What to Look for in a To Do List Organizer

source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/229202

To do lists help us stay organized and on top of all tasks, projects and goals. There are dozens of websites and downloadable programs out there that can make it easy to stay on top of your to do list. However, before you sign up of download one of these programs, you need to figure out what type of organizer will help you the most.

To do lists are most effective when they are completely customized to your needs. You’ll find your to do list easier to use if you select one that fits with your needs. We all have different organizational styles and to do needs. Look over the following options to find what works best for you and your specific needs.

Hyper-organizer:

You’re chief plate spinner in your house and at work, so you need a to do list organizer that will help you keep all of your roles organized as well as the tasks within them. You thrive on color coding systems and being on top of just about every aspect of your life. There’s no point in having your work to do list, your personal to do list and your family to do list in three separate places. What you need is an integrated solution that allows you to manage many different roles and tasks at once.

We love KeepandShare’s To Do Lists, not just because we built the software ourselves, but because it incorporates all the features we’ve always wanted.  Of course you can manages gobs of different lists (a.k.a. folders), sort by priority and start date, completion status.  You can even put ‘gold stars’ on items.  But what really sets this to do list apart is the unlimited free text entry you can put into each item – so you can keep extensive notes.  You can even put lists inside of to do items, e.g., when we have a task ‘buy groceries for trip’ we put the shopping list right inside this to do task!

Toodledo is a good solution for the hyper-organizer. You can categorize your to do tasks in folders, subtasks, priorities, tags, contexts, notes and time estimates so with the click of a button you can see what is most important that day. Keeping all of your to do tasks in one localized place will help you maintain coverage in all of your major areas.

Goal setter:

If you’re a goal setter you have a long term goal in mind that you need to break down into specific tasks. You might have set goals in the past and had them fall apart a few days later. With to do list management, you can be sure that your long term goals translate into your daily tasks.

Joe’s Goals is a great to do organizer for goals that require daily tracking. Your tasks are organized into a simple online spreadsheet and you check off tasks as you complete them each day. You can also track bad habits on the same sheet. You’ll get one “point” for each good task and minus one “point” for succumbing to your bad habits. You can also journal about your activities in a special spot on your sheet.

Day to day planner:

Some people just need to keep track of a short list of tasks on a day to day basis. If you don’t have many tasks or need to keep things streamlined, a simple to do organizer should suffice.

Listflock has a simple interface to collect your to do list items. Once you sign up for the free service, you can enter you items one by one with a due date. The service will e-mail you or send you a tweet each day to remind you of your tasks for that particular day.

Try out one of these free options for to do list management so you can get your tasks off your mind and into a program that will keep your organized and less stressed to boot!

Tagged as: day planner, Goal Setting, goal website, list organization, list software, list website, to do list