Review: Any.DO Task & To-Do List Management
I’ve been on a bit of a task management kick recently so I thought, with the release of version 3 this week, now would be a good time to review Any.Do the task and to-do list productivity app. In this review I look at the basic functionality, features and things that could be improved.
Any.DO is a task management App for both Android and iOS and a Website. With the launch of version 3 of their product and my recent look into to-do techniques and task management I thought it’d be a good time to review Any.DO
Why Use Any.DO?
You can sign up by creating your own Any.DO account, use Facebook to login but the real advantage is being able to login using your Google account so your tasks in Google Tasks are sync’d with your Any.DO app.
Yes, there are plenty of task apps available to help you manage your general tasks, and link to your Google tasks, but they’re either too complicated, too expensive or far too simplistic. Any.DO bridges that gap offering you a great set of free features, features you can ignore if you don’t need them and an upgrade to a “premium” version if you need to access even more functionality.
I’ve tried many different task management programs, both web and Android based and so far Any.DO is the only one I keep using across my devices thanks to its easy of use, cost and features.
Any.DO Functionality
When you first load up the App or Web interface, you are displayed your tasks lists:
App View
Web View
Clicking through to a list brings up a list of tasks that belong to that list. You can change the view so that you can see tasks ordered by general list view, time and priority.
To mark an item as complete in the App simply swipe left or right, in the web interface hover over it and click on the tick.
App View
Web View
Clicking on a task brings up a list of options which you can chose to set:
- Due date/time
- Repeat (Limited unless you have premium)
- Location based reminder (premium only)
- Reminders On/Off
- Notes & Attachments
- Sub Tasks
- Collaboration
- Move task to another list
To add a task, simply click on the blue circle in the bottom right (App) or plus sign at the top of the page (web). When you add a task in the App, Any.DO provides some auto-fill functionality to help you add the task, person (if applicable) and action (if needed) automatically:
Name Suggestion – App Only
Task Suggestion – App Only
Just click on the appropriate entry (or keep typing), hit the “+” button at the task is added to your list.
If the App determines that a task is time-sensitive (i.e “Meet Dad”) then a green clock will appear by the task, clicking on which will bring up your default calendar app for you to enter the information.
Note that if you’re using Google Calendar (or your phone’s default calendar App) you have to manually enter the task and time details and there is no two-way syncing between the apps so if you change something in one app, you’ll have to manually change it in the other. Any.DO have recently brought out their own calendar (Cal) and presumably this will sync both ways although I have yet to try this app and functionality out (if you know, please drop me a line in the comments!)
The big “Selling” point : Any.DO Moment
If it’s turned on in the settings, you can set Any.DO to remind you to sort your day out – a feature they call “Any.DO Moment”.
Any.DO moment reminder
Cancelling stops the “Any.DO moment”, you can snooze it to look at it later or “play” it to run through your tasks and set when you want to do them.
When you select to “Play” the Any.DO moment, each task is presented to you. You can say that you’re going to handle that task today (with time options to be reminded), later (tomorrow, next week, someday etc.), you’ve already done it, or delete it.
Any.DO moment – Select reminder time for task flagged as being done today.
Any.DO moment – Choose snooze time
This feature is really handy if you have multiple tasks to deal with that are set for the same day. With Any.DO moment, you can sort through your tasks and figure out what has to be done today and what can wait.
When a task is due, you’re notified on screen where you can dismiss it, snooze the task until later or mark it as done.
Task features
Tasks can have sub-tasks assigned to them, and you can also add people to collaborate on each task. You can also add notes, photos and variety of file types (e.g. PDF, doc, xls etc.) in the free version (the premium version gives you unlimited file size).
Task can also be reoccurring, although in the free version you are limited to only the basic recurrence options.
You can now (since version 3) prioritise tasks and filter your lists accordingly
Task Priority – App
Task Priority – Web
Final Thoughts
Whilst Any.DO is a robust to-do app there are a couple of annoyances:
- There is no option to mark a task as a “Someday” unless you add it as a dated task and then drag it to the “Someday” section (this applies to both the web and app interfaces)
- Completed tasks aren’t cleared automatically after a certain amount of time. You can bulk delete items (or a simple shake on your phone will do the same) but it would be nice for them to be cleared every (x) days automatically.
- Sub-tasks are simple, there’s no way to associate a person, notes or files with a sub-task. This isn’t a deal-breaker but the limited functionality kind of negates the need for these sub-tasks.
- If you set a task to have no reminder and then go back into the task to edit the time/date the reminder gets automatically re-added again which is rather annoying.
That being said, Any.DO is still my go-to to-do app of choice, and has been for the last couple of years. With the steady improvements they’ve been rolling out and the introduction of Cal it’s a great app with a great support network and excellent features for the low price of free.
Get Any.DO
You can:
- Run Any.DO directly from the web
- Download Any.DO from the Google Play Store
- Download Any.DO from iTunes
Over to you
Do you use Any.DO or perhaps you have another preferred task app – what do you think? Let us know in the comments.
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Hi,
Did you check http://www.termyplan.com? We are building it as a simple and efective web app to manage tasks. We would like to know your comments about its usability. It is in beta now. Hope you like it!
Thanks,
Gerard
Thank you very much for the post. Seems incredibly useful and informative. Looking forward to seeing new ones!