http://w4vb.com

One thing though, I found that you only really reviewed some of the more simple to-do managers, so I got inspired and wrote my own article. Reviews some of the same to-do lists, but also Wallnote, Toodledo, and Orchestrate.

http://www.gearfire.net/?p=64

Thought it would be helpful, coming from an avid to-do list user, who requires advanced features and flawless design.

Wishing you the best of luck, and a Merry Christmas!

Geoff Ruddock

Good reading! Makes my boring days at work work more pleasurable.. well.. I’m always bleating about something. Have a nice day!…

I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….

Oh well I’m sure one of them will come around. When they do, hopefully they’ll be bought by Google so I can use one account

Frank

Let me start by agreeing with those that claim that on-line lists cannot completely replace the paper ones.

However, paper lists would find it difficult compete with with the on-line when it comes to the Collaboration (i.e. sharing lists with others) and Longevity features.

http://listigator.com takes a more generic approach towards online lists (i.e. not just for managing to-dos).

You are all invited to give it a try.

Regards

Uri

For some types of users I think that a purely online to-do list can be a useful thing. Having said that, I genuinely don’t think that is where the future lies in this market.

It is certainly (in my humble opinion) not the best solution for people who have stressful and multijuggling office jobs and these are the people who need a powerful to-do list the most.

Let me give you my view of a what are the three of the most important features that you need from a to-do list when organizing your work:

1. It must be extremely quick to access…
This is the number one pit fall of 95% of all computer based to-do list software. Whether they are desk top products or online tools (as per the review above). This is the absolute main reason why paper based to-do lists stand head and shoulders above many fancy software products in this area.

2. It must be extremely quick to access…
If you read one of the best books on the market “Getting things done” by David Allen you will find that he continously stresses that unless you put ALL of your work in one consolidated place, you will not have faith in that your list is a complete reflection of what you need to do.

Now what does that mean. Well, it means that you have to have it so easily accessible that when you are on the phone or working on something else you can without even thinking (distracting you) throw in a new task in your list. In fact… you shouldn’t even have to OPEN your list in order to add a task.

3. Well I think you can guess what the third one is… ;o)

Now as you can see from my above argument, the “pure” online to-do list is not going to be the solution. Why? Simply because it has to run in your browser and that is not a good suitable for this type of tool.

Don’t beleive me? Ok, for you who use one of the online tools. Stop reading RIGHT NOW and create a task called “Call mum”. and then return to this text. I’m back, it took me 2-3 seconds including the typing. And rest assured… I’m not using a web based to-do list… ;o)

So where is the future for to-do list software?

Well, it is certainly web based because of the sharing capabilities. However, I think it will be a hybrid between a desktop application and a web based tool. More along the Web2 philosophy in other words.

I myself along with a friend have as a hobby been working on a to-do list software for about 2 years now. We are both software managers in our real jobs and after having tried numerous to-do lists, we simply gave up and decided that “Well, if it doesn’t exist, I guess we will have to roll up our sleeves and create one one!”.

Now if you were to spend a few minutes looking at this tool (Allontheball to-do list) and imagine such a tool with a “mirrored” web based counter part you will find the best of both worlds. This is our road map for Allontheball.

In other words, you will have extremely quick access. AND Web portability (shareability). We are also looking at the third piece of the puzzle and that is Outlook integration, which in extention means pda/cell phone portability.

As I mentioned, we have not reached our goal yet, but it certainly is our direction. If you would like to take a peek, go to:

http://www.allontheball.com/ and take it for a test drive.

If you are a good programmer and would like to join us (as a hobby), let me know. The sooner we can reach the vision I described above, the better. ;o)

Kind regards,

Chris