Time is our most valuable commodity. Productivity pays. Procrastination costs us time and money, and leaves us stressed, exhausted and unreliable in the eyes of others.
For many, the classic “To Do” list is the remedy. But for heavy web users, there are a number of recently launched to-do list products to choose from, with convenient sharing and other features, and easy to use interfaces.
We’ve taken a look at five of the best.
Web 2.0 To Do Lists
Note: we steered clear of some of the more complex personal homepage and calendar products like Zoho Planner and Backpack to try and compare only apples to apples.
We examined the usability and interesting features of these applications to find the most noteworthy procrastination remedy. All the products reviewed are free, and the normal set of features includes: sharing lists via email, emailing yourself a list and the ability to subscribe to your lists via RSS.
Bla Bla List is a simple to-do list product built on the RIFE, open-source Java web application framework. It’s fast, and offers the basic to-do list features and functionality. It tenders an easy-to-use interface, but loses points because of the annoyingly small pop-up window launched when you set up a new list.
Ta-da List by 37signals, the Chicago-based company, is built on Ruby on Rails and offers a wonderfully simple and clean to–do list product. Ta-da list uses lots of white space and larger fonts to make the list easy to read. 37signals subscribes to the rule of “less is more” and it shows.
Tudu List is unlike the rest of the to-do list products reviewed since it is not primarily a consumer-facing online solution. Instead Tudu list is an open-source solution which has been offered online by ESS Development AG. Tudu list is intended to be downloaded and installed on your own host and is the outlier of the group but we felt it was appropriate to review since there is a free version running online. Tudu list provides the ability to create multiple to-do lists with prioritized items on a deadline. Some interesting features are the backup and restore features which allow downloading XML files of a list as a back. Lists can then be restored online via uploading an XML file. In addition, Tudu lists can be shared with others.
Remember The Milk, an Australia-based company which was previously reviewed on TechCrunch, offers a smooth Ajax interface and rich user experience. It allows lots of metadata to be associated in the form of date information, repeat event and tags. Tasks can also be organized and prioritized by tab as well as sent to other Remember The Milk contacts. Tasks can be added via email, which could be a helpful feature especially if you have an email-enabled mobile device for on-the-go to-do updates.
Voo2do, created by software developer Shimon Rura, has a catchy name and a good (also Ajax) interface. However, it is a more complex project management task list than a simple to-do list. Voo2do tracks lists as tasks with assigned priority, due date and time estimates for each task. The interface is intimidating in comparison to Ta-da or Bla Bla list. Nevertheless, voo2do offers several interesting features including the ability to add a task via email, collaborate on password-protected shared to-do lists in addition to the ability to view your task history. Voo2do also has an API in progress which will allow developers to create custom applications.
Summary
The easy-to-use Ta-da list, with its clean and simple interface and good-enough feature set, is in our opinion the best choice if you are looking for an effective and easy to use solution. Online to-do applications are becoming competitive; products like Bla Bla list closely match the Ta-da list features, and voo2do and Remember The Milk offer more complex and powerful to-do list products. One feature that I think all of the competition should look into is mobile-accessible to-do lists because, unless you print your lists for on-the-go use, the traditional paper- written to-do list still could trump all of these products.
tasktoy (based on GTD by David Allen) has the a mobile version which is readable on smartphones. It also allows the addition of tasks by SMS.
Thanks for the comparison.
30boxes now has taggable GTD friendly to do lists that can be filtered in 2 dimensions.
Frank,
thanks for the summary. I’ve been using RTM since it puts out iCal and Atom feeds of my tasks, but one thing I wonder about is whether these products really have a future. I mean, tasks are a natural calendaring function, one recently added by 30Boxes and, I imagine, in the works at Google. While I like the idea of a virtual PIM, the extra friction involved in using distributed solutions (email here, calendar there, task list elsewhere) seems to offset the advantages so far, esp since some things like contacts, really want to be in a central store, not duplicated in different tools.
Definately add the 30boxes one to the list, although it just came out and isn’t 100% up to par, they are consistently making it work better. It also has some neat calendar integration.
“Note: we steered clear of some of the more complex personal homepage and calendar products like Zoho Planner and Backpack to try and compare only apples to apples.”
I missed that part.. I apologize.
