ForumsTips & TricksTodoist vs Toodledo -- Why I'm back.


Todoist vs Toodledo -- Why I'm back.
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Mike

Posted: Nov 24, 2015
Score: 0 Reference
Hi Bridget,


1. ...can I assume that means that you want to eliminate views that you do not use?

interesting question; I never thought about eliminating unused views but that is something I could see as a benefit.

I guess what would be the best for me would be to be able to select all the views I like and then have all those views available on one page (call it My views for example) rather than switching between Hotlist, Context View, Due Date View, Folders view and status view. I have done that by making custom searches but i don't think that creating a custom search to emulate the hotlist is a great solution just so i can get the hotlist ont he same page as a due date view for example.

My custom search page has searches for:
- Today
- Tomorrow
- Hotlist (all contexts)
- A couple of custom searches for specific tags I use

and then it has 4 searches duplicated for two different contexts (Personal and Work):
Today
Hotlist
Due Date
Next

See screenshot:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/fbd796e4-e716-4b8a-a18a-94cd3ae683ff/592c564916f91073578f2e8472e95527

3. If you could pick and choose which items show up in the ribbon would that be a viable solution that would allow you to eliminate unwanted views?

If I could place shortcuts to views in the Ribbon, that seems like it would be a pretty good solution.


4. Are there any undesirable actions you have to take, or unnecessary items on the page that detract from what you want to see?

The undesirable actions are due to the part of Toodledo that makes it so appealing: the options. However, I feel like I have to click on a page and then turn on / turn off a bunch of settings to make the page appear I want to. Doing that over and over is a time waster and tedious. The search page got me what i wanted ultimately.

I wish I could edit the saved searches easier than having to edit the search and save with the same name just to update a saved search.


Does all that make sense? Email me if you want to discuss in greater detail. mkanakos at gmail . com


This message was edited Nov 24, 2015.
Bridget K

Posted: Nov 24, 2015
Score: 0 Reference
Thanks Mike! That type of feedback was precisely what I was looking for. I appreciate you taking the time to include so much detail in explaining your point of view. I have taken note of all of this feedback for future design direction.

I wish I could edit the saved searches easier than having to edit the search and save with the same name just to update a saved search.


If I understand this correctly I think Jake has actually just implemented a fix for this on the last update. Now if you modify an existing saved search you are presented with the buttons "Save Changes" or "Save As". Save changes will update the existing search without prompting you to save over it with the same name.

If any other users have an opinion on this topic and would like to contribute, please feel free to do so. This topic is on my watch list and I will continue to keep an eye on your responses. Otherwise please resume your Todoist comparison, my apologies for the tangent.

:)

Bridget
Salgud

Posted: Nov 24, 2015
Score: 0 Reference
Since someone's actually asking...

For years I've been a proponent of a "Views" option in TD, which would contain views of my task list based on custom searches, but preserving Sort & Filter settings. So I could go there to see a saved search with the same sort order and filter settings every time. Saved Searches are almost there since the option to save the Sort order has been available, so this would just add the ability to save the filter settings as well.
axelheiser

Posted: Nov 26, 2015
Score: 2 Reference
Hi there,
I am using Toodledo as my trusted project and task management system since 2009 with a few - mostly short - excursions to other solutions. I never quite understood the complaints about the UI since I actually like the grid-view very much. However, I like the recent updates and think they match my workflow and add functionality.
My excursions were mostly short and caused by a desire to find a solution that was working a bit better with the principles of GTD. Eventually I realized that instead of trying the app thta best fits my work flow is to slightly adjust my workflow to the app that is by far the most customizable on the market - Toodledo. I have now abandoned strict GTD and have setup Toodledo in a simple way, just using context, folders, start and due dates, and task length, to handle my ~750 tasks in several projects and "areas of responsibility" - both at work (as a scientist) and at home.
My longest absence from Toodledo started about a year ago when I switched to Todoist. I was attracted by the Karma feature and the graphical simplicity but was rather quickly put off by recurring problems with syncing (mostly task due dates not syncing correctly). I also realized that I am not interested in gamifying (Karma) my system. I only kept using Todoist because I didn't like the effort needed to export my tasks - which by the way is another feature I appreciate in Toodledo: export into xml and csv. Never needed it to restore data (Toodledo never lost nay of my data) but have used it a few times for bulk edits - which just became a lot easier with Toodledo.
I like the email integration and heavily depend on integration with Evernote (via Taskclone).
If I had the three wishes they would be (in this order):
1. Two way sync with Evernote (i.e. checkboxed lines in Evernote showing up as tasks in Toodledo and being checked in Evernote when checked in Toodledo).
2. Have link to the original email when emailing into Toodledo - both for gMail (hyperlink?) and Outlook (link or msg file?).
3. Improved calendar. I don't need Goggle (or other) calendar integration but would rather like slightly more powerful Toodledo calendar - which i am using regularly to plan my week.
I am well aware that these are quite ambitious wishes and don't want them understood as a shortcoming of Toodledo. I think it is an amazing, powerful and affordable task AND project management tool (I have tried more complete project management solutions including Wrike and MS Project) and found them too complex for my work flow.
A big thanks to the developers for having made my life easier for so many years!
Cheers,
Axel

PS: I am using Ultimate To Do List as my Android app on phone and tablet and find it superior to the Toodledo app. It's major advantage for me is the ability to use custom searches in the app as well as the widgets.
coolexplorer

Posted: Nov 28, 2015
Score: 3 Reference
Bridget,

The current TD Grid layout is better than all other Task Managers, but it is very text intensive.

The Star icon is one of the fastest UX elements and its vibrant color pops out to get ones attention. I use it all the time to move a task to the very top of my Hotlist (irrespective of its priority, due date or status).

How about allowing a few more colored icons that convey meaning without reading. Maybe for "urgent", "importance", "projects", "tasks with sub-tasks", "repeating tasks", "tasks with alarms", "reference tasks", etc. Maybe other users can suggest other elements.

These icons should be user defined and searchable and rank-able. It will definately brighten up the interface and appeal to visual oriented people.

What say?


This message was edited Nov 28, 2015.
pawelkaleta

Posted: Nov 28, 2015
Score: 0 Reference
+1 for more icons and colors, less text
dchapiro

Posted: Dec 18, 2015
Score: 0 Reference
Before going ahead with Toodledo I tried most of the other top task managers. Some of the competitors have GUIs that on the surface look more modern and uncluttered. However, that comes at the expense of (a) loss of functionality and/or (b) many clicks and view updates, and not due to a better interface.

I think that Toodledo's GUI could be made prettier in terms of graphic design, but I would not care at all for changes in the direction of burying function or visibility into deeper levels of the GUI.

Form should follow function!

PS: and in the battle of icons vs text, there are so many tools and icons, that their meanings sometimes are inscrutable. So have a setting to allow users to choose one, the other or both, which should suit novices, experts, and less frequent users alike.


This message was edited Dec 18, 2015.
jamezzz

Posted: Dec 28, 2015
Score: 0 Reference
I, too, have been using Toodledo for years and recently had an "affair" with Todoist for several months. Very similar story to BobOkie at the start of this thread. The things that attracted me to Todoist was the Karma and the "clean" UI. I found the Karma feature strangely motivating and almost made it to Master, but after while I found the novelty of it wore off and I didn't check it as often although I was still being productive. I also began noticing that the UI is so clean that it actually isn't as easy to differentiate between tasks. The tasks with their attributes tend run together when quickly glancing at your list.

Although Toodledo often gets dinged for having a dated UI, I actually find their UI (especially with their latest improvements) to be very fast, easy to see what you need at a glance and it's easy to differentiate between the tasks. In the end, the features Toodledo offers won out as I can implement just about any workflow I can dream up using the features and attributes available in Toodledo. Also, the saved searches, in my opinion, are more powerful and more consistent between the web app and iOS environments with Toodledo.

