Best To-Do App 2024 (Todoist vs TickTick vs Superlist vs Notion vs Motion)

[@JasonGoodison]

I've been using Apple notes for so long but always felt like there should be something better. Seems like everyone these days is building a TODO app, so there is so much noise. Thanks for this vid breaking it down!

[@efficientapp]

Awe, thanks Jason! We're feeling the same way, but also feel a bit stuck with it as well. Apple is trying to bake in AI into the next iOS as is Google for Google Keep, trying to make these tools more powerful. It's interesting, but conflicting, because it also feels like Apple isn't paying enough attention to Apple Notes and the same with Google for Keep. Constantly feeling like "there's gotta be a better way", and yet we're left still feeling a bit torn, especially for the personal usage aspect to TODO's and Notes. The app with the lowest friction for creating on your phone, is probably the one that'll get the most usage by most people. The equation really only changes once you start looking at it from a business/team perspective, which is where Apple Notes + Keep completely fall apart. This is probably the most competitive space out there, it's literally the "hello world" for creating an app as a new engineer: "create Todo list app" so I think we're still at the beginning 😆

[@valdieter]

You guys truly make the best software reviews ever

[@efficientapp]

This means a lot to us 🙏 appreciate your comment so much 🥲

[@efficientapp]

Actually, Motion is only the answer for Project Management and Daily Planner. Calendar and To-Do List apps just overlap Daily planning, because what is daily planning? Calendar + To-Do List. Motion has a calendar scheduler, and is that our top pick for calendar scheduling? Nope. They just happen to do a few things well and are the tool of choice we use for those categories. Understood if it's not right for you, feel free to check out our other videos and site as we recommend TONS of other software: efficient.app This is what happens when you're a business channel talking to businesses-you shouldn't be using one calendar app, another task management app, and another project management app, if a single tool can check all those boxes. So we're authentically staying at the end of the video, what we're using for our team, while talking about other apps that one might consider if they only want one focused on that category solely. These categories just overlap so heavily that you're hearing that recommendation across them, which makes sense... No?

[@FlowCreators]

Whoaa, channel branding and editing got an upgrade. This is sick!

[@efficientapp]

Ayyy! Thanks Dan 🙏 yes! We've been hard at work on a full rebrand, may or may not be a sneak peek for what's to come on our new site design, full rebuild from the ground up for efficient.app (coming soon) 😉 Appreciate your comment, means a lot our new friend!

[@nils_b]

I was NOT expecting this quality from a video with 1700 views and from a relativly small channel, kepp it up!

[@efficientapp]

Awe, this means a lot 🙏 yeah, we're putting a LOT in, have been for quite a bit now-means a lot that some are starting to see! Will keep with the quality! Super curious, were you looking for a new To-Do List app and you found us? Or it just happened to be recommended to you and you checked it out?

[@nils_b]

@@efficientapp just popped up on the home page as a surprise

[@efficientapp]

Ayyyy, that's amazing to hear! Thank you KZbin Gods 🙏 and appreciate you being here our new friend!

[@Pat_from_Poland]

Love that you put Alex Hormozi on the "inspiration" part!

[@efficientapp]

Hah, glad to hear you liked the intro build-up, had a lot of fun making it, and Alex's clip is great!

[@AlexCurtis]

Dropped Apple “Notes” a few times but didn’t bring up the actual Apple todo app Reminders. The iOS 18 version has big upgrades. It’s Apple ecosystem only tho.

[@efficientapp]

Fair point, people often associate "Apple Notes" as being both Notes and Reminders. The title was cleaner this way, but the video still stands, use these apps instead of Apple Reminders (as well) 😁 Have you tried any of the task management apps mentioned in the video?

[@llicit1833]

Microsoft To Do for me - free, simple, and the notifications stay there until you deal with it (many others only appear for a little while so easy to miss)

[@efficientapp]

Sounds like you found your perfect fit!

[@bobDotJS]

I'm still using Google Keep but I let it get outdated constantly

[@efficientapp]

Totally, I still find myself using Keep as a scratchpad at times to just get something saved somewhere quickly on the go. I feel like Google Keep actually has a lot of potential especially with the deep Gemini integration coming, but the biggest downfall is just that Google doesn't care about Keep as much as these other apps care about their tool. Constantly baffling to me. But yeah, my Keep is a complete and total mess, but it's where I have my glasses prescription for some reason, very odd things 😂

[@suryarel]

new subscriber from India.. great 👍

[@efficientapp]

Awe, thanks and glad to have you! What Todo app do you use?

[@suryarel]

Tick Tick & keep for quick notes

[@sysrqer]

I use Tana for quick daily notes, but I'm curious if Motion offers something similar. Do you have experience with note-taking in Motion? If so, any tips? Thanks.

