The To-Do List of Today

by Erik Pavia
March 11, 2010

It is easy to unabatedly say that letter writing has predominantly been replaced by communication through email, text messaging, and social networking sites. Why wouldn’t it be? Sending a message electronically is much more efficient than physically writing one out. All the people that communicate electronically presumably agree with me. I find it unusual then, that one of the major tools for achieving higher levels of efficiency has not followed written communication into the same ubiquitous electronic cloud. To-do lists are a great way of keeping track of tasks, setting priorities, meeting deadlines, and generally reigning life into control, yet many people stick to the antiquated pen-and-paper method.

You may think, “To-do lists? Those are for forgetful people and for people buying groceries for their grandmothers. I can remember everything I have to do.” Yet, if you stop for a few moments and think of how many individual tasks you have to do today, over the next week, or in the span of a month, you’ll probably realize you have more things to do than you thought. At some point, you had forgotten tasks, which means you could use a to-do list.

Even if you are good at remembering things (or just have very few things to do), and can recall all of your tasks instantly, to-do lists are a great way to decide which order and priority your tasks can take. Trying to juggle all of the day’s activities may lead you to plan more things into your day than 24 hours permit. The seeming immediacy of one task may lead you to forget that another task was more important. To-do lists can help eliminate these problems that have no business being in your busy schedule.

There are many forms of the pen and paper to-do list. I respect the desire to have a tangible form of the list that controls life. However, I’m forgetful enough to need a to-do list; I’m really not going to remember to carry around a physical list (even if I write that as a task within the list). I’ve found it more convenient storing my to-do list on the internet. Of all the things that I can lose or forget, there is no way that I can somehow lose or forget the internet somewhere. Like many students, I own a smart phone, so if my to-do list is online, I can pull it up at anytime.

After trying a couple online to-do list services, my favorite has become Remember the Milk. Remember the Milk (RTM) has features that allow users to include various details in creating tasks (locations, dates, notes, and people involved), but is simple enough to use for those who want to write down a list of tasks, and nothing more. RTM is very accessible, and includes a mobile site accessible from many mobile browsers. Users can also input tasks into RTM via email, SMS messages, and Twitter posts. RTM has integration with Gmail, Google Calendar, and iGoogle. RTM apps are available for the iPhone and for Android based phones. If you want to try it out, RTM has a guide for getting started.

Another easy to use to-do application is Google Tasks. Google Tasks does not standalone, but is integrated with Gmail, Google Calendar, and iGoogle. Gmail users can turn emails into tasks with a few simple clicks and tasks automatically show up in Google Calendar on the specified due dates. Google Tasks lacks many of the features RTM has, but is incredibly easy to use. If you already have a Google account, and if you’re intimidated by new websites, Google Tasks is already set up. Look for the Tasks link on the left side of Gmail and Google Calendar.

Aside from web-based applications, I have tried several apps for my Android phone. My favorite by far has been Astrid. It’s simple, it provides snide reminders (“Got a minute?”), it creates entries into Google Calendar, and unlike many Android apps, it rarely crashes. Best of all, it syncs with Remember the Milk.

If applications are just too complex for your preferences, there are other ways to ditch paper. Simple methods I’ve seen for keeping track of tasks is the self addressed text message or email. Type up a message with the day’s activities and send it to yourself. Now you have a list that’s hard to lose and easy to check.

Do you have other helpful ways to keep track of multitudes of tasks? Submit a comment in the field below.

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Erik Pavia

Pavia is a senior Economics major at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is a member of the Regional Economic Development Association. He plans to attend law school after receiving his BBA.