AppBITS: Sorted Seems Moribund
I’m a sucker for task management apps. I always fall for their promise to help me organize the tasks I want to accomplish, with the strong suggestion that doing so will actually lead to getting them done. Over the years, I’ve tried more of these apps than I can count, but none have stuck, because they always require too much effort. When I get busy, I just sit down and do the work and forget about planning. The deadline or email in front of me today always feels more urgent than some idea I had yesterday.
Nearly all my tasks fall into two main groups. The first consists of small tasks that usually take only a few minutes. The hard part is remembering to do them, which I do with Reminders by telling Siri to “Remind me to call the car repair shop tomorrow at 9 AM.” The reminder then generates a notification that I dismiss once I’ve completed the task. (Problems arise when I can’t get to the task or delay it too long.) The second group includes larger projects that take hours to complete, sometimes over several days, such as writing articles, managing my websites, and house projects. Managing these in Reminders works poorly because they need to fit into my overall daily schedule and take too long to finish.
There’s also a third category: calendar events, which occupy fixed parts of my daily schedule. I might start the day with the best intentions of achieving a major writing goal, only to find that I have an appointment that will break up the workday.
Looking for a Task Manager
Recently, while trying to wrap my head around the best way to juggle these tasks, I tested several promising task management programs, including Agenda, NotePlan, and Structured. Agenda and NotePlan provided scheduling features, but were too focused on notes. I’m still searching for the right app to help me record information I want to revisit later, but they’re not it, and their emphasis on notes muddied the scheduling features for me.
Structured, on the other hand, was extremely interesting because it allowed me to organize even small tasks in a specific order, making it easier to work through them. The problem with Structured was that it required me to specify when I would start each task and how long it would take to complete. That’s more meta-work than I want to do, especially when some tasks might take minutes and others an unknown number of hours. I might have a task like calling the car repair shop to set up an appointment, but I don’t care when it happens during the morning, and it’s not worth setting it to take five minutes in the interface. Simultaneously, articles always seem to take longer than I expect.
Overall, these apps suffer from having too many features. I want something sufficiently lightweight that managing my daily schedule doesn’t require blocking out extra time to do so.
Using Sorted as a Bula Board
Eventually, I realized that I wanted something more like a bula board, a concept I encountered years ago during a family vacation at a resort in Fiji. The bula board was a large board that laid out the day’s activities in order, but generally without specific times. The idea was that things would happen, but you shouldn’t stress about the exact timing. (In Fijian, “bula” means “life,” “health,” “livelihood,” or “well-being”—an apt concept for a tool designed to bring calm, structure, and clarity to daily life. It’s also commonly used as a greeting—similar in function to “hello,” but literally wishing someone life or health, which is a nice way to think about starting the workday.)
I wanted a simple list of tasks that I could quickly drag into a desired order around my calendar events. After more searching, I stumbled across Sorted. It automatically pulls in events from Calendar and tasks from Reminders, marking them as done there. After importing tasks, Sorted adds them to the specified day or, if there’s no associated date, to a general Inbox. On a given day, you can drag the tasks around the fixed-time events to put them in your preferred order; there’s also a more granular scheduling system that looks quite easy but doesn’t interest me.
Unusually, Sorted allows you to mark both tasks and events as completed, with completed items either moving to the bottom of the list or being hidden entirely, based on your settings. Watching your list shrink helps you feel like you’re being productive throughout the day. Sorted also offers widgets that display the day’s task list or the Inbox, ensuring that it stays forefront in your mind throughout the day. Uncompleted tasks roll over to the next day, though I sometimes reschedule them manually to clear the widget at the end of the day.
I could tell you a lot more about Sorted, but as much as I like it, I can’t recommend it. Even though it’s free to download and use, an in-app purchase is required to access Pro features, including the option to sync between the iPhone and Mac versions. After my Pro trial ended, I was almost ready to pay $35.99 for its Pro bundle of both apps, but Sorted helpfully suggested that I could extend the trial, so I did. That’s when my problems started.
Somehow, the Mac and iPhone versions got out of sync during that time, even though both claimed they were under the extended trial, and my query to Sorted support went unanswered. After the extended trials expired, the option to purchase the Pro bundle for both versions remained unavailable. When I tried to find out why, I discovered that the company’s support site had been disabled due to a lack of payment. Further investigation revealed that the Mac app hadn’t been updated in 2 years, the iPhone and iPad versions last received updates 8 months ago, the link to the company’s public Slack workspace was broken, the last social media posts from the company’s official accounts were from 2023, and on LinkedIn, the company’s co-founder and COO lists Sorted as a job held from January 2016 through January 2024. Multiple email messages also went unanswered. In the inimitable words of Monty Python, I think Sorted is an ex-parrot.