I'd still love to see better integration between Tasks, Notes, Outlines and Habits. These sections seem very disjoint to me and I think they would be incredibly useful if better integrated. For example: I'd love to be able mark items of an Outline to show as Tasks such that if I checked the task off in the Task list or Outline it would be checked off in the other view. I'd love to be able to link tasks with a habit. I'd love to be able to tag notes. I currently use Folders for projects and since Notes can be associated with a folder it would be nice if there was a view that showed everything associated with a given folder together so I could look at my "project" as a whole, project tasks and notes, perhaps even outlines.

Keep up the great work Toodledo!! I'll be sticking around awhile!!
J.Tyro

Posted: Feb 07, 2016
Score: 1 Reference
I'm currently in the process of trialing toodoist after using toodledo for 5 years. I think the only reason why I looked for other solution is due to Toodledo's Android apps doesn't support saved search sync -- which was asked years ago by many members.

Beside that main drawback (in my opinion at least), Toodledo is still a much better apps to implement GTD compare to others.
marklewis56_2

Posted: Jul 28, 2016
Score: 0 Reference
Now here's an interesting and reassuring post since I am wavering between Toodledo and Todoist. I started playing around with Todoist but I feel like I'm missing fields: notably status. The feeling of clicking a task as a next action is an important psychological act. I just can't do that with Todoist. Labels just don't feel enough. And importance was a very important concept to me in Toodledo because I feel like I was being helped to choose which task to do and I felt like I was becoming much more productive. Todist scares me because I feel like I'm on my own, I have to set the priority and I can't seem to sort things the way I want.

However there are things in Toodledo I just don't understand and are driving me away: I added columns to lists but then they become completely unreadable because I can't edit the column widths. That's about the only thing I find wrong with it.

Todoist seems too pretty, although I like the interface. It feels too much like fun and doesn't (like Toodledo) force me into decisions about what I'm going to do. For instance, the context field. I found that I had to distinguish between tag and context, tag becoming the subject related to the task but context being more or less the location in which I had to do it. Not the same and made me think of the resources I need and thus got me thinking about the task in a way which helped me to feel that I could do it, rather than being overwhelmed.

I wish Toodledo was prettier though and that (despite everything) you could manually order items by pulling them up and down. It's a difficult choice and I am reassured that people prefer Toodledo. It seems much closer to GTD and its GTD in the end which gets you to Get Things Done. Simple things like next action, as a concept. Simple next tasks. But I keep getting drawn into thinking beyond the next action and while it reassures me to be thinking cleverly in a planning way it takes away from the current task and somehow Toodledo helped me to focus on that.

The downside is that I do want to be planning projects (in my head). Todoist feels like a project planner, not a next action tool.

Thanks


This message was edited Jul 28, 2016.
marklewis56_2

Posted: Jul 28, 2016
Score: 0 Reference
I take it all back (or nearly all): I found out that you can change lists column widths:

https://www.toodledo.com/forums/2/20823/0/how-to-make-list-columns-wider.html

What a relief ! I think I'll be staying then ...


This message was edited Jul 28, 2016.
Jeremyrrsmith

Posted: Jul 30, 2016
Score: 0 Reference
Agree with the original post, i used todoist, but found i wasn't completing the tasks and found i was just pushing them on as the dates drive the tasks - while toodledo has an interface which is less shiney (lacking a great web clipper like todoist has) but toodledo tasks are actually clearly laid out really well in the current grid and they are customisable, and i am motivated to complete them (don't care about karma score).

.... I would love to see a sequential repeating task, Gym session 2 starts x days after session 1 is complete, three starts x dates after 2 is complete etc, with session 1 starting after session three has been completed. etc.... a routine for gym sessions.
Salgud

Posted: Aug 01, 2016
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Jeremyrrsmith:

.... I would love to see a sequential repeating task, Gym session 2 starts x days after session 1 is complete, three starts x dates after 2 is complete etc, with session 1 starting after session three has been completed. etc.... a routine for gym sessions.


Interesting. In almost 30 yrs using task managers (DOS days, when they were TSRs), never heard of anything like that.
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