[@efficientapp]

Good to see you again my friend! So Motion sorta has notes (tasks and projects have a dedicated notes section), but it's definitely not a note taking tool first and foremost. For that we personally use Slite at the moment: efficient.app/apps/slite That said, the team has mentioned that they want to improve notes more in time (right now I wouldn't say Motion is an alternative to a proper knowledge base tool, maybe one day). But yeah, you're probably in a good position with Tana at the moment if you're just using it for quick daily notes. Motion can be considered more when you get more into the needs of task management and daily planning/project management. If that makes sense? I for one am hoping that one day it could be consolidated in Motion, but also don't want them to rush because they are really doing something special in the task/project management space ATM and don't want them to get sidetracked as IMHO doing note taking well is more involved than it might seem haha

[@sysrqer]

I absolutely agree, I was thinking more of a hack rather than a feature. For example, some recurring task where I can write some daily notes... just thinking out loud... I understand that it's not the focus and I wouldn't expect it from Motion right now, but it would be great if I could eliminate another tool 😂 But the project management features that have come out recently are great... even though I still use Motion solo, it helps me organize my work tremendously... I created OKRs, added tasks and duration, and now I basically have autopilot and can focus on goals rather than thinking about what to do when. It would be great if Gantt worked for tasks as well, not just for projects, but hopefully that will come too.

[@efficientapp]

Ooh okay, being open to hacky solutions is interesting 🧐 hahaha it's a clever idea (re: using a recurring task). I'd probably recommend just holding tight a bit longer, as I'm with you on that, I'm personally using Superlist for misc notes here and there, but feel like we're close to being able to just use Motion for all of those things. The truth of the matter is that Motion needs a better text editor UX before I'd genuinely consider it for that-it has a bit of work needed, but they have said they are planning on it. Regarding viewing tasks in Gantt view, I'd actually be curious how you'd envision getting the most use from that? We had that with Asana, but realizing with Motion that tasks are more short spurts of work, so to view it based on time, it'll always be less than 1 day, which would make it a bit odd to see in Gantt view. Wondering if you'd maybe be better off using projects more often if you're feeling that you want to visualize the work in more of a timeline view? Would be curious how you'd envision that working though, I had the same thought and gave feedback to their team, to which they sorta asked "why" and I didn't have a great answer, since seeing every single task in Gantt view would be a bit overwhelming and not sure how truly useful it'd be. Curious to hear your thoughts though?

[@sysrqer]

I see your point about the Gantt view challenges. Here's why I'm interested in it: My tasks have become larger and more strategic lately, with longer durations and many interdependencies (thx to project featueres). I'd like to see how they relate to each other and affect the overall project timeline. A Gantt view for these tasks could help identify bottlenecks that aren't obvious in the current list view. I understand it's complex to implement, especially with auto-scheduling. Just an idea for the long-term. Thanks for considering it!

[@efficientapp]

Ah, interesting! And totally makes sense-so, wondering if maybe "Project Stages" could help in this case? Like with Flows, there are stages, with tasks within the stages, and then with our most recent community post, you can actually see the project stages as little dots in the Gantt Chart view, so you can see what stages are taking the longest (e.g. what groups of tasks are slowing a project down, almost like little milestones if you will). Wondering if that might help solve the issue you're referring to potentially? Essentially giving further visibility into a project from the grouping of tasks (stages)? We've seen that to be a big unlock for us, comes out of the box with Flows. P.S. I know you said thanks for considering it, but we actually don't have any influence over Motion haha you can write to support to give feedback, that'd be your best bet. Next time I'm on a feedback call or something with them though, happy to share what you shared though! Just no idea when that'd be haha

[@vthunder]

Excellent warning on Notion and the "templates" that others are promoting. What a rabbit trail / red herring. Who wants work to determine how to do their work? Nuts!. Every template boils down to how someone else digested their tasks for them. We all need underwear, but I certainly don't want someone elses'. Thanks again for the great video. Motion sounds intriguing but most collab software falls apart when working for a corporation with strict security policies. This is why I carve out key functions between work and. personal with regard to tools.

[@efficientapp]

Haha exactly! Every template is someone's unique perspective on how to get work done, for them. It hasn't been tested on the millions of users and customers that competing project management/task management tools are, so every template is missing invaluable user feedback at scale. Not even to mention that Notion was not built for tasks/project management at a core, so it'll never actually handle it well (unless they totally rebuild and rearchitect their database/infrastructure, which isn't going to happen). Fair point regarding a corporation with strict security policies, though you could pitch it to the IT department probably since Motion is SOC2 compliant and has all the most important security measures required for businesses. I hear ya though, it's tough!

[@jeremybyte]

So, there are no calendar notifications in Motion, right? If so, it seems Morgen is better on Calendar + integrations (tasks)

[@efficientapp]

Motion has meeting & task reminders on desktop, sounds like mobile notifications is on the roadmap! Morgen is great for personal use/tasks, just not as robust for layered work related tasks as Motion. But if you have simple tasks, it totally works! We actually covered our thoughts about Morgen in this video if you want to check it out: efficient.link/yt/calendar

[@jeremybyte]

@efficientapp thanks for your response and the insight you have provided me, that is very helpful to me.

[@MarcusRFilms]

Was this just a well crafted ad for Motion? 🤔🤔🤔

[@efficientapp]

Good guess, but no. Motion had no idea we were making this video, wondering if they are even aware of it now. We were not compensated in any way for any of the apps mentioned in the video, though if you do sign up for any of them with any of our affiliate links, we will get a small kickback, whether you give Superlist, Todoist, Notion or Motion a shot, so why not try them all? 🤷‍♂️

[@lucasyoshida9180]

I think you guys should try doing personal reviews. Don't know about your public in general , but personal and team management needs are very different.

