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16 Free Online To Do Programs In A Great Overview
Posted By Alex On February 14, 2008 @ 2:37 pm In Web & Design | 32 Comments
Little update: I just add 5 additional To Do Programs to this list. You can read about them here.
Time is Money! Who don’t know that? That’s why many people try to use their time more efficient and being organized. Time management is the solution. A very helpful tool is a to do list, where you always can see what are your projects and what should be your next action at work, home, school and where ever. With GTD programs (Get Things Done) it isn’t necessary to think about or remember your tasks, ideas, appointments, due dates and so on. Everything is in your GTD program online. So you have always access to your lists, at home, office, while you traveling as long as you have internet access. These programs are a great help and you have your mind free for other things
There are also many To Do Programs you can download on your local drive. Since I need my to do list at home and work I prefer to have it online and a Desktop solution were not a really option. By the way, there are some online To Do Programs you can use Google Gears to work off line on your to do list, so internet access is not always necessary.
Almost every program in this list are able to divide in projects and actions, due date, and sort by priority. Some have a reminder, repeat function, calendar and the possibility to upload photos or files to your tasks.
Several programs on this list support team work and collaboration with your co-worker or client. So everybody can stay in the loop about the status of each project.
All programs in this list are for free. Few have limits though, but for a normal user even the limited version can be enough to manage their “to do list”. If not, it’s easy and inexpensive to upgrade.
Just as an example my projects are divided by:
Office
Personal
Freelance
Blog
Of course you can create other projects like wedding, vacation, school…
Following To Do Programs are interesting. Sure there are much more in the WWW but some of them are not for free, not good or I just don’t know them yet.
Easy to use, Ajax driven.
Positive:
Clean user interface, dynamic refresh of pages, easy drag and drop of actions, sending new actions via SMS to list.
Negative:
No priority function, no repeat functionality.
Conclusion:
Very good for the normal use, not a lot extras, I would recommend to try it out.
Easy to use, look of the website reminds me of the 90’s. Projects are in tabs, which is nice. Left navigation includes all links at a glance. Very complex To Do Program.
Positive:
Easy to use, timer, many functionality, goals, easy import and export. Firefox Add-on to access your list easily. Connection to iGoogle and Google Calendar, able to submit several actions at once, SMS alarm, mobile and iphone access, RSS and much more.
Negative:
Design is not my favorite but that shouldn’t bother if you like the functionality
In Pro Version:
Scheduler, you can put in your time you have right now and it will analyzes your due-dates, priorities, time estimates, last modified dates, and other characteristics to determine the best use of your time. Statistic Report
Conclusion:
Very good program, a lot functionality, more than some pro versions.
Tasktoy uses a little different way to organize; it divides by location (Home, Office, Other…) and then projects. It only shows projects that are due today. It’s very easy to add tasks and easy to move them to another day or week.
Positive:
Easy to use
Negative:
Priority only for projects possible, no repeat function, not able to add locations
Conclusion:
Who likes to divide his tasks by location first and wants to see only tasks which are due today to avoid distractions by seeing all other tasks maybe like this alternative. Easy and simple design, worth a try.
Ta-da List is a To Do List, not more not less. It is very easy to use for creating lists and tasks. That’s it. Perfect for a purist.
Positive:
Easy drag and drop, totally simple user interface.
Negative:
Actually nothing, if you don’t need more, then you are a happy camper.
Conclusion: Super plain easy. Who wants to have a super load program with thousands of functionality might try out Basecamp , has it’s price but for a pro a very interesting thing. It’s from the same company 37Signals. One of the most popular time management programs for professional use. You can compare Ta-da List and Basecamp on the screenshot below. Compares to all other basic programs, Ta-da List is my favorite so far. I will see if I just need a really basic program or something more complex like Basecamp or Remember the Milk.
Very easy To Do List, plain but functional. With date and priority function, chain and Firefox plugin, so you can start Todoist in a sidebar.
Positive:
Chain, Firefox Plugin, Very nice view on the 7 day page, reminder, mobile access, subtasks possible
Negative:
Priority showing in colors, not in numbers. Put the date manual in the field instead of selecting in a calendar pop up.
Conclusion:
Another easy to use program, with some nice features, a little bit more than just the basic programs.
Nice user interface, everything at a glance, no date functionality, pretty basic. Priority only between high and normal.
Positive:
Nice user interface, everything at a glance, intuitive navigation
Negative:
No dates possible
Conclusion:
As many other, little nice program with everything on one page. It’s worth to try it out, if you don’t care about the missing date functionality.
Very old interface. Reminds me of the beginning of internet. Calendar, planner, status bar.
Positive:
Calendar, planner, status bar in percent.
Negative:
Old design, a little bit difficult to add a task, ads on the page, but that’s ok, since it’s free.
Conclusion:
The program is not worth than other, I really like the status bar, where you can see how much is done. I’m surprised that no other program in this list has it. But I really don’t like the user interface, maybe other user really like this design and choose MyTodos as their program of choice.
Very good for team work, collaboration and network. It’s easy to delegate tasks to other people. Many features, you can upload files, photos and there is an event calendar. Pretty simple to use. The free version is limited to 5 projects, which would be ok in my case.
Positive:
Very good for team work, complete overview of your tasks and what’s happening. Uploading files and photos, nice user interface and chat functionality.
Negative: You cannot set any priorities, free version only to 5 projects limited
Conclusion: Nice Time Management Program if you work in a team, unfortunately you cannot set priorities, what I really cannot understand since it’s a pretty complex program.
