For a college student, it can be tricky to stay on top of all the things he/she has to do. If a college student let all this information swirl around in your head, he/she will end up stressed and frantic. An external system called “TO-DO LIST” is a solution of this problem
There are some great to-do list apps that can make college students’ lives easier, helping them to plan their day, schedule study sessions, and even remember important tasks in their personal life. Below, we review some best of the best to-do list apps including their pros and cons for each. This way, you can spend less time researching and more time being productive!
1. Todoist
Todoist is the app that much of the team here at CIG uses. It has a fairly minimalist interface, yet it still packs a lot of power with its tagging and natural language processing feature.
Pros of Todoist
Best app for natural language processing. Categorize tasks with due dates, tags, and projects while you type as fast as you think. No other app beats Todoist in this category.
Sweet spot between power and flexibility. With projects, labels, filters, and priorities, you can tailor Todoist to your personal workflow, all while being intuitive to pick up and use.
Price: Free; Premium ($4/month or $36/year)
2. TickTick
TickTick is quite similar to Todoist, with a nearly identical interface. It does offer some features that Todoist lacks, such as a built-in Pomodoro timer and calendar view.
Pros of TickTick
Cheaper than Todoist (for almost-equal functionality). TickTick positions itself as a direct competitor to Todoist. At $28 a year it delivers most of Todoist’s features at almost half the price, plus some things Todoist doesn’t have like custom views (a.k.a. smart lists) and a built-in calendar view.
Lots of delightful productivity extras. TickTick has a built-in Pomodoro timer that ties to specific tasks. It lets you choose to add a new task to the beginning or the end of a list, and it lets you set start times and due dates.
Price: Free; Premium ($2.79/month or $28/year)
3. Microsoft To-Do
If you’re looking for a free to-do list app that plays well with other Microsoft apps, then Microsoft To-Do is a great choice. The app has all the basic to-do functionality you need, though it does lack some “nice to have” features such as tags and natural language processing.
Pros of Microsoft To-Do
TOTALLY free. Touted as Microsoft’s Wunderlist replacement, Microsoft To-Do’s free features stack well against Todoist’s paid ones. For example, Todoist’s free plan doesn’t allow for reminders, calendar syncing, and file attachments, while Microsoft To-Do allows all of that for free.
Subtasks work well. Unlike Todoist, Microsoft To-Do turns subtasks into “Steps” (a.k.a. “checklist”) for a parent task. Each step can have its own due dates and notes.
“My Day” feature. This feature is similar to other apps that automatically organize your to-do’s for today into one place.
Price: Free
4. Google Tasks
Google Tasks is a great to-do solution if you want an app that’s no-frills and works perfectly with other Google apps (particularly Gmail and Google Calendar). It does, however, lack the organization features that come standard with many other to-do apps.
Pros of Google Tasks
Google. Tasks strength relies on its integration with Google’s suite of apps. For example, using Tasks on mobile or the web is great for quick capture, especially if you get a lot of tasks via Gmail.
Best Google calendar view. Seeing, checking off, and updating my tasks for each day as I’m flipping through my Google Calendar is a time-saver. If you add a time to the task, it’ll even show up within your agenda and block off that time for you.
“Clear completed tasks” button. Seeing all the finished tasks get whisked away with a click sends a surge of fulfillment. I’m surprised no other app has this feature because it keeps things really clean.
Subtasks. Really great for batching like tasks and then scheduling them all into one afternoon. Unlike more powerful apps, though, subtasks in Google Tasks don’t function as individual ones (e.g., you can’t set due dates for subtasks).
Price: Free
5. WorkFlowy
If you just need an app that will let you make lists and check things off, then WorkFlowy is an excellent solution. It lacks some standard to-do app features such as due dates, but it’s still a useful app for tracking and completing quick to-do items.
Pros of WorkFlowy
Roll-up feature. WorkFlowy is the original bullet-list app with its core roll-up feature for sub-bullets. All you have to do is click a bullet and all the sub-bullets beneath it roll-up into the higher one.
Quick capture. WorkFlowy is great for capturing and outlining thoughts during brain dumps. It doesn’t force you to pick between subtasks or notes. Just dump ‘em all in there and decide later.
List duplication and sharing. As simple as it is, WorkFlowy lets you duplicate, say, travel checklists for different trips and share those with your friends to make sure you don’t forget the beer water for spring break.
Price: Free; Premium ($5/month, $49/year)
6. Dynalist
Dynalist is in many ways similar to WorkFlowy, except that it includes many of the standard to-do app features (due dates, recurring tasks, calendar integration) that WorkFlowy lacks. If you like the WorkFlowy interface but need a bit more organization, then Dynalist is a great choice.
Pros of Dynalist
Free Tier is usable. You get unlimited items and docs. At least, it’s better than WorkFlowy.
Has everything WorkFlowy doesn’t. Not trying to bash WorkFlowy here, but Dynalist has all the features that WorkFlowy doesn’t: file-browser navigation, due dates, recurring tasks, and calendar integration.
Price: Free; Premium ($9/month, $84/year (50% for students))
7. TaskPaper
If you need an app that plays well with the Mac ecosystem and doesn’t require a subscription, then TaskPaper is a great option. It keeps the “page-oriented” design of both WorkFlowy and Dynalist, but it adds some additional features such as natural language processing.
Pros of TaskPaper
Best list app for managing tasks on Mac. TaskPaper’s core functions are identical to WorkFlowy and Dynalist. Unlike WorkFlowy and Dynalist, TaskPaper was built to be a to-do list, first and foremost. This means it has a couple of extra features that the previous two don’t have (more on that later).
Better organization. In Dynalist and WorkFlowy, tags are just to categorize stuff. In TaskPaper, tags can be used to add context to a line item, such as a due date, or to identify it as a project in its file browser if you put a colon at the end.
Basic natural language processing (NLP) for dates. In addition to organizing, tags in TaskPaper let you set due dates (@due) and start dates for tasks (@start) with basic NLP. The start date feature is a pretty advanced one, something that even Todoist doesn’t have.
Native integration with Reminders and OmniFocus. The integration with Reminders means one less app to download on your phone.
Price: Free; Premium ($24.99/year)
Conclusion
We live in a digital world and our studies are not limited to books. These days, students not only use smart phones or gadgets just for recreation but also for studying. When you take your to-do list out of your head and into the right app, you will free up your brain to spend more time on important tasks and less time trying to remember that one thing you were supposed to do.
To-Do list forget the use of pen and paper, helping college students to plan their day, schedule study sessions, and even remember tasks in their personal life. By using these apps college students stay organized and improve time management.
