Remember the Milk 2.0 | Hacker News Reader

Remember the Milk 2.0

blog.rememberthemilk.com

61 pointssomecoder51 comments

My very first task with RTM was on March 2011 "Try out Remember The Milk" and ever since then I've been using it almost every day, great app, really fits well with my life style. BTW I really love the upgrade!

This seems to bring RTM closer to feature parity with Asana. Used to use RTM back in the day, but Asana was such a 10x improvement at the time that it was a no-brainer switch. Now the answer to which one to use is less obvious.

Sounds like it has come closer to reaching feature parity to many other services. I've used it in the past but when many other players are on the same (or more) platforms with a lower price and equivalent or better features I'm not sure why I would go back to RMT.

Honestly I've never found a good service / app for handling todos. I start well meaning enough, get some lists with stuff I need to get done then they slowly get out of date, I stop using it and then I'm looking for something else a few weeks later.

I wish more to-do apps integrated better with calendars. It's almost always shitty integration if it even exists.

I wonder if this space is ripe for disruption if someone can find a way to keep people engadgrd and up to date with their lists. Maybe it wouldn't even be a list of sorts? Hmm. Just thinking out loud here.

I like the idea of combining a todo list and a calendar.

Here's a UI concept:

Every day, it shows me the standard 9-5 "time grid" of 30-minute blocks. Maybe it would show them a week into the future too, like the 'week' view of a calendar app.

Underneath, I'd have my stack of TODO items. Every morning, I would drag a few items into the blank spaces on the calendar to plan my day. Then, I could check things off as I finish them. If I fall behind, no bigs: just drag the old items onto tomorrow's time grid sometime.

I've tried to simulate this with Trello. That's a great way to get the 'TODO' part down, but it isn't so great for planning my time.

I've tried this with Org-mode. This really comes the closest out of all of them.

Literally started wireframing this exact thing this morning, although with the default resolution, if you will, being a week. My plan was to be able to preset a small catalogue of "templates" for various days (eg I always have to put the bins out on Sunday, because garbage day is Monday - so my Sunday template will have a put the bins out task at 7pm every single time), then fill up the work hours with work tasks. After a late night conversation with some buddies about how each of us asks our wife several times a day what we are meant to be doing, exactly, at that moment, I just want a todo app that can answer the question for me.

Gonna have a crack at Elixir for this, should be a fun project for getting to grips with a new lang.

This sounds exciting! Please post this to HN when you'd like some feedback, I'd be quite excited if it ever becomes useful enough to try.

Don't get me wrong, it's gonna be a while, but I'll certainly be making whatever...this...ends up being available to all

I wanted to work on something similar, so let me share my view:

I really like Trello, and my idea was an app where you had a different page per day (Today, Tomorrow, etc.) and you could import tasks from Trello. When marked as done on the app, the Trello card would be automatically moved from the "Todo" list to the "Done" list (or archived).

So you'd use Trello to enter all the stuff you planned to work on, and the app to schedule the when.

I never investigated the Trello API enough to know if this is feasible. But they have a writable API, so I think it's possible.

Both you and comment parent might find this interesting: A few years back a friend and I designed a web-app that had as its core difference the ability to automatically schedule all of your tasks (based on estimated workunits / pomodori and deadlines) around all of your existing appointments and free time. At its core, it could answer the question: "What should I be working on now?" -- but it could do this in about 1 second (that's how long the solver took) for the coming 3 months. You could redo this analysis every time anything changed, and it would present you with a new 3 month planning. We didn't get any further than (working!) prototype with 30 beta testers.

If you're interested, here's an extremely short write-up of what happened: http://timescapers.com/2016/02/07/timescapers-and-timerank-r...

That's super cool, thanks for the info. I might hit you up at a (much) later date for a chat about it!

You mean like this:

https://www.azendoo.com/calendar/

I've never used it, but it appears to be what you're describing.

Thanks for the tip! Azendoo seems super complicated: I think I want something closer to a simple "Tack Todo Items Onto a Calendar" system, without all of the inter-personal messaging or project tracking overhead that azendoo, asana, and the other "How to herd a group of 20 people" systems have.

Hey gcr - just saw your comment about Azendoo being complicated ;-) . We are seen as one of the most straight forward tools on the market at moment but you really need to see a demo of the tool to understand why! I would be delighted to run you through one quickly (15 mins) to give you and idea of the tool - and how you can manage a todo on our calendar. Would his interest you?

If you are a Mac user, I'll suggest OmniFocus. Aligns pretty well with the GTD method and syncs to phone apps and calendar.

Omnifocus is incredible unfortunately it's one Mac and iPhone.

Yeah I've used Omnifocus and it's fantastic but being extremely limited to the Apple platforms along with a mediocre sync I'm surprised they've been able to stay afloat without branching into other platforms.

I spent far too much time using Omnifocus only to be forced to use a PC due to changing jobs and not being able to access even a read only version of my tasks, something I need in daily life, is just unacceptable. My opinion of course but I can't go back to them. I do miss the calendar view though.

The only todo app that ever worked for me for several months was Habitica [1]. It's the best gamified system I've ever seen, at the time it turned me in a big believer of gamification as the future of work. Until I basically reached a typical RPG plateau, and you couldn't switch to a new character without losing all your progress forever, so I gave up. If only they had a mode where you could "collect" characters that you level up one after another, I would still be using it.

[1] https://habitica.com/static/front

I switched to RTM after Microsoft bought Wunderlist, and I'm satisfied with it. It doesn't allow file attachments, but there are workarounds. I do think $40 is a tad steep when compared to some of the other options out there.

