ToDo: Test out Web Based ToDo Lists

I've always been a big "list guy". That changed a bit after reading GTD but in general, I still utilize lists to some extent.

A while back, I started using Remember the Milk as one of the key tools to help me keep track of "To Do's" or other general things I needed to accomplish that were not necessarily time specific (i.e., they needed to stay on my radar). Remember the Milk (RTM) is pretty powerful, allowing multiple lists to be created and viewed from separate tabs - ideal for separating the lists for each part of your life.

Tasks can also be prioritized, as well as tagged to create "smart lists". So, for example, if you had two items that need completing but are currently dependent on others, you could tag them with "waiting" and subsequently create a "Smart List" with that tag (where you could view all items tagged with waiting). Other things that RTM does well is preserve list/task completion history (from deletion or archiving), allows other RTM members to assign you tasks, and supposedly supports iCal (although I haven't been able to get a list to sync with 30Boxes or Google Calendar).

I recently came across Brian Benzinger's 25 To Do Lists to Stay Productive and tried out a couple of other services that are worth noting including his top picks of Orchestrate, Wallnote, and Rough Underbelly. I really like the concepts behind Wallnote and Rough Underbelly. In Wallnote, you can add your list to your Active Desktop in Windows XP meaning that you can make updates to it from your desktop, as if you were in the browser itself.

Rough Underbelly is based on based on The Printable CEO and allows you to score your tasks, to provide a better guide and gauge for productivity: "a good CEO should focus primarily on those things that move the company forward." Don't be thrown off by the CEO title - the principles and ideas apply regardless of position.

Concluding Thoughts
After taking a look at Brian's great review in the web based ToDo space, you might feel overwhelmed with options. Options aren't a bad thing. I'd encourage you to think through how these tools might fit into your current approach to managing your work and perhaps even list out the criteria you'd need to see in order to use one of them. Here are some things that are important to me (from a workflow, as well as functionality perspective):

- The ability to have a simple list but the option for additional functionality (like RTM)

- The ability to have multiple lists

- The ability to easily re-arrange items on my list (yes, I want AJAX drag-and-drop)

- The ability to delete items from my list without considering them completed

- The ability to view my list outside a standard web browser view (think Wallnote or some sort of Firefox plugin)

Feel free to share which of these tools (if any) work for you.

Comments

[Geoffrey Grosenbach]

Thanks for the review! I just moved RoughUnderbelly to a new server and hope to add more features soon.