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The perfect task manager

Gents,
I’m on a quest to find the perfect task manager. I’ve tried the basic IOS Task List, the Micro$oft Outlook Task List and I’m currently trying the Google Task List.

They all do a fair job, but aren’t quite what I had in mind. I’ve perused the App Store and didn’t see anything that sounded like what I’m looking for. I’ve decided to draw on the vast experience of you gentlemen.

What I’m looking for

For the task list to satisfy me it needs to tick off the following check boxes:
  • Compatible with iPhone/iPad
  • Tasks must appear on both devices when I add them to one
  • Individual tasks must be shareable with TLOTH’s iPhone/iPad. Not all tasks, just the ones I want to share
  • Have the ability to set a reminder date and time on each task
  • Either have different task list support or be able to have sub tasks on each task
That’s all I ask for. Is it too much? I await your scholarly advice. Thank you in advance.
 
Also check out Evernote
Once upon a time, I was an Evernote user. 😬
Then they jacked up prices. Then there was a somewhat disturbing controversy regarding user privacy. And there were many other things too, that made me leave Evernote behind. I switched to Joplin. Mainly because it'll let me decide where I want to store my data, that I can choose my level of security (e.g. encrypt my data) and it's open source. It also has a pretty great community. I went all-in and I'm now hosting a personal instance of Joplin server at home, and I'm using it on desktop, mobile phone and command line.

Then again, I may be overly cautious when it comes to ownership of my data and privacy. ;)
 
Once upon a time, I was an Evernote user. 😬
Then they jacked up prices. Then there was a somewhat disturbing controversy regarding user privacy. And there were many other things too, that made me leave Evernote behind. I switched to Joplin. Mainly because it'll let me decide where I want to store my data, that I can choose my level of security (e.g. encrypt my data) and it's open source. It also has a pretty great community. I went all-in and I'm now hosting a personal instance of Joplin server at home, and I'm using it on desktop, mobile phone and command line.

Then again, I may be overly cautious when it comes to ownership of my data and privacy. ;)
I am an Evernote user for the basic free service. I missed the trust issues. I’ll need to reconsider if I want to keep using them.
 
I am an Evernote user for the basic free service. I missed the trust issues. I’ll need to reconsider if I want to keep using them.
There are so many things that come in to play in regards to privacy and anonymity online. Basically, it boils down to what you're comfortable with. It doesn't hurt to have some awareness about what the different services collect and do with your data. This is an entirely different, albeit interesting, topic. Sorry for derailing your thread! ;)
 
Once upon a time, I was an Evernote user. 😬
Then they jacked up prices. Then there was a somewhat disturbing controversy regarding user privacy. And there were many other things too, that made me leave Evernote behind. I switched to Joplin. Mainly because it'll let me decide where I want to store my data, that I can choose my level of security (e.g. encrypt my data) and it's open source. It also has a pretty great community. I went all-in and I'm now hosting a personal instance of Joplin server at home, and I'm using it on desktop, mobile phone and command line.

Then again, I may be overly cautious when it comes to ownership of my data and privacy. ;)
I did not have any pressing need for Joplin, but decided to install on Windows 10 and take a look. It appears to be a useful tool, but I ended up uninstalling it after I could not find any mention of how and where it stores data locally. e.g. whether it is stored in a user specified directory, in multiple files, in an internal DB, or some combination. I made a single line note and did not see any way to "save" it so I exited the program to try and see where the data got stored (half expecting that it would prompt me to save before exiting). I could not find any new files on the hard drive even though it remembered the note when re-executing the program, so that is when I decided to uninstall it. Windows then told me it was running in the background, so I assume that my one line note was being held in memory and that is why I could not find it on disk.
 
It looks like you have done a fine job in laying out what technical capabilities you want in a task manager. I suspect the bigger question is how you approach task management.

For example, if a relatively common "task" that you want to manage might have 3-4 major components, each of which has a series of specific tasks or sub-tasks that need to be accomplished, then you will need something more similar to a project management piece of software. If so, then a product like My Life Organized might hit most of your feature requirements and provide you with a hierarchical structure. Cheaper than MS Plan and integrates with the Apple environment. (Although the Planner function inside of MS Teams on Office 365 subscriptions is a additional component of the subscription and approximates some of the capabilities you want.

