Make Yourself a Task to Check Out Toodledo

Sometimes it’s the quiet ones who deserve the most attention. As web workers constantly on the prowl for the ultimate nirvana in web-based productivity applications, we know about Remember the Milk, Voo2doo, TaDa, Vitalist, Nozbe, Neptune and many more. Toodledo launched last summer, but for some reason it hasn’t gotten the same press and attention as its competitors in the task management space. Maybe it’s because developer Jake Olefsky doesn’t provide a blog or support forum on the site. Is that even legal in a web application these days?

Toodledo is an extremely capable and usable online task manager that hits many, if not all, the right notes. As Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani put it when she posted about Toodledo last year, “If I were to write a web-based todo list manager, Toodledo would be it.” Couldn’t agree more.

What makes Toodledo so great? For starters, everything is in a single easy-to-read window, with each task in a single line. No tabs to waste time clicking around.

When you want to enter a task, you just type it in a designated area instead of opening a new screen:

At the top of the screen is a “hotlist” that you can set to show tasks due within the next 14 days (the number of days is configurable in the settings) and those tasks with top priority. Very easy to see what’s next on your plate. All editing is done in that same browser window, confirmed with a red “Save” button that appears when tasks are modified.

So the interface is clean and nice, but the best task managers are more than just a pretty face. A good task manager has to be at your fingertips when you need it. There’s no point in using a beautifully designed system if you have to be on that page to know what you have to do next. Like other to-do applications, Toodledo will send you a daily list of your overdue/due and hot tasks via email. You can add and mange tasks using a WAP browser on your mobile phone. You can export tasks in RSS, or iCalendar to keep in sync with external applications. You can also export tasks for one-time use to email, text or plain XML. For Google Calendar users, there’s a special link in the preferences to add tasks as a calendar with a checkmark on each day that you can click to see what needs to be done on that day.

If you don’t use Google Calendar, Toodledo provides a simple calendar within its site for seeing what’s due in the current month.

No PDA? The print your tasks on paper to take with you.

A Firefox add-in provides a quick way to add a task without navigating to the Toodledo page. It also adds tasks the Firefox sidebar.

Finally, Toodledo is notable for not expecting you to start from scratch when you start using it. You can import tasks from an iCal file (best for importing from Remember the Milk), sync with Palm OS tasks, import from an XML file (best for importing from Voo2do) or a text file.

Toodledo is free for everything mentioned above. A Pro account is $14.95 per year, and adds some worthwhile features. With a Pro account, you can use the calendar for more than the current month, privately share tasks, view stats, retain completed tasks longer and encrypt tasks. A Pro scheduling feature lets you enter the amount of time you have available, and Toodledo will make suggestions on what you can accomplish from your list in that time frame.

Support is handled through a web form. With no blog or forum, it’s difficult to tell where the application is headed. Like with any web application by an independent developer, the site could disappear at any time. Therefore, it’s smart to maintain a regular local backup of data (which the application makes very easy to do).

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