Since I don’t trust that Sorted will sync properly even if I could buy the Pro version on both the Mac and iPhone, I’m currently using it solely on the iPhone, although with its iPhone widgets on my macOS desktop. Clicking them opens Sorted via iPhone Mirroring, which is clumsy but functional.
Still, it clearly doesn’t make sense to rely on Sorted in any meaningful way moving forward. So, here’s my question: do you know of any task management apps that work on the Mac and iPhone, integrate with Reminders and Calendar, and offer a daily combined task and event list where items can be rearranged and checked off? (The daily view in most calendar apps isn’t sufficient because it wants to indicate how much time is between a 9 AM appointment and a 6 PM dinner, which I don’t care about—I just want a straightforward list of tasks and events.) Maybe I’m unusual in this desire, but I’ll bet others would appreciate learning about such tools as well.
This post speaks to me because I have struggled with exactly the same thing. I wish I had an answer for you, but I think you’ve tried everything. Fantastical is the best third party choice that gets closest, and I have tried and want to like Structured.
The proper integration with the system calendar, reminders, etc is always the sticking point. Fantastical requires direct login, which often requires app specific passwords, it just gets messy.
Very recently I’ve decided to revisit the basics, because Apple has actually made a lot of improvements in this regard. Now that Reminders show in Calendar, the unified Today Calendar view suits this need.
As you allude to in your post, the real problem isn’t the program, it’s the mindset. I do the exact same thing, sit down to work and wind up either immediately checking off, putting off, or scheduling to the calendar.
If the Today view is properly scheduled and trimmed, and the Reminders folders are kept to a minimum, and the Calendar integration is used, this seems to fit the bill.
For me the bigger question is also one you mention, where to manage projects and come back to things you want to remember later.
Apple Notes is an obvious and good choice, and their export is getting better.
I worry about lock-in, so Obsidian combined with regular old Finder folders seems a straightforward solution.
I don’t think Obsidian is going anywhere, but I have the same worry as I’ve seen many task managers and other apps disappear or suddenly alter the agreement. Apple seems like the only safe choice, as once they make something it tends to stick around essentially forever.
This post wound up longer than I intended, I hope I helped more than I confused, but it’s a great topic for discussion as there is an abundance of choice but a good path isn’t entirely clear.
Once again, I find myself thinking about trying to go back to a paper Day-Timer pocket notebook for at least some of what I do. Maybe just keeping track of To-Dos and a mini diary.
I used to rely on a Day-Timer for everything from when I was in high school through graduate school. I found the habit of reviewing it at the start and end of every day, and also transferring incomplete tasks from one day to the next, to be very useful.
Somehow, I lost that habit when shifting to the digital world, and I haven’t been able to develop a comparably effective habit. Something about the digital world is too distracting.
I’ve been using OmniFocus from the beta testing days in 2007. It may be overkill, but it works great for me. It helps if you understand and agree with the “Getting Things Done” approach developed by David Allen, but I know others who use OmniFocus without ever having looked at GTD.
OF’s Forecast view includes tasks that are due today and calendar events. It also lets you optionally include tasks that are deferred to today (so they act like a tickler file), tasks that are flagged, and tasks that are tagged with a specific tag you choose. The GTD philosophy is that you should use due dates only for things that are actually due on a given date (i.e., there are bad consequences if you don’t do them), but the flag and tag options let you include things on the Forecast view even if they’re not technically due.
Right now OF doesn’t let you reorder items in Forecast, though I think that’s on their list of feature requests. My list is usually short enough that I don’t need to order it, just glance over it and do what I feel like doing. If you want to sort, though, you can enter due dates with the hour; it will sort something due at 1 pm above something due at 2 pm.
If that seems too complicated, perhaps you could look at TaskPaper? I haven’t tried it for well over a decade, but it still seems to be available, and because it uses plain text files, you’re not locked in.
I have Taskpaper on my Mac and the developer has a new app called Bike, an outliner, but he seems to be allergic to iPhone development. Some people have work-arounds but I am not using either. I am very keen to join the search.
Recently, I was searching for a text editor for IOS to read my BBEdit files — still working on that.
It does! From memory, I think this might have come in with version 4.
