We’ve all been there. You are relaxing at home at night, when you suddenly remember you forgot to pick up something or pay the credit card. App developers know this too, and that’s why a whole method and app category was created around Getting Things Done (GTD). And while there are plenty of GTD apps that have come out in the recent years, few are like Wunderlist.
While most developers try to find more features to saturate their apps with, Wunderlist does a great job at keeping things simple, pretty and easy. Oh, and free. Are you sold on it yet, or do we have to keep talking?
Before the Beginning
Tutorials
Wunderlist is a relatively new app; the company that made it was only founded this August, and as such, Wunderlist is sort of a functional work-in-progress. There’s even an iOS app coming soon.
Wunderlist’s installation process is a bit confusing. In the installation, Wunderlist is automatically added to your dock and there’s another little app that gets opened, called “Wunderlist Installer”. Underneath that icon there was some form of installation or download process going on, because there was a progress bar involved that took around 10 minutes to finish.
Once you get to the app itself, it’s a pleasant experience. After you register for a Wunderlist account, you are presented with a short tutorial presented as tasks that are very easy to understand, and that do a great job at helping you understand how to use the application.
This is a great touch, and means that you aren’t left thinking “how on earth does this thing work?!”
The Interface
Interface
What I like the most about Wunderlist is its simplicity. There aren’t many buttons and options on the app, which makes it very easy to look at. Wunderlist works through “lists” — essentially categories that you can use for your tasks. Initially, there are two categories by default which are “Inbox” and “Tutorials”, but these are customizable and you can add whichever ones you want, like “Office”, “Home” or “Shopping”.
The lists are easily accessible through a collapsable column, along with a search bar. Wunderlist also comes with a bunch of themes that you can easily switch between via the little boxes on the toolbar.
On that toolbar there are also sorting options by date, “All”, “Starred” and “Done”. There’s also a “Synchronize” button. The tasks are presented in a list mode, where you can check them as done or star them so that you don’t forget about them.
Adding Tasks and Lists
Adding Tasks
Adding tasks is a simple affair, you just select the list you want the task to be under and then type into the text box that is presented above the list of tasks. Then you click the little clock on the side and select a date (or no date) for the task.
Adding a list is just as simple, you just have to click the “+” sign next to the search bar and a new list will appear, ready for you to change its name.
Synchronization
As I mentioned, there’s an iOS app in the works that is supposed to go along with the desktop app. I also mentioned that there’s a “Synchronize” button on the toolbar, but there’s not much use for it right now, as there’s nothing to synchronize to, unless you want to use Wunderlist on more than one computer with the same account (which makes sense).
Wunderlist also works on Windows computers, so you can use it at work and at home. But we won’t really be able to take full advantage of this feature until the iOS app comes out and we can check and add tasks on-the-go.
A web app like Evernote’s would be nice, where you could access your content through the cloud instead of having to install the app. But let’s consider that it’s in a kind of “beta” version right now, as it has only been out for a couple of months.
Wunderlist vs. Other Task Management Apps
There are plenty of professional GTD apps, but The Hit List, Things and OmniFocus are some of the most popular GTD apps. They all have their own iOS apps (except for The Hit List), and most also have an iPad offering as well.
And while they have a lot of features and look very professional, they can get too confusing and hard to get into; and that’s not even mentioning their price (let’s mention them though, $50, $50 and $80 respectively).
If all you are looking for is a simple, free and functional GTD app, you might like Wunderlist more than these three apps. And once the iOS app for Wunderlist comes out, you’ll struggle to find a reason not to give it a try.
Conclusion
While it still is very much a work in progress, Wunderlist does a great job at managing your tasks. It’s simplicity is something that is rarely found in the GTD market, and Wunderlist tops that with a pretty interface and even themes (though is this really a good thing?).
I’m looking forward to watching Wunderlist develop over the coming months, and hope that momentum continues at the same pace it has to date.