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I am a heavy GTD user and there are attributes in Toodledo I don't find in RTM. Context and Goal as you say, but also Folder, since both systems have tags. I use Folder for task size, ranging from Next Action through Project and higher. I use Context for review schedule, ranging from Weekly through Yearly. My GTD workflow is a series of 9 custom searches to go through and the periodic review is clicking on the appropriate Context. I also use Goal and Location. I get that tags could be used for what I'm doing with Folder and Context, but it shifts some discipline onto the user that is critical, especially when collaborating with people not as power user as myself.

I also appreciate how dense the display on Toodledo is. With > 2000 active tasks I am often scrolling through long lists to perform a review, when I need to get a big picture and drag tasks to subtasks, and many systems take up so much space that you could only see a handful on the screen at a time.

I just tested the beta channel in RTM and importing the TD export failed, I contacted their support to see if they can assist else I will try the email import proposed above. Will provide feedback if I get it to work! I am hoping to set up a backup plan for a year with RTM or something else since I have a TD subscription until end of 2019. I will see where TD is in the next few months and where it is going.

For my Android Sync issues I have been testing Ultimate-Todo list which interfaces well with TD. Sync is reliable and has many, many features and is also in active development. Other users have suggested this. The TD mobile website is too unreliable and still not a finished product in my opinion and neither are the IPhone or Android native Apps (I used both extensivley). PRoviding the API was a good move by TD to allow 3rd party development and it is nice to see some powerful Android apps which leverage this.

Given the power of Ultimate_todo list, TD may not need their own app, although this does provide some safety for the users of course.

Posted by DrFrankBuck:
Hi DrFrank, I tried the import from current.csv but I got an error-message: "sorry this file doesn't contain valid task data"... Did you manage to import it into RTM? I switched to beta and have a free account at the moment.

Thanks. For now I think I will stick with GoodTask and Outlook, it does everything that I need (well, subtasks suck somewhat, but I didn’t use them much anyway), it’s already been paid for once and for all, I can sync my work tasks directly with it via exchange without installing any 3rd party sync software and keep our IT happy, and it has a couple nice tricks up its sleeve to speed up task entry and editing. And it works directly with / on top of Reminders, which opens up some additional functionality.

But RTM is now the clear fallback solution if, for whatever reason, I am no longer satisfied with that combo (or, the hell freezes over and I go back to Android).

Seeing that RTM now has all that functionality (that it lacked when I first looked at it years ago), and Todoist has all kinds of bells and whistles for anyone who doesn’t use Start dates, and both are significantly cheaper than Toodledo now... I think the new owners are committing service suicide. I really hope they prove me wrong.


Posted by DrFrankBuck:

I work with two types of views - Master view (all tasks, sorted by due date or Priority- Due) and Focus view - tasks that are started, due, or Top priority (starred if there’s that option).

It’s that Focus view that is hard to get with many other services. I want tasks hidden until their start date, then automatically show up in Focus view without any extra work on my part. That way I can have dozens or even hundreds of tasks, hidden out of sight, while knowing that they will show up in my Focus view when needed. Using the Due date for this is possible, but how do I then track the actual deadlines ?

I also want a way to manually place tasks in Focus without changing their due dates.

Well, RTM clearly supports all of it. What’s more, it has a pretty full featured free option. So full featured, in fact, that it’s probably more than enough for most people. And their Outlook sync works great, as a part of Pro option. To me, it’s a no-brainer. Even at $40 per year, it’s still a far better value - with an excellent mobile client, Outlook sync, Watch app, and still cheaper than Toodledo. Honestly, if a year ago I checked RTM out, I’d likely switched back then. It would still be only $10 more than the old Toodledo Gold. My only dilemma now is, do I switch over or keep using Outlook & GoodTask, that combo works well for me and is essentially free. I’m afraid that at this price point, given all of its limitations, and compared to alternatives, Toodledo just doesn’t make sense to me anymore.

Posted by DrFrankBuck:

I looked at RTM, the multiple sort columns are likely a “pro” feature, as is unfortunately the Watch app - hard for me to evaluate the service without it.

It certainly supports the Start date, advanced filtering, website access, and has an Outlook sync program available as part of the Pro subscription, which is very interesting.

About the only missing functionality I can find (that I use) is the ability to set an item alarm independent of due date - i.e. I can set it to xx days before but not to a specific day/time. It’s no biggie, though.

Their Pro service is $40 per year, and their Free service is surprisingly well featured. Not sure if I want to switch yet again, the combination of Outlook and Good Task is working very well for me, but RTM is definitely a good alternative,


Posted by Robert_HOME:

It’s hard to say what is the best for everyone. But after a short seeking an alternative I’ve a few notes.

