SpeedTask | A Corkboard for Todos on Your iPhone

Need a quick and stylish way to keep up with all the things you need to do each day?  SpeedTask is a new iPhone app with a free companion webapp that makes it easy to keep up with everything you need to do today.  Let’s look at how this app can help you get everything you need to done each day done without complicated calendars and schedules.

Doing Your Tasks – One Day At a Time

When you first open SpeedTask, you’ll notice right off that this app is neither complicated nor bland.  You’ll see several to-do items listed to help you quickly learn how to use the app.  The main task interface looks like a corkboard with Post-it style notes attached with tape.  The small design flourishes such as this make the app a joy to use, and also make it easy to see what’s left to do today. Swipe over a task to delete it, or tap and hold the middle of the task to edit it.  When you’re ready to add new tasks, just tap on the wooden box at the top to quickly enter it.  Shorter tasks will only show up in the larger bold font, but longer tasks will take up two lines with the rest of the task in a smaller font underneath the top.  Interestingly, I noticed that most longer tasks I added actually broke up nicely this way; the main task ended up on the top, with the rest of my sentence that described the task showing up underneath.  Turns out, SpeedTask just taught me something about the way I write tasks! Or, tap the arrow on the right of a task to change its priority.  You can choose from white with red dashes (highest priority), yellow/crème with red dashes (medium priority), or plain yellow/crème (lowest priority).  Alternately, if you need to move a task to tomorrow, just press the red icon which shows tomorrow’s date in the calendar. SpeedTask is built entirely around the tasks you need to do on a certain day.  From the bottom, you can scroll between the past 3 previous days and up to a month in the future.  This works like a to-do list based calendar; you can add tasks on the day you know you’ll need to do them, but not schedule them to a rigid time.  In my usage, I actually added most of my tasks on the current date’s page, and then just pushed them to the next day if I couldn’t finish them.  You’ll see any tasks you didn’t finish yet from a previous day easily as that date will show an exclamation mark.  But, if you already know a date you need to do a task on, just scroll to that date and write it on the wall just like you would a friend’s Facebook wall! When you’ve finished a task, just press the box on the left to mark it as done.  A rubber stamp-style Done mark will be “stamped” on the right corner of the task, and the task will drop to the bottom of your list.  Now on to the next task… And if you enjoy extra hidden features, we even uncovered an Easter Egg of sorts in SpeedTask: pull down on your to-do list, and you’ll see Liquefy Studios’ logo on the top of the corkboard.  Fancy!

Staying in Sync

One of SpeedTask’s best features is that it includes a free companion webapp so you can keep up with your tasks from your Mac or PC even if your iPhone or iPod Touch is turned off.  Press the gear button in the top corner to open the Settings page, where you can create a new sync account and also change the default font in the app.  Once you’ve created an account, slide the On/Off button and your tasks will automatically stay synced and backed up whenever you’re online. From the SpeedTask website, you can now view, manage, and add tasks to your schedule.  You can also subscribe to a iCal file of your to-dos to add them to your favorite desktop calendar app.  The webapp is almost as nice looking, but it doesn’t include the cute paper to-do style.  Sure would be a nice addition, though!

Conclusion

SpeedTask offers an innovative way to manage your tasks.  It’s the closest mix between a calendar and a to-do list, and makes it easy to focus on what’s next.  I would have liked to see a scratch list where you could leave to-dos that you weren’t sure when you’d do them, and additionally would like a way to archive previous tasks.  Right now, older tasks will be deleted 4 days after they’ve been done, when that date no longer is accessible from the app.  Still, though, overall SpeedTask is a nice app, and the free companion webapp makes it even better. If this to-do list app doesn’t look like the right one for you, stay tuned for the rest of our to-do list app reviews that will be coming up soon!  Otherwise, let us know how SpeedTask is helping you stay organized on the go and online.

Our Rating: 7/10

Download SpeedTask from the App Store | $4.99

SpeedTaskApp.com

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