If you go to the View Options for the Forecast view, there’s a checkbox for ‘Keep sorted’. Turn this off, and you can drag any items in the forecast around to change their order, including moving them in between calendar events (the calendar events themselves remain in relative chronological order, as you might expect).
I have used Textastic for many years and been happy with it. It depends on what kinds of files you’re using BBEdit for and what you want to do with them, I suppose; I’ve also used Drafts occasionally, but that seems like overkill for most of my needs, and really aimed at more advanced workflows (though I do still use it regularly as a way to get text files displayed on my Apple Watch).
Oh, good point! I have Forecast set for “Organized”, which does not offer that option, but if I change it to “Flexible,” the option appears.
I like PaperCal which reproduces Week-at-a-glance pretty well. Also, Rock Daily Planner is an interesting planner for the iPad that works with Reminders, but also allows using the pencil to write notes.
I want to like OF, I really do. Version 3 has problems syncing reliably, read quickly, with Omni’s own service. I switched to WebDAV sync and thought that was the solution but there are times it barfs and only will sync if I open OF on iphone while attempting to sync on ipad. My question to @ogilvie is how good is the syncing on OF 4 if you’re using it?
I’m with you Adam. I thought Sorted was going to be the answer to my search for a task manager that also showed calendar events. I used Sorted’s ask for help in its settings and got a stock answer that said someone would reply shortly. Never got a reply. Then I discovered their support page was dead just as you did and same for Slack. I decided indeed, they were moribund. Found a thread on Reddit where someone also had posted they thought Sorted had been abandoned. That was all I needed and was glad I hadn’t spent the money to upgrade to pro. Too bad. Another nice app abandoned. Apple really should kill apps in the store when that has happened.
Here’s my reviews of quite a few ToDo apps:
Things: Mostly good. Doesn’t sync across devices without opening the app (see gTasks, below.) 20211201: The biggest problem, recurring, is after opening the Mac version, multiple completed tasks show up and have to be checked again. Unacceptable! (A known bug with no ETA to fix and this has been around for several years. 20220604: Opened Things on Mac for first time since 20211201. 24 already checked off tasks from at least 45 days ago were there.) But, while trying ToDoist and OmniFocus, still proves to be the best for iOS. Just cannot use on Mac (which really isn’t so problematic.) There was a recent glitch where the widget wouldn’t update. Had to open and close Things several times to get Things widget to update. 20230125: After trying OmniFocus, ToDoist and gTask Pro over the last couple of weeks, once again, I’ve returned to Things. 20230408: After a screwup on ipad m1, Things synced to extra stuff which shouldn’t be there. 20240412: Not frequently, but there are times when the widget on the home page will not show the day’s tasks. 20240413: Started to send a ticket to Things about the blank widget. There were troubleshooting tips for that which included deleting the widget, rebooting and adding the widget back. That worked. Things says this is an OS problem. I’m not convinced since forever when syncing on Mac the problem of older cleared tasks come back as not cleared. 20241016: After various slow downs and weird things with Fruux tasks in 2Do, Fantastical and BusyCal, have returned to Things which works across iDevices better seemingly (just don’t open the Mac app.) 20241018: Things doesn’t update across devices without opening the app. Running concurrently with Fantastical (using Fruux) that app is updated before opening. Definitely a plus. 20250417: Today the sync problem showed up on 12.9 iPad. 10 tasks which had been cleared elsewhere, not cleared there. WTF!!
gTasks Pro: Also good. No dark mode on iOS. Like Things, the badge is not cleared on other devices until the app is opened. Seemingly new, you can see calendar events as well. As of 20211204: DARK MODE & WIDGETS! The new number one which also was my second tasks app of long ago (first was Wunderlist which became MS ToDo and would be the runner up.) 20220209: For several days, when opening gTasks Pro the next morning, even though set to Today, have to click on Tomorrow and come back to Today to see that day’s tasks. 20230311: Still. 20230121: An observation: gTasks shows todays calendar events in the app badge where Things does not. 202301025: Syncing after opening the app, after clearing tasks elsewhere seems slower than Things. 20250417: App messes up when scrolling set date (double image.)
ToDoist: Recurring tasks are added via language (eg. ‘every other day’, ‘once a month on Sunday’) Can get used to that. Dark Mode! On overdue tasks, they do show in the Today view. As soon as deleted, they default to going to next occurrence which would be tomorrow. They don’t show today. Another + for Things. 20230123: The newest app seemingly no longer does notifications at the task. Only a group view for morning and evening. Probably shouldn’t mess with this anymore. 20250618: Looks like they’ve reinstated timely notifications. Worth a new look. Doesn’t show calendar events easily and maybe not at all in the free version.
