GTD Task Management on the Cheap
After reading posts from the likes of Shawn Blancs on task management (“A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus”), I guiltily went back to my neglected Toodledo.com account.
In the past I had read David Allens “Getting Things Done
Feature |
Things |
OmniFocus |
ToodleDo |
MobileMe |
Midnight Inbox |
The Hit List |
Remember The Milk |
EasyTask |
| Desktop | $69.99 | $79.95 | TaskAngel for Windows $20 TaskSurfer for Mac $39 |
iCal (free) | $35 | $50 Beta | No | $20 |
| iPhone | $9.99 | $19.99 | ToodleDo $3.99 2Do Todo $4.99 |
No | Coming soon | Coming soon | Free / Pro provides Push Notifications | Free |
| iPad | $19.99 | $39.99 | ToodleDo $3.99 is a universal app. | No | $14.99 | No | No | Free |
| Web | n/a | n/a | Free / $14.95 per year | MobileMe | n/a | n/a | Free / $25 | Yes, www.easytaskmanager.net |
| Sync | Yes over LAN | Yes using MobileMe | Yes, using Toodledo.com | Clumsy, ToDo entered in Mail.app or iCal sync up to MobileMe, but those entered in MobileMe don’t seem to sync down. | No | No | Yes, using Rememberthemilk.com | Yes, using www.easytaskmanager.com |
| Alerts & Reminders | Not Sure | Push Alerts | Yes | No | Pro provides Push Notifications | Yes, through iCal | ||
| Calender / iCal | Yes | Yes | Read only | Yes | Read Only using Feed | Yes, syncs either projects or contexts to particular calendars | ||
| Folders / Sub Tasks | “Projects” / No | Folders > Projects > Actions > Indented Action | Yes | No | Yes | Projects > Sub Projects > Tasks | ||
| Contexts | “Areas” | Contexts | Yes | No | Yes | Contexts | ||
| Growl Support | None | None | Yes (TaskSurfer) | No | Don’t Know | No | ||
| Other Comments | Looks great, simple interface which doesn’t overwhelm. | Expensive, Sledge Hammer? | A little disjointed, but definitely cheapest option ($39 + $14.95 + $3.99) | Not a runner, but would love two way sync with iCal from a desktop app. | Mostly desktop app at the moment | Not bad looking, cheap, website is rather basic. |
In short:
- MobileMe, Remember The Milk, Others disappoint in some way
- Things is missing over the air sync
- OmniFocus is the man, but it costs an arm and a leg
So, in the end, I kept my Toodledo.com subscription and:
- used Fluid to create a Desktop App for it
- I tried a number of iPhone apps for Toodledo, but my favourite is Appigo ToDo