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Disappointing "updates" - Asana & Todoist
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Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 23, 2015 at 09:21 AM
On Todoist, it’s also worth mentioning that comments can be very long and multi-paragraph. That **doesn’t** seem to affect response times.
Posted by Ken
Sep 23, 2015 at 04:22 PM
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the detailed information. I may have to give TickTick a look, if just for reference. I will probably stick with Todoist for personal use, as I mostly like their approach to entering tasks when I am on the go or in a hurry. I used to use Toodledo, and there is a lot that I like about the program, but the UI is still seriously in need of some refinement, and it is frustrating to use or view quickly, which is often the case when I am on the run and using my phone. I tried Asana, but their mobile app was not at all responsive to my needs. I am still using Asana at work, but find it increasingly frustrating that their support for printing is less than optimal. It is almost an afterthought, and find that a shame as I use hard copies in meetings frequently. TickTick may just be another variation on the flavor of chocolate, but the subtle differences may make it a better match to my needs, although Asana does have a few nice features that I appreciate.
—Ken
Posted by dan7000
Sep 23, 2015 at 07:24 PM
Bill,
I’m curious if there is something I’m missing about TickTick that makes you like it so much. To me it looks like a very basic version of what tons of other task managers (nirvana, asana, nitro, rtm, procuteev, nozbe) offer. For me the killer missing feature in TickTick is task durations, which make the calendar view seem pointless. But for those who do not find task durations useful, what else is it about TickTick that sets it apart from all the other task managers that have native apps, due dates, recurrence, notes, etc.?
- Dan
Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 24, 2015 at 09:31 AM
Hi Dan,
Yes, you’re right, in many ways TickTick is pretty basic, and although it has many of the features of more “advanced” task managers, it doesn’t have all of them by any means. It doesn’t even look very exciting.
It’s a very personal thing, I suppose. I’ve used dozens of different task managers, and found many of them very good. Ones I still keep on my machine - but no longer use - include 2Do, Things, OmniFocus, ToDo Cloud, The Hit List, Wunderlist, TaskPaper and a whole lot more. I’ve used other apps as task managers, too, my favourite non-task-manager app being Ulysses.
Many of these apps have seriously cool interfaces, a fantastic array of features, and a wide variety of ways you can sort, dice, filter, mince, prioritise, highlight or otherwise play around with your tasks. OmniFocus and 2Do in particular are capable of being more or less all things to all people.
But: the thing I’ve found most important for me - and I realise it’s not going to be the same for everybody else out there - is plenty of room for notes, plus easy, super-quick access to said notes. TickTick has a very simple but carefully chosen set of attributes. It’s a simple three-pane layout. It gives you Lists (what other task managers call projects or folders), plus Tags. It gives you a Calendar view (which I don’t really use much). It gives you a set of pre-built filters (Today, Next 7 Days etc.). It has a good search function. It’s got other stuff, like attachments, comments, collaboration etc.
BUT above all, what it’s got is an absolutely enormous notes field, which is always there (in the desktop version) on the right.
AND it’s really easy to enter tasks very quickly - it’s got a quick-entry field above the tasks column.
AND it’s really easy to change due dates fast - it’s got a sensible selection box
In short, I find it’s by far the fastest way to create, changes due dates for, and monitor tasks. I generally have the “Next 7 Days” view open, and rarely move from that. I regularly sift through tasks in lists and assign due dates so they show up in the time-based filters. The whole process is very easy, doesn’t involve distracting glances at all the other options (they’re there, but not in yer face), and gives you immediate access to the key task attributes. Measuring my productivity with TickTick, I find I work faster with it, enjoy using it more, and don’t get frustrated by its structure, because it’s so simple.
Like any other self-aware CRIMPer, I enjoy messing about with the fine settings in complex task managers such as OmniFocus or The Hit List. But I have returned to TickTick because it gives me a strong feeling of confidence that I’m not going to miss anything, because the lists are simple, the filters are simple, the tags are simple, the note fields are simple, and the selection of features is just right (apart from a lack of rich text). As for start dates, I really don’t miss them; I use a single date per project, so use due dates to remind me to start a project, and put the ACTUAL due date in the notes section (at the top), so I don’t forget it! It’s certainly not the same as a project management system in the strict sense, but again, too many of those are (in my view) excessively complex.
Above all, TickTick doesn’t suffer from lots of little, crowded, fiddly fields or buttons that you have to squint to see or exercise micro-precise hand-eye coordination to hit!
Them’s my reasons! If I think of any others, I’ll let you know.
Posted by Ken
Sep 24, 2015 at 03:40 PM
dan7000 wrote:
Bill,
>
>I’m curious if there is something I’m missing about TickTick that makes
>you like it so much. To me it looks like a very basic version of what
>tons of other task managers (nirvana, asana, nitro, rtm, procuteev,
>nozbe) offer. For me the killer missing feature in TickTick is task
>durations, which make the calendar view seem pointless. But for those
>who do not find task durations useful, what else is it about TickTick
>that sets it apart from all the other task managers that have native
>apps, due dates, recurrence, notes, etc.?
>
>- Dan
This was a great follow-up question that got me to thinking about many of the different programs that we have discussed here. What makes one like a program so much? I was thinking it last night, and it seems like Bill’s answer this morning answered it well. By and large, Dan and Bill are correct that many of the task management programs (excluding those that follow some type of Kanban layout like Trello et.al) adhere to a reasonably similar set of core features - folders/tags/labels, the task itself, a date/time, notes/comments, priority setting. And I suspect that if only one or two of them were available for use, we would probably adapt our work flows to them and would probably not CRIMP, but would most likely still voice our frustrations. ;) So, as Bill has alluded to in his response, it seems like the deciding factors are not as much about core features as about the finer details, like how TickTick allows one to have a big note space.
I have continued to use Asana at work after having evaluated and rejected some alternative programs and wonder if I should just accept that none meet my needs well enough to warrant a change, and then Bill’s closing remark reminds me perhaps this is a game of inches. Is it the little things that draw us to or away from certain programs? I concur with Bill that some programs “suffer from lots of little, crowded, fiddly fields or buttons” and those small UI choices can sometimes be quite useful, and sometimes they are just big burrs under our saddles. I guess that I am willing to trade off features for usability if the exchange makes sense for me. I chose Todoist for personal use over Toodledo due to its interface despite some other shortcomings. And I am now wondering if TickTick’s blend of features and UI might be easier than Asana’s crowded UI despite lacking some of the latter’s advanced features?
I would be curious to know how much more challenging it would be to design a program that offered users a highly customized UI, not unlike what many of today’s digital cameras offer through their extensive menu systems. Yes, it would be complicated to initially set up, but afterwards, you could have a semi-custom UI that is set up to meet your needs as opposed to what the marketing department is telling the programmers to design.
—Ken