Master to-do list app

From notepads to digital to-do list apps, the world has changed drastically. Fully-enabled, powerful to-do list apps not only offer quality assistance for task management but improve your productivity too.

Therere lots of to-do list apps available. Some of these apps are free, some are fee-based, but the primary objective of all of them is to offer classic task scheduling assistance to help you manage and finish the tasks with ease and on time.

Yes, many apps offer many of the same features but are these features useful for you? Do all these apps offer the level of assistance you need to keep your life on track?

Before getting you the list of the best to-do list apps, lets get to know how to choose the best one for yourself:

Statistics suggest that there are 17 million to-do list software applications and websites available but not all of them will be useful for you.[1]

So, where do you begin to choose the best to do list app for your needs?

First, define your method of task management:

• How do you assign your tasks to the group?
• What is your task completion and notification process?
• Do you allow others to add additional details or like to keep the task details short?
• How do you keep a record of your tasks?

Answer these questions first in order to determine the best task management method for you.

Almost every app offers a simple to-do list feature, like organizing a grocery list.

However, if you want to add subtasks, attachments as well as additional details to existing tasks, which is typical for teams working collaboratively on a project, you need a more powerful project management platform.

Below is the list of some of the best to-do list apps to let you organize tasks with ease and improve productivity.

From simple task scheduling to detailed task management, all these apps offer everything you need for better tasks management.

1. Todoist

Todoist has been on the market for a long time now. However, its features arent out-of-date in any way. It offers various features to organize or add color-coded labeling to your task.

The app is also beautifully designed. It allows you to create sub-tasks, projects, sub-projects and dependencies. You can even add deadlines to a particular project and label your lists with different colors. It will keep you on track if youve been on a goal setting mission.

Moreover, Todoist has integrations with other services such as Sunrise Calendar, IFTTT, and Google Drive.

Cost Free | $3 per month or $29 per year

Available on Web | Android | iOS | Windows | Chrome

2. Any.do

This is one of the most beautiful and well-designed apps on the list, Any.do offers a drag-and-drop interface with the ability to swipe tasks to mark them complete.

But some of the key differentiators, like getting push notification in the morning about all the schedulings of the day, make it one of the preferred choices.

Other features like deleting the task just by shaking your phone and adding tasks through voice command provide any.do a nice modern look and feel.

Apart from its attractive and intuitive user interface, its integration with Alexa and Slack allow you to collaborate with ease.

Cross-platform availability and superb scheduling assistant make this a perfect choice for effective task management.

Cost Free | Premium from $2.09/month

Available onWeb | Android | iOS | Chrome

3. Microsoft To Do

Previously, Microsoft had bought the popular to-do list app Wunderlist and it was concluded that the Redmond-based company will be focusing on it wholeheartedly. However, Microsoft has come up with a brand new to-do list app, Microsoft To Do, and the future of Wunderlist is uncertain

Microsoft To Do, as mentioned earlier, is a brand new task scheduling app, which offers almost all the features of an ideal to-do list app. Its intuitive UI and themed structure provide smooth and efficient task scheduling.

As offered by Microsoft, the app is fully compatible with Windows 10 and offers a UWP supported app in the Windows store.

Cost Free

Available on Web | Android | iOS | Windows

4. Habitica

Habitica is an habit-building app, which is available on major platforms like Android and iOS. It beautifully gamifies your life by turning tasks and to-do lists into a role-playing game.

You can buy different weapons and level yourself up by crossing tasks off your list. However, your character loses powers and health if you ignore tasks or fail to complete them in the decided timeframe. Thats not all. The app provides an extremely useful feature for sharing your tasks with your friends and brings competitiveness into the whole task completion process.

Cost Free

Available on Web | Android | iOS | Chrome

5. Google Keep

Google, for a long time, has been struggling to produce a better productive app. With Google Keep, it has successfully delivered a competitive app to the market. Google Keep is a simple note-taking and to-do list app. It offers simple and intuitive functionality with colored labeling and team sharing.

Moreover, as a Google product, Google Keep is fully integrated with other Google offerings such as Google Docs and Gmail, which makes it extremely helpful.

You can share your Google Keep notes with team members to work in collaboration on small projects. Google Keep will automatically display working notes or lists for a particular task until you archive it or are done working with it, which makes arranging all your lists extremely easy.