Microsoft ToDo: My Day view shows ALL upcoming tasks. Switch to Planned view to choose Today, Tomorrow, Week, etc. views. Uses Dark Mode and can set a photo for background like Wunderlist did. Also plays a sound (ding) when task is completed. If I replaced Things, it would be with this. 20200908 —Not replacing Things. Like Wunderlist, if I miss a task on a day, it DOES NOT carry forward like Things does. I have to go into the Tasks list, find the uncompleted task, then check it. In Things, the uncompleted Task remains on Today’s tasks. Also, the counter from device to device is similar to Things, so due to the way ToDo handles missed Tasks, Things is preferable. 20220728: Like most MS products it simply is lacking in the privacy department. 20250418: On Mac or iPad in landscape view, have to create the task, then click on it in the list to add details such as due date, reminder, repeat, etc. A minor inconvenience, but if the sync problem which Things still has, is fixed it will be worth it (hopefully.) Does Not show local calendars!
Toodledo: No Dark mode. Always shows detail of last task added. Badges don’t clear til opened. Completed tasks continue to show on iPhone, cleared on iPad. When task is cleared its next occurrence shows immediately. So far, weakest app. When checking off a task, the task remains on screen unless one goes back to show in the toolbar and do another hide completed. Preferable action would be like Things or MS ToDo where checking a task removes it from the screen. 20211201: Completed tasks can be hidden on all devices via “Show” button at top. Like MS ToDo, uncompleted tasks have to be shown, not done automatically, and cleared. The indication is a daily task, such as take pills, won’t show on a new day til the previous one is cleared. This is still preferable to how ToDoist and OmniFocus will clear the missed task but not show the current task til the next day. 20250312: Toodledo shows the time of the task (where Things has to click on the task to see it) but does not show calendar events. Also, Notes copied from Apple Notes to Toodledo do not maintain text formatting. 20250417: No view of calendar events.
OmniFocus: Mostly good. Doesn’t sync across devices without opening the app. A little slow on syncing. Forecast shows today and today’s calendar. Missed tasks show in Forecast by looking at previous day. Repeating tasks need the right side details visible. 20211128: Seems like if I missed a task (Melatonin) the night before, then go back to previous day and clear it, it doesn’t carry over into the current day. Unfortunately, like ToDoist, the daily task missed, once cleared, does default to tomorrow. 20250514: A workaround is to go to the uncleared task the day before, and set the date to today. (This really is not a fix. When done, the task duplicates to the next day.) But, another possible fix is to create a single ToDo for the item such as Melatonin. 20220728: Tried again. Dismissed. Doesn’t update next day, has to be opened first. Slowest updates from device to device of all. 20230121: Tried again to love OmniFocus. Unfortunately it’s just not doable. The best thing I can say is it’s easy to keep the events, just delete due dates. Having to switch between Focus and Projects to get to Things to Buy and the length of time it takes OF to sync with Omni is just too darn slow. 20230505: The slowness, observed on the M1 iPad could have been because I was logged out of the Omni account for syncing. 20250504: Shows Calendar events. Have to go to Forecast, then click on the ‘eye’ to pick which calendars to show. Now setup to sync via WebDAV which once opened, syncs fairly quickly.
Apple Reminders: 20230123: Surprisingly, the sync time on this is as long (using iCloud) as OmniFocus. Other features, such as multiple lists all in the same place (unlike OmniFocus which makes one go in and out of Projects for other lists) is nice. But, the long sync time makes it a non-starter. 20230314: Changing to Fruux tasks still has long sync times (not improved over iCloud); No badge for number of Reminders!
TickTick: Sound when cleared; Some Task views are hidden by default: Tomorrow, Next 7 Days, All. Show these by tapping on icon in bottom right and Showing them. Can turn on show Calendar Events in prefs. Connecting to CalDav tasks is a premium choice; can connect to local calendars free. Like Things, Task Lists are specific within the app. Tapping on Notification brings up dialogue for Clear Now; Downside: like others, it can take a long time for tasks to sync between devices. 20240618: Updated on iPad; went back to iPhone, it was already updated! When trying to preserve tasks by clearing the due date, etc. one can go into the list, such as Regular Intervals, and see what tasks have due dates. Once one of these is cleared, in order to see other tasks in same list that would be cleared, have to click on another list, then come back to the first list to see the due date and clear it. This is a never ending process until all due dates are cleared. Overdue tasks don’t add to the badge count. 20240721: On a regular basis, I’ll clear a task on one device, it won’t be cleared on another. Additionally, on a regular basis, the widget shows uncleared tasks. 20240728: Non-syncing between devices for many minutes has lead to leaving TickTick and trying to go back to Fantastical again.
