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The state of the list

coffeelists.com

16 pointstemplaedhel17 comments

Google Tasks has a big interface:

https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas

which you can also pull into separate window to make an "app".

Sad there's no mention about Org Mode. It's awesome :).

I will get right on it. I am always looking for new apps, both for feature inspiration for coffeelists, and just to use.

I was recently struggling whether commit my new TODO list to WorkFlowy and OrgMode, and I made a small comparison:

  Org Mode
  + You get full editing power of Emacs
  + Lots and lots of features (custom TODOs, calendars, hyperlinks,
    generating documents, ...) that are hidden and doesn't distract
    people who are not aware of them.
  + It IS actively developed all the time :).
  - Not really portable - requires Emacs for nice look&feel,
    although .org files are just text files, so one MIGHT be able
    to work with them.

  WorkFlowy
  + Webapp, so it's extremely portable.
  + Web-based, so it's always synchronized :).
  + Ability to zoom-in on a selected part of your list is much better
    done than the Org-Mode one (at least the "C-x n s" I know about).
  - Bad editing shortcuts and lack of general text editing capabilities
    I'm used to (ie. CTRL+arrows doesn't move around text by jumping words).

I finally chose Org Mode (don't need to synchronize that list, and I do need the editing powers), but I also have a lot of stuff on WorkFlowy that I need to have synchronized between work, home, and whereever I go.

Stick your org-mode files in Dropbox and it syncs well. You can run Emacs from a flash drive, and Andriod and iOS devices have basic versions that sync multiple ways.

I'm currently trying to setup mobileorg + dropbox to sync with my windows machines and my iphone, and I've never used emacs (although I can grok vim). I'll try to post a writeup when I finish it.

I'm coming to try mobileorg after not liking things/omnifocus being too mac-oriented, hating onenote for being too windows-oriented (yes, I attempted to use it for todo), and not liking remember the milk for charging the same price as flickr. Google tasks isn't bad, but I disliked it's webapp-style popup in gmail, nor the widget-style apps it has. The canvas thing looks interesting though.

For basic todo list stuff I realized need something that can be easily made to support a different OS/platform, and work natively (i.e. no webapps).

OneNote is a good piece of software, IMO. I keep majority of my notes there (but I started using it long before I ever saw Emacs or heard about Org Mode). I was thinking about migration, but some of my notes consist of drawings and images pasted between text - I have no idea how to move something like that to Org Mode, or make such notes there in the future.

I agree. My problem is that I'm unfairly hellbent on any notes/task management stuff being cross-platform, or having an open format. I wanted to make onenote a central place for notes, drawings, etc. But I stopped once office 2011 arrived for mac WITHOUT onenote support.

This is usually where one suggests evernote as a viable alternative, but I feel like they butchered much of the UI in the latest version, namely the fact that tagging is way less intuitive in the latest versions.

Been a pretty big fan of Things for a while. I have one database that sits on Dropbox and automatically syncs between two Macs. Would like to see better mobile syncing (would rather have desktop database replace what's on an iOS device instead of merging the two). All in all, though, it's a great app with a polished interface.

Contrary to the article http://rememberthemilk.com does support multiple lists (I currently have a dozen or so).

I've been trying RTM for a few weeks and my biggest cons are:

1. the mobile clients are hobbled. The wife and I Use the android and iOS apps and constantly feel like common things are difficult and uncommon things are impossible. You cannot creat a new list from the app, for instance.

2. Poor support for batch operations. This is especially true on the mobile app. The only batch operation is "complete/uncomplete".

The two big Pros: 1. There is an iOS and an android client

2. There is support for sharing lists between accounts.

it's amazing how many project management tools allow you to rate your priorities...but what does that really accomplish when you end up with 90% high priorities?

you need to go a step further to differentiate the priorities. that's where listing (AKA ranking) can really come in handy.

we actually took a hard look at leveraging our ranking software from http://gorankem.com towards a PM play...but the space is just too saturated. one of the existing players needs to add a feature to prioritize within the (high) priorities

anybody know of a PM tool that may do the job?

You forgot http://www.toomanylists.com.

Oh wait... That's cause I haven't finished it yet :-D

Probably be my November App for 2011 as well as 2010

I personally use Toodledo [http://www.toodledo.com/]

I too use Toodledo, on the iPad and web. I have even used it collaboratively to track tasks with my virtual assistant. It's got complexity (you can organize tasks by folders, goals, priorities, status, and more) but if you're not overwhelmed with all the options, you can use it for simple list making. It feels very much like a personal effort by a single developer. It runs well though the interface is pretty much lists and boxes, not design art.

Listable works really well for iPhone + web users and syncing across multiple accounts.

Wunderlist is actually available for both Mac & Windows now.

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