Cost Free

Available onWeb | Android | iOS | Chrome

6. Google Tasks

Google Tasks is a newly released task scheduling app from Google, which is fully integrated with Gmail, Google Calendar and other productive apps offered by Google.

A simple and intuitive app with Googles material design, Google Tasks let you add tasks in Gmail without opening a new window on your desktop. This proves extremely helpful when you need to add an email as a task and be reminded about it later.

Google Tasks, which is also available for free on Android and iOS e, allows you to check your schedule on your mobile devices and stay updated at every step.

Cost Free

Available onAndroid | iOS

7. GTasks

GTasks is one of the most popular and highly rated to-do list apps on Google Play. While the app is available to download for free, users are able to make various in-app purchases.

The free version offers some shiny features such as Google Tasks sync, widgets, and voice-enabled task scheduling. The pro version, on the other hand, offers additional security with a pattern lock, task scheduling with Google Now, and many others.

GTasks is best for people who are looking for a simple but effective to-do list app.

Cost Free [in-app purchases]

Available onAndroid | iOS

8. Memorigi

Memorigi, a brand new to-do list app not only presents a nice and intuitive material design UI. It also offers some extremely useful features like cloud sync, reminders, and weather integration, which provides you with real-time weather information.

Although it may take time to familiarize yourself with the apps unique horizontal structure, the Facebook Messenger-like floating chat heads for each to-do list improves the flexibility of adding tasks.

Memorigis free version should be enough for most users as it offers almost all the features necessary for basic task scheduling. However, you can opt for the premium plan which starts from $1.99 per month.

Cost Free | Starts from $1.99 per month

Available onAndroid

9. OmniFocus 3

OmniFocus 2, for iOS users, is the best to-do list app and worth the price tag as it comprehensively organizes all your tasks.

Color-coded labels make it easy for you to add and identify the task and get it into your inbox. The ability to add tasks in different folders or lists makes managing your tasks even more efficient in OmniFocus 2.

The complexity of this apps interface may be challenging to some users. But its this app the perfect choice for all you power users out there.

Cost Basic $39.99 | Pro $79.99

Available oniOS

10. Things 3

Things 3 is another basic to-do list app which aims at solving all your task scheduling worries. It is one of the most simple and attractive apps on the list.

It is a decent option for iOS users when it comes to task scheduling as it offers Google Chrome extension and keeps you updated in the browser while working.

However, according to The Verge review, this simplicity can be a big turn off for many. According to reviewers, Things 3 also lacks intuitiveness and is not worth its price tag.

Cost $9.99

Available oniOS | Chrome

11. ClickUp Manage Teams & Tasks

ClickUp is a task and project management app that offers plenty of practical features including goal setting templates, checklists, documents and storage space.

One thing thats worth highlighting is that it adapts Scrum Sprint to help boost personal and team productivity. You can set a unique point value to each task to measure points in each sprint. You can also easily manage Sprints to measure how well you scoped out work and automatically move tasks to the next Sprint.

The downside of the app is, however, its many features, which could be a bit complicated for some users and would take some work to on board a team.

You can download its free version to enjoy its basic features with 100MB storage, or pay $9 per month for unlimited storage and custom features.

Available on Web | Android | iOS

12. TickTick

TickTick allows you to add tasks, subtasks, custom reminders, deadlines, as well as recurring tasks for a day, a week, or a month.

In order to provide you more ease in task scheduling, TickTick, in its pro version, offers a nice calendar view, where you can add or edit tasks on a weekly or daily basis. It also has experimental features, which you can turn on if you want to try out beta capabilities.

Along with iOS and Android apps, TickTick does offer Windows as well as Mac apps for better assistance in task management.

Cost $2.79 per month

Available on Web | Android | iOS | Chrome

13. Ayoa

Ayoa, another team and task management app, provides world-class assistance in coordinating all your projects. Ayoa, a versatile task management app, also offers the best visual coordination with color-based linked circles.

Cost Free

Available onWeb | Android | iOS | Windows

14. Remember The Milk

One of the oldest to-do list apps, Remember The Milk, is a simple tool to add, organize and finish the tasks in the easiest way possible.

Remember The Milks smart listings help you to identify all the tasks that have due dates for the week. Along with automated task prioritization, simple, intuitive and easy UI is one of the best features of the app.

Integration with Google Calendar, Outlook, and Gmail allows you to see and update all your tasks in the app and offers omnichannel assistance.

