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Vox Pop: To-dos on your iPhone?

As noted by John Gruber and Living with Mac, the iPhone doesn’t currently appear to have built-in support for “to-dos” – even the modest task support that’s built-in to OS X’s iCal. :-(

While this is difficult for me to understand (I know it’s something I’d expect in even a Gen 1 smart phone), it’s cool to see that web- and Mac-based developers are stepping up to the plate in the absence.

A few of the apps I’ve seen so far (and in varying states of reality and vapor):

  • Ta-da Lists - The wonderfully simple app from 37 Signals has been quickly adapted into a lovely iPhone-friendly interface.
  • do.Oh - Boy genius, Ben Brown, has whipped together a snazzy looking chunk of func for basic task and list management.
  • @task for iPhone - Looks pretty sexy, but the site is light on info, pricing, and availability (without filling in a goofy form).
  • Nozbe – Announced, but I haven’t seen what this looks like yet. Supposedly coming this week.
  • OmniFocus - (Disclosure: I contribute to this project) - Although it’s still in very early and buggy development (even for an Alpha), our friends at OmniGroup were quick to add an HTML front-end to context view that can be served over your Mac.

I’m sure there are others that I’m missing (which I hope you’ll share in comments), and I know this is something that’s a priority for a lot of you proud new iPhone owners: What are you using to manage actions from your iPhone? What would a home run look like in terms of future, built-in to-do support for the iPhone?

Rick's picture

what does my preferred solution...

what does my preferred solution look like? The last thing I want is another standalone app to manage tasks. Why? Because it forces me to do one of two things:

  1. Change my entire task management process from what I use now to an entirely different application, or…

  2. Extract those tasks I want to see on my iPhone and manage them in a different system than all my other tasks.

Option 1 ain’t going to happen, and option 2 is utterly contrary to good GTD practices.

Right now I’m using iGTD and I really like it. Tried demoing OmniFocus, but I simply can’t use it until it’s Mail integration is in place. Email is too heavy a part of my workflow to bother testing without it. Now here’s the thing, I would optionally like to get access to all my tasks via my iPhone, but at its core what I’d like to be able to do is sync only certain contexts to the phone. I don’t need to see my @Office tasks on my phone. I’m at the office and presumably I have my laptop. Same with @Home tasks. But I would REALLY like to see @Phone and @Errands so that when I’m out and about I can deal with those tasks.

In iGTD I can select those contexts to sync with iCal and omit the others. All I really want is for the iPhone to sync with ALL of iCal. I don’t understand why this is a big deal. It’s running the full OS, right? Just give me what is already there and I’ll be reasonably happy.

So it’s great that these other apps are appearing, it’s a great sign. But I’d like something that syncs with iCal so I’m not managing in multiple places. And what I really want is iGTD on my iPhone. Will take a hard look at OmniFocus when it’s functionality set is in place.

 
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Inbox Zero

The original 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way. Don’t miss the free video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero presentation.

Making Time

3-part series on attention management for artists and makers. Read Bad Correspondence, The Job You Think You Have, and One Clear Line.