ForumsThird-Party ApplicationsComparison of iPhone / iPad ToodleDo Apps


Comparison of iPhone / iPad ToodleDo Apps
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David

Posted: Jun 02, 2010
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I originally wanted to use Things for my Todo tasks (I strongly believe I can get more tasks done with more elegant and simplistic UIs) but I don't have a Mac nor do they offer syncing so I settled with Toodledo. I've tried most of the todo iPhone apps listed above and eventually settled with Appigo's ToDo. It's pretty straightforward, syncs perfectly through Toodledo and still being updated. I've using a combination of the Things interface along with GTD and here's what it looks like:

http://img714.imageshack.us/f/mobilephotojun220106194.jpg/

Focus is the Next action for all tasks with either a high priority and/or due within the next 7 days.

Starred is for any tasks I want to do today

Inbox of course is for unloading all my information to sort out and I'll keep and do any tasks that takes up to 2 minutes there

Later is basically a combination of scheduled in Things and the Waiting action list. Anything that's due by more than 7 days later or is can't be done yet for whatever reason. When the due date for a task approaches within the 7 days it automatically appears into my Focus list

Projects is for any Todo's that need to be broken down into steps. It's basically the same thing as checklists in regular Todo lists

And finally Someday(Maybe) is for anything I want to eventually do or might want to do in the future

GTD also talks about making a Reference list to keep things that can't actually but worked on but kept in your mind for some reason and I just e-mail those Todo's in my inbox into Evernote. I originally had a reference Todo list but transferring them over to Evernote made more sense since they weren't really Todos.

I don't really deal with Tags, Lengths or the Priorities features Toodledo offers because I want to keep things fast and simple. I tried using all their features before and I realized that I was spending way too much time playing around with my todo's rather than actually getting things done. But it's nice how Toodledo offers those features though to give people options.


This message was edited Jun 02, 2010.
PeterW 

Posted: Jun 02, 2010
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Thanks for your post David. I'm also using Appigo Todo with Toodledo.

I have a 'Next' folder and don't use the Focus list, but I'm intrigued by your use of the 'Focus' list for Next. I think I will spend some time thinging about this as a possible enhancement for my own system.

I do have a 'Reference' folder but I've hidden it on Todo and only ever use it while on Toodledo.
David

Posted: Jun 02, 2010
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I actually used a Next folder too but I wanted to make use of the focus/ hotlist after reading Toodledo's gtd chart

http://www.toodledo.com/info/gtd.php

it works great because you can see the things with a due date or high priority first on the later list and then it scrolls down to the things that need to have an action later.

The Evernote integration is still a work in progress and I'm actually thinking about redownloading Appigo's "Notebook" which integrates with ToDo and Toodledo's notebook. I might actually follow your idea and create a hidden reference list that will transfer into the Notebook app :)


This message was edited Jun 02, 2010.
David

Posted: Jun 17, 2010
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I'm back to using Toodledo now after narrowing it down between Taska, ToDo and Action lists. Taska is still extremely buggy with Toodledo syncing even after the new update so I gave up on that. Action Lists is a great straightforward GTD app but I need an option to view all tasks in the Next Action list. It also seems to have this serious bug that disables toodledo syncing on occasion and needs to be reinstalled to work again. I moved away from Todo because I'm getting tired of the manual syncing (it's not pain but it doesn't beat toodledo's instant syncing) and I like how the other task managers show the context along with how many tasks are in them.

For the Toodledo app I'm actually using folders for statuses just like in Todo to keep things minimalistic and uncluttered.

http://img341.imageshack.us/f/mobilephotojun172010808.jpg/

I can view all tasks through any folder and no folder tasks function as my inbox. The only things I'm really missing from Appigo's Todo right now is the nice Calendar view for due dates and the bulk edit feature. The iPad UI could also needs more work but other than that I'm pretty happy with Toodledo's 2.0 app :)
PeterW 

Posted: Jun 17, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
Thanks for the update. My Appigo Todo setup is basically identical to what you've done in Toodledo. Although I like how Todo puts the Focus list on the home page along with "All Tasks" so I kind of get the best of both worlds.

I used to have Todo set to autosync on startup but I found that a bit annoying - I usually fire it up because I want to quickly add an item while on the run. Having the sync start up automatically prevented me from doing this so now I do it manually, but don't find this a problem at all. Having a sync button on the dock helps.

