How do you make sure that everything gets done every day or every week? Use a to-do list app to organise your activities and your time. Here are 5 Windows 10 apps that do the job.
All the following apps are in the Windows 10 Store. Open the app and enter the name into the search box to find them and install them. They are all free.
Microsoft To-Do
Price: Free | By: Microsoft | Requires: Windows 10
Does anyone know what Microsoft is up to? It bought Wunderlist some time ago, which is a superb to-do manager and organiser, but does not seem to have done much with it. In fact the Wunderlist team appears to be working on Microsoft To-Do instead. It makes me wonder whether there is a future for Wunderlist.
To-Do is a much simpler app with fewer features but it seems to be the preferred app for Microsoft. In its own way it is excellent and its simplicity is its best feature.
Lists can be created and tasks added to them. My Day and To-Do are two ready-made lists and My Day aims to show you the tasks that need to be done today.
A task can be added to a list in seconds but there are more features if you need them. For example, steps, basically sub-tasks, can be added to a to-do item and this is a useful feature. A reminder can be set up, a due date can be added, and notes stored.
A task can be moved to My Day, so at the beginning of the day you can go through your to-dos and build you’re my Day list.
The Windows Microsoft To-Do app is simply, beautifully designed and very nice to use. It can be accessed on the web in the browser on any computer and there are apps for Android and iOS. It is everywhere and all versions are kept in sync. This is recommended.
MeisterTask
Price: Free | By: MeisterLabs Gmbh| Requires: Windows 10
Calling MeisterTask a to-do list manager is an understatement because this is a very powerful tool aimed at businesses. It has features that enable it to be used with services like Slack, Zendesk, Github, Freshdesk, Dropbox, Google Drive and many more. It is also a multi-user system aimed at teams in businesses.
MeisterTask can also be used for free by anyone if you don’t need all that business integration and it makes a useful personal to-do manager and organiser. Sign up for a free account at the MeisterTask website (https://www.mindmeister.com/mt/signup/index).
The Windows 10 app is very nice and MeisterTask is based on Kanban. What this means is that you create boards and then add tasks to boards. They appear as a list down the screen underneath the board title, a bit like pinning notes in columns under a heading on a notice board.
You can move tasks from one board to another and the simplest layout is to have To-Do, Doing and Done boards. You create To-Do tasks and drag them to Doing when you are doing them and then drag them to Done when they are completed.
Each to-do item can have a checklist of subitems, so you can break down a large project into a series of smaller tasks. Tasks can be assigned to people (yourself if you are the only user), and they can have a due date.
Tags cane be assigned to tasks, files can be attached to them, comments can be added either as notes if you are the only user or as a conversation with a work team. All activity associated with a task is recorded and you can view the changes.
MeisterTask is excellent and is recommended. It works on Windows 10, via the website, and mobile apps.
Trello
Price: Free | By: Trello, Inc | Requires: Windows 10
Almost everything that has been said about MeisterTask is also true of Trello and if the features were listed it would be hard to tell which service they belonged to.
I won’t repeat everything, but in a nutshell this is a Kanban type to-do manager in which you create boards and add tasks to boards. Due dates, files and comments can be added to tasks and you can see everything on a calendar too.
Trello is aimed at businesses and teams of people, but if you don’t need all the business features it makes a good free personal organiser.
This is an excellent Windows 10 app, it is available in a web browser and on phones too. It is recommended.
Kanban Tasks
Price: Free | By: WolfSYS | Requires: Windows 10
As you can guess from the name of the app, this is a Kanban based to-do list organiser and it enables you to create any number of boards and then add tasks to them.
Although it is based on the same methodology as Trello and MeisterTask, the interface and features are very different. For a start, the app is available only on Windows 10, so if you are out with only your phone, you can’t check the tasks are mark them done.
It also doesn’t have all the business features and this is simply a personal app for Windows 10 PCs.
You begin by creating projects and then you can begin to add tasks to them. Tasks have a title and description, and you can select an icon, set a due date and reminder date and time. There are To-Do, Doing, Done and Overdue lists and you drag tasks from one to another Kanban style.
The app is a bit inflexible and you must enter a description and a due date or a new task will not be accepted. The lack of web and mobile versions also counts against it.
Given how well Trello and MeisterTask do this, there is no reason to use Kanban Tasks.
Ora - Task Management
Price: Free | By: Codemotion | Requires: Windows 10
Ora is another Kanban based task manager and this means that it shares many similarities with Trello and MeisterTask. It has all the usual Kanban features like boards onto which you can add tasks and tasks can have sub-tasks, file attachments, checklists, comments and so on
You can track the time spent on tasks and there is a start/stop timer button on each card. That could be useful if you work for others and need to bill by the hour.
One difference between this and other apps is the support for rich text and Markdown in the task description. You can create headings and subheadings, highlight text using colour, bold and italic, create bullet lists and even tables.
I am not sure I would want to spend much time on a task description making it look good, but it is certainly possible and quite impressive.
At the moment Ora is available on the website, and as Windows 10, Apple mac and Ubuntu Linux apps, but Android and iOS apps are said to be coming soon. It lacks the integrations with business services, but you can sign up for a free basic account that does everything most people want in a personal task manager.
This is one to watch and it could be a rival to Trello and MeisterTask one day.
Conclusion
As a single user creating your own personal task list you have a choice between the traditional to-do list or the Kanban style task manager. Microsoft To-Do is excellent and is perfect if you want a simple task list that reminds you of the things you need to do each day.
Trello and MeisterTask are clearly the best Kanban style to-do task managers and they have an extensive range of features that are tailored for business use. You can start with a free account for personal use and upgrade if you need more business features.
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