Google Tasks, Google Keep, Wunderlist
- A great deal for shopping list but not an adequate and full-feature alternative.

Todoist
- I like their design and motivating karma. It’s a frequent alternative with subtasks, filters (=saved searches), etc.
- But a lack of a start date, an advanced sorting feature, esp. sorting based on multiple criteria, and a lack of custom sorting options for filtered views is a complication for me.

Outlook
- A great tool on desktop that is integrated in eco-system of MS. I’ve an account from our university (corporate account) and I’d like to use it.
- But I miss subtasks and I can’t use it on my phone with Android. The official app Outlook from MS doesn’t have tasks. There are 3 other apps for Android:
-- To-Do from MS but it’s a simple app without advanced features, it synchronizes only some fields, subtasks are in To-Do not in Outlook and it has a problem with due dates when syncs with Outlook.
-- Tasks & Notes for MS Exchange but it doesn’t have implemented a support for corporate Exchange accounts which I have (http://www.uniqtec.eu/applications/notes-with-activesync.html).
-- Nine from 9folders but it syncs subtasks into note fields in Outlook and I can’d find saved searches or something similar.
- And there are other things like an impossibility to create a list of tasks on web (outlook.office365.com).
- If you use Apple, you can be happy with GoodTask (http://goodtaskapp.com/). I haven’t tested it.

TickTick
- This service is a really close to an adequate alternative – a modern design, a field with start date, smart lists (=saved searches), subtasks, etc.
- The problem is that I can’t see an advanced sorting feature based on multiple criteria combinations. Am I right?

RTM
- All in all, I consider RTM to be the best choice for my requirements, e.g. subtasks, advanced sorting, saved searches, start date, tags (also as replacement of folders), etc.

If I made a mistake in my search and notes, I apologize in advance.

For me.... no alternative at the moment.

Toodledo has specific configuration support for the MYN system, e.g. Start Date, and supporting documents and training material over at MYN site. ToDoist does not support that at all, so doesn't work for me.


Posted by Ummagumma:

Posted by MM1772:


If you want to keep a record of every task, just use IFTTT. At least, it works with Apple Reminders, perhaps with Toodledo as well. You can use it to automatically create a new page for every new task, or a new page for every completed task, with subject, notes, due date and completion date.

I however don't really care to save every completed task. I track projects, tasks are just temporary tools used in executing them. If I need to save the completion date, I'd write it down in the project page. Otherwise, good riddance.

I am not quite sure I understand what it is you're trying to do, as what I am thinking of is very easy.

Every list created in Reminders syncs as a folder in Outlook, and vs versa.

If I want to group items from all Personal folders, but filter out Work folders, I can do it very easily in Outlook using custom views, and in GoodTask on iOS using "Smart Lists" (saved filters, i.e. also custom views). Same with 2Do.

I have two types of custom views - Master and Focus. Master shows all tasks, and Focus shows tasks between start and due dates, overdue, or manually placed there (I use Top priority for this, but could use a special tag). Master All, Master Work, Master Personal, Focus All, Focus Work, Focus Personal. I have same views set up in Outlook and in GoodTask so I am using the same workflow on both platforms. If I am working with a large project, I may sometimes create a saved view pulling together all tasks for this project.




Agreed. I have long ago switched to plaintext tags. I put them at the end of task subject, but could also put them in notes section. That way, I can carry these tags across all of my devices and records and apps, and use custom filtering to create views based on them.

E.g.

Project finances presentation llFU - the tag llFU means "Follow Up", i.e. someone owes me information for this.

The beauty of this approach is that I can use it across all of my documents and apps - Onenote, email, spreadsheets - and use Windows indexing or Spotlight search to quickly find all related records with same tag. And adding tags can be automated on iOS via custom keyboard shortcuts, or on Windows via some freeware utilities. E.g. instead of typing llProj all I have to type is llp. (ll is purely arbitrary, any combination of letters would work as long as it's unique enough to avoid false search results).



Yes there is folder selection in the new task creation dialog, at least in my version of the Outlook (2016). Go to File - Move to folder. Although it's easier to just click on the right folder when creating a task. At any rate, I prefer to keep the number of folders / lists to the minimum, and use tags instead - easier to clean up after the project is done.



Well, actually filtering out all kinds of tasks is precisely what Outlook is great for. Just need to learn to use it.

E.g.to show only the tasks due today, incomplete:


View -> View settings -> Filter -> Advanced -> Field selector -> Frequently used task fields -> Due date on -> manually type "Today" (without parentheses)


Click "Add to list"

Then again,

View -> View settings -> Filter -> Advanced -> Field selector -> Frequently used task fields -> Complete equals "No".

Click "Add to list"

Save view as "Due Today".