BusyCal: Liking some things about this. Calendar and tasks in one place. Much easier to setup repeating tasks here than in Things. Syncing between devices may be a tad slower than Things, but not as bad as OmniFocus or Apple Reminders. BusyCal updates across devices before opening whereas Things update across devices requires opening the app first. Periodically, a task won’t clear on iPad after being cleared on iPhone; with Fantastical, it is cleared. 20240615: I’ve always known BC was buggy. Today, it showed up in two places on the iPhone and on the iPad even with notifications on, there’s no badge icon. Put aside this day. Back to Fantastical for the time being. 20240917: It’s easy to accidentally clear more than one task by keeping a finger in place; then, one has to go into settings, Tasks and enable ‘Show Completed’, reboot the app, set the accidental clear back to unclear, reboot, go back into settings and turn ‘Completed Tasks’ off, reboot. This has happened twice in the last week. Might have to switch back to Fantastical.
Fantastical: Similar to BusyCal, nice to have everything in one place. Just like calendar events, tasks often show up in the next day’s badge without opening the app first. Nice. 20230701: After a month or so, this is the new ToDo app. One of the good things, it uses Fruux for Tasks. 20240616: Had to close this in order to get the right badge count. **20240616:**Regarding the note above for BusyCal, today Fantastical showed up on both the front page and the Con/Cal folder of the 11” iPad Pro; restarted and the Con/Cal one was gone. Maybe a problem with that device as per BusyCal? **20240728:**Trying to keep within one app and going back here after TickTick continues to have long periods where tasks don’t sync between devices. If this doesn’t work, back to Things. 20241016: Like how Fantastical shows the due time in the list; Things doesn’t do this.
2Do: Clean look. Can link to Fruux. In landscape view, can see and add calendar events. Can also get to Events on iphone by swiping left. 20240413: on the iPad, had the same behavior as gTask Pro; it opened to Today showing yesterday’s tasks cleared. Had to select another choice to get Today to show up. 20240414: The night before, chose something other than the Today view. Then tried to switch to Today, no go. Had to force quit the app then come back for the correct view.
Developed by same guy who took over BusyMac. 20241009: The schedule is not displaying correctly . A Mizzou football game for Saturday, not there. Switching back to BusyCal.
Sorted3: 20250418: New Trial. Potential. Updates between devices without having to open the app, a big plus ! Shows the times of the events. Shows calendar events within the timeline. Has a trial period, after which you have to buy the app to do iCloud Sync. But, the Premium version ($15) does show today’s count (including Calendar events) without opening the app. Also plays a tone when items are cleared, which can include Calendar items. 20250511: Seemingly the best overall sync. Other devices catch up almost immediately. Omnifocus, took a bit to catch up on both iPads. Probably worth the $15. this company may be going out of business their help site and their Slack place are both closed.
I’ve been using OmniFocus since the alpha tests in 2007, and on my iOS devices ever since the Omni Group released the app for them, and I haven’t had any syncing problems. There have been some times when I had to replace the database on my iPhone or iPad because it had been so long since I opened the app on them that the database was no longer current, but that’s on me; as a writer and professor, I tend to work on OF in my Mac.
I do an annual (more or less) archive of my OF database, which helps to keep it kind of lean, though at the moment I have 175 projects and 1309 actions… I rarely add attachments in OF, though; I prefer to link to files on my Mac.
I’d really love to have a ToDo app along the lines described by Adams.
Having tried them all (as most of you have), I couldn’t settle on any of them, and I ended up to have an Apple Notes.app pure text note, in which I juggle itemised todos, grouped in various way…
From time to time, I go back to my favourite todo app, which I didn’t see mentioned so far in this thread, and which is the closest to Adam’s dream.
This is GoodTask, which exists for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS; it syncs with Apple Reminders, and it is simple but powerful.
The reason I don’t use it is that I can not visually “compress” my todo lists, so that I can not have a complete overview [I know, I know, I’m picky…].
But, please, keep making suggestions in this thread, maybe each of us can find her/his own favourite app!
cheers
—e.
