Managing Tasks on the iPhone

Monday, December 14th, 2009

I published my first iPhone GTD list over a year ago. Then there were roughly eighteen task applications available in the App Store, and three or four with an iPhone web interface. That seemed like an extensive list of applications at the time. Now, just over twelve months later there are about one-hundred and fifty-five native task management applications in the App Store. That number doesn’t even account for the web-based iPhone applications out there. Just from the shear number of available applications I think it’s safe to say that the iPhone is becoming the productivity tool of choice. That being the case, I figured it was time to take another look at some of the more interesting task applications. Several apps made the list for the second time, while others are new finds.

Remember the Milk

This is by far one of the most popular GTD/Task management apps on the Web and the iPhone. RTM takes the cloud approach to task management allowing users to access to their data from nearly anywhere. With the addition of Google Gears, data can also be stored locally for offline use. But, what really attracts folks to the product is its flexibility and ease of use. RTM can be configured to support most common task management philosophies with just a few clicks.

OmniFocus from Omni Group

Omni has been a favorite of mine since it first arrived. This is probably one of the most sophisticated GTD/Task Management applications available. It’s really geared to power users with its extensive feature set. For newbie’s it can be a little intimidating and overkill. The iPhone app syncs with the Apple OS-X desktop version and the mobile me iDisk. There currently is no Windows or Linux version available. The only drawback to OmniFocus is the price. If you want the desktop and iPhone versions it’s going to set you back a few bucks. The iPhone app goes for $19.99 and the desktop version is $79.95. For serious GTD junkies with large quantities of tasks, it’s worth every penny.

Things

I love this app. It shares many similarities with OmniFocus. Don’t be fooled by the cute icons and streamlined interface; there is a real powerhouse under the hood. This is a very flexible and powerful application that is suited to new and experienced GTD users. The Things Desktop application sells for $49.95, and the iPhone app is FREE. If you are new to GTD and looking for a solid native application, this would be a good choice.

Todo

I have been watching the progression of Todo for a while now and am continually impressed by its simplicity. Todo is another app that is flexible enough to support all experience levels. The really nice thing about Todo is that it can easily integrate with Remember The Milk and Toodledo. If you are not familiar with RTM or Toodledo, they are two of the most popular web-based task managers. Appigo sells its native iPhone app for $9.99.

Google Tasks

For a simple and economical solution, it’s hard to beat Google’s iPhone app. There are no fancy features or deep search tools, just a simple task list and checkboxes. If you aren’t a hardcore GTD user and have a limited set of tasks, this may be the app for you.

Whats your favorite task app on the iPhone?

Edited by @malitchick

mnassal

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 12:45 am and is filed under M Nassal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • I wrote a Google Tasks native app for iPhone - it's called GeeTasks. It has mostly the same functionality that their website does, but it has two advantages:

    1. It can work with offline copy of the data. You can even edit the local copy and have it sync up after reconnecting to the net.
    2. It's much quicker than Safari. Part of the reason is that it's a native app, but the other part is that since data is stored locally it doesn't have to wait for the network each time the app starts.

    Check it out on http://geetasks.com
  • memengo, thanks for the tip!

    Looks like an interesting app and a good candidate for a review.

    Thanks again.
    --mnassal
  • If you feel like writing a review I can give you a free promo code. Drop me an email to http://www.geetasks.com/contact
  • kelabrown
    My favorite is IMExchange -- mostly for it's syncing ability with Exchange. And -- another powerful app for me is Evernote. Not so much for task management (although it could be used for it) but as a great collection took & repository for storing checklists, reference files etc.
  • kelabrown, thanks for the comments!
    I haven't tried IMExchange yet, will have to check it out. I am a big fan however of Evernote, though not so much as an iPhone task manager. I think the real strength of Evernote is in capturing and indexing.
    --mnassal
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