Are these for you?

If you’re just beginning as a freelancer in any domain, you’ll soon start to realize there are a lot of things that will keep you from working smoothly, most of them will be things with tight deadlines and especially things you remember in the last minute that totally wreck your schedule. If you see yourself having these issues, then yes, these apps are for you. We use all 3 of them, each with different purpose, but most of them can do the same things, with minor exceptions.

Wunderlist, Things and Microsoft To-do can be very helpful. We’ve tried them all and we want to share our experience. Therefore we created a small “X” vs “Y” Contest -> Let the Game Begin!

How do we use them?

Well, it would be a funny aspect but both me and and my partner are fans of bodybuilding, and since the job of developing and writing code usually implies sitting at a desk for hours on end, this is a great relief, but working out requires a strict schedule, nutrition, muscle groups, all of which need listed and one in order.

Furthermore, both of us have accountants, tax dates, which we all know can’t be late, and all require attention and focus. Let’s not forget about car oil dates, family related issues, utility bills and more. So how can all these be removed from being a burden? A gym schedule, food schedule, shopping, tax dates, bills, issues, etc? Simple! We have gorgeous lists, with reminders, so we can just work and get notified about tasks without having to forget anything essential.

Things 3

Mac: $49.99 | iPhone & Apple Watch: $9.99 | iPad: $19.99

We’ll start with the Champion of our list: Things! We use things for everything work related, finance related, and especially any task that we need to be sure we won’t miss. Things is an app that has been around for a lot of time, unfortunately only available on Apple Ecosystem, but done perfectly, to the point of insane perfection. For us, Things has never missed a reminder, never “deleted” a task by accident, and never had an issue with syncs.

Instant sync is one of the best factors about Things. We’d be working for a customer for example, and keep Things open on our iPad or Mac. While going out for a coffee break our customer could mail us a few extra requirements. We can simply mail them to our lists or just add them manually and getting home we’d be presented with the tasks in sync. That’s perfect.

Best part we found about Things is the incredibly useful “Magic Plus”, a incredibly useful way of adding tasks. Just drag and drop a plus icon to create a new Task, Heading or Project.

Pros: 

• Absolutely perfect sync.
• Never missed a reminder in over 6 years ( using both Things 2, and Things 3 )
• Beautiful, uncluttered interface
• Fast, responsive and incredibly intuitive.

Cons:

• No Android or Windows Support.
• All the apps cost $80 ( but are totally worth it )
• No List Sharing
• No File Attachements

Wunderlist

All Platforms Free + Premium Subscription

Ahhh, Wunderlist. Our first love, our “the one” that got us hooked on organizing our work, and probably one of the biggest factors that we reached the level of organizing that we have now, but at the same time, as most “first loves” it turned out into a nightmarish disappointment.

Wunderlist had(has) it all. It has List Sharing, Attachments, Comments and Discussions, and for all intended purposes it was a Slack of those who don’t like talking too much and just like getting things done. Unfortunately, Wunderlist was sold to Microsoft, to create the now famous “beta” version and a somewhat, cheap clone “Microsoft To-Do” This was the reason we completely ditched Wunderlist.

Microsoft claims Wunderlist still has some way to to before it will be replaced by To-Do, but, the fact that the grave has been dug and now we’re waiting for Microsoft to lower the casket made the case for us. We need something reliable that won’t be pulled out of the blue, and Microsoft has an infamous reputation of doing this ( Sunrise Calendar, cough ).

However, that date is yet to come, and Wunderlist is still gorgeous and available on all platforms.

Pros: 

• Syncs okay. Since ToDo appeared, there are hiccups.
• Beautiful, interface.
• Fast, responsive and intuitive.
• Free version has everything you need.

Cons:

• Purchased by Microsoft.
• Updates have been coming way, way, way late for bugs.
• It’s days are numbered, so use with care!

Microsoft Wunder… To-Do

All Platforms Free + Premium Subscription

Yes, pun intended. Microsoft just wanted to shove their branding all over the Wunderlist design completely ignoring the famous “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it saying”. We now use Microsoft To-Do for Gym routines and Grocery Shopping. We wouldn’t date add important things to it and we reserved that for Things 3 exclusively.

Microsoft has been notoriously slow in fixing Sync Bugs and although they claimed they will add all the “useful” features that Wunderlist had, the first release of To-Do came out as something you’d be better off doing in notes.

Now, almost 3 years after its inception, To-Do still lacks List Sharing, File Attachements and Comments, but they have successfully integrated “Sub-Tasks”, a feature every user was screaming for, and they renamed it to Steps.

To be honest, we find this very displeasing and really, really unprofessional. The announcement of terminating Wunderlist was premature, users like us bouncing away from it for fear of loosing their important tasks, and releasing the app as a “Beta Release Candidate” is the most we can say about even the current version of Microsoft To-Do.

Pros: 

• Syncs okay now. Issues fixed.
• Will most likely be here for a long time.
• Very fast, cross-platform compatible.
• Free version only at the moment.

Cons:

• Lacks attachments
• Updates are small, and most of them are just bug fixes.
• Lacks sharing.
• Lacks comments.
• Feels like a cheap version of Things.

Ending Words?

You can’t go wrong with any of these apps if you want to better organize your tasks, each has pluses and minuses, but the most important factor is that you now have something to remind you of things you’ll most likely forget otherwise.

Our personal favorite for all tasks is Things 3, followed by To-Do for the simple fact that it’s not waiting to be executed, and last but not least, Wunderlist, for grocery shopping with family and other small common tasks.

Check them out, and make your own decision, you’ll fall in love with each and everyone of them.