Since my laptop has been “in the shop” for the past week, I find myself asking 
these types of questions a lot…and I don’t like it…
I use Microsoft Outlook’s calendar feature as my “task list”. It’s great because I can set recurring tasks; things I need to do daily. All of my tasks pop up in a dialogue box when they’re due; once they’re done, I can “dismiss” them until they’re due again and they reappear. This system was meeting my needs…
Until this past Monday morning…
We’d been out of town for the weekend spending time with family. I’d been working in car on the drive there and back, accessing the wireless world via my mobile device.
For some reason, when I fired up the old girl Monday morning, she didn’t want to respond. I called my “tech guy” and he made an emergency house call and has had her since Monday.
And I’ve been without my task list. For those of you who know me, this is a big deal…
This leads me to Remember the Milk which was recommended to me by a buddy of mine. It allows you to do some pretty neat things:
- Manage Tasks. An intuitive interface makes managing tasks fun. Set due dates easily with next Friday or in 2 weeks. Extensive keyboard shortcuts make task management quicker than ever.
- Get reminded, anywhere. Receive reminders via email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo! are all supported).
- Organize the way you want to. Are you a list lover? Create as many lists as you need. Into tagging? Use the task cloud to easily see what you have to do. Want to store notes along with your tasks? You can do that too.
- Locate your tasks. Use the map to see where your tasks are located in the real world. See what’s nearby or on your way, and plan the best way to get things done.
- Work together to get things done. Share, send and publish tasks and lists with your contacts or the world. Remind your significant other to do their household chores.
- Add tasks wherever you are. Adding tasks is as simple as firing off an email (even from your phone). See an important date on the web? Add it to your list with Quick Add.
- Take your tasks with you. Access your tasks on your web-enabled mobile device. Print your entire list or a handy weekly planner which shows upcoming tasks. View your tasks on your calendar with Apple iCal or Google Calendar. Subscribe to feeds with Atom/RSS.
- Plan your time. See what’s due today and tomorrow, and the things you’ve missed. Prioritize, estimate your time, and postpone with ease. Set tasks to repeat every week or after 2 months.
There’s a gadget available via Gmail Labs or a browser add-on for Firefox and Chrome which connects your tasks with your mail, contacts and events in gmail…those are free and right up my alley. A few of the features above are available to those who pay the $25/year to upgrade to the Pro version. I’m testing out the free version right now, but I think it’s going to be a no-brainer to pay the fee so I can get my tasks on my Android phone…what do you think?
How are you currently managing your tasks? Is that system meeting your needs?
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Remember the Milk, Wow I can think of some great uses for this service. Please keep us posted on your findings.