I forgot an internet toy in yesterday’s post. Maybe because it’s not so much a toy as a tool. I’ve been searching (and searching and searching) for a to-do system that makes sense to me. I don’t need a super-complex, integrating with calendar, tagging, remindering, ajaxing bells-and-whistles ’solution’ - those require too much time investment, both in terms of maintenance and in terms of requiring me to switch platforms for my current calendaring system. (I use Google Calendar, largely because Keith and I and even the ex-husband can share calendars easily across OS platforms.) But Google’s to-do’s are too simplistic. Just one long list, even though I can change colors of items, just isn’t enough to handle the tasks I need to keep track of.

Enter Todoist. It’s very straightforward - you can make hierarchical lists and set item colors, plus it automatically collects up due dates and lets you know what’s due today, or in the next 7 days - and what’s overdue. (In red, for that gentle guilt-inducement I need.) Very stripped down, easy to jump in - the only thing I didn’t get right off was how to indent an item (add or edit an item and hit CTRL-arrow and it will move right or left accordingly). Reordering is handled with ajax-y drag and drop. It’s pretty darn close to what I need, and as it’s free, that’s a bonus.

The only thing it doesn’t do, and I haven’t seen any system do this well, is to be able to make some items appear every day until their due dates. For example, in my Home list, I have ‘finish the laundry’ with a due date of Thursday. That’s a task that could be done today, but must be complete by tomorrow. Other tasks, like sending out the Theater email newsletter, are more like an appointment and must be done today and only today, by a certain time. But this is nitpicking - overall, I like Todoist very much.