QuickAdvice: Manage Your Time, Not To-Dos, with Put Things Off
Put Things Off: The laid-back todo list to get tasks done ($1.99) by Spiffing Apps is a to-do app that lets you manage your time, not your to-do list.
I'm a sucker for apps that help me get my work organized, so while this isn't a new app, I decided to give it a try anyways. Lately I've been a dedicated OmniFocus user, but sometimes I do feel that I'm managing the actual to-do list more than I am my actual tasks. So I saw Put Things Off with a colorful yet attractive interface in the App Store and decided to try it out.
There are no various projects or contexts or any of that fancy stuff that you find in apps like OmniFocus. The concept behind Put Things Off is very simple - you have an Inbox, Today, Put Off, and Done. Each one is represented by a color-coded tray icon also marked with it's own symbol. As you add tasks and move them into the various trays, the icons fill up realistically as you add more and more tasks into any of these four sections.
Creating a task couldn't be any easier. By default, you will be on the Inbox section, but every section will have that iconic + symbol button in the corner for creating a new task. Just type the name of the task in the little post-it note square and, if necessary, add a due date to the item. That's it - you just created a task.
Once you have a task, the real fun is moving the tasks around, which is actually the easiest method I've come across. In the Inbox, you can move the task to Today or Put Off. In Today, you can Put Off or Complete the task. In Put Off, you can move it to Today or Complete it. If you Complete a task, you can actually move it back to Today (if it was an accident) or Trash it.
Drag and drop is the primary way to reorder your tasks, as well as another feature: stacking your tasks. If you drag a task on top of another, you can create a "stack." This is great for any tasks that are related.
In the Put Off tray, you can view tasks for the next five days, which is great for giving you the week at-a-glance. Nothing can help you plan things out better than seeing what lies in front of you for the week.
Put Things Off has a couple of settings for you to adjust too. The most important is probably the "Put things off for..." setting, where you can adjust the default Put Off duration from 1 day to 31 days. This allows for some flexibility between users. Other settings include toggles for sound, left-handed mode, and badge count.
The developers also have a supplementary web interface at ptoff.com, which you can sign up for from within the app. There is a 30-day free trial for the web service, and there are subscriptions that you can purchase from within the app. The web interface just allows you to quickly enter in a task and then you can watch the task show up in your Inbox automatically if the app is open.
While it's nifty that the developers include a web interface, I don't find it worth purchasing a subscription plan for. Perhaps if it was free, then it would be more useful, but I don't plan to use the web interface beyond the 30 days I'm getting free. The rates are $0.99 and $4.99 for 30 and 180 days, respectively. Save yourself the money and just launch the app and enter in your tasks.
Overall, I found Put Things Off to be a nice and enjoyable to-do app that doesn't make you worry about all that complicated stuff such as projects, contexts, location, etc. It just let's you manage your time, not the to-do list itself. It's simple, beautiful, and fast.
I think if the developers could improve the app, they could do so by adding various themes for the app. While I don't mind the color scheme myself, other people may not care for the color-coded trays and menu bars. The web supplement should also be free.
Anyone looking for a to-do app that doesn't bog them down with unnecessary features and other clutter should not put off checking out Put Things Off.
