What should a to-do list app do?
In this busy world that we live in, it can be really difficult to keep all of your work in order. Whether you’re a student, an employee, or a homemaker, you’ve probably experienced the crushing feeling that comes with realizing that you’ve forgotten to do something really important. To-do list apps look to offer a solution to this issue. The app is meant to make it much easier for you to follow a schedule by organizing all of your tasks into a simple and streamlined user interface. (These apps will often utilize various forms of notification to make sure that you remember to do these things.) The ideal to-do list app is easy to use and flexible, making it to where you never miss any appointment or meeting. In this article, I’ll talk about five of the best to-do list apps that are currently available to mobile users on the Android platform. Without further ado, let’s take a closer look at some of these helpful applications!
1. GTasks
If you’ve already attempted to search for a solid scheduling solution, you have probably already heard of Google Tasks. Google Tasks is a service created by Google that allows users to easily create and manage different task lists from their browser or Google application. It isn’t a perfect solution, however, and there isn’t really an app out there that is meant solely to manage this web application. What’s a person to do? GTasks is one of the top task management apps out there, and it offers full synchronization with Google Tasks. The ability to access your task lists across multiple platforms is really the prime thing that GTasks brings to the table. Users can simply connect their Google account and wait for their task lists to sync up across both of these services.
Aside from that, GTasks has a lot of other neat features. The app lets you do things like create tasks within tasks, set repeating tasks, send tasks to friends and colleagues, and sort tasks through a variety of different features. That last feature is one of my personal favorites. If you really think about it, there are several different ways that someone could make a to-do list. When you’re going through a list of tasks, would you rather complete items randomly? In the order that you added the item to the list? In order of priority? In order of due date? Everyone has different needs, and I really like how this app allows for every user’s experience to be custom fit to those needs. As I mentioned before, flexibility is a vital aspect of any to-do list app worth its marbles. GTasks is plenty flexible, without comprising features, functionality, or practicality. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use and highly efficient task management application, I can’t recommend this one enough.
2. Wunderlist
Aside from having one of the more clever app names in the Google Play Store, Wunderlist is also one of the most popular to-do list apps in the store, and with good reason. Wunderlist has an incredibly flexible user interface. giving it a wide variety of different uses for its end user. If you look at an app like GTasks, you might quickly realize that the app is more well-suited for someone organizing a schedule for school or work. Wunderlist isn’t really like that. Its super self-explanatory list creation process makes it to where the app can be used for hardcore work itineraries just as easily as it can be used for a shopping list. The user interface is very pleasant and offers a lot of room for customization, which makes it one of the best list-making apps that is currently available to Android users.
The biggest draw to this particular app comes with its different collaborative features. Just like you might pin a grocery list to refrigerator, Wunderlist lets you share your different lists and tasks with friends, family members, and co-workers. This is a really convenient feature, and it makes this app especially desirable for someone who may need to oversee a project in the home or in the workplace. Along with list sharing, this app features different instant messaging mechanics to further encourage a collaborative and connected user space. I really like Wunderlist, because I think that it has a comprehensive use for just about anyone. It can be used in a work setting, in an academic setting, or in a personal setting. Not only that, but as I mentioned it can also be implemented in varying degrees of complexity. If I had to recommend a to-do list app to someone without knowing what they needed to use it for, I would probably choose Wunderlist.
3. Todoist
Even with the aid of different task management tools, a lot of people have difficulty staying organized. Why is that? To put it simply, it isn’t always easy to regularly create, manage, and stick to different task lists. It can be an unforgiving pursuit. For some people, it can be difficult to commit to something so structured. Todoist is the first app on this list that actually incentivizes productivity. Todoist Karma is a feature that allows users to set various weekly and monthly goals, and awards points when the user meets these goals. On top of all of that, the app takes productivity tracking to the next level by transcribing all of this data onto a color-coded graph. This lets you look at which projects you’ve been working hard on (and what projects you’ve been slacking on) with a quick glance, and it’s perfect for someone who is craving some positive reinforcement.
