Way back before PDAs and smartphones I lived by my DayTimer. A real, authentic DayTimer was impressive, with its leather cover and the boxes of monthly refills that would inhabit the bottom file drawer. But I no longer have the pockets for a DayTimer and since it was just paper it never did email/text reminders and it was difficult to share schedules lists. (But all that was back in Disco era)
More recently I have used the iPhone/iPad Reminders app it was easy to use to keep a list of tasks to do. Very easy to enter, just as easy to read and check them off. It was a big improvement on the sticky notes that covered the wall above my monitor. Still because of the desire for cross device sharing to our Android phones and tablet I was looking for more. Then I found Astrid! And I think it is a task list manager with about all the features I wanted and may need. And it is free.
Astrid is a todo list / task tracking system for iPhones, iPads, Android and it even has a web interface for PCs. So no matter what device is within first reach, I have my task list and schedule handy to see what’s next or add a new task. Even at someone elses office. They describe it as;
“Astrid is built with your productivity in mind. Astrid’s goal is not to be the most feature-complete task organizer, but to be the most simple solution that helps you stay productive.”
Some of features I am really appreciating (and needing after a recent bout with a type of meningitis) :
- Organize tasks by project
- Sync tasks across almost all types devices. (I like being able to initially setup and organize a project and its major tasks/participants using my big display!)
- Share tasks with other Astrid users or via email
- Send reminders of tasks
- Nag settings
- Task timer ($3.99 upgrade required)
- Voice notifications (included in the above upgrade)
- It will even send location-based reminders with Locale.
Admittedly most todo managers will cover about all the points I listed (to some degree), but I like the simplicity of entry/management with Astrid and the fact that it works seamlessly across the iPad AND Droids AND Win7 PCs. Lifehacker.com readers even voted Astrid the number 1 “Best todo list manager” with over 39% of the vote. If you could use a good todo list manager give it a try, I was surprised by the ease of use and the rich feature set. If you don’t like it, the Lifehacker article above has links to four other solid options.
Finally, just for reference below is a good video review of Astrid and the most used features