None of these to-do lists offer a way to sync with my laptop’s copy of Outlook. That alone is what’s keeping me from using a web2.0 to-do list!
Note that Outlook itself is indispensable to me for two major reasons – 1) the integration of email/calendar/contacts/to-do lists and 2) the easy ability to sync with my phone/PDA
I live out of Outlook, both on my phone and on my PDA, and can’t always have a web connection. So, without sync, an online list is out of the question. Which is a shame.
I enjoyed the comparison. I have become a member of Ta-da List.
Thanks Frank.
“less ia more”
i think you meant “less is more”
bah, to slow – delete these
not sure about blablalist but there are more google ads there than there is content!
Tadalist has a great interface.
And if you want to see how people are using it, you can just search for ‘tadalist’ on Bloglines and read random tadalists from random people that Bloglines is indexing and making public:
http://www.blog...&q=tadalist
Read more about it:
http://www.whir...-privacy-issue/
You should definitly check out PlacesTodo.com a location based to-do list. It was developed as a class project at ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Programs) a graduate program @ NYU. The project will also be featured at the ITP Spring show (http://itp.nyu.edu/show/) this Tues and Weds if your in NYC swing by booth 763 and check it out.
http://www.plac...o.com/about.php
I use Voo2do long time ago and it rules.. I can manage varios projects/views at the same time and planning everything.
Good point on the mobile list tie-in. I agree with Bryan’s comment above re Outlook tasks syncronization. For example, my wife has asked me to do something. It would be very easy for her to add it to my Ta-Da list, for example, and have it come down to my Outlook tasks for printing etc.
You’re right, Mike. As much as I love using todo lists to prioritize myself I find all these products useless because I can’t manage them from my mobile phone.
I don’t see why you think Zoho Planner and Backpack are more complicated than these other products? More limitations maybe. Personally, I demoed a number of these applications you’ve reviewed along with Zoho and Backpack. I ended up using Zoho because of the lack of limitations.
if you want to manage to-dos from your mobile phone then you should check out placestodo.com. it allows you to post and receive todos from your mobile phone. it’s still in beta but would appreciate any feed back.
placestodo seems fine, but… works only in the USA ?
Thank goodness voo2doo is “more complex.” If a simple to-do list were enough, I wouldn’t be scribbling on post-its, envelopes and napkins (yes, napkins) all day long.
Its logic corresponds to the (dis)order in my brain. Items fall into several levels — tasks form part of projects which form part of contexts — and each is prioritized. It reminds me of gmail in that items go away until I really need to look at them. I also recommend Remember the Milk, if only for the SMS reminders.
Any idea why these companies are not tackling hierarchical lists?? Something like what treepad.com offers, but usable over the web…
Ta-Da looks nice, but for a quick-and-dirty todo list, nothing beats Bla-Bla. The window may be a little small (and a little too orange), but you can re-order or edit any item with a *single* click — no extra buttons, no two-step clicks, no modal dialogs, just one click. Perfect.
None of the other products you mention can match that ease of use.
I used Ta-Da for a while then switched over to free basecamp, which lets me have separate todo lists. Much more useful since some lists are much faster than others.
Good lord, Blabla Lists don’t go too over the top with adverts do they?
Good looking list. Students should look at http://www.mynoteit.com to organize your upcoming assignments (a more specific to-do list) :p
Listpool.com is one that is pretty cool, too. It has most of the features these others have with a very clean UI. My wife and I share our grocery list with this site.
My wife and use listpool.com. We use it to share our to-do and grocery lists at work. It has a clean interface and is easy to use.
AJAX? RSS? XML? Ruby on Rails?Ridiculous. What’s wrong with a simple .txt file or a notebook? IMO this is bloated BS for a simple task.
Seriously, Web 2.0 to-do lists with AJAX? Give me a break.
voo2do.com has a nice clean user interface and a more complex project management and collaboration functionality. Definately is worth a look.
We use http://www.centraldesktop.com for group To Dos, project management and much more.
They also have a neat personal workspace area where you can manage todos, and store files as well as copies of saved web pages. I use this as my personal storage area.