Nice user interface, easy to use, has all basic features, but also no extras.
Positive:
For a normal user everything is there, a lot of options available
Negative:
Nothing really, if you don’t expect a professional time management program.
Conclusion:
Recommended program, which is not missing a thing if you don’t want to have any extras. If the features are enough for you it would only depend if you like the user interface or not, to make this program your favorite one.
Quite a lot features but limited to 10 projects in the free version. Besides that pretty good, filter, reminder, repeat feature, mobile and PDA access and so on.
Positive:
Includes all basic features, nothing is missing for normal use.
Negative:
Limited to 10 projects in free version.
Conclusion:
The same like Gubb, stable program, with enough features for normal use. I’m not so excited about the user interface, but that’s just my opinion.
Backpack has also another way of managing tasks, instead of lists, priority, due dates and so on, is Backpack able to create a complete page with all information you need. task list, attached files, images and links.
Positive:
Interesting way and you have all information on one page, very easy to use.
Negative: Free version allows you only 5 pages to create and you cannot add pictures or files to the pages.
Conclusion:
I like the way how to build a page and does it differently than most of the other programs but this wouldn’t be a perfect fit for me. I just need a short list with some keywords, that’s all. Until I’m finished to create such a page with pictures, files and so on, I might be almost done with the project. And 5 pages is not a lot to use, if you don’t want to upgrade to a pro version. Backpack belongs to 37Signals, the developer of Ta-da List and Basecamp
Treedolist, as the name says, uses a tree structure for the list. It’s really not my favorite. All basic features are there, except the priority feature.
Positive:
Basic feature are mostly there, everything is on one page
Negative:
I don’t really like the structure and no priority feature.
Conclusion:
Certainly not my first choice, but if you like tree structure go ahead and try it out.
Pretty plain, no date feature, you can move tasks to today, tomorrow or next week. Repeating tasks are possible, for example mowing the yard every Tuesday. On the right side you see senseless questions, for some amusing, for others annoying
Positive:
Nice user interface, clean look
Negative:
Cannot create projects, only tasks. Instead of the questions, it would be better to put some interesting information on there. No priority feature and it’s not possible to put in an exact due day for a task.
Conclusion:
And again, less is more. Fast creating of tasks, without categorizing, but with a rough date. It would be great to use the right part of the page with more useful information.
Nozbe is a fully loaded program but limited to 5 projects in their free version. File upload, next action view, time of the project and much more makes this program a great tool for advanced user.
Positive:
Many features, mobile access
Negative:
Limited to 5 projects in their free version. In my opinion to cluttered, not so clean as the other programs.
Conclusion:
Nozbe has some interesting features but the page is too loaded and the usability could be better.
Hiveminder is very interesting, easy to use with a lot features. Especially task dependency is a feature I like a lot. Braindump for fast entries is also a cool idea. It’s also a good program for team work and collaboration.
Positive:
Task dependency, Braindump, team work enabled.
Negative:
You have to work with it a little bit before you get to know all features and how everything works. They could replace the field "Send us feedback" and "Invite a friend" with a normal link, that would make the website cleaner.
Conclusion:
After a little while you get used to the program and it’s nice to play with. It has some features other doesn’t offer. Unfortunately you can not input a due date or priority. I don’t know what I was drinking but of course Hiveminder supports priority and due date, sorry for that. It’s pretty easy to set up. With this quite basic features, Hiveminder is a interesting option to Remember the milk. I have to check on that. My apology.
Goplan is great for its features and user friendliness. It has much more to offer than a to do list (ticket tracking, blog, notes).
Positive:
Very nice user interface, many features, file management.
Negative:
Several time was the server down or very slow, free version only with 2 projects.
Conclusion:
Awesome program and very user friendly, but doesn’t help me at all if I cannot access my page. Every 15 minutes it was down. Not acceptable if you need your to do list now. Also 2 projects in the free version is not enough. If you really like this program, maybe you should go with the pro version. But check their server uptime, maybe it was just a bad time and this happened once a year.
Remember The Milk (RTM) is the most popular To Do List Program on the free market. No wonder, since it has a lot features, very nice user interface, easy to add actions and a ton of possibilities to connect to external programs. Even working offline, thanks to Google Gears, is possible with RTM.
Positive:
Available in many languages, loads of features, great user interface. Connection to many other programs, offline working possible.
Negative:
No pop up window to select a date, you have to put in the date manually. Besides that, nothing really.
Conclusion:
Remember The Milk (RTM) is so far my favorite, it has lots to offer, nice user interface and even offline available.
I hope I could help you with the choice of your favorite program. I you liked my post, please subscribe to my RSS Feed or my Email Newsletter. Not to miss more of some great posts.
My favorites so far are:
Remember The Milk
Ta-da List
Track.tra.in
Gubb
What are yours, or did I forgot some in this list? Would be great if you tell us what your favorites are and why
Little update: I just add 5 additional To Do Programs to this list. You can read about them here.
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Tags: Backpack, Basecamp, Comparison, Features, free version, goplan, gubb, Hiveminder, MyQuire, MyTodos, Nozbe, Nutshell, Overview, Remember the Milk, Reminder, Ta-da, tasktoy, Team Work, Time Management, To Do Programs, ToDo, Todoist, Toodledo, tracks.tra.in, Treedolist, User InterfaceArticle printed from Not A Niche: https://notaniche.com
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