If however your tasks are more simple and similar to "pick up milk" and "pay babysitter" or "pay credit card bill" then many of the other products mentioned throughout this thread might work for you.
 
It looks like you have done a fine job in laying out what technical capabilities you want in a task manager. I suspect the bigger question is how you approach task management.

For example, if a relatively common "task" that you want to manage might have 3-4 major components, each of which has a series of specific tasks or sub-tasks that need to be accomplished, then you will need something more similar to a project management piece of software. If so, then a product like My Life Organized might hit most of your feature requirements and provide you with a hierarchical structure. Cheaper than MS Plan and integrates with the Apple environment. (Although the Planner function inside of MS Teams on Office 365 subscriptions is a additional component of the subscription and approximates some of the capabilities you want.

If however your tasks are more simple and similar to "pick up milk" and "pay babysitter" or "pay credit card bill" then many of the other products mentioned throughout this thread might work for you.
I never realized that I needed a task manager that could manage sub tasks until I looked at Todoist. I’ve downloaded it and am using the freeware version for now, but may upgrade to premium once I learn more about it.

I’m having to relearn my concept of task management as a result of using Todoist.

From your post, I take it that you have looked at Todoist. If not, I suggest you give it a look. I still may end up with one of the ones you have suggested, I’m in the test drive phase now.

If you have looked at Todoist and still prefer My Life Organized, I would like to know why. As I said, I haven’t fully chosen yet and I’m still open to suggestions.

UPDATE: I took a quick look and one thing I really like is that you buy it once and you’re done. No subscription unless you want to use their cloud. I think from what I read you can synchronize your devices across your WiFi network at no charge. If that is so, this is probably the one for me. Todoist is subscription based, which I don’t like.
 
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Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
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Regarding my preference for MLO, it was largely due to timing. It was available for the Windows platform and provided the functionality that I needed as a mid-stream application for tasks. I will still use formal planning software for larger, more involved projects even though MLO does allow for dependencies and the like.
 
I’m back to Todoist. MLO would only synch across my iPad and phone if I had a cloud account. Todoist seems like a better fit for me.

At the risk of getting flamed, YMMV.
 
I did not have any pressing need for Joplin, but decided to install on Windows 10 and take a look. It appears to be a useful tool, but I ended up uninstalling it after I could not find any mention of how and where it stores data locally. e.g. whether it is stored in a user specified directory, in multiple files, in an internal DB, or some combination. I made a single line note and did not see any way to "save" it so I exited the program to try and see where the data got stored (half expecting that it would prompt me to save before exiting). I could not find any new files on the hard drive even though it remembered the note when re-executing the program, so that is when I decided to uninstall it. Windows then told me it was running in the background, so I assume that my one line note was being held in memory and that is why I could not find it on disk.
Joplin is a note taking app and not a text editor and it uses a database to store notes. The database also stores metadata about your notes, such as location (if added), tags, history and more. The location on Windows is C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\.config\joplin-deskop\database.sqlite

I use Joplin to store a multitude of notes, because it's easy to search, I can add images and PDF files, I can sync to multiple devices and I can add tags. If I want to use a simple text editor, I use Notepad++ on Windows. On Linux, I use Geany, and if I want to use a simple markdown editor, I use Typora.
 
I’m back to Todoist. MLO would only synch across my iPad and phone if I had a cloud account. Todoist seems like a better fit for me.

At the risk of getting flamed, YMMV.

Which plan are you using and are you finding that you're able to share tasks with TLOTH easily? I used the free version for awhile, but like you am not a fan of subscriptions, so its limitations at the free level didn't make it worth it. I'm now thinking about signing up for the Business plan so that I have the ability to do my own stuff, but also give TLOTH the ability to do her own stuff, which we can share back and forth.
 
Which plan are you using and are you finding that you're able to share tasks with TLOTH easily? I used the free version for awhile, but like you am not a fan of subscriptions, so its limitations at the free level didn't make it worth it. I'm now thinking about signing up for the Business plan so that I have the ability to do my own stuff, but also give TLOTH the ability to do her own stuff, which we can share back and forth.
I’m trying to make the free version work. I haven’t tried to share it with TLOTH yet. I have shared between my iPad and iPhone, which worked well. I’ll resist the subscription as long as I can.
 
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