Keeping track of tasks allocated to your business and personal life can be an unmitigated nightmare. You can use some desk-based systems such as Outlook and Time and Chaos that sync with various PDA/mobile phone combinations but are difficult to sync with on-line systems such as Google. At the moment there is no definitive all rounder but the on-line services are dominated by Remember The Milk and Toodledo with others like Task.fm playing catch up.
Remember the Milk and Toodledo are both very different in their approach with RTM concentrating on task management whereas Tooledo veers off in a broader direction embracing areas such as life goals, etc.
Toodledo offers a number of facilities not covered by RTM such as folders, notebooks and then offers more in the Pro and Pro Plus options covered here. Toodledo also has a lot of hidden options that do not make themselves apparent until you start digging into the help file. For a start you have to enable the facility that enables you to email tasks to your account; this is done automatically in RTM. However, once you use the specialist syntax this works well. Also, when you go into account settings and start adding options then the real estate scrolls off my screen.
Add on Gadgets
In the free version the goals module is basic to say the least, but with the paid for pro version you can keep track of the progress in each of your goals by seeing how many of your completed tasks contribute to each one. There is a good selection of add on “gadgets” that enable you to keep track of your Toodledo tasks in Firefox, on Google Calendar and Gmail, on your mobile phone and via Twitter.
As with anything to do with choice it all boils down to personal preferences and I found Toodledo too unintuitive and with too much hidden under layers of preferences and settings.
Remember The Milk on the other hand is easy to use because of its Zen Minimalist approach that ensures everything you need sits on the screen without wandering off the edge. Essentially the RTM screen is split into two with the left hand containing four tabbed modules of inbox (you can email tasks to RTM like Toodledo) , personal, work and sent which are pretty self explanatory.
Below that are buttons and drop down menus so you can complete, postpone, change priorities, share tasks, delete them and move them to another tabbed section,ie from personal to work. Below that are filters so you can chose to see tasks that are allocated to specific time scales, ie today, tomorrow, next week.
On the right of the tabbed module area is an area where you can see the properties of the ticked task. These properties can be allocated when creating a task of by editing them later. So if I create a basic task “Meet with Joe Tuesday” The task is created with the following Tuesday being taken as the chosen date. Once created I can edit the task by allocating a postcode to where the meeting is due to be held and it will track it via Google maps. This isn’t that straightforward but it is out of RTM’s hands. If I type in a local postcode with CA for Carlisle Google someone tracks an address in California.
From this right section of the screen you can add tags, create notes, share it with an individual (this has to be another RTM user) link to URLs , etc.
There is a wide range of bolt on goodies, some of which are chargeable if you want to wirelessly sync your RTM with your iPhone, Blackberry, Android or Windows Mobile. Sadly there is nothing for the millions of Symbian users.
You can also link RTM with Gmail, Google Calendar, iGoogle, NetVibes, Jott – the list goes on and I am not going to get RSI by typing them all – you can see the full complement here. The added bonus to me is that RTM integrates with my desktop calendar called Rainlendar which I have reviewed here.
I prefer Remember The Milk because of its simplicity but powerful options whereas Toodledo seems too complex and fiddly. This isn’t to say Toodledo is a bad task management package, it just isn’t for me whereas other readers may find it the perfect fit.
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