Let’s start with Outlook Tasks… because this is where it all started for me.

I love Microsoft Outlook (OL) each and every iteration. I love the “Tasks” that I was able to generate within Outlook and a very long, long time ago… Windows Mobile version of Outlook stopped supporting OL Tasks. What? you heard me right, Microsoft stopped supporting (cross platform) the best feature (in my opinion) in OL.

So since that time I have always been looking for the “Silver Bullet” that would put my task woes away for good.

I’ve tried OL “Add-Ins,” “OneNote “Add-Ins,” you name it… I’ve tried it. I tried standalone apps as well, Wunderlist seemed OK, but had issues on the different platforms that just never made the grade for me. At one time you couldn’t even “delete” a task from the Windows Phone client, I kid you not! So I’m not terribly surprised that Microsoft eventually gave up on the standalone product Wunderlist and has moved to turn Project Cheshire into what they call today, Todo.

So “very long story short,” I ended up trying and loving the 2Day app from Vercors Studio (Twitter – @2dayteam). The great app was written by one guy “Jeremy Alles” (Twitter – @jalpf) in his spare time which might become even sparser due to the fact Jeremy is a NEW Dad! Congrats my Friend! You can sync with the 2Day Cloud, Office 365, Outlook.com, Exchange, or ToodleDo. This is really a very beautiful app in regard to GUI and the developer has gone above and beyond with added features, bug fixes, and updates. You really can’t get much better than this app.

Unfortunately, there is just one thing that still made me long for a better solution, and that is the ability to get to my tasks/todos via the internet. 2Day doesn’t have this YET, but trust me it will be coming and when it does, I hope I’m the first “paid subscriber.”

So for the past two months, I have delved into Todoist. Tried it, then became a Premium subscriber. This app is very solid, yet visually I miss my 2Day. Todoist has everything I need so far… (with the exception of start and end dates e.g., like a project timeline that 2Day does have). I see a lot of Todoist users have been requesting the “start date/timeline” feature, so I have to think it’s in the pipeline for future builds.

I can synch the To-do’s with my Exchange calendar via “Internet” calendar and “overlay” that in my Outlook 2016 app so everything is on hand (that sync is one-way though, “currently”). Does a great job with notifications to my phone as reminders as well. I have it on my 950XL, Desktop, and is available on the internet. There are a plethora of templates you can create and also download from other Todist’s authors.

All of your projects, labels, and filters are there as well. I have three important filters which work well for me @Morning, @Afternoon, and @Evening. So I can pin those filters to my start screen on the phone or desktop to see what I’ve designated as to-dos for my three portions of a day. Kinda’ cool!

The “Karma” rating system is kind of cool in that you set you goals e.g., how many tasks per day, per week to accomplish and you get points when completed. The other nice feature (because of the Karma rating) is the ability to turn off Karma when you’re on vacation so the missed to do’s don’t count.

Of course, this tool is available via Win10 devices, Android, and iOS devices as well. The app is growing on me and I’ve only scratched the surface. BTW… I use Pocket (Poki on my WP10) and I can share an article I find to Pocket with the label #MustRead and it populates my Todoist in the category I’ve set up, nice way to remind me to go back and read an important article.

So yeah, I haven’t found my “Silver Bullet” yet, for me that would be 2Day getting “internet access” along with a Premium subscription for that service or Todoist getting start dates.

Todoist: https://todoist.com $29.00 a year for Premium features

2Day: https://www.2day-app.com – This remains a GREAT app, just tons of features!