Figure out why there are so many to-do list apps

“Why Can’t Anyone Make a Decent To-do App? asks a recent headline on Wired.com. The article examines why most users aren’t getting the full value from the growing list of cloud-based task-management options and suggests two directions such apps (and their users) will head in the future: (1) Back to paper (2) Technology so smart, it creates a list for you—then makes sure you follow it.

Figure out why to-do list apps fail

41% | The percentage of tasks placed by users on the app “IDoneThis” that were never completed.

There are hundreds of app variations of the classic to-do list. Apparently, we have a DNA-level compulsion to make lists and check them off as they are completed.

“It’s remarkably fulfilling to spend so much time organizing and planning instead of actually getting stuff done. Trust me, I do it all the time. I’m not alone, either,” admits the article’s author, David Pierce.

Quote:

“Making and keeping a to-do list is almost as hard as completing the tasks on it. What’s most frustrating is it feels like we should have solved that by now. As work becomes increasingly gig-based, distributed, and complex, people increasingly need time- and task-management tools.”

List a few of the endless list of to-do list apps

Wunderlist
Todoist
Any.do
Asana
Toodledo
Trello
Checkvist
TeuxDeux

And on and on.

Says Wired.com’s Pierce: “Most of the myriad to-do list apps are fine. Some of them are very good. But none of them has ever solved my problem—your problem—of having too much to do, too little time to do it, and a brain incapable of remembering and prioritizing it all. Which explains why the old ways remain so popular.”

Explain the “input” challenge

There are two parts to creating and using to-do list. The first step is adding things to the list. This is where apps have failed to out perform paper—although the voice-activated apps are coming close. (“Siri and Alexa, add this to my to-do list.”) Adding things to a to-do list must match the speed of thought and, as task-management guru David Allen observes, “If you have to turn on your phone, click here, click that little icon, go to there … Come on. A to-do list must be fast and flexible enough to keep up with your thoughts. If you have to spend ten seconds looking for your iPhone, paper wins.”

Explain the “ubiquitous” challenge

Lists may be the wrong metaphor to use for what one needs to actually get things done. Companies like Google and Todoist are working on “predictive” technology that collects data about where you are and what you are doing to be a “GPS of your life” so it can suggest the types of tasks you may need to do, and when you might most efficiently do them. This solves the need most lists fail to meet: They aren’t always ubiquitous across all the devices, apps and software one uses throughout the day.

The downside to this scenario: Will we really trust a technology company—even Google—to know everything we say, buy, go to or think? Or, is that something we’re already doing so we might as well get a great to-do list from it?

Predict the future

We have a long way to go before checking off this one.

(via: Subtraction.com)