6 project and to-do apps to help you get on track
Try these project and to-do apps to improve your routine
Many of us need a little help to stay on track with personal projects, or tasks at work. The Productivity shelves in the App Store can seem to scroll on forever, but many of the to-do apps can feel overwhelming. Here’s a selection of standout ones.
Due ($4.99, Universal) is a simple to-do app with a trick up its sleeve. Sure, you can add tasks with due dates. Where Due shines is in its ability to repeatedly remind you – at intervals of one, five, 10, 15, 30, and 60 minutes – to finish a task until you check its box. You can snooze reminders, but Due’s persistence might be just the thing you need.
If you need some help in the “creating new habits” department,
Today (Free, iPhone) presents an easy way to create a list of things you’d like to start doing – run, read, drink water more often, you name it. Today then keeps you on track with customizable reminders and a check-in to review progress. Today is free and has an In-App Purchase to unlock slots for more habits and more flexible reminder options.
Lark (Free, iPhone) is a health app that avoids the complexity of calorie counting. It takes a unique approach of using a simple chat interface. You text in with your meal (“eggs, sausage, and hash browns”) and Lark’s coach will text back with recommendations on how you could improve your nutritional intake. A subscription of $20 per month enables a 24/7 personal coach, more holistic meal planning, and many more planning and tracking options.
Timepage ($4.99, iPhone) is built by Moleskine – makers of the popular text and sketch journals – with the goal of simplifying the calendar. It throws out unnecessary calendar complexity while elegantly incorporating tertiary features you need, such as maps for directions, contacts, and weather info.
Whether you want to track the time you work on tasks for clients or a boss, or you simply want to see where your days go, Hours Time
Tracking (Free, iPhone) is a simple, beautiful way to do it. Much of the complexity from other tools is gone here, allowing Hours to offer simple tools and a clever design. Projects are differentiated with colors, while a unique timeline view and optional push notifications help you fill in any blank spots throughout the day. A monthly $8 subscription opens a number of reporting options for submitting to others.
Sometimes, being productive means automating the simple stuff so you can focus on the real task at hand. That’s where IF by IFTTT (Free, Universal) comes in: it’s an easy way to hook services and apps together to take care of the little stuff. For example, every time you receive an email from a particular company or service, IF could turn it into a PDF and save it to Evernote or Dropbox. Or, every time someone tags you in a Facebook photo, IF could save a copy to Dropbox.