I thought I’d throw in with my own open source, web-based to-do list manager: Gravity GTD. It doesn’t yet have all the features of some of these guys, but a lot of people have found it useful. http://www.gravity-gtd.ca
A timely posting as I’ve just replaced my online ToDo list from TaDa to Remember The Milk. As I’m trying to live my life online I needed to share information between one app/site and another – TaDa just didn’t cut the mustard for me.
I think, though, that I agree with Rick Gregory that ToDo lists may have a limited lifespan as calendars (Google etc etc) incorporate them and it’s all in one place. My biggest issue so far is the duplication and total non-sharing of contact info (it’s in Gmail and it ain’t going anywhere else!)
However, with the glue (iCal and RSS/Atom) I do believe that we can have distributed apps with a little effort.
I just tried remember the milk. It was a bit annoying not knowing where the edit button was. I would have liked to click right into it to be able to edit instead of looking all around for that pencil. I had to go to the faq to find out about it. I would also like to have it like the outlook task list which “sunbird” is sorely missing to where you can just enter a task and hit return. Then you can come back later to set the reminders.
I like the AIM reminder feature best and the ability to set it up almost with natural language commands.
I like tadalist the best but they dont have any reminder features and backpack has reminders but only through email.
Howdy, one more to add:
http://www.listography.com
It’s more for fun, but it’s very flexible.
-sasha
Netvibes todo list is the best, its very clean.
My biggest prob with to-do lists is that I need them to constantly stare at me on my desktop otherwise they list items never get done. Yahoo widgets has a nice calander/to-do list widget that sits on my desktop (staring at me in the face). It integrates with my calander on their web site, but I never actually go to the web site to add anything. Easy to use, nothing complicated about it.
I’m the creator/operator of Voo2do, and I’m honored to have been techcrunched. If anyone has any questions or suggestions for me, feel free to contact me at shimon@voo2do.com.
And if you’re looking for a to-do list app that’s simple but not primitive, try voo2do!
I was using Remember the Milk for awhile… it seemed too limited and clunky for me.
I’m trying voo2do and it looks like it might be more useful.
To Patrick, looking for TreePad-like functionality: try OPML Manager.
I use TiddlyWiki for task managment. It’s a powerful javascript wiki that runs self-contained in any browser. You don’t have to be online to use it. There are some Getting Things Done versions (including mine) described here.
I use Tracks on my own personal server, it can be found here:
http://www.rous...rg.uk/projects/
It’s free (as in beer and as in freedom), easy to set up, and easy to use. It’s actively being developed (soon to be by me as well) so only more good things are to come.
I’ll have to take a look at these though, I didn’t know such beasts existed.
My personal favorite online to do list is http://www.netvibes.com. And I don’t mean their “to do list” module. I mean their “webnote” module.
Just add several webnotes to your netvibes page and you have the single best, most powerful, and flexible to do list manager!
Check out http://listring.com
This open-source product lets you create custom lists, including todos, contacts, bookmarks, and make them available as RSS. The UI is very simple and user friendly.
Also see http://www.jotdot.com
JotDot is more than just todo lists, but provides a social collaboration experience, allowing you to easily shares public “jots”, as well as setup tightly-knit communities around topics that you and your friends find interesting.
What’s with all this also checkout my xyz.com solution? Come on guys, lets not turn this into spam alley …
Am I to understand that since tada list uses lots of white space and big fonts they win? Is that what makes a great web 2.0 application these days?
Does tada list have keyboard short cuts? Drag and drop for reordering? Date recognition like “due next friday”? Shareable lists? How do these features compare with the other applications? I don’t understand how you came to your conclusion based on the little information you provided in the review.
I second the votes for TiddlyWiki. Fast, portable, functional, lets you enter and process your todo info and otherwise stays out of your way.
And, it still works when you’re offline, or using a USB stick in a web cafe in Cambodia. Sweeet.
I use mytodos.com. It’s a free version of tudu lists above.
I’ve been a big fan of remember the milk for a few months now. It’s feature-set and ease-of-use are huge advantages over the other services. My brief review of the service is at http://lifev20.blogspot.com/
thanks for the breakdown! I just tried tadalist the other day for my shopping lists and they were decently viewable in my windows mobile powered phone and I was able to view and check them off while shopping. I totally agree about the mobileness.
Wait a month. I’m developing something similar that will knock your pants off. If you’d like to say informed, drop me a line at: info [at] oscaralexander.com