Personally, I prefer a slightly different approach. My Focus views show in progress tasks (due date on or before today, start date on or before today), and tasks with Top priority (I use it just like Star in Toodledo). I then use Conditional formatting in Outlook to assign different colors and fonts to tasks due today, Overdue, or Starred (i.e. Top priority). So when I switch to the Master view showing all tasks, I can still very easily see my overdue tasks (red), started tasks (green), due tasks (blue) or Top tasks (blue and underlined). The rest are all plain black.

I also use filters and conditional formatting to hide tasks (just like Negative priority in Toodledo). I use a tag llHide for this. They are hidden from all views except MasterAll, in which they show up as light grey and italic.

All of this takes half an hour to set up, if you know what you're doing. And it can all be replicated in GoodTask on iOS.


If you get into custom filtering in Outlook, I very much recommend to enable SQL in filters (there's a registry hack for it, easy to find on the internet). This way you can use Boolean operators to set up AND / OR conditions for filters.





This is why I use Focus views. If I have a task that is due in mid-November and would take me a week to complete, I assign a start date of Nov 1st to it, and it is hidden from my Focus view - along with several dozen other tasks - and will pop up in it when its time comes. My total task count right now is over 300. My Focus view count is 4.
-


What is it you're trying to achieve ? In my experience, custom views (especially after enabling SQL) are very powerful and not all that hard to set up.



OneNote is an excellent project managing tool. I use it to take notes AND develop tasks, and then export them to Outlook with a single click. Moreover, it helps me to keep high level tasks (more of brainstorming ideas) outside of my task list, and only export individual actionable items to my master list, keeping the size manageable. A lot of people just dump all tasks into their task list and then find it overwhelming.

Posted by DrFrankBuck:


Yes, since it sync to iOS via Reminders, you can use Siri.

No offense, but how well do you know Outlook ? Its task module, with some tweaking (plaintext tags, custom views and conditional formatting), is very powerful. Especially if you combine it with OneNote.

The difficult part is finding a mobile task app that syncs with it while maintaining the fields that you use the most.

I started my research for alternative services and I found that having below features is not as popular as I thought - only some of them are ususally available but not all of them at once as in Toodledo:

Start Dates
Export of data
Viewing tasks in a grid mode (not talking about ability to adjust order of columns to user's needs)
Marking individual tasks with Star
Negative priority (to hide tasks) or similar option
Dividers
Quick filters and sorting options for individual views

I would like to chime in yet again. I have explored many options. Paper planner, Wunderlist, Anydo, Google tasks and many others.

For the foreseeable future I am sticking with Toodledo. Google calendar will remain my date planner.

May Toodledo live long and prosper and frankly the price is worth it to me but as I reflect on things this is what I would like to see added--sorry for being repetitive

1) First I would like to have a calendar integrated into things. Tasks and daily schedule should be able to be seen in the same view; and even integrated. It's like vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce--independently they are good. Together they are DYN-O-MITE as JJ would have said.

2) Color is very important for visual thinkers. Color can be use to segregate tasks into context/folders/ etc...in a rapid and visual way. Alternatively one could use color to indicate when in the day that task is assigned and especially if integrated into a calendar define a time when that task is to be started and completed.

3) A blank page for notes to record what happened on each day. Important calls. Personal thoughts and diaries. Tracking those things that slowed us down or sped us up. And then the ability to recall those issues.

4) There are several categories allowed--Context, Folders, Goals, Location. We can define the members of the group--could we also define the title of the groups? For instance I use Context for when in the day I am hoping to get things done.

5) Manual sorting of tasks via drag and group would be good. You can do that in a subtasks but honestly, I have yet to figure out well how to make the subtasks behave. Does that need work?

6) A note boards that is more drag and drop--like a colorful bulletin board. Fun. Visually attractive.

7) There are my starting points and where I will finish. I still think the system (being the web utility for me) is clumsy and stale--but it is powerful. Now is needs refinement to match the ease of management and visual appeal of competitors.

Aaron, you there? I will e-mail.

Marc

What a bunch of babies. Seriously $90 a year? You're complaining about that? What did you spend on starbucks, sodas, beer, wine last year? How about other BS you don't really need? Go look at your bank or CC statement. I'm pretty sure you can come up with a few more bucks to pay for this service.

Having been a dedicated IQTELL user for many years, I could tell you if this place were shutting down, you would be begging to pay more money to keep it open. If you wanna leave, do so.

For reference here is a list of features on all the alternatives.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JCAzQ5f9ETGDhGZSUtecnq5at7AJw3BxSzP5E3h4lgo/edit#gid=0

I made this some time ago when IQTELL was shutting down the first time. 100's of people help me put this list together. Toodledo is one of the, if not BEST task managers out there. So yeah, you're gonna have to start paying for it.