Great service. Enough features to be powerful, not too many to be complicated or difficult to use. Just right imo.

And they're not a data mining company in disguise.

Had a pro account for years and will continue to renew.

I just realised I had my account open since 2006 with bunch of undone task there (join gym was one of them), maybe I should complete them now

Remember 2005? 43 Folders? That was awesome.

Wow, you've been using it since 2005? I didn't realize until just now they actually went live Oct 11th, 2005. It's already been over 10 years since they started this thing.

I used it a lot as an undergrad but then got on the whole Kinkless GTD/Omnioutliner thing, and am now fully invested in Omnifocus.

I have yet to come across a person who keeps up with their todo list on a daily basis.

I pretty much declared todo bankruptcy a while ago. Now I just use Siri for scheduled reminders, and I've recently started playing wtih shared Reminders lists, which was a feature I wasn't aware of until I found it by accident.

Funny, that's exactly what happened to me. And the exact same solution. I find Siris reminders for my personal things and Calendar for stuff I need to do that is particularly time sensitive is more than good enough for my personal life

Same. I love the idea of to-do lists but every time I start to get one almost up to date I miss out on some tasks, lose track and then it's horribly outdated and I start all over again.

I wish I could find a solution that works. This RTM upgrade just brings it to parity with most other services with features their customers have been asking for for almost a decade.

For a while I used workflowy and it lasted two days.

The only solution that works is the one you made a habit out of it. That means sticking to it daily at least a month. (using Todoist + GTD for a year).

One great thing about RTM is it fully usable without a mouse, despite is being a web app. The OS X client is only a wrapper to the web version, it seems.

Todo Apps must be a crowded market now, are apps like RTM 2.0 profitable? I can imagine lots of time went into building this.

Try hiTask, http://hiTask.com it has great team features on top of regular task management.

Used this service last year, and it was insanely outdated, glad to see they rebuilt for the ground up.

That being said - $40 a year is obscene for what they offer IMO. Luckily I am able to use basic without needed the extra features.

I'd love to pay to support this product, but probably not more than $10 a year. Call me cheap, but this is a nice to have, and competes with free services such as Google Keep.

You're talking about a service which is theoretically used every day to help you run your life, and you think $40/year is expensive? In my experience, even my poorer friends routinely spend that at a bar or a restaurant.

I've spent lots on various GTD apps, but lately settled on facilethings.com which is focused on the GTD workflow. I pay around $100/year.

It's a shinier version of a tasks function available in every phone for $0.

That would be a great point if it wasn't competing in a marketplace with other products. None of those pro features make me go "wow, this saves me so much time" compared to other offerings.

My argument isn't that paying $40 for software a year is obscene, it's that this particular feature set in the competitive space is not worth $40 to me. And correct me if I'm wrong, but if I actually wanted to use these features with my girlfriend, would we not have to both spend $40?

>My argument isn't that paying $40 for software a year is obscene, it's that this particular feature set in the competitive space is not worth $40 to me.

That's not what you said, though. It was your argument, then you realized you were overstating your case. Why not just say so?

It literally is what I said. I'm unsure what you're reading.

"$40 a year is obscene for what they offer IMO". Please feel free to show me the exact time I said "Paying $40 a year for any type of software is ridiculous".

Task warrior costs nothing. And does a whole lot too.

Todoist is half of that price and basically can be used daily without notifications and comments for free.

$40 per year is OBSCENE???

Speaking personally, it isn't something I would be willing to spend. It's within my budget, but I've never liked the thought of software as a service for something that doesn't feel like a service. No ill will to the developer, of course. I'll continue to use the original app.

The "service" would be continuous product improvements, technical support, hosting of the app and your hosting of your data. I think it's erroneous to seize on the "service" aspect of SaaS. In many cases you are effectively paying a monthly licensing fee for additional functionality within the app.

I'm pretty sure last time I renewed it was $24/yr. Sad to see it's gone up. I was on the fence at $24, for how much I use it. At $40 I'll probably look for something else.

Looks like I use so few features of RTM that I can use Google Keep. I know, however, right after I start using it that Google will kill the project. My Tracks, my favorite Android app, is going away on 4/30/16. Maybe I should just pay the $40/yr. <frustrated>

There is absolutely nothing "obscene" about $40/year ($3.33/mo) for a premium upgrade on a freemium app that has had thousands of hours and plenty of blood, sweat and tears invested into it.

Frankly, I find your comments bordering on disrespectful to the developers and probably depressing to anyone who tries to earn a living developing software.

The "thousands of hours and plenty of blood" sadly doesn't factor into whether you should pay $40/year for it. It's about the value it provides and OP thinks it's not worth that much to him.

Don't try to make this into a moral argument.

> The "thousands of hours and plenty of blood" sadly doesn't factor into whether you should pay $40/year for it.

It speaks to the breadth and quality of the app. The investment of time matters. I pay for Office 365 and Adobe Creative Cloud and the huge investment of time to create the products within those suites is the basis of the whole product. It's what I'm paying for.

It goes without saying that if you do not use this product or have no use for this product, you would not pay anything for it, much less $40 a year. But if you are an actual user of this product and it provides value to you, it is simply ludicrous to say that a $3/mo. commitment to it is "obscene".

They might make more $ if they had some sort of a tiered pricing model, $40 is "too much" for me to spend on a TODO list as well.

Perhaps you're right. From my perspective, $3/month just seems fairly inconsequential to me if it's a good app and I use it frequently.

$40 yearly is around the paid tier of other like apps, such as Todoist ($30 yearly) or Wunderlist ($50 yearly). While the price may be high, saying it's obscene is an exaggeration of the strength of your case.

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