As far back as I can remember, I always used post-its, notebooks, text files or small softwares for my projects (tasks), to do lists or to take notes.
I like this kind of Global Task List (GTL) to see the project overview and the evolution. Paper is pretty easy to lose and it's not really efficient today. I tried a couple of softwares but I would like to try a new one.
I could use Jira but it's overkill for a grocery list :P
I'm not a big fan of Jira even if almost all jobs I worked/work in use this software.
For team projects, I will use more Trello or GitHub projects.
I target something quick, more individual than team collaboration since it's more personal
with multiple sections (personal, grocery, goal, small projects, ...)
So I switched to Google Tasks about 3 weeks ago.
Google Tasks is an embedded service included with G Suite (Gmail, Google Calendar, ...)
that manages your lists (e.g. to-do, to-buy/sell, grocery...). You need a Google account to use it. It's free and pretty easy to use.
Todo List + Cloud
If you open Gmail or Google Calendar, you should see a sidebar with a blue icon like that:
Click on this icon and Google Tasks will appear
You can create lists, tasks and sub-tasks. For each task, you can add date/time or add more details (description). You can bind a task/subtask with your Google Calendar and there is an option to repeat tasks by day/week/month/year.
Here are some examples of lists that I created:
[Personal]
- new internet provider
- clean living room (repeat task)
- subscribe to Netflix
[Grocery]
- carrot
- broccoli
- ...
[Job]
- ask for a new computer
- free up hard disk space
[Goal]
- insert random goal here
[Project xyz]
- update website
- ...
The main advantage is that your task lists are stored on Google Cloud.
You can access it with all your devices (desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet) anywhere. You can add some tasks, food for example, from your desktop computer at home and use your smartphone to see the list at your favourite grocery store. (internet required)
Here is a preview on Android phone with the same list (Grocery) above:
When you complete a task, just click on the circle next to the task to close this one. It will go into the "completed" section. You can undo if you make a mistake (e.g. wrong task selected).
Tip and Links
[Tip of the post]
I don't like the way Google Tasks are embedded inside Gmail/G Suite with the computer version (desktop/laptop). The view is small with no resizable option.
There is a link to extract and display Google Tasks in full screen.
Here is the link that you should add to your bookmark if you want to use Google Tasks independently and outside the sidebar:
* Don't bookmark after you open the link. There is a redirection and it will not work the next time you use the link from the bookmark. Edit your bookmark and update with the link above.
Google Tasks is easy to use, free and available on multiple platforms but the downside is Google is popular to shut down its own products (The Google Cemetery). I think I will use this feature until they shut it down.
