adamyntium

Brief rant: to-do lists online

I’ll keep this (relatively) short and sweet:

I already use a fine to-do list software application (MyLifeOrganized), but since I’m aiming to move most of my life online, I thought I’d check out various online to-do apps.  I’ve been *shocked* at how every single app I’ve looked at falls into one of two categories:

1) Slower than a dog.
Sure, ajax is trendy and so [gag] Web2.0, but it sure beats the pants off having the damn screen redraw after every task add and edit!

2) No way to specify a start date.
Okay, this has to be the dumbest omission imaginable.  I mean, come on, I can’t work on [x] until my friend so-and-so arrives in three months.  I’m not going to start planning a birthday present for my sister until two weeks before her birthday.  I’m not going to start testing out music notation software packages until after the 2007 NAMM show.  Why on *earth* would I want all my to-do’s showing up as something to work on before I either want to or can work on them?!

This is particularly discouraging to me, because Remember the Milk is clearly a very slick service with passionate and smart developers and an active community and so on.  So why on earth haven’t they implemented start dates for tasks?  This certainly can’t rank up there as one of the tough technical problems of all times.  I don’t see it posing a significant UI challenge, either.  Nor, I’d imagine, is this something that users would be scratching their heads over (“Start date? Hmm… that’s so confusing and overwhelming.  Whatever could it mean?!”)

Grrr.

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Adam Lasnik

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7 responses to “Brief rant: to-do lists online”

  1. Jonathan Dingman Avatar
    Jonathan Dingman

    That “Remember the Milk” site is pretty sweet.  Good call there 🙂

    Reply
  2. Mitzi Avatar
    Mitzi

    Did you feel any irony while writing this post considering your previous entry?  A few weeks ago you said,

    “And so we return?quite circuitously, I admit?to my personal objections to Second Life.  It?s not that it?s not real enough? it?s that it?s just real enough to serve as a quasi-substitute for life-in-person.  And furthermore, it?s designed not to reflect, much less improve or enhance, one?s existing relationships (a la the ideal of Facebook, IMHO), but rather to create an alternate albeit real reality that necessitates tending to.”

    Yet now you write,

    “I?m aiming to move most of my life online”. 

    What’s that about “life-in-person”?  😀

    Reply
  3. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Yeah, I forgot an important word.  I’m aiming to move all my *computing* life online.  As in backups, word processing, etc… things I already need to do and currently do on my hard drive.

    Sorry for the confusion 😮

    Reply
  4. aaron pratt Avatar
    aaron pratt

    I still just can’t get myself to change, I am in the either all or nothing stage. Either I migrate 100% online or go the exact opposite way and cut the chords.

    The slowness thing really stinks when you are logging in from a summer home on a 56k modem but it is also nice to have all the data “out there” to access but (again) it is sometimes just as easy to bring along the laptop I am typing on right now…a dilemma.

    The idea of having an operating system on a single disk with all programs and files is pretty cool also.

    Hrm, now I can’t decide either, think I will put this idea in a drawer with others unfinished work until I am ready to make a change. 🙂

    Software is made by humans, nuff said.

    Reply
  5. Stephan Spencer Avatar
    Stephan Spencer

    Hi Adam,

    Hehe… I think you meant to link to http://www.mylifeorganized.net/. You’re currently sending link love to a domain squatter. 😀

    Stephan

    Reply
  6. Adam Avatar
    Adam

    Ack!  Thanks much, Stephan. Very right you are… so of course I just made the correction. Appreciate the heads-up 🙂

    Reply
  7. James Avatar
    James

    Here Adam, link love for the same site is now doubled. one in a post and another in the comment area.

    Reply

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