thoughts that is vague will go here. you should have one daily or weekly mind sweep to add to your inbox.
• All- all your tasks whether it is anywhere will be here.
• Actions- all your actionable tasks (which to me is almost everything). the key distinction here is between Actions and Someday. This is where your tasks in your Inbox that are actionable will be shifted to.
• Someday- tasks that do not have a definite start date. pending tasks. If your Inbox tasks are nit gonna be carried out anytime soon and might be a project or task next time, shift it here.
• Next- the tasks that should be carried out next. The next task from your actions bin that u will carry out next.
• Completed- your completed task will be housed here. More for review purpose.

Task Creation

Touching the cross will bring you to the task creation screen.

Main Task Creation

This screen to me is freaking colorful and I think it’s a bad thing as the user have a hard time perceiving if this is a textfield.

You can enter the standard stuff:
Due Date – A joy to enter. The developer took note to include frequently used reference dates such as Today, Tomorrow and Next Week. I feel people should stop using the date roller tool. Its really sickening to roll for far reaching dates!

Due Date

Repeat

Repeat - Great here. The standard outlook level recurring tasks options Days, Weeks and Months. The developer also includes standard reference recurring options as well: Day, Week, 2 Weeks, Month, 3 Month and Year.

Tags – You can tag each task with multiple tag contexts so you can better filter your tasks during review or do phases.

Multiple Tag/Context Selections

Priority – None,Low,Medium,High,Urgent. Personally i think priorities don’t work haha.
Images – You can append images that will be shown describing what task this is. The range of images is limited, they look good and imo it clutters the screen.

Task Filtering for Review and Do

How you use eToDo to carry out your task in an efficient manner differs from person to person. If i were to use this, I would reference the All List quite alot.

No of Tasks are shown next to the Tags

One thing that you would really appreciate about eToDo is really the number next to the titles that tells you the number of tasks in there. I mean, If there isn’t any tasks in there I wouldn’t want to bother reviewing it and doing it right?

You select tasks that are Overdue and are Errands

Touching the Filter Icon allows you to filter not just by Starred,Overdue,Today,Tomorrow,Next 7 Days and Future Tasks but also by the Tags. The filtering is eToDos strong point and it is a very important aspect of Getting Things Done as
- You need to Tag your tasks with the right context during Organize
- You need to filter and do tasks when you are at the right Context/Environment
- You need to filter well to make Reviewing of your Actions easy

The Filter is shown Here for Concise reviewing

This gets an A+ for me as this is where Appigo ToDo lacks. The number of tasks in each category is very useful!

Search

eToDo has a search as well. Not Sure when i will need this really!

Mailing Actions List

I love this option! What  you can do is that you can use Task Filtering to Filter
-Specific Tasks meant for Certain Colleagues
-List of Tasks You are Waiting for
-List of Tasks Tag with a certain category for others to review

and then send it out. Another A feature.

Touch Mail Button to bring up this functionality

You can filter then email this list of tasks to your colleagues

Conclusion

Overall, at USD 0.99 cents this application is a winner. It still won’t pull me away from Appigo ToDo as
- It does not have Sub-Projects
- No Sync backup to online server
But for folks that is looking for a flexible, well thought out to-do list 0.99 cents is a small price to pay.

Best iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ

This is part of a series where i talk about my GTD experience and  my setup.

Part 1 here talks about my plan and overview of my GTD system

Part 2 here talks about why i eventually chose iPod Touch 2G as my main to do list console

Part 3 here talks about why i choose Appigo ToDo for iPhone as my main task manager

Part 4 here talks about how to plan for big projects and smaller projects

Part 5 here talks about how to make use of Contexts, Tags to Execute your tasks

Part 6 here discuss about how you can review projects better using iThoughts mind mapping software

In today’s article i will share with  you guys the software to complete the iPod Touch picture which is Appigo ToDo list

Appigo ToDo

Before i got my iPod Touch, I have already decide which application to do list i would be using. This is after extensive research and comparison between Omnifocus,Things and other cheaper to do list.

Eventually these are the reasons that tilt me towards Appigo ToDo

1. Omnifocus backup and ubiquitous nature is only limited to desktop synchronization. Thats not good enough for me since my main computer is not a Mac but a Windows PC. I would much prefer that I can sync my to do list to a web application
2. Omnifocus cost 20 freaking bucks. When you look at the to do list application on the App Store it makes it hard to understand why it will cost 20 freaking bucks.
3. Things, although polished, have a big problem for me, no recurring task capability. you will always want an option where you can create a to do task that creates a “do 20 chin up for the week” task every saturday.
4. The reasons why i choose Appigo ToDo have alot to do with the Advantages listed next.