The other thing I really like about Todo is projects - I find the single tap to access sub-tasks so much more intuitive.
David

Posted: Jun 17, 2010
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I agree, viewing subtasks in ToDo is much better! I still like the ToDo UI because it has it has a nicer, more legible font to it and would consider going back if they offered the super fast autosync Toodledo offers. I thought about turning off sync on startup but I'm constantly switching between my iPad and iphone to view and add tasks on the fly. I'm not sure if anything will get lost in the process if I'm going to sync anyways when I'm done but I'll test it out later, thanks!
David

Posted: Jun 22, 2010
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So I stumbled upon this new iPhone todo app today and it's call taskpaper. It basically has a pen and paper UI and it's incredibly easy to grasp and fun to use. It's also the main reasons why I choose the iPhone over other smartphones and I never really did get used to toodledo's web interface or their iPhone app. Taskpaper probably isn't for the advanced todo list or GTD user though because it doesn't offer due dates or repeating tasks. The closest comparison to this app would probably be Google apps with contexts. I probably won't ever going back to Toodledo as long as Taskpaper is around, but I'm still glad I gave it a chance :)
SRhyse

Posted: Jun 22, 2010
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Posted by David:
So I stumbled upon this new iPhone todo app today and it's call taskpaper. It basically has a pen and paper UI and it's incredibly easy to grasp and fun to use. It's also the main reasons why I choose the iPhone over other smartphones and I never really did get used to toodledo's web interface or their iPhone app. Taskpaper probably isn't for the advanced todo list or GTD user though because it doesn't offer due dates or repeating tasks. The closest comparison to this app would probably be Google apps with contexts. I probably won't ever going back to Toodledo as long as Taskpaper is around, but I'm still glad I gave it a chance :)

I really like the design of Taskpaper too, but kept finding that all the time I thought I saved when entering a task always ended up getting doubly lost in having to manually keep track of alot of things mentally. As you mentioned, like dates, repeating tasks, having to remember and even figure out how the more complex search queries work, etc. Having everything inline makes it a sort of information explosion for me as well, as I make heavy of use of notes. The infinite hierarchy is nice, but breaks down pretty quickly if you use it past a few levels.

The current iPhone app doesn't allow for alot of information to be displayed on screen at one time either, as the font size is a little big for my taste.

And unless you're on a Mac, there's currently no sync to anything besides an online text file until the fall when he plans to start integrating drop box.
David

Posted: Jun 22, 2010
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Yeah it can feel a bit overwhelming if you have a bunch of tasks since it's basically all displayed on a single page. This feels extremely cheap but right now I'm copying my tasks synced to Simpletext.ws onto a text document to edit with Todopaper on windows. As you've mentioned I can't wait until dropbox integration to come out since all my apps will be able to directly edit the tasks from there. This is as simple as it gets and it actually feels somewhat comforting that all my tasks are safely stored onto a text document for any worse case scenario haha.

Task is still one the toodledo syncing Todo app I really wanted to like and use but the syncing is still completely broken. It's basically a Things ripoff and their iPad app is a joy to use. Once it stops feeling like a better app I'll probably give it another shot :)


This message was edited Jun 22, 2010.
Linh

Posted: Jun 26, 2010
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I'm frustrated with the lack of a good GTD app that syncs with Toodledo.

So far, Toodledo app is what I use, but UI is unimpressive, and worse, workflow is not user friendly. But by far, and should be so, it syncs best with the Toodledo website.

Taska is nice looking, and workflow is slightly better, but gosh, it's full of bugs and I can't trust it whatsoever.

ToDo also has an unimpressive interface for the iPHone (and the iPad app looks cheesy), is just as powerful as the Toodledo app, but lacks a cohesive GTD structure (for example, Status doesn't sync with Toodledo).


Help, anyone? What's a good GTD program that syncs very well with Toodledo? THat's important to me b/c I use the web interface almost as much as the app. When marking a task as Someday and not have it sync with the website is frustrating.

Only if Toodledo would just invest in a designer to revamp the website interface, and improve the app interface + GTD workflow.
PeterW 

Posted: Jun 27, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
@Linh,

Here's one way you can make it work...

Instead of using Toodledo's status field, turn it off and use your folders to run your workflow.

My folders are:
- Next
- Project
- Waiting for
- Someday
- Reference

I use contexts and tags for the usual purposes. The only other thing worth mentioning is that my Projects folder contains parent tasks with sub-tasks and there are a few tips with setting that up that can help make it work smoothly, but aside from that, that's pretty much it.

The folder where your tasks reside is what indicates their status, so you only have to move tasks from one folder to another if the status changes. And this is immediately reflected on your iPhone app after syncing.

This setup is simply but I've found it deceptively powerful. And it means that you can can use Toodledo or Appigo Todo on your iPhone or any other app that syncs folders. Other apps won't support all Toodledo fields but you might find (as I have) that with a simple setup on Toodledo, that won't matter.
David

Posted: Jun 30, 2010
Score: 0 Reference
It looks like Taska finally fixed their syncing issues for the iPhone and iPad. If the developer continues to update this app in the long run then this could be a really great alternative to Things, which costs a premium to own the entire setup (and they will probably overcharge a subscription fee once their long overdue web sycning function comes out). I wouldn't recommend this app for anyone who wants a consistent experience with the toodledo website though because each tasks is defaulted to a negative priority and there's no waiting status that I'm aware of yet (I created a folder for this work around). I'm still enjoying the simplicity of taskpaper but I'll probably be using Taska too because their app is really elegant and intuitive to use.
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