The problem for me with GoodTask (which I hadn’t heard of until this post) is that it won’t run without access to Reminders. I use Reminders ONLY for grocery lists, so don’t need or want that in my ToDo app. Thanks for making me aware of it, tho.
I wonder if the sync problem I see is because I MOSTLY use it on my iPhone or iPad not my Mac. Perhaps OF syncs better from Mac than it does from iDevices. I’ll happily pay my upgrade fee from OF 3 to 4 if the syncing issue is fixed completely.
i use OmniFocus. Mostly I just create items and look at them in Forecast view.
I also use the Project focus to set up small projects.
I do not attempt to adhere to the GTD way of life.
I see that this is a showstopper for you.
For me, on the other hand, is a plus, since I can see and deal with my tasks in other apps, and I am sure that I will never be locked in a todo app.
For example, I want to see my timed tasks in my main calendar app (Fantastical, but maybe this will change in the future), and other apps which create tasks.
I never use Reminders directly, it only serves as a standard hub for my todos.
—e.
Ignoring the sync to other devices thing, doesn’t Things sync to Calendar these days? I used to use it on both iPad and Mac for a job but had left that job when the update came so I missed it. But I thought that was one of the big features of the new version.
Yes, Things 3 does grab Calendar events. I used Things for years, but the big problem for me, is if I have Things on two iPads, Mac and iPhone and I’m using it mostly on iPhone, if I open Things on one of the other devices after a bit of time, Things database gets wonky and shows a bunch of already cleared tasks. It’s been this way for years and I’ve finally stopped using it for this silly un-sync reason.
A few years ago, I created my own electronic version of a Day Timer. I put everything on my calendar (I use Apple’s Calendar) even jf it doesn’t have/need a specific time. I also started a Pages document (named To Do), everything that goes on my calendar also goes on the To Do document, which always remains open on my Mac & is synced w/my iPhone & iPad. When I complete the task, I remove it from the To Do document and add Done to the task name on the calendar.
I use this system for everything: phone calls, appointments, errands, bills to pay, maintenance tasks in my home, etc. When I make a phone call, if there’s info I need to remember, I add it to the task entry in the calendar, so it’s always there. Granted, I am retired so I don’t have real “work” tasks to handle but I think it would work for “work” tasks as well. Does require maintenance but any scheduling system will require maintenance.
Works for me & I find it easier than adding another app to the mix.
I have yet to find the perfect solution for this, but the one that’s working for me at the moment is a combination of Todoist and Fantastical. The reason I particularly like this setup is that it isn’t specific to GCal, iCloud’s calendar, local Mac calendar, or a Caldav account – it just works regardless of whatever you’re using for a calendar service. I suspect you could create smart rules in Todoist that would ensure that only particular tasks show up via Fantastical, regardless of which project they may be in. The only other thought I have would be to somehow create an automation that automatically takes tasks with assigned dates from the task manager and adds them as all day events on the calendar. In this way, the tasks would show up on the right days without being boxed into a specific time.
I have been using TaskPaper for several years and absolutely love it even though there’s no companion iOS/iPadOS app. Because it’s plain text, if the developer stops developing it I will still be able to access my prior task lists.
I wish BBEdit would add TaskPaper support that would be grand.
It’s available on Setapp.
As for iOS apps, I do have my TaskPaper in the cloud and occasionally I refer to my current TaskPaper file in a plain text editor on iPhone. But the reality is I do almost all my deep, creative etc. work on my Mac.
When I want to add a task on iPhone, I tend to write it in Apple Notes and migrate it from there.
I have one TaskPaper file per year, (arranged hierarchically by quarter/month/week) plus for any project (e.g., if I write a substantial document, or for any new release of our Hookmark or mySleepButton app) I create a TaskPaper file.
I use Hookmark to create and link my TaskPaper file to what it’s about. (I wrote about it here years ago: How to Turn a TaskPaper File into a Project Information Hub – Hookmark). E.g., if there’s a substantial feature or bug in our Bugzilla instance, I do
Hook to New > TaskPaperto get a new tap file, and I write my todo’s there. I have naming conventions that let me randomly find my TaskPaper files using LaunchBar or I use Hookmark’s Bookmarks window. And of course because the TaskPaper file is hooked, I can instantly navigate to and from the Bugzilla issue page and the TaskPaper file.The TaskPaper developer is not doing anything with TaskPaper as far as I can tell, but it’s fine as is, and I assume he’d update it if macOS broke it. The developer is focusing on Hog Bay Software – Bike: Tool for thought, but that has a proprietary file format so it’s less future-proof than TaskPaper.
