I first learned of Toodledo about a year ago, when I was looking for a better way to manage my tasks.  Until then, I had been using MS Outlook.  That worked fine, but had a significant disadvantage.  There was no way to modify your tasks when away from your main computer.  Everything was stored locally.  The more mobile I was becoming, the more of a problem this single computer approach was going to be.  So, off I set to find a solution in the sky…well, really in the Cloud.  What I found was one of the finest task managers I had ever used: Toodledo.

User Interface: There are a lot of task managers available, and many of them do a fairly decent job of tracking your tasks.  So, what makes Toodledo so special?  What makes it stand out from the rest of the crowd?   The biggest thing for me was the user interface, which allows you to organize your tasks into folders (displayed as tabs).  This is perfect for me. 

And there are many more advanced features, unlike any other task manager I have ever used.  Before we get to all of that, though, let’s take a closer look at the utterly unique and impressively effective user interface.

Most task managers give you a list of tasks.  That is pretty much it.  Sure, you may be able to sort or filter by categories or keywords, and some offer other advanced features, but in the end, what you typically get with task managers is some variation on a single list of tasks.  Functional, for sure.  But not particularly inspired.

Toodledo takes a whole new approach.  Rather than just a list of tasks, your tasks are organized by folders.  Do you have a number of different projects?  Make each project a folder.  Do you command a team?  Each team member gets their own folder.  For me, I write for several different sites (JAMM, My Today Screen, Gear Diary), so each site owns its own folder.  That way, I always know which site gets each review. 

So, you’re thinking, but lots of programs allow you to assign folders or categories to your tasks.  Yawn.  Well, not so fast there.  Toodledo doesn’t just allow you to assign folders or categories.  It introduces a fantastic tabbed interface.  So, how does this work?  Just setup your folders and each will appear across the top as a tab.  You can view the categories assigned to each folder by clicking on the individual tabs, or view all tasks at once (in a neatly organized list.)  In addition to All Tasks, you can have up to five tabs displayed at a time.  The rest will be hidden under the More Tabs button on the far left.

Of course, sorting your tasks may not always be the best way to organize your to do list.  Maybe you want to get to the most important tasks first.  Or tasks that are due today.  For this reason, the user interface is extremely customizable.  In addition to the folder view, there are several different views you can select to organize your lists:

• Main is going to give you something approximating a traditional task list with tabs for your starred tasks, hotlist (upcoming due dates), recently added, recently completed, and recently modified.
•  Due Date organizes your tasks into tabs by their due date.  Tabs include Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, This Week, Next Week, and This Month.  A final tab includes tasks with no due date.
• Priority organizes your tasks by the priority you assigned to them.  The tabs range from 3 (highest priority) to –1 (lowest priority).

Additionally, you can search your tasks.  And, if you have the paid version, organize by individuals with whom you are sharing tasks  (as we will discuss, sharing is not available in the free version.) 

In addition to folders, Toodledo will also allow you to add contexts to your tasks.  This is yet another tool you can use to help you increase your productivity by hiding tasks which do not match your current context or activity locations, regardless of the folder to which they have been assigned.  As Toodledo explains:

It is not productive to be reminded about tasks at home when you are at work, and vice versa. Contexts help you organize your tasks by where you are and what you are doing. The context filter on Toodledo will hide every task that does not match your current context, so you can quickly see only those items which are important to you at the moment. Some commonly used contexts include: work, home, car, telephone, church, etc. If you select a default context, it will be preset when you are adding a new task.

Adding Tasks: In order to enjoy all of this functionality, you will need to populate Toodledo with your active tasks.  Now, some of you may have heard how easy other services make adding tasks.  But I’ll be honest.  I’ve used almost all of the task managing services out there, and I have never used one that makes it as easy as Toodledo.

To get started, just jump right in there and click the button in the upper right.  Yeah, the one that says, “Add Task.”  That will open the new task dialogue.  Just give your task a name and fill in the property fields.  Wallah.  Your task is done.  Like I said, easy!

Then again, sometimes you may want to add a task when you cannot get to your computer.  Not to worry.  As long as you can access your email account, you can add new tasks.  When you create a new account, you will be given a secret email address.  Just sent an email to this address and a task will automatically be added to your list.  The subject line of the email will be the name of your new task.  You can even set the priority, due-date, folder, context and note using a special syntax within your email.

Heck, if you have an appropriate account, you can even use many popular third party services to tie into Toodledo and manage your tasks without logging into the website.  For example, Toodledo can interact with:

• Twitter
• Jott
• T-Sheets
• Netvibes/Pageflakes
• FireFox (sidebar Add-On)
• i-Cal
• …and many others, but you get the idea.  If you can devise a way to enter tasks, there is a good bet Toodledo has already thought of it as well.  And if not…well, they do make their API publicly available on their web site.
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Then again, if you are like me, then you are nowhere near organized for all of this.  More often than not, I find myself updating my tasks once a week or so.  When that happens, it can become tedious to enter all of that information individually.  Well, with Toodledo, you won’t have to do so.  Just tap “Add Multiple Tasks.”  From there, enter the names of all of your tasks, and fill in any other fields that your tasks have in common.  That’s it.  All of your tasks will now be individually entered.

Of course, this does not do a heck of a lot of good if you can’t come back later and edit some of this information.  I mean, let’s be honest, my priorities are constantly shifting, and due date changing.  Fortunately, this is no problem at all.  Just find the task you want to modify on the main page.  Tap the field you want to edit and make the necessary change.  Again…piece of cake.