Outside of this feature, I also really like how Todoist is integrated with so many different applications. The app is compatible with apps like Google Drive, IFTTT, Toggl, Sunrise Calnder, Cloud Magic, and many more. I think that a lot of people are hesitant to transition to a new to-do list solution, since it often means starting all over again. By supporting such a wide range of different task management or scheduling tools, this app makes it much more accessible to potential users, which is obviously nice. Compared to an app like Wunderlist, however, I think that the user interface in Todoist may be a bit overwhelming. This app is feature-packed, which can be sort of intimidating. With that in mind, however, I don’t think that there’s a single key feature missing in this app. It has collaborative features like task sharing and instant messaging, offline synchronization, and even Android Wear compatibility. If you’re looking for a really comprehensive to-do list app, I think that Todoist is a good place to start.
4. TickTick
I briefly spoke before about how Todoist had an unfortunate to overwhelm users with its user interface. This is a fairly common pitfall in to-do list apps, where customization, flexibility, and depth is key. TickTick is an increasingly popular Android to-do list app, and I think it’s largely because it has deftly avoided this pitfall. I think that a literal child would be able to take full advantage of this app’s functionality, which is all laid out in a user-friendly way. Don’t mistake easy for shallow, however. TickTick offers a broad range of features to help you organize your daily tasks. One of the coolest features that this app offers is the ability to tag tasks with different tags. This feature can be used in a variety of different ways. Maybe you want to break up your tasks by categories like home, work, school, etc. Maybe you want to categorize your tasks by priority level. This is a perfect example of how this app manages to combine functionality with simplicity.
All in all, I think that TickTick is a really great application for someone who may want to ease themselves into the whole “task management app” thing. It’s easy to use, and it offers several features to make the user experience as easy and convenient as possible. (One of the more novel ones, in my opinion, is the app’s instant time and location reminder feature.) The only real drawback to this app is the limitations in the free version. The free version of TickTick places restrictions on things like task sharing, task reminders, task list length, and so on. If you upgrade to a pro account (for the price of $19.99/yr or $1.99/mo) then these restrictions are significantly loosened. Restrictions still exist, but in my opinion, the average user would never need to exceed them. (Why would you ever need more than 999 tasks in a single list?) TickTick is a brilliant task management solution, but it may be more well-suited for individuals who are willing to pay a little bit for a more intuitive solution.
5. Habitica
I thought that I would finish out this list with something a little different. Habitica is an app that, while not for everyone, is absolutely adored by its users. This app works to gamify the whole to-do list experience by directly rewarding the user for engaging in good habits and completing their work. How do they reward you, exactly? When you create your account for Habitica, you create an RPG-style avatar. By completing tasks, you’re able to earn experience points, equipment, and currency. Not only that, but users are also able to create custom rewards, too. Maybe you like to play video games, but when you play, you can’t help but feel guilty for doing so. This app will let you designate “video game time” as an in-game reward, which can be purchased with your accumulated coins. Habitica inspires and motivates its users to perform set tasks, and it rewards you in several different ways. It’s a really interesting app idea, and I think that it’s implemented very well.
Of course, this app isn’t for everybody. Not everyone likes the idea of turning their life into an RPG. I will say, though, that for someone looking for that kick in the pants to get into a to-do list app, Habitica is the perfect fit. Even if you don’t want to use the app for to-do lists, mechanics within the game exist to help users kick bad habits and encourage good ones, too. Having trouble drinking those 8 cups of water per day? The game lets you set a “daily goal” of drinking 8 cups of water per day, and rewards you when you indicate that you’ve accomplished it. Trying to lose weight? You can set a “bad habit” of eating junk food, and the game will punish you when you indicate that you’ve done it. The app puts a really fun spin on the admittedly monotone to-do list app game, and I personally appreciate it for its ingenuity.
That’s the end of my list of the five best to-do list apps for Android. Of course, there were many other to-do list apps that I wasn’t able to mention in this article. Did I happen to snub your personal favorite app? Feel free to go into the comment section below and talk about it.
