I’ve mentioned before that I use a digital app for scheduling all my tasks and lists. Feels a bit sacrilegious seen as I’m usually a pen and paper gal, but the one big thing digital has going for it is the ability to easily move things around without messing them up. (And, y’know, that fancy cloud thing I’ve heard so much about.)
My lists change on a very regular basis. I need to be able to edit them and add to them with ease. So I turned to the digital world to heal my woes.
The main problem I had when looking for a ‘to do’ app was that most of them only allowed you to write lists or to assign tasks to certain days, but never both. For me, I like to be able to have several lists on the go at once, but also be able to slot certain tasks into certain days.
Enter TeuxDeux. (They don’t know I’m reviewing this, nor are they paying for it. Sadly.) Hopefully the pics (taken from the TeuxDeux blog) will be able to explain it clearly but, basically, it’s a calendar where you can list your to-do’s on certain days AND there’s a separate section on the bottom where you can add as many random lists as you like.
See that? Magic!
Anything you add can be edited by double-clicking on it, and can be dragged and dropped to another day or list. You can also set things to repeat so that, when you mark it as ‘done’, it’ll automatically bump itself forward. (Take that, pen and paper!)
The lists along the bottom are great for pretty much anything you can think of that works in list format. All the headings are editable, so you can have whatever you want — shopping list, gifts to buy, particular projects you’re working on, books you want to read, films you want to see… Frankly, the possibilities are pretty endless.
Right now, my TeuxDeux lists are as follows:
- this week’s priorities;
- upcoming priorities;
- shit list (stay tuned for a post on what I use this for);
- blog post ideas (it’s getting pretty long!);
- things I’m waiting for (usually online purchases to be delivered, but sometimes things like replies to emails or phone calls);
- 2014 taxes (for all the things I need to check off before I can finally file them);
- RAKs to send (a RAK, if you don’t already know, is a Random Act of Kindness. In the planner groups, it’s where we send small packages of stationery or other little bits to fellow members at random, just to brighten up their day);
- separate lists for all the rooms in my home, with things I want to do in each, such as paint, declutter a certain corner, buy a new piece of furniture or storage solution, etc.; and finally
- expenses (listed by month so that, when I’m doing up my monthly budget, I can see at a glance that, for example, my house insurance is due this month so I need to allow extra funds for that).
And if that wasn’t enough bee’s knees-ness for you, the TeuxDeux calendar easily allows you to slot in tasks on any day you like. If you’ve seen my planner set-up video, you’ll know I don’t like writing tasks in my planner, so this is where I keep them all.
Every Sunday, I sit down and write type out tasks for each day of the coming week. My planner comes in handy here because, obviously, if I’ve got a lot of work on a particular day, or appointments or meetings, then I know not to plan as many tasks into that day. (Saturday’s list is usually pretty long because I rarely work that day and, as my husband is also off work, he looks after our daughter so that I can catch up on things like writing, housework, etc.)
A simple click ticks off the task as done, and anything that isn’t completed before the clock strikes 12 automatically gets bumped to the bottom of the next day’s list.
Y’know what? Here’s a handy video that not only shows off the app, but also highlights what a great sense of humour the people behind it have.
{That guy has some serious “Pied Piper” shit going on and needs to record some meditation or hypnosis audio STAT.}
If it wasn’t already clear, I’m absolutely in love with it. Yes, there are some quirks I’d like to change (like how each task only gets one line so, if the text runs over that, you have to hover over it with the cursor to read the full thing) but they’re minor little quibbles. Overall, I can’t see how I’d ever stop using it. It’s been instrumental in helping me get my shit together.
The good news is that it’s free for 30 days; the bad news is that it’s US$24 per year thereafter (or a slightly more expensive $3 per month if you don’t want to commit to a full year). For me, it’s worth it. In spades. And there’s an iPhone app so I can have it with me at all times, and that’s free.
If you’re a list lover, and particularly if you want the freedom to add to-do’s to a calendar, then I can’t recommend it enough. It has increased my productivity immeasurably and, as well as my planner, is where I keep track of pretty much everything going on in my life.
Try it out for the 30 days and see if it can do the same for you: www.teuxdeux.com
Let me know if you love it!
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