Keeping up with tasks through apps

Max Limpag

I ARRIVED home Wednesday night to the ding of my phone reminding me to run 5K and finish writing this article on to-do lists and a blog post on Inbox Zero.
My phone flashed the reminders because it detected, through global positioning system (GPS), that I was home.

Beyond being a device with which to call, today’s phones have become our main computer. It is the realization of the concept of the personal digital assistant. For many people, it already is the main device to read or send e-mails. Increasingly, it is how people access social networks like Facebook.

But if there’s one task phones are really good at, it’s keeping to-do lists. Even before smartphones, people were already keeping to-do lists via the SMS editor, alarm system, calendar feature or the rudimentary notes facility built into some phones to keep track of tasks.

Today, productivity apps are a dime an unli-SMS bucket and you’d have a hard, albeit fun, time figuring out which app works best for you.

What makes the task of choosing an app even harder is the tight competition for features and users, with developers releasing updates every few months or so in a
frenzied apps race where users, millions of users, are the top prize.

I’ve gone through the gamut of the top productivity and to-do list apps. My failure to stick with one isn’t as much as being fickle as making sure that I’m using the best app currently in the market, or so that’s how I justify it to myself. I also need to constantly try out applications for my blog and technology column.

My current trifecta to handle tasks consists of a small notebook (of the paper kind) and the apps Checkmarks and Podio. Ask me again a few months from now and I’d likely name different apps—only the paper notebook is constant.

Here are some apps that I’ve tried in using apps and digital tools to keep track of tasks in the past couple of years.