I ‘m a big believer in task lists. I use them constantly to manage tasks for running this site, for work, and for home, and try to stay on top of everything I need to be doing. And of course I ‘m fond of having both desktop and iPhone tools to help me with this.
For a long time, my favorite and only go-to tool in this area, for both the iPhone and the desktop, has been the superb Things app from Cultured Code “ so I rarely look very much at other apps in this category anymore. Put Things Off caught my eye recently though “ partly due to its original and comical name, and partly due to its appearance.
From its App Store description, I had a strong feeling that Put Things Off would not be a Things replacement for me “ but I thought it was interesting enough to want to take a look at, just to gauge what ‘s around at the other end of the spectrum in task manager apps.
I ‘ve seen plenty of the ‘high-end ‘, feature rich apps that rival Things – like OmniFocus, ToodleDo, Pocket Informant, and others, so I thought it was about time to take a look at a simpler sort of app.
Put Things Off is just such a simple app. It ‘s billed as a ‘truly unique, laid-back todo list that ‘s perfect for procrastinators, and busy people ‘. Here are some of its benefits and features, per its App Store description:
- Focus on what ‘s important each day
- Put off stuff that ‘s not
- Wave goodbye to obsessive tagging and categorising, and get stuff done with software that ‘s simple and fun
- Unique one-touch, tray-based filing system
- Auto-nag system that moves the tasks you ‘ve put off back to your Today tray after 3 days (you can adjust this setting)
After playing around with Put Things Off for a few days, I think it lives up to its billing quite well. Its interface is very minimal and easy to use, and the look and feel of the app is very friendly and easy to engage with as well.
The app uses four trays to group your tasks, all of them just one tap away via its bottom nav bar: Inbox, Today, Put Off, and Done. Each of these is intended to be used just as you ‘d expect – the Inbox is a sort of catch-all spot for any new task you create. Today is where your top priority items go. Put Off is as its name would suggest, for tasks that are not yet urgent and you want out of your view for a time, and Done is where completed items go.
Each task entry has two simple action buttons to use “ a star, which when tapped will add the task to the Today tray, and a check mark, which will chuck the task into the Done tray.
The only other buttons in the app are the big + symbol at top right, to add a new task; and the gears icon top left to go to the app ‘s settings area.
That ‘s about all there is to this one. Very simple, but I imagine also very effective if you do not have a huge amount of tasks to manage and don ‘t want or need a lot of bells and whistles from your to-do app.
A couple of things that I ‘m not fond of in the app are:
- Each individual task item is shown in a tall, chunky format, which means only a maximum of four at a time can be seen in each tray without scrolling. I have a feeling this is very much by design though, as the intent is to keep everything very simple and in keeping with the app ‘s overall look.
- The app has no sync options that I ‘m aware of. Again, this may well be a decision by the developers, continuing the keep it simple theme.
Just as I expected, Put Things Off is not a potential solution for me for tasks management. It can ‘t offer all the power of Things, or the desktop companion and sync that I need.
Having said that, I did find the app very easy and effective to use while testing it out. If you ‘re the type of person who likes to keep things very simple with your to-do lists, I think this app is well worth a look.
You can find Put Things Off in the App Store now, for $2.99.
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TAGS: iphone apps, iPhone task manager apps, iPhone To-do apps, iPhone todo apps
