If you want to remember to do something, you had better write it down. This is especially true when it comes to our daily chores, tasks and all other to-do’s that just seem to keep piling up and coming down on us. One has to remember all sorts of dates like anniversaries and birthdays, groceries and other items to buy, an ever growing number of assignments and tasks to accomplish at work as an employee and a team member, and the list goes on and on. Most of us find it hard to keep up with all these responsibilities without a sort of to-do list that helps us get things done on daily basis. Some prefer to scribble down their chores and tasks on a piece of paper, while others, mostly business people and employees, have long preferred neatly typed and printed assignment lists. However, we all know that paper is very expensive in terms of environment sustainability. Thankfully, technology offers solutions and a really wide array of alternatives to printable to-do lists. It’s all a matter of finding and choosing the most suitable one. Let’s then inspect some of the best available free ones out there, for desktop and mobile productivity.
1. Google Tasks
Google Tasks is a top of the line, fully free solution for Gmail users. Google Task is a simple but powerful to-do list that you can take with you wherever you go and cross off your completed tasks without wasting a single sheet of paper. The list will be automatically updated regardless of how you update it – from your mobile device or personal computer. Google Tasks features some great capabilities and productivity boosters like the ability to directly convert emails into tasks or add a task with a due date in your calendar to help you stay organized. Another mention-worthy capability of Google Tasks is that you can quickly email your lists to anyone – forgetful spouses or children, your students and course participants, colleagues, team members, other employees or personal assistants.
Most die-hard aficionados of printed to-do lists will argue that in case one goes offline, without the possibility to access Internet at some point while doing errands or on business trip, it’s impossible to check and update the Google Task or an alternative web-based electronic to do list. However, there is still a way to go paperless and cut down the paper usage, and stay on top of your tasks. One most obvious way is to print the task to PDF, which you can save locally on your mobile device, laptop or PC and check out whenever needed. As you can see on the image above, right below the option to email the task list, there is a Print Task list option. Click on it and instead of choosing your hard-copy printer, click on Save as PDF. Users of advanced PDF printers like our FreePDF Creator or PDFConverter Elite 3 can also choose any of them to print their lists to PDF.
2. Google Keep
Google Keep is another great and free Google product for keeping checklists. It’s available for Web and Android, which makes it a perfect companion for keeping up with one’s tasks on the fly.
3. TeuxDeux
TeuxDeux is a visually attractive iPhone app for making to-do lists. It’s free to download and use, and gives you the ability to work offline and then sync later. With an app like this for your iPhone, there really is no excuse for printing lists of tasks anymore.
4. Any.do
Any.do is a great alternative to both Google Keep and TeuxDeux for planning and organizing one’s daily chores, as it is available to both Android and iOS users. It’s worth mentioning that it’s an award winning app.
5. doitdoitdone
doitdoitdone is a streamlined, and user-friendly web-based app for creating and managing todo lists. It mimics paper notes and lists and allows users to quickly “jot down” their tasks on the list without having to read through help files and figuring out how to set up the list. The interface is intuitive, to-do lists can be accessed via unique URL or even dragged to the desktop (MiniMe). There are stylish stationeries that use different colors and fonts to make your lists fun and pretty. To-do lists can be posted on a blog or website, emailed to friends and coworkers, and printed, of course. One of its most appealing features is that there is no need to register and login to use the app.
6. Todo.ly
Todo.ly is an online tool for creating to-do lists and managing tasks. It’s free, easy to use, intuitive, and yet pretty powerful for organizing life and getting things done. It allows for creating separate projects and subprojects, assigning due dates for tasks, even postponing tasks, and a bunch of other things that daily task management may require.
7.HiveMinder
HiveMinder is a to-do list management tool geared toward groups and colaborative work. HiveMinder proposes a concept of “braindumping” tasks, tagging them, attaching notes, setting up dates, sharing the tasks with others and setting reminders, priorities, and so on. Its features enable individuals and teams to be “bee productive”.
Do you have a favourite tool for managing your tasks and daily chores? Share it with us in the comments!