FWIW, I also use Reminders.
I have a bunch of content in OmniFocus too from past projects, and I occasionally use OmniFocus using the same tricks (
Hook to New, andHook to Copied Link). (How to Create Systematically and Stay “in the Zone” using OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle and Hookmark). If it weren’t for TaskPaper I’d be living in OmniFocus; it’s so powerful and works across devices.Oh one esoteric thing I do which I find keeps me focused. I use my free mySelfQuantifier spreadsheet to track my time. One or more row per project. When I switch projects I add a new row, filling in the start and later, the end, times. There’s a column for “goal”. Sometimes to keep myself focused I will briefly write the “goal” which is essentially a task description, in the appropriate cell of the row. Then when I’m done I might write the “result”, which lives in the column to the right of the goal. This is an example of integrating time management with time tracking. I use the Timing app to help me out. One could develop a way to copy the project from OmniFocus, represented as a path, and paste it in mySelfQuantifier. ( Not really feasible for TaskPaper.) ( mySelfQuantifier is a spreadsheet I developed [and share for free] for time tracking; it is used with Timing app or other similar app.) I would love to see an integration between OmniFocus and Timing, where the projects in OmniFocus are reflected in Timing – i.e., both Timing and OmniFocus have project lists. My propsal is for Timing to pull its project list from OmniFocus or Things That might bring me back to OmniFocus. (I still think OmniFocus is a genius app.)
I rarely use my physical notebooks, but for whatever reason I sometimes find it convenient. (I have notebooks in several rooms, and if needed I take a photo of the page so I can use it at my Mac.)
As for Todoist: no AppleScript, can’t be automated on Mac side. Not a fan.
I use Microsoft ToDo. You can create groups and have it behave similarly to the Steven Covey quadrant organization, which is an excellent way of setting priorities. It is also cross platform and can be accessed from a browser. It is also syncing with Apple Reminders while it being anemic can sometimes be useful. While it does have some shortcomings as most of its competitors also have, it is solid, works reliably and is reasonably easy to customize for your needs. Also, one cannot argue about the price as it is free.
Since you mentioned TaskPaper, I recalled that Drafts has a sort of “task” text based mode, which could synchronise with Reminders.
Anybody with experience regarding Drafts as a task manager?
—e.
Use: Notes.app
Why: It’s simple and syncs well across devices.
I have a list of the week days, then manually add-in quickie events taken from my calendar for the week on the Sun before the next week, it takes just two minutes to do that weekly. Quick timed tasks are not calendared anyway. They’re in rough order of need/time, with day task(s) at top. I may set a manual alarm at beginning of day for a time later that day so I don’t miss something important.
I then strike-through after each task done, so I can see I actually did something at the end of day before deleting it, which helps keep your morale up that something got done!
Then I have bottom bit of the same note, I keep expecting things, and copy-paste them by date
(order: mth.date adding 2-digit day if needed):
And a final Regulars section, for things that need doing regularly (1d = daily, 28/m~ = around 28th per month, 12.22/y = Dec.22 each year, bold the next date due, et al.).
Everything else was too much work TBH.
Of course no system is infallible or perfect, but unless you need a task planning app for heavy intensive projects, for daily things quick & simple is best.
Wow. I didn’t think I was alone in my struggle to coordinate Tasks vs calendar, but this topic is obviously a BIG and CONSTANT challenge for a lot of people. I’ve also tried many but not all of the Task managers mentioned… really disliked almost all of them (including the popular Fantastical).
I landed on ToDoist several years ago, tried it and frankly love it. It is structured but provides a fluid, easy, cross device way of managing the constant additions, changes and completions of tasks. No, it does not sync automatically with my BusyCal (which I also feel is the best calendar out there).
I’ll stir the pot a bit… I don’t really believe someone is finally going to solve this gordian knot puzzle. I think this issue is more analogous to dog training… it’s not about the dog… it’s about the owner. We are searching for the ultimate “fix”. It ain’t gonna happen. What we dislike is that it takes discipline to do the daily review of tasks, priorities and make the constant adjustments to our calendar to make life work. We are the solution.
I have been through this loop recently. The only contribution I can add is that I got quite excited by GoodTask, only to find that in its calendar view you can only edit tasks and not calendar items. FWIW, following iOS Reminders and Calendar moving closer with iOS 18, GoodTask’s developer has said he will look at integrating calendar items better.
