

Ask HN: Are web 2.0 to-do lists just hype? - sscheper

I've tried them all: Remember The Milk, Jott, Tadalist, Todoist, Google Tasks; you name it.<p>Nothing beats a simple paper/pen or textedit/notepad.<p>Has anyone here had a long-term positive experience with any of these? That is, has anyone been using one of the above <i>consistently</i> for a year?
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TodoneApp
Heh, was this in response to my "Ask HN" earlier today? :) I agree that these
list based systems are always trumped by a text file or pen/paper for
portability and simplicity. However, having tried so many list-based systems
as well as the "simpler methods", I still found myself just not getting things
done. That's why I built <http://todoneapp.com>, which is really an experiment
with a new methodology for doing things. The point isn't to organize you, it's
to compel you to fulfill promises to yourself, in a way. This is the system I
needed to help me pull weeds. Putting it down on paper wasn't helping.
Building a system that allowed me to say "I need to pull the weeds" and at
some point asking it "What should I do now?" to be told "You should pull the
weeds. Go away and pull the weeds." That's what I needed. It's much easier to
do something that "someone else" is telling you to do, than listening to
yourself tell you to do it. YMMV of course. :)

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sscheper
Hey Todone -- Nope. Didn't see your post; looks interesting, though. I really
like the simple nature of your list. I like that if focuses on effectiveness,
and important items.

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csixty4
Not for me. I used to keep written lists, but got sick of forgetting them at
work or having them fall apart when I was caught in a rainstorm.

I used "I Want Sandy" for over a year, and was visibly upset when "she" went
away. I got accustomed to my to-dos being as accessible as the nearest web
browser, email client, or even SMS device. Today, I use reQall on the web,
through their voice number, over AIM, and through its BlackBerry client -
whatever's most convenient at the time.

As you can guess from the two I chose, to-dos work best for me when I can
rattle off a sentence in natural English and have the system figure out where
& when to file it under.

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pedalpete
I don't use any web-based todo list, but have tried a few more for curiosity
than as a solution to a problem.

I think the reason so many of these things exist is 1) the functionality seems
fairly simple 2) the market opportunity is huge

Where I think most of them fail is that they don't (as far as I have seen)
provide a compelling differentiator or improvement over pen & paper or txt
file.

Sure they are easy to use, but so are the alternatives. Is there a killer
feature that is making a to do list better than a txt file? If so, i haven't
seen it.

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imsaar
I am using Toodledo.com (very ugly web interface but good functionality) with
Ultimate To Do iphone app which can sync with Toodledo and it has been working
out pretty well.

I agree a To Do list that is not always with you is not an effective list.

I have tried all the ones you mentioned except Todoist and none of them is as
effective as my current solution.

Another nice thing with Toodledo is that they have a good and simple API that
can be used to make it available on other smartphones as an offline app.

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apowell
I'm not sure if it's "web 2.0", but it's nice looking and has an iPhone app to
accompany it -- I've been using Things for a year now. I have definitely
become more reliable and efficient since I began using it seriously.

