App Review: Any.Do and Cal – Time Management Apps that Work

Is it just me, or have both Android and iOS really dropped the ball when it comes to time management apps? They both have calendars and task apps, which work alright I suppose. But when you compare these core apps to third party options they’re both severely lacking. After trying a variety of these third party apps, I’ve found that the combination of Any.Do and Cal is a time managagment suite that just works.

Any.Do: The To-Do App

Any.Do is one of the several to-do list apps avaialbe on both iOS and Android. It’s not as robust as some apps like Wunderlist or Astrid. For me though, it works. It shows me what I need to do today and tomorrow. And files everything else into Upcoming if it has a date, or Someday if it doesn’t. I can file tasks into folders I create and can view them that way as well. The way my brain works is if I have more options than that, I’ll spend all my time tweaking my tasks instead of actually getting things done.

I also like that Any.Do has a Chrome plugin. In the top right corner of my browser it shows the number of tasks that I have left to compete today. When clicked, the tasks are displayed or I can add to them. I can add tasks directly from my GMail inbox if I want (and yes, I do want).

Cal: The Calendar App

Let me start off by saying I’ve always had problems with Google Calendar on my iPhone. It must be because I have so many calendars, because they never display properly. I’ve tried some “smart calendars” like Cue and Tempo. And they work well as calendars, but don’t actually link the emails like I would expect. But at least I could see all my calendars and that’s what was important to me.

And then Cal came out. Cal is the latest app from the Any.Do team. It’s as simple as Any.Do. It shows you one day at at time, instead of an endless stream of events. It connects to any calen

dar that’s synced to your device (even if that calendar never shows up in your iOS calendar app). But that’s not the part that sets Any.do Cal apart. What sets it apart is the integration with Any.do. It’s seamless and it’s perfect. The events for the day are listed as you would expect, and below them in blue are the tasks from Any.do.

Currently Cal is only on iOS but they promise an Android app will be out soon.

From Time Management Apps to Productivity Apps

Any.do is moving forward and creating more apps, moving from time management apps to creating more of a productivity suite. They have two apps listed as “coming soon” on their site, Mail and Memo. Mail I am excited for, and really hope isn’t GMail exclusive like so many of the mail apps that are being released right now.

Memo, I’m a bit torn. Really, Notes on the iPhone does what I need. It opens quickly, I enter a quick note, and I’m done. It backs up to iCloud if I need it synced across devices. I’m curious as to what Memo will add that I don’t yet know I need.

I’m not sure what these apps will have, or if they’ll be worth the switch from the core apps. But Any.do has impressed me so far, so I’ll be willing to give them a shot.