Sort of a poll: What is your favorite task manager/to do app?

Posted by Lucas
Jan 11, 2019 at 04:01 PM

Hugh wrote:
One type of task manager that I think nobody has mentioned is the type
>that not only lists your tasks but also schedules them in the working
>day. When I used Windows, there were several available (the name “Above
>and Beyond” rings a bell), but I have seen none for the Mac. Do they
>still exist?

I confess that I have searched somewhat obsessively for such software over the last 10 years, and I have tried just about everything. There are indeed some options available, although I find all of them lacking. I will highlight a few options on various platforms:

Windows (old software): In addition to Above & Beyond, there was TimeTo and Watership Planner.

Mac (old software): SmartDay did this, but never became sufficiently polished and was abandoned.

Project Management software: Obviously overkill, but I have used full-blown project management software for this purpose. Any software that includes “resource leveling” can be configured to automatically schedule tasks according to priority, deadlines, availability, etc. I have used Microsoft Project. On the mac, OmniPlan and Merlin Project do the trick. On the web, LiquidPlanner also does this.

Recent software:
—Focuster has already been mentioned here. It’s relatively simnple, and it lacks prioritization, but it’s automatic scheduling works well.
—JXCirrus Planner tries to be a full-blown, extremely powerful automatic task scheduling solution (including being able to give tasks a numeric priority), and it works on Windows, Mac, and iPhone. I recommend looking at it, but there do tend to be major bugs, and it isn’t exactly elegant. If the bugs get worked out, it would be my first choice.
—SkedPal is much more polished and is also cross-platform (including mobile). It’s an excellent option, with a highly sophisticated approach to blocking time for different sorts of tasks. My only issues are the lack of numeric priority and the approach it takes to automatically scheduling short-duration tasks ahead of longer, higher-priority tasks, but for many people these aren’t problems.

DIY approaches:
—Another powerful solution I have found is Tinderbox, which I have configured to be a capable task manager, including with automatic priority-based scheduling, but I have stopped using it for that purpose because of the inability to sync tasks with my iPhone. I am sure InfoQube could also be used.
—Excel can be configured to do this, but there are severe limitations.

As far as which task manager I currently use: Last year I switched to index cards, which I loved, but eventually there were too many issues with transporting cards and losing cards, so I switched back to electronic. But I have grown to appreciate the card metaphor, and I’ve been trying various Kanban options. Currently, I’m using Zenkit, which is quite powerful but also a bit buggy. I’m still on the lookout for better automatic scheduling options that can sync with iPhone.