Boost Your Productivity With 2do for iPad

About a year ago a new task manager hit the iPhone. It was incredibly pretty, functional and played well with iCal’s tasks. 2do quickly rose in the charts of the Appstore and thanks to its continuing development established a solid user base among those in need of a task management app.

When the iPad was released, it seemed only natural that 2do should become an universal app. It has taken GuidedWays a couple of months, but the result is not just visually pleasing, but extends the core functionality of the app. I have reviewed 2do for the iPhone; follow me beyond the jump to see how it’s performing on the iPad.

Task Management with 2do

Everyone who has spend at least some time thinking about how to manage tasks will have encountered the different schools of thought present in that topic. The are the hardcore followers of the GTD method by David Allen and there are people who just need to keep track of their tasks their own way without adhering strictly to a particular method (but their own).

In that respect 2do of course needs to be compared to established apps like Things and Omnifocus, which are easily the most used GTD apps. While both of these apps will appeal mostly to people with a more rigid GTD approach, 2do allows for a more flexible way to manage tasks. In this respect, the learning curve of the app is also not nearly as steep as it would be with Omnifocus, allowing you to jump right into the thick of things. Granted, the features offered by 2do might not be as plentiful as those of Things and Omnifocus, but that might just be what some of us are looking for.

Integration with other apps & services

Before we can jump into all the interface goodness, let me address how 2do integrates with third party applications. Both Omnifocus and Things have desktop applications they sync with (not to mention iPhone counterparts). 2do is available for both iPhone and iPad (universal app, one time purchase), but I am sure many of us prefer some kind of desktop application that allows us to enter larger amount of data at the computer.

2do offers tight integration with Apple’s own iCal and Microsoft’s Outlook. Tasks entered there are synced via a small helper to your mobile device. It get’s even better. If you have Things or The Hit List (no, I haven’t given up hope yet) set up to sync with iCal, you actually have a full desktop GTD client that syncs with 2do.

For instant sync and accessibility everywhere, you can set up 2do to sync with the popular online service Toodledo (by setting the syncing method to Toodledo instead of Desktop Sync). It brings to 2do what so far only the much pricier and complex Omnifocus offers: real cloud based GTD.

And to be safe, you can email a full backup of your task database. If you happen to be on a firewall protected wireless network, the sync helper might not work. This can be your way around that hindrance.

The Face of 2do

When you open 2do for the first time, you will notice immediately that it differs from most mobile task managers. It’s not just much more colorful (even though you can tone that down to your liking), it utilizes the available screen estate efficiently by offering a multitude of information at once (contexts, tasks, calendar, summary of current status).

Your different calendars/contexts are shown to the left. Some contexts come preset with 2do – like a context for Done tasks – but you can of course add, delete and arrange them until they fit your needs.

Similarly, you can define colors for each category. In my example, 2do has taken the colors of the calendars/categories as defined in iCal. If you make changes within the app, they are synced back to the desktop.

To the right, while in landscape mode, you have the either the calendar view or the details of a selected task displayed.

In the calendar view, a concise summary of due and overdue tasks is being shown. For me personally, that is perfect to see where I stand at a glance. Nothing makes me more nervous than the red task count in Things even if tasks are not even overdue.

Managing Tasks with 2do

Now that we know our way around the interface, how do you get tasks into 2do and manage them?

You add a new task from anywhere within the app by simply tapping the plus sign in the upper right corner. From there, it’s simple: just fill in the fields which are relevant to you. In the app’s settings you can specify the order of the entry fields and if they should appear at all. For example, it makes sense to have the due date before the alarm setting. Setting the alarm to a relative date only works if the app knows when you want to be done.

There are a couple of options which make 2do stand out from other task managers. First of all there is the Action option. You can chose from 6 predefined actions and specify them with details. The great thing is that these selections will show up with an icon and color code in the task overview, giving you even more information at a glance.

Apart from the usual information like tags, prioritization or due dates, there are some other options to make 2do shine. One of them is the capability to add not just one but multiple alarms. Why? Well, I often want a reminder at the beginning of the day to know what awaits me, but I know I can’t do the task right away. Snoozing it multiple times is annoying, so I just set another reminder for the evening when I know I’ll have time for sure.

Wait, there’s more! You can choose between three different notification styles. Messages will just pop up discreetly on your screen; sounds will pop up a message and make a predefined sound and email is self explanatory (you only need to set up your email once).

On the iPad, alarm sounds can be disabled. This seems to be a limitation of the current OS. With the release of iOS 4.2 for the iPad, the developers promise that limitation will be lifted.

Another noteworthy feature is Location: right from within the app you can access Google Maps or just let your device find out where you are at the moment. So, if you come close to a location where you have to perform a specific task, you’ll be notified with an app badge. Maybe we’ll get location based alarms in the future?

The last feature in need of pointing out is Smart Calendars. Imagine you only want to see tasks which are overdue. Just make a search for them with the excellent in-app search (which will help you to define parameters quickly) and save that search as a new calendar!

Projects and Checklists

For most of us, listing tasks is nice, but we also want the ability to manage more complex matters in an elegant way. With projects, you can structure your tasks. Instead of having a couple dozen tasks cluttering up your context/calendar, putting them into project containers cleans up the interface and makes for a much more logical approach to managing tasks.

Tasks always show if they belong to a project. When creating a new task within a project, the project due date is automatically set as the task’s due date (which you can change) and the right context is preselected as well.

It’s similar with checklists. Just assimilate all the tasks which are closely related in a shopping list or a reminder list, for your next move, for example. In checklists, you cannot assign separate due dates to tasks. They all inherit the due date of the checklist itself.

Verdict

Most of the time, Things and OmniFocus get all the attention. It would be a mistake to disregard 2do though – it’s every bit as capable and powerful. The question of which of these options is the best depends on your workflow and personal taste.

2do offers a wealth of options to tweak until they suit you. It plays nice with external services and has a dedicated and communicative group of developers behind it.

For me personally, 2do is the go-to app for task management because it’s functional, beautiful and lets me manage tasks my way. Because, in the end I don’t want to manage my task manager, I want to keep track of my tasks. 2do works for me. What works for you?