I attempted each job supervisor on the market and located a transparent winner

My path of half-ticked job supervisor lists runs lengthy and broad. From Google Duties to Wunderlist and Any.do to Bear in mind The Milk (do not forget that?), I’ve dabbled in virtually each to-do app. Sure, even bodily journals. Nonetheless, none of them caught with me. That’s till I got here throughout a YouTube advice for TickTick.

It took me some time to decide to it, however six months later, this job supervisor has utterly remodeled how I handle my on a regular basis workflow. Right here’s why TickTick is a transparent winner for me.

I don’t find out about you, however an ideal interface is essential for me to get hooked to any app — even a productiveness app. Most job supervisor apps I’ve tried veer both in direction of minimalism or info overload. The previous, predictably, provides too little details about duties at hand and, extra importantly, requires too many steps to be useful. In actual fact, the minimal to-a-fault Google Duties interface is what turned me off it.

The latter, alternatively, veers nearly into Notion territory, which I don’t need. TickTick doesn’t reinvent the wheel with regards to the interface with its single-pane entry to duties and overflow menus for extra options. Nevertheless it’s the rigorously thought-out group and hiding away of options that appeals to me most.

At first look, it truly is only a easy to-do app. Add a job, set a date and time to it, and also you’re set. After all, there are oodles of prosumer options hidden underneath the hood, however when you don’t care about these, you don’t even need to see them.

When you’ve examine my love for Simplenote, you’ll find out about my love for Markdown-based notes. Effectively, guess what, TickTick helps Markdown as properly. Faucet a job and add detailed notes on what you wish to do, further context, and even photographs and attachments. It’s a useful add-on for me because it lets me transfer fast notes or concepts from one app to a different. If I’m brainstorming an thought, I can jot down headers and pointers proper there in TickTick utilizing Markdown and duplicate it over to Simplenote after I’m prepared to jot down.

Diving into TickTick’s full characteristic set can be a complete article in itself. It’s bought all of the options you’d anticipate, together with sub-tasks, checklists, and the power to prepare duties underneath particular labels or lists. However listed here are a number of extra additions that I didn’t anticipate to love as a lot as I did.

Whereas most of my on-the-go job additions occur on my decide of the greatest Android smartphone or iOS machine, I change over to the native desktop app when at my desk. TickTick’s menu bar widget lets me maintain tabs on all my duties at hand with ease. That’s not out of the peculiar. Nonetheless, as a considerably forgetful individual, I’ve actually come to understand TickTick’s means to show any job right into a sticky notice. It’s not unusual for my desktop display to be affected by digital yellow sticky notes. Go forward and decide me all you need, however I’ll take elevated productiveness all day lengthy.

One among my favourite interface tweaks is how straightforward it’s to reschedule duties. Look, life will get in the way in which, and there are days while you aren’t capable of rip via your to-do record. I like how TickTick lets me transfer a job to the following day, subsequent week, and even subsequent month with a single click on.

The opposite characteristic that has turn out to be useful is the power to transform duties into templates and notes. I take advantage of the templates characteristic to divide grocery lists by sections. It saves me from having to jot down all of it up each single time. In the meantime, the notes characteristic is helpful for fast entry to persistent info. For instance, after I was redoing my dwelling community, I stored a notice helpful with related passwords and IP handle info underneath the identical notice. Certain, I might’ve simply popped over into Notion to seize the identical knowledge, however having it in a single place reduces friction. It’s all concerning the high quality of life additions.

Now, all the above may sound like the precise reverse of retaining it easy, however hear me out. Most days, my interplay with TickTick is proscribed to popping open the app, typing out a sentence, and that’s it. In 2024, it’s shocking to me that every one to-do apps don’t have pure language processing for figuring out time and dates, however right here we’re. So, if I wish to set a reminder to complete a job earlier than midday on Friday, I’d actually simply sort it out, and TickTick fills within the date, time, and units a reminder. It’s not a groundbreaking characteristic, but it surely’s very helpful.

In the meantime, I like how properly TickTick integrates with Google Calendar. It takes mere seconds to arrange and allows you to see all of your TickTick duties inside Google Calendar. Nonetheless, the combination goes each methods. When you pony up for the premium model of TickTick, you may even see all of your Google Calendar occasions inside TickTick. This may be invaluable for planning out your day and turning the app right into a small-scale productiveness app.

I’m a giant fan of the Pomodoro method. As somebody who spends an embarrassing variety of hours observing a display, mornings can typically blur into evenings. I’ve been utilizing the Pomodoro method for the previous couple of months to divide my time into 25-minute slots, after which I take a five-minute break to step away from the pc. After 4 such timers, I take an extended break. Simple, proper? App shops on all platforms are affected by Pomodoro timers, however I don’t like putting in apps that serve only one goal. Fortunately, TickTick has a built-in Pomodoro timer that I activate as quickly as I get to work. One faucet away on the menu bar, it’s develop into an indispensable a part of my day.

I’ll admit, behavior monitoring actually wasn’t a characteristic I used to be in search of after I was on the hunt for a brand new job supervisor app. At first look, it looks as if unnecessary characteristic overload and bloat. Nonetheless, I made a decision to provide it a shot contemplating I used to be already utilizing a separate app to trace my water consumption. Sure, I’m a type of guys who must gamify consuming water to maintain myself hydrated.

TickTick’s implementation works just about as you’d think about. You may set a goal and tick it while you attain it. Easy. There are even built-in streaks if you wish to take the gamification to a different stage. Admittedly, I haven’t used the characteristic for rather more than monitoring my each day water consumption, however I’ve seen it put to good impact by language learners and those that wish to begin journaling.

Affordability is nice, free is healthier

Alright, right here’s the factor. No one desires yet one more subscription, and positively not for a to-do app. Nonetheless, most customers received’t need to spend something to reap the benefits of TickTick’s means to maintain you on high of your schedule. A few of the options like customizable filters, folders, and even changelogs are tucked underneath a reasonably cheap subscription payment. Nonetheless, my purpose right here was to maintain it easy as an alternative of turning my to-do app into yet one more undertaking administration device — I’ve already bought Notion for that. After all, the choice stays for anybody who does desire a bit extra flexibility. Nonetheless, by and huge, the free model of TickTick is greater than sufficient to get you going.

It’s laborious to say {that a} to-do app has modified your life, and I’d be kidding if I stated that TickTick was solely chargeable for serving to me wrangle my job record. It takes dedication to really use the app. However an ideal interface, intuitive characteristic set, and worth provides actually make it simpler to decide to TickTick. I’ll admit there have been occasions I’ve teetered off the TickTick wagon and ended up within the weeds with overdue deadlines. That stated, TickTick’s been one of many extra helpful instruments in my arsenal and has helped me be rather more productive.