Projects and Sub-Tasks/Sub-Projects

One main difference about to do lists like these compared to outlook is that they are like mini project management applications. Most of our lives consist of small projects like

1. Enrolling your kid for the new year
2. Building your new personal computer
3. Taking over the new project
4. Secure the release of the set of documents

That’s what i normally require. Its either an Area of Responsibility or a Project to meet that area of responsibility.

Appigo ToDo allows you to have 2 levels of it. You can have Lists as your big project and Projects in your Lists as your sub projects.

Lists showing my Areas of Responsibilities

The Lists are very clear. The first one is a list showing All your tasks in all your lists. The red tag shows the overdue ones and the gray tag shows the total. You can color tag each lists so that in your task it becomes easily distinguishable if you are the sort of visual person.

Sub-Projects in your Project List

In your lists, you can denote one more level down which is your sub project. Very ideal for specifying mini projects. These sub projects are distinguishable by the tree icon.

One thing to note is that in these task view, you will only see the name of the sub project and not the tasks in your project. Some people will get annoyed by this and I can understand the technical limitation of it but i think it is a livable flaw. The grey tag shows the total number of tasks in the sub project and the red tag shows the number of sub tasks in the sub project that is due.

Note the due date listed below the task. For sub projects, you will see the most earliest due sub task’s due date. So in my “Building a iPhone app” project Sep 23 is the due date of my earliest due task.

Sub Project and its tasks

Touching your sub project will bring you to your project view where you can add, update and delete your tasks.

Flexible Tasks Specifications

Well the tasks in the to do list takes on an important role, and Appigo ToDo offers alot of flexibility.

Elongated Task View

I find that the length of the Task Description isn’t constraint, which is good. You can put alot of things in the Notes area below the Description as well (though the display will look awkward)

You can specify the Due Date as well as the Due Time. I use Due Date most of the time and not Due Time as it is too much of a micro management. You can also specify if the task is repeating (talk about this later) as well as the priority of the task.

You can choose also to specify the Context and Tags (talk about later).

More Task Actions

Clicking on the red Action button brings you to the option to Move the Task into the Project and if its in a project, out of the Project. You can also email the task or send the Task to a notebook (Appigo’s paid notebook application)

Focus List

This is a good feature. And like most good or up to standard GTD to do list it lets you focus on only tasks that is going to  take place soon.

You can really specify what goes into this filter list. Priorities, how far away the task is due and whether you want to limit to certain lists.

Online Synchronization to Toodledo and Remember The Milk

Online Synchronization Options

Now this is powerful. ToDo allows you to sync with either Toodledo or Remember The Milk. However, you can only sync to Remember the Milk if you have a Pro account. The cheap choice would be to use Toodledo, which really isn’t a bad choice since ToodleDo is rather comprehensive.

If you are a OS X user you would want to sync with iCal through Appigo’s Desktop sync which is FREE.

ToodleDo (Click to view larger image)

For disclosure i Sync with ToodleDo. But as i will explain in the rest of my other articles i don’t use the online Toodledo much. I can lived with only my iPod in my system.

Synchronization Options

There are many options to do this. For starters, which service u will sync to. You can also choose to sync at startup of ToDo. This can be abit annoying without internet connection (iPod Touch), but i assure you i would rather be annoyed and sync as much as i can (instead of triggering manual sync which you will forget) then do a lump sync and the sync goes awry. Big data sync can be quite problematic.

What i notice is that tasks that were suppose to be in sub projects came out of those sub projects. Not very desirable behaviors. You can also specify the recency of your completed tasks to keep on the iPhone.

Full Sync

At times, you would want to reset your tasks, you can do that through the advanced menu.

Conclusion

All in all, I managed to skim the surface of this great app. It should be re-iterated that my decision for my iPod would not happen if i cannot find a good task list like this.

For USD 9.99 it is an expensive application, but as it is so well design i feel every penny spent is worth it.

In the next part, we will go straight into some GTD Task and Project Planning
[GTD Series Part 4:How to plan for big projects and its sub-projects]
Do take a look at the following videos to see hands on demo of Appigo ToDo

Whats new in Appigo ToDo 2

Connecting to ToodleDo

Best iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