Cost Free | $39.99 per year

Available on Web |Android|iOS|Chrome

15. TeuxDeux

Almost all to-do apps let you schedule your tasks for the day. But how about organizing all the tasks for a week? Thats where TeuxDeux differs from others. This useful app lets you schedule and organizes all your tasks for the whole week.

Just add the tasks below the day column and you are done. Want to move a task from one column to another? No worries. Its drag-and-drop interface lets you rearrange the task and add it to different days column.Additionally, TeuxDeux lets you add repeating tasks for a day.

Cost $3 per month

Available onWeb |iOS

16. Focuster

Focuster is an automated task scheduling application, which makes it the first of its kind.

With Focuster, you just need to add all your tasks in the left sidebar and the tool automatically will arrange them according to their priority. After adding all the tasks, just press the Now button and the tool will show the tasks you should be focusing on for the day.

Apart from offering automated task listing, Focuster comes with numerous integrations, which makes it one of the most powerful to-do list apps.

Cost Starts from $9.99/month

Available onWeb | Chrome

17. Momentum

Momentum is a browser-based start page and to-do list app, which is available as an extension on popular web browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

It offers a new wallpaper every day when you open a browser with amazing features such as to-do listing, Bing and Google search, weather reports, time and unique inspirational quote.

Momentum offers to-do listing and syncing between devices in its free plan, although most of its useful features are available in its premium version. These features include autofocus, notes, work hours, reminders, and many more.

Momentum is best for users who spend most of their time browsing the internet and need assistance on quickly adding tasks and taking notes.

Cost Free | $2.50 per month

Available on Chrome | Firefox

18. Asana

Asana is a business-oriented to-do list app. It is best suited for larger teams who collaborate often.

It offers some of the best features available, such as task categories, tagging options, and deep sorting, in addition to numerous ways to add extra information to a task.

One of the features I like most about this app is that it offers a separate thread for each task, which solves all of your communication worries. You can share or discuss a task with only those involved, without disturbing others.

Asana does offer a decent number of features in its free plan but the pro version is way more useful and best fit for a large-sized team.

Cost Free | $9.99 per user per month

Available onWeb | Android | iOS

19. Basecamp

Basecamp is one of the most popular applications for task management. In its fully-enabled project management tool, Basecamp offers business-oriented features such as milestone management, file sharing, time tracking, and forum-like messaging.

Basecamps to-do list feature works much like Asana, which offers separate threads for each task. You can assign the task to team members with due dates and add details for the task in the form of comments.

Even though Basecamp is a fully premium app, you can use its 30-day free trial by signing up through with your email address.

Cost Starts from $99/ month

Available onWeb | Android | iOS

20. Trello

Trello, a popular to-do list app and task management tool, offers features like drag-and-drop functionality and color-coded labeling. It also lets you organize your tasks in the most efficient way possible.

It follows its own boards and cards structure, which allows you to segregate all your projects [boards] and then add tasks and subtasks [cards] into it. In cards, it offers the ability to add notes, checklists as well as deadlines.

A nice and shiny calendar view of the app shows you all your tasks for the day, which is just amazing. Trellos integration with popular applications such as Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive makes it the first choice for large businesses.

Cost Free | Business class $9.99 per user per month | Enterprise $20.83 per user per year

Available onWeb | Android | iOS| Windows

The Bottom Line

Using a to-do list app is one of the easiest methods of task management. They offer complete control over adding, organizing, and finishing tasks in a jiffy.

Additionally, to-do list apps ensure that task recording is being done properly and they monitor the progress of the project as well as your team. However, you need to do your research to find the best to-do list app or task management platform for you depending upon your requirements.

Choose the best to-do list app for you from the list to make task management easy and simple. All these apps also let your teamwork with tightly aligned coordination, which helps improve productivity.

More Productivity Apps for Better Time Management

• 18 Best Time ManagementAppsand Tools
• 15 OrganizationAppsto Boost Your PersonalProductivity
• 40 TopProductivity Appsfor iPhone

Featured photo credit: Unsplash via unsplash.com

When the 1st generation iPhone came out in the summer of 2007, it has changed the way people interacted with technology. Suddenly, everyone was connected online at all times of day, playing games, catching up on email, or researching where they want to go to lunch, all while walking down the street. While elements of the iPhone were, and in many ways still are, a distraction, iPhone apps streamline productivity and put greater capabilities at your fingertips too.

