To-Do or Not To-Do?

remindersby Seth Rogovoy

I’ve been using Apple’s built-in Reminders app to create daily to-do lists. This is kind of a work-around use of the app, as it really is made for what the name suggests – for setting up reminders to yourself, a feature that I actually rarely use. So it’s kind of a clunky solution to a vexing problem – how to create and edit daily to-do lists, and other lists such as long-term projects, shopping lists, etc.

The advantage of using Reminders is that it syncs to all of my Apple devices – MacBook Air, iPad, iPhone – so that if I add something to a shopping list on my laptop, it will be there on my phone when I arrive at the grocery store.

But there are a few disadvantages, too – as I noted above, this list is a workaround use of reminders, and I have to consciously avoid, for example, adding a time of day to any item, because if you add a time the app automatically wants to turn it into a reminder (which I only occasionally, if rarely, want to happen, especially with my to-do lists which aren’t time-dependent for the most part, but merely lists of things I need to tick off each day).

The other disadvantage is that I do have a Windows desktop that I work at for large parts of the day, and I can’t access my Reminders-based lists from it. Also, it’s kind of clunky to create these daily lists – surely there’s an app that does this for you? That is to say, that is MEANT to be used as a to-do list and that integrates with a calendar, that automatically presents you with a daily-based list function?

So now you understand my criteria for the perfect to-do list app. I’m hoping that YOU will have a better solution for me.

I’m wondering if it is Evernote? Does Evernote have a built-in to-do list feature? I can’t tell. I already use Evernote, primarily for its awesome “web clipper” feature – if you don’t know about this, you should – you can set up all your web browsers with this app that allows you to save a link to any web page merely by clicking an icon on your toolbar, and the page is automatically indexed into an inbox-like page in Evernote (which you can access online or offline).

But again, what I really want to know is, for those of you like me who are slaves to to-do lists, who have so many different things going on each day that there’s no way you can keep track of it all in your head, who basically can’t function without them – what app do you use?

Yeah, I know, I used to use a pad and paper, too. But that’s just so 19th century….

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