For a tool to be considered, it has to have these features:

  • Cross platform: I do my work on a macbook and my primary phone is android. At home I use an ubuntu machine. Therefore, cross-platform is a must
  • Create lists

Wunderlist

This tool has been great so far, however it’s going to be retired soon in favor of Microsoft To-Do. The replacement looks promising, however it’s still in early stage, and its integration with MS suite means that there would be a lot of baggage for using this app.

Pros:

  • easy to use
  • simple interface
  • task reminder. While this seems to be an obvious feature, it’s not (more on this later)

Cons:

  • Going to be retired soon
  • Can’t archive lists. This mean when you want to reuse a list, you will have to keep it forever. I’d like to keep my list of item list for each trips separated, but I don’t like keeping them around once the trip is done. Something like google keep archive feature would be nice

Todoist

Pros:

  • Highest rated to-do app in google play

Cons:

  • Needs to pay for task reminder. This is ridiculous
  • The list interface is weird. You click one and it doesn’t go into detail view. Instead, it shows a menu at the bottom to have a bunch of options for the task (like completing the task)
  • Bad UX in general

AnyDo

Switching from Wunderlist to AnyDo is quite a pain because their interfaces are different

Pros:

  • Have most of must-have features
  • In 1 list it has 4 sublist: today, tomorrow, soon, some day. A task which is added into a corresponding list is set due date according to the list due. This is a nice feature which is from GTD book

Cons:

  • Reminder interface sucks. It doesn’t allow you to set reminder for a particular time
  • Overal interface looks futuristic but usability is terrible. One has to click multiple time to get to where the target list is, and going back is even worse

Ticktick

Pros:

  • Able to import tasks from Wunderlist!