The background to this is that for many years I relied on DayLite for GTD sorts of things, in OSX Mavericks. Following migration to an M2 Studio, I abandoned DayLite because it’s now license only, with costs more aimed at corporates, which I could not justify.
I wrote to Bare Bones Software with this request and Rich Siegel mailed me back saying:
I plan to try it out. I do all my plain text writing in BBEdit except for what I’ve been using TaskPaper for.
This is a good point. What we need is a task management construction kit where you can assemble the various possibilities into a coherent whole that meets your individual needs without extraneous features.
I’m tempted to try to use AI to write my own app.
One of my dominant struggles around task management has always been how to organize, prioritize, and schedule my daily appointments, meetings and tasks in a way that is driven by larger goals and objectives. It often seems easier to allow the daily juggling act drive your schedule and consume time. I have yet to see a task management app that helps the user stay focused on the bigger question… What is most effective use of my time now to move forward today on my larger projects and objectives?
You can try your best to squeeze your life into digital apps, but sometimes it works best to let the dinosaur out and return to using an old-fashioned daily planner like one of these: Amazon.com : SUNEE Academic Planner 2025-2026 Weekly and Monthly, July 2025-June 2026, 6.4"x8.3", Tabs, Note Pages, Pockets, Bookmark, Flexible Cover, Spiral Binding, Black : Office Products
I’ve been using Amazing Marvin (https://amazingmarvin.com/) which is extremely customizable, and does all you want. It’s a small operation, but they have been very good with updates and support. It’s helped me a lot, you might take a look.
I tried the language module out and it doesn’t do much as far as I can tell.
Came here to echo this.
I have used OmniFocus off and on since before it was acquired by Omni. I have seen a person who was a real wizard with OF, and all credit to him. He gets a lot done all the time. But it requires more meta-management than I am inclined to give to it. (Thanks ace for the port manteau.) I used Wunderlist and followed it across to Microsoft as ToDo. It works okay, though I wish there were some things…
I use BusyCal for the calendaring and scheduling, but was unable to resolve a small failure in its task management so it tells me that I have 11 things to do. (They were done long ago.) BusyCal is good at C&S, plus it integrates well with BusyContacts, with Apple’s native apps, and with its i-apps that are updated regularly. These are annual subscriptions and I happily pay for the performance.
Occasionally I get fed up and go back to BBedit, and then find the abandoned todo lists from years and decades past.
One day a few years ago as I was looking for other options I realized there are so many of these task management apps that 1) developers and users both want something for task management but b) the features wishlist is so individualized that I will never find the perfect task manager. I just have to make do with whatever is good enough. So I am currently settled on something that is a little too simple but integrates well across devices, and that is the aforementioned ToDo.
I am reminded of jwz: “Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I’ll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems. --Jamie Zawinski”
For me, this is like the search for the Fountain of Youth or the Holy Grail. I keep returning to Workflowy, which follows a basic outline framework and must work like my brain does. It integrates what I need to integrate easily. It’s easy to tag things for later retrieval. It is dead simple (for me) to use and can transform into other formats (kanban), as needed or wanted. I mention it because it doesn’t look like anyone else has. I’m not sure what that says about it. I don’t rely heavily on digital options on the organizing front, so consider that. My ‘mission critical’ list ends up on paper.
I’ve tried many and settled on TaskPaper. The app allows easy juggling of items between lists or archiving as done.
Dates and projects can be set but I rarely do that and just keep one list per project.
A friend recommended TickTick, which I’ve been liking for a few days now. It’s a bit more involved than Sorted, but provides a very similar bula board approach to combining tasks and events in a daily view.
It is incredible that I never heard of TickTick, while it is now consistently one of the top ranked todo apps in online discussions.
And I am actually liking it, and I may stick with it.
—e.
I’ve used Marketcircle’s Daylite App (www.marketcircle.com) for about 20 years and it keeps me completely organized and efficient. It may be overkill for some users (I use it to run my fiduciary financial planning firm), but I also keep up with my personal and family appointments and tasks. It offers macOS and iOS Apps and syncs with all the Apple Apps (Calendar, Tasks, Contacts) if you want it to. I simply overlay the David Allen “Getting Things Done” methodology with the task and projects sections and stay on top of everything I need to do every single day. If you work in a team, it gets even better as you can delegate and track tasks and projects. Well worth the price to stay completely on top of everything I need to juggle.