Wearables are the latest trend that wants to pervasively integrate technology into your daily routine. The average employee checks their phone every three minutes,[1] for a total of 200 times a day. Some of those checks may be for a purpose, but many are simply habitual. The Apple Watch has the potential to bring your focus back to productive tasks through apps that funnel only important information right to your wrist!

Many of these apps have desktop counterparts, but to keep them functional on an interface as small as a watch, app designers have kept the psychology of wearables[2] in mind and stripped the app down to its core, most basic function and streamline its processes for ease-of-use.

If youre looking to boost your productivity in 2016, here are 7 essential Apple Watch apps that you should be using today:

1.Do Button

Created by IFTTT [If This, Then That] for the Apple Watch, Do Button allows you to set up recipes for communication between apps or devices in the simple setup of if this happens, then that will happen scenarios. The possibilities are nearly endless. Whether its automatically uploading new documents to Dropbox every time you use a task manager or connecting your smart home devices to your wrist, there are numerous ways Do Button can boost your productivity through the automation of simple tasks.

2.Evernote

Evernotes app for Apple Watch is the easiest way for you to keep track of new information as you learn it. With the push of a button, you can dictate a message to the app, and Evernote will translate it to text and save it for later. You can also use voice search to find a specific note in the app, making navigation much more manageable despite the Apple Watchs small screen. If you need a quick reminder of something later that day, you can schedule notes to be sent to your watch screen too.

3.Slack

Slack is known for its incredibly popular and colorful desktop app that serves as a chat platform for teams with a need for multiple communication channels. If your chat is very active, this app could very well distract you more than it aids you. However, for the Apple Watch, Slack pares down its functionality somewhat and limits access to messages, so users can keep their sanity. The app will only notify you of direct messages or mentions. This means that if someone needs to get ahold of you to ask a question or vice versa, they can, but you wont be overwhelmed by group chatter either.

4.Swipes

The organizational tool Swipes utilizes an elegant interface to funnel your to-do list directly to you. The app sets itself apart from other task management apps by focusing on your priorities. Users can connect their tasks and assignments across different platforms and communication channels and send actionable tasks directly to their Apple Watch to make sure that they keep track of all their projects. Perhaps the most useful feature of Swipes is that users can customize snooze options and task types, so, for example, you could snooze any communications-related tasks during Tuesday afternoons to give you a chunk of time to work on personal projects without being distracted by other responsibilities.

5.Productive

Similar to a task management application, Productive lets you schedule your days around your priorities and can act as an aid to remind you of tasks that need completing. However, beyond task management, Productive is a habit tracker. Want to start waking up an hour earlier to build that side project youve been talking about? Productive will send a reminder to start the task to your Apple Watch, and if youre ready to begin, you tap the message. To encourage increased productivity in the future, the app will show you how many days youve met your goal in a row, pushing users to meet the challenges they set themselves.

6.1Password

Tired of entering the same passwords, again and again, every time you log on? 1Password can save you that hassle by keeping all of your log-in information in one place and then letting users sign into their accounts with just a single tap on your Apple Watch. The app utilizes a browser extension and many supported mobile apps to autofill users information into sign-in fields. Youll never have to type again, just swipe and tap on the watch. While keeping all of your information in one app sounds risky, 1Password is encrypted and possesses strong security measures to make sure your treasure trove of private information isnt discovered by anyone else.

7.CloudMagic

CloudMagic, an email app with over 4 million users, has made waves with both critics and users for its speed and minimal design. With its latest addition of an Apple Watch extension, the best email app for desktop and mobile brings its platform to your wrist. CloudMagic is faster, more efficient, and boasts a better interface than any other email tool out there. The app integrates with every main email platform too, and you can save your emails to a number of different apps. If you need to check email on a regular basis, you dont have to look any farther than at the CloudMagic on your wrist.

Boosting your productivity through an Apple Watch is as much a matter of understanding your needs as it is using apps for efficiency. If you dont need a to-do list or the ability to chat anytime with co-workers, then those apps will prove a distraction to you rather than help you become more productive. Explore different combinations of apps for the Apple Watch to find out what helps you stay productive most effectively, and use them to your advantage to respond faster, stay on top of your schedule, and get more done.

Featured photo credit: Shinya Suzuki via flic.kr