Todo lists and project tracking

App Development
1

Has anyone else experienced what feels like a never ending search for a productivity app/todo list?

I’ve tried so many. Todoist, ticktick, any.do, ClickUp, Notion, etc. but they all have their pros and cons which leads me to bounce around to different apps based on current needs.

What is everyone using to track projects/tasks/notes?

I’ve built a few things in Tadabase to see how useful they could be to fit this but one of the most important features needed is quick data entry before a fleeting thought vanishes.

2

For my unstructured thoughts I am obsessed with Coda.io. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

Here’s a blurred image of what I have. It consists of hundreds of pages at this point as its been growing for a while.

image
image1759×918 118 KB

Internally we also use our own todo lists etc. but often I need something very unstructured that I can organize at a later date.

3

I see, that among your unstructured thoughts, there is no implementation of functions in maps :woozy_face: :woozy_face:
:grinning:

1 Like
4

Lol :rofl:

If you look really closely its the one all the way on the bottom left under “Chart Updates” you can just almost see the map icon.

image

5

I’m happy
we hope it will soon be among yours: structured thoughts
:smile:

1 Like
6

Whoa, coda!

They must be in a very very different place. Last time I used coda it was barely functional.

7

I’ve been using them about 8 months now and I haven’t had a single issue or bug. I only use this as my personal notepad, we obviously have many other internal tools (Jira, and custom built TB apps) to manage other workflows.

8

Ah yeah, I tried before that. I think around the time Notion hit the scene.

I might have to give them another shot. I downloaded the iOS app and signed back in and the speed and usability has greatly improved.

I really wish ClickUp would get their speed/performance and mobile app up to snuff.

Edit: just noticed Emails on your sidebar. Are you sending emails to coda?

9

No, just some drip campaign email ideas etc…

10

I looked at coda again, it’s definitely changed a lot. The interface has grown quite a bit. Are you using coda for just notes or are you putting databases and stuff in there too?

My issue with coda is also my issue with Notion. It’s so open ended and such a complex feature set that I spend all my time building and tweaking a system and barely anytime using it.

11

I’m really not using it for anything other than my own brain dump. I used to use email drafts, and notepads etc… Not pulling or connecting it to anything external. I like it mainly for the reasons you don’t. I specifically want something very unstructured that I can organize later. For ‘closed’ systems we already have so many like Jira, Tadabase, Freshdesk etc…

12

Yep, that’s the right way to describe it: “never-ending search”. I’ve been on this quest for a very long time.

This is where (in my view) Todoist shines. Actually Todoist is quite remarkable. The ability to create workflow templates for different kinds of projects is potentially very useful. Problem is, I haven’t quite mastered it.

Todoist’s UI has one or two quirks that annoy me. I probably ought to get used to them, because it does everything I want. I’m very fond of its ability to put dated tasks on my Google Calendar.

.

Moe mentioned Coda. I did a lot of work with Coda earlier in the year, as I was traveling the path that ultimately brought me to Tadabase.

When I began to realize Airtable wasn’t going to meet my needs, I found Coda, and I lived with it for a couple of months. I should have been able to realize more quickly than that that Coda wasn’t going to meet my database development needs even as well as Airtable does. After all, Airtable really is a database app, while Coda is a writing app with some interesting built-in database-like functionality. (Kind of like Word with an Excel table inserted in a document: It’s still not Excel.) I spent more time with Coda than I should have because the whole concept was novel to me – well, and because it’s a very slick piece of work. And Coda’s developers certainly have made rapid progress with it in 2020.

Still, I’m not a huge fan of these mind map apps. I guess I’m too linear. I did use it to build a to-do “doc” (their term for what you make with Coda) and it was okay, but in the end Coda is a writing app, and I want my to-do list to be a database: I want not just quick data entry, but quick searching, sorting, etc. Coda has some database features, including a capable (if awkward) way of creating ad-hoc relationships between tables. But ultimately, it’s not a useful tool if you’re planning to store more than a few dozen records.

I use Typora now for most of my writing, because (a) it’s breath-takingly beautiful and (b) it has the best support for Markdown anywhere (akin to Dropbox Paper but even better).

And as I said, for my serious database needs, I’m here. :slight_smile:

13

I used Todoist for a long time but I really struggle when I’m using separate apps for different things. Todoist really has no way of storing notes and being able to connect them with projects or tasks. TickTick has checked that box for me but still don’t love it. I’m still using ClickUp right now but it is not enjoyable to use haha.

14

Todoist has no way of storing notes and being able to connect them with projects or tasks.

Not sure what you mean, Tim. I use notes in Todoist every day. Here are notes for a task (Todoist calls them “comments”):

image
image1287×1879 205 KB

Same thing works for sub-tasks. And it’s also possible to add comments to Project records. The one thing that I haven’t figured out how to do is print the notes, but to be honest I don’t want to do that often. It’s more a matter of curiosity for me than a practical ened.

.

I looked at ClickUp. It looks like a cross between, oh, Coda and a full-blown project management app. More ambitious (at least at first glance) than Todoist. My needs are simple so I don’t see myself switching to ClickUp but it does look pretty nice.

15

Ah so I should probably clarify that when I’m making notes, it’s a huge brain dump. Lists, paragraphs, tables (sometimes), images, embeds, etc.

Notion is my go to for that kind of thing but that ecosystem is so closed (for now) that it’s hard for me to translate that information to another platform for tasks. I end up with too much time spent copy and pasting

16

Ah, I get it. I write a lot of notes – I just don’t put them into Todoist. Since I’m a solo pilot (so to speak) Todoist is my boss: It tells me what I’m supposed to be working on today or tomorrow or this week. That’s all I ask it to do. I don’t ask it to help me plan applications, etc.

Well sounds like you’ve found something that works for you. We certainly have a lot of options these days – too many, if you ask me. :slight_smile: