GTD App Review - TODO for Mac
TODO for Mac is a great little app, that has impressive number of features whilst still managing to be easy to use. It meets all criteria I set out. It’s fairly easy on the eye and didn’t require me to think how to use it. It’s also a native Mac app (ie no Adobe Air or Titanium) and so fits in with the look and feel of your other Mac apps.
Adding new tasks is a snap with the quick entry box, which can be called up when you’re in any app with a hotkey. Organising tasks, is a simple drag and drop affair. Plus the calendar offers a nice way to drag and drop tasks to be scheduled.
How it Scored
This is how it scored against the criteria for a great GTD app .
| Criteria | Result |
|---|---|
| Quick add | Yes, into an inbox |
| Projects/Sub-tasks | Lists and sub tasks. |
| Contexts/tags | Yes, both. |
| Order tasks | Yes. But order is not synced with Toodledo |
| Notes | Yes |
| Highlight/star | Yes |
| Search | Yes |
| Deadline | Yes |
| Reminder | Yes |
| Recurring tasks | Yes |
| Sync with Google Calendar | Yes. via Toodledo |
| User Experience | 3.5/5 |
Downsides
The only place it fell down was the user experience. With having to double-click to open the edit details, the list jumping about because it’s expanded and textboxes that jumped out and close button being at the other side of the screen. All this made the editing of task a bit of a jarring experience. The overall feel of the app is very functional and lacks colour or contrast.
Puzzling
Items added by quick task entry don’t appear at the top (or bottom) of the inbox list. They seemed to appear randomly in the list, which is a pain when looking for an item just added.
Useful Extras
- Growl notifications
- Global hot key to bring up new task box
- Badge for dock icon overdue items
- You can specify a type of task. Like email xyz@tom.com. You then get an email icon next too the task. Click on it open up an email to that person. Neat. Others are visit a location, sms somebody, call somebody, visit a url.
- There’s a calendar in the bottom right that you can drag tasks onto, to set a deadline
- Enhanced for OSX Lion
- Grouping items by ‘overdue’, ‘Next 7 days’, ‘No Due date’, ‘Completed’
- I like how it shows the number of tasks vs those that are overdue in a split task number box. It’s a nice design touch that gets the message across really well.
How it Looks
Platforms
Mac app (obviously). The Mac app can sync with Toodledo, Dropbox or its own TODO online service. The TODO online service has a web UI too. There are also iPhone and iPad apps.
Support
They have a support site that you can contact them by. It’s all closed, so there’s no open discussion on problems or new features.
Price
£20 for the app, in the App Store.
