The best productivity and lifehack apps of 2012 | Hacker News Reader

The best productivity and lifehack apps of 2012

thenextweb.com

27 pointswonjun16 comments

Open articleView on HN

That article should really have "Apple ONLY" in the headline so that people's productivity isn't wasted.

It included Android and web apps as well. The Shortcuts for Gmail Chrome extension made the read worth it for me.

It was curious that only one Windows app was mentioned.

yeah, they have some interesting web apps

What is this obsession with to-do list apps?

I was thinking the same thing. Does anybody use more than one? What is so special about a to-do app that can't be done with paper or a plain old text file? When I read the title, I was expecting mind-keyboards or something awesome...not a bunch of to-do lists.

I think a couple people mentioned GTD or something after successful exits, so we're seeing residual demand from the cargo culting.

Everyone is still trying to find the right way to do it for the average person.

Whomever does this right will become dominant and make a lot of money. The closest I've seen is Any.Do and Omnifocus. The latter may be too complicated for the average user and it is a premium product.

Is there a market for to-do lists? How large is it?

Who is currently paying for to-do list apps?

There are a lot of things that a good to-do app can do that "paper or a plain old text file" can't do. For example, it allows you to easily share that list with others, set reminders that go off at certain times, etc. Google Now is pushing it even further by scanning your email for things you'll want to do without even knowing it.

Being a founder of a todo-list featured in the article (Todoist) I find your comment quite ignorant. Modern task managers aren't just about managing text. For example, our app integrates with Gmail, Outlook and Thunderbird and makes it easy to manage your emails. We can also send you reminders and you can access your tasks on 9 different platforms, including iPhone and Android. We can manage your links via our plugins for Chrome and Firefox. We also take care of sync so you can have your tasks, emails and links anywhere you go. We also try to visualize your productivity. We include very powerful calendar features (for example, you can write "every mon, fri at 8pm" and our date parser will understand it - - and you can even do this in 10 different languages and we will still understand it). Plus a thousands other things that your text-file solution simply can't do.

Wow, that's an off-putting reply. Normally I don't comment on things like that, but you may want to think about coming across a little less.... of an asshole... when you're talking about the company you founded.

Spot on comment. If you're founding a company you're its face. Don't make that face an ugly one or you'll have an ugly company.

You found my comment offensive? And you think it helps calling me an asshole? I don't think I need tips from you.

> What is so special about a to-do app that can't be done with paper or a plain old text file?

I'm not here to attack or defend to-do apps, but regarding your statement, the utility of software rarely comes from the specific things it can do, but how it does them. There's usually non-functional differences.

What can be done with Python that can't be done with assembly? Nothing, but (for most cases) you can do it quicker and easier.

What can be done on an iPad that can't be done with a desktop computer? I doubt there's anything that you can do on an iPad that couldn't be done, in principle, on a desktop computer. The difference is portability and stuff like that.

I get that...but the most important feature of a to-do list is its existence. Even if you are in the stone age like me and use a pen and paper, the most time you spend thinking about your list is maybe 2 minutes a day. Fancy features and slick interfaces are not a productivity improvement.

> What is this obsession with to-do list apps?

I was wondering the same. I tried using a few of them over a period of time but after a while I'd lose the discipline and stop using them completely. I felt that instead of making me more productive, they were just introducing more overhead into my life for things that I was already able to handle by myself. I don't have a problem prioritizing and remembering tasks in my life, so apps like that end up being more expensive to me in terms of time and energy than using nothing at all. They just feel gimmicky. And if something is so unimportant that I can't remember I have to do it, then it's probably not worth doing at all.

As for the list... it's funny the way it caters mostly to iOS users. I understand that the journalist who put together the list probably uses a Mac and owns an iPhone, but this just reeks of unprofessionalism.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com