ScoringCriticals

There are a lot of things that I do when I’m at work, one of them is get all my assignments mixed up, delayed or simply forgotten. Not good cuz too many of those can get you in really big trouble. Most of the times tho,work remains at a manageable level and even when it starts piling up y try to stay ahead of the mess by using the trusty ToDo List.

Most people use fancy smartphones or project planning software or some complex corporate system. I mainly use the ToDo list for more immediate stuff and to keep track of every little detail on a daily basis. Here are a few reasons why I really enjoy using a ToDo list:

1. Easy to add entries.
2. Easy to modify entries.
3. Lets me keep track of the stuff I did during my day.
4. Is not confined to a specific project or even to work. I just cram all the stuff that needs to get done work and not-work related.
5. It really gives me the feeling that I am progressing through my activities.

Bonus

• I LOVE scratching off those activities!

So most people use pen and paper but not me. I’m a bit more of a geek so I use one in my computer. And I only one a ToDo list, not a calendar with tasks and I’m not too fond of online ToDo Lists. I really value my privacy. So I started looking around and found two apps that caught my attention:

1. TaskPaper
2. Things

TaskPaper

Free app (or at least it didn’t demand that I register it) Of the two I like this one best. It’s got the ease of use of a text editor but with a few extras. Adding entries is real easy. Just add a – followed by a space and you got your task. Or with the special shortcut you can add a task to any project no matter where on your computer you are. You can also classify each task or project with tags. You add a tag by inserting the @ symbol before any word within the task. It instantly becomes a tag, now you can search and group tasks or project by tags. How cool is that!

Easy Breezy

The thing that really made me change from Things to Taskpaper is the ease of use and that you can select only one project and print it out so you can take to your meetings and it won’t looks as messy as if you did it by hand. You can also search by tags and print the lists of entries that are grouped by that tag or tags. oh and also it has different themes! ooooh.

Check out their webpage here.

Things

Eye Candy

Things from Cultured Code, real shiny slick interface. Very powerful features like drag and drop emails and turning them to tasks, also uses tags, enables projects and has a more powerful method of prioritizing and grouping tasks like the inbox, scheduled, etc. It is searchable and also has universal shorctus so no matter where you are you can add an entry. Oh and perhaps the best feature of all is that is syncs with the iPhone. Wow! so complete, so refined, so … expensive. Yes it costs 50 bucks. So why did I choose a text editor over this? Well for one the money I’m not too keen on paying $50USD for a ToDo list. Another thing is that I couldn’t fully understand Thing’s way of grouping tasks: next, scheduled, inbox, ugh! too complicated. Next, I don’t use the default mail app nor do I have an iPhone. So I couldn’t care less for those features. So basically this is my list of Things big no no’s:

1. Memory Hog
2. Too complicated system of groping tasks
3. Couldn´t print out a single proyect
4. 50 bucks ugh!
5. Interface is too elaborate.

Now don´t get me wrong i think Things is far more capable than Taskpaper, it´s just that I didn´t really feel comfortable using Things. And in the end, the only thing that matters is that you get your work done.

Check it out here.

What tools do you use to keep your day organized? Tell us in the comments section!