Tracking Tasks: The other fantastic aspect of Toodledo is that you do not need to log into the Toodledo website in order to access your tasks.  With the click of a button, you can sync your tasks to any number of services, so that you will always have an up to date indication of your latest task lists.  Heck, you can eve create an RSS feed or subscribe to regular email and SMS reminders.  I think this off-site reminder is something which many task managers largely overlook.  Not Toodledo.  They have reached to the bowels of the Internet in order to ensure that if you use a service, you can see your tasks there.  And if you can’t…well, there goes that API again.

Another area in which Toodledo excels is in task sharing.  I already mentioned the RSS feed, which your whole team can subscribe to, in order to monitor tasks.  The problem here, however, is that you cannot limit this option.  In other words, either everyone can see your task list, or no one can.  It would be nice if there was a middle approach.

Paid users can also utilize the collaboration feature.  A while back, we looked at this collaboration feature as a tool for the JAMM team to track outstanding reviews.  It worked great, but there was just no way the entire team could be provided with paid accounts.  Nonetheless, this is the middle ground that I had been looking for with the free account.  It allows you to designate who can access your task list, and lets you set three levels of collaboration: read only, Allowed to Add Tasks, and Allowed to Edit Tasks.  This is absolutely fantastic.  And I still wish there was a way to get the entire JAMM Team using the Toodledo paid account so we could all collaborate like this.

Services: As long as we are talking about the differences between versions, this seems like a good time to mention that there are three different versions of Toodledo: Toodledo (free), Toodledo Pro ($14.95/year), and Toodledo Pro Plus (29.95/year).  The main difference between the Pro and Pro Plus versions is that the Pro Plus allows file uploads (up to 1 GB of storage). 

You will need to decide for yourself with the Pro or Pro Plus variations will best meet your needs.  I can tell you, however, that the free version includes an amazingly impressive array of features.  Virtually everything I needed to stay organized with included in the free version…considerably more than I found in other free (and some paid) task managers.  Check out this chart to see how the free version stacks up against the Pro and Pro Plus versions. 

Advanced Features: If all Toodledo did was organize your tasks, then it really would have been more than enough to win me over.  But they just went so much further with this one, and really developed an impressive and flexible array of advanced features.  I’m not going to discuss each of these features individually, as I will leave you to explore them and figure out what will work best for your needs.  I will say, however, that these tools (many of which are available in the free version) significantly expand the functionality of Toodledo, by allowing you to plan goals, view your stats, and customize how you interact with your tasks.   All of which means that Toodledo gives you the tools to access your tasks in the manner which works best for you.  One of the most interesting, however, is the ability to print your tasks as a booklet (above).

Mobile Versions: This brings us to the biggest area in which I think Toodledo could improve.  Toodledo does not offer a mobile version of the program.  Which is not unexpected.  A lot of programs do not offer a standalone mobile version.  What they do offer, and what I found to be missing here, was a method of syncing data from the online program to the native task management program.  Toodledo syncs with almost everything under the sun, so I was very surprised to find that it could not sync with my mobile device.

What Toodledo does offer, both on Windows Mobile and the iPhone is a mobile optimized version of the website. 

Here is the Windows Mobile version of Toodledo.  It is pretty basic, but it gets the job done.  I tend to keep my tasks organized by folder.  However, you can also choose to sort your tasks alphabetically, by due date, or by priority. 

The iPhone site is a little more robust, taking advantage of the Safari browser’s capabilities.  The home screen allows you to access your task in any organizational unit you choose, including:

• Hotlist
• Starred
• Folders
• Due Dates
• Priorities
• Recently Completed
• All Tasks

While I did think both interfaces worked well, they both shared two significant disadvantages.  First, there is no way for either to notify you of an upcoming task due date.  Second, you must be online to utilize them.  This means if you do not have an unlimited date plan, this can become quite costly.  This is most unfortunate.  Like I said, Toodledo will sync with numerous services, so I was quite perplexed by the lack of any option to at least sync your data with Windows Mobile.

Fortunately, I am not the only one who felt this way.  Appigo also saw a need for this functionality, and they went ahead and did something about it.  Their fantastic task manager, Todo (which is, unfortunately, only available for the iPhone/iPod Touch.)  Now, I am not going to launch into a full review of Todo (though that may be coming soon).  I do want to point out, however, that they did a fantastic job of filling in the missing features in Toodledo.

Since Todo is a standalone program, you can edit, add, delete, and complete tasks, all without going online.  When you are ready, just connect via your data plan (if you have an iPhone) or Wifi.  In only a few seconds, your data will be completely synced with Toodledo’s online site.  Furthermore, following the conventions of the iPhone interface, Todo also offers a notification if you have any tasks due that day.  Like other programs, Todo offers a dynamic icon.  A red circle with the number of upcoming tasks will appear when you have a task due.  This may not be as good as a Today Screen Plug in, which would allow you to view the task without opening a program.  Still, this is the next best thing.  Your homescreen tells you that you have a task coming up, and all you have to do is tap the icon to see all of the information. 

I have been using Todo almost since I started using the iPod Touch, and it is the perfect compliment to Toodledo’s online resources.  I only wish there were a similar option for Windows Mobile.

Conclusion: I have been using Toodledo for a little more than a year now, and I have always been impressed by the versatility and options it offers.  It was not until I started writing this review, however, that I spent a lot of concentrated time exploring the deep crevices of its many features.  Like Indiana Jones seeking the Lost Ark, each area I opened revealed three new ones that I must have completely overlooked previously.  In fact, the only feature missing is the ability to work offline or sync with a mobile device/iPhone.  Fortunately, they do make their API available and third party developers, such as Appigo have worked diligently to fill this void.  Otherwise, Toodledo offers an amazingly impressive array of features.  From the advances user interface, to the ability to sync with virtually every interface under the sun, this is nothing less than the best task management program I have used.

Where to Find: Toodledo

Price: Basic (free), Pro ($14.95/year), Pro Plus ($29.95/year)

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