Geek Review: To Do Lists

Today I am starting a NEW THING! Every week, I will be reviewing a handful of geeky/techie products or services, with one theme in mind each time. Today’s theme is To Do Lists, of which I used to have about eleventy-hundred lying around, and now I have only about two or three at any given moment in time.

In case you are already thinking that this post will be boring and won’t apply to you, go ahead and scroll to the bottom and leave a comment saying so. Because I care if you don’t care. Really!

For the rest of you who want to stick around and read, I’ll be giving some helpful links, bits of information, and an explanation of the system I currently use to keep my to-do list in order.

Save me, internet! You’re my only hope!

Now if you are anything like me, you have gone and tried about five or six of each kind of thing that strikes your fancy. For instance, if you like to instant message until your hands fall off, you probably have an AIM account, a Yahoo ID, Google Talk installed, and MSN/Windows Live Messenger, to name a few.

Since we’re talking about To Do Lists today, here is a short list of some of the more popular web-based apps that I have tried myself:

Remember The Milk

I listed this one first because it’s the one I have used the most in the past. It has a LOT of functionality, it has an airy sort of aesthetic to it (if that matters to you), and it integrates very nicely with iGoogle, Google Calendar, and Gmail. One of the things I like most about RTM is that you can categorize your to-dos or not, you can move them to your ‘Inbox’ or not, and you can make due dates (as well as recurring items with due dates) or not.

The only real drawback of Remember The Milk, in my opinion, is that there is so much functionality that it becomes almost impossible to use it for JUST a simple list. However, this is consistently one of the best-reviewed apps that I have come across, and I do recommend it.

Ta-da List

This handy, simple, and excruciatingly easy-to-use list app is from the guys who developed Backpack and Campfire, over at 37Signals. They make very user-friendly, does-what-it-says types of applications.

The only drawback to this one is that it is ONLY a to-do list. You can’t put due dates on these. You can’t make them recur daily, or weekly, or randomly. You cannot tag them or categorize them. However, if you have a serious problem with papers strewing your desk on an ongoing basis and making it impossible for you to just keep a simple list like this at your fingertips, you might seriously want to give this one a try.

Todoist

This last one I only just discovered today, and it seems to have some very nice possibilities. You can add projects with lists (a feature I love), and everything can have a due date. On their ‘info page’, they say that your Todoist lists can be integrated in Gmail, your start page of choice (Netvibes or iGoogle), and your mobile phone, among others.

Todoist is also designed with a minimalist aesthetic, which seems to be the best way to design a to-do app. How can you get anything done if the list itself is distractingly designed or colored?

But what if I don’t want to use a web app?

Never fear, you do NOT have to be tied to the internet to accomplish your daily task list.

Even though I love each of these apps, and I have used them myself with varying degrees of satisfaction (meaning that I did actually get some things done while using them), I have found that the best way I track and accomplish my tasks is with a good old piece of paper and a pen.

I have a clear plastic clipboard that cost me about two dollars, a pad of stationery that cost me four dollars, and one of my favorite pens. Every day that I have work to do (which is nearly every day), I take a fresh sheet of paper – even if I did not get everything from the previous day’s list done – and write down my list for the day. Sometimes I decorate the page a little – today I put a little heart next to the day name. Sometimes I categorize things more concretely; usually I have two main lists: “Clients/Work” and “Personal/Fun”.

Also, this way I can make checkboxes if I want, or just put a line through each item as it is accomplished, or scribble it out. This is also a handy thing to do if you get frustrated and enjoy crumpling things up and throwing them away as a way of making a point to the universe that you are DONE ALREADY. Or if you like to set things on fire. (WHICH I AM NOT CONDONING HERE!)

Lastly, I keep a master list of the things I need to do that I can’t necessarily just put down on a daily list, like ‘grow my business’ or ’stop sitting with bad posture’. These things have to be broken down into smaller pieces, and from there I can put the smaller pieces on my daily list and, eventually, get the bigger things done too.

You can also use a Moleskine or a similar small, simple, lined or unlined pocket-sized book to keep your to-do list in. There are a lot of great Moleskine/GTD (Getting Things Done) hacks out there, and if you don’t know what that is, I just gave you a whole week’s worth of Googling to do.

EDITED TO ADD: My good friend, Matt, has written an excellent post on the Moleskine way of doing things, complete with pictures! Find it here: Organization Sunday: The Moleskine hack.

Now what?!

Now leave me comments! Tell me what you use to keep your list of stuff to do in order. Tell me how it climbs onto your head (your list, I mean), shouts in your ear, and generally makes life impossible for you. Tell me what saved your butt and helped you accomplish more things.

Or tell me you hate this new feature and wish it would go away and die. Either way, tell me something!

Peace out and geek on.