[@efficientapp]

Our channel is focused on business, professionals, and teams. There's no shortage of general personal productivity-focused channels, where things are unique for us is that we've been consulting teams of all sizes on their software stack for over a decade now. So we're not really planning on going the personal path with our channel. Hope you can understand 🙏

[@NathanCashion]

No love for Cultured Code Things? Of all the to-do list apps I've tried, it is far and away the best. The only thing missing is auto-scheduling, which is why I use Motion for work. But it has the best user-interface, syncing, offline support (a huge must). I guess the only other downside is the cost.

[@efficientapp]

It's not that we have no love toward Things, but rather we're focusing our criteria more on To-Do List Apps that have the potential of working with teams. Things only works on iOS and macOS (Apple only), which doesn't lead it to the criteria we were covering based on. We focused on the most popular ones that we have used quite intimately. I've personally tried Things (on macOS) myself over the years, but as I have an Android device, it didn't lend itself to being a scalable option since out of the box, both Andra and myself cannot use it together. Everything reviewed has a business/team tier and that was the main focus of the video. The only exception being TickTick, but the point of calling out TickTick was that we both not only used it, but we find that people were often getting confused by the fact that MKBHD uses it and talks about it (for personal usage). If you've seen the rest of the videos on our channel, we're approaching tools on a business/team level, there's no shortage of other channels focusing on just sheer individual productivity. We aren't all that confident that true productivity comes from an app for individuals and our expertise stems in business consulting and team collaboration, if that makes sense?

[@pawanadhikari110]

Are you kidding me, todoist is cumbersome ??? LMFAOL

[@efficientapp]

Well what would you describe it as?

[@t.b.3511]

Ticktick by far

[@efficientapp]

Yup, can see why you like TickTick! We enjoyed it while we used it for a few years!

[@GregoryHanson1]

Surprised Things 3 was not reviewed with comments.

[@efficientapp]

Mentioned it to one other in here. We're primarily a B2B software review/comparison channel, so we focus on reviewing tools that were built for, and can be used in business. While we spoke about TickTick, it was solely because many have confused it as a B2B task management tool since MKBHD has been vocal about using it. He uses it for personal, not business though. The rest of the tools mentioned are squarely targeting businesses and teams right now, so that's why we wanted to cover them. Personal todo list apps are far less exciting and there's far too many of them.

[@michaelcaldwell7107]

Apple notes is NOT a task app. Can you use it that way sure, but calling it a task app is just not what Apple even intended. That is what Apple Reminders is for. You’re also confusing the difference between corporate and personal needs and task apps and planner apps which can be very different. Also, I’ve tried Superlist and I don’t think it’s as good as Todoist. Motion is expensive and is really for corporate/business use, and the fact that your running a business means you’re probably deducting the monthly cost off your taxes. That’s important for people to understand.

[@efficientapp]

While fair, the point is, most people, sadly, use Apple Notes for their To-Do List, instead of a proper task app, hence why we're calling that out. Apple Reminders is more like a super barbones task app, and there are many other, better, free options available. It's still that people default to using Apple Notes for notes and tasks quickly though. Also, our channel is more focused on business/prosumer, also believe it or not, but many of our friends are business owners and founders, and they too will pull open Apple Notes to write down some quick notes/to-dos. Understand that you've had more success with Todoist, as we mentioned in the video, with Superlist, we leveraged it more for a mixture of notes and tasks intertwined. I wouldn't say Todoist or Superlist are one better than the other, but rather different approaches at a similar thing. Motion is only expensive if you aren't using it for any high value tasks. It's also not just for business use, they actually seem to have many students as customers and individuals, in addition to businesses, but fair point in that a business is probably more likely to be open to investing in a proper solution than an individual. Again, it all comes down to how high value the tasks are that you're using the app for as Motion does do additional things that will help you save time. Also, being a business doesn't just make tools "free" because you can "deduct it from your taxes". You still need to pay for it, and have the business making money to pay for the software. It's just that it's technically pre-tax based on business income, so you don't have to pay for the software on after-tax money, so you're maybe saving 20% of the price of the software paying through the business versus personally based on income effectively. Either way, it's quite menial, the point is you're still paying and either you're getting value from it and it's saving you time and thus worthwhile (personal or business), or it isn't. That is the more important discernment to have when considering purchasing one of these apps.

[@reppgoa1]

this comes across as a motion shill/advertisement more than anything else.

[@efficientapp]

We use Motion 🤷🏼‍♀️ It’s as authentic as it gets, there are enough channels that will try to be neutral and recommend every software and say “at the end of the day, try them all and see what’s best for you” and we’re not that channel. You’re going to find opinions here and many people appreciate that guidance. Totally understand if we’re not for you!

Big lies about Todoist. I'll just block this channel. Not reliable and slave to money probably.

[@efficientapp]

Wait, what? What part about Todoist that we said was a lie?