Something Simple (In Todo Apps)

I’ve been searching for the right todo app for a long time. At this point, I think I’ve used all the “big apps”: OmniFocus, Things, RTM, Reminders.app, Evernote, Wunderlist, The Hit List, Clear, and so on (seriously, there’s so many that I could do this forever). All of them worked great in their various ways — powerful location-based reminders, contexts, due dates and notification systems, etc.

I’m not a power-user by any means: I usually add a half-dozen tasks on a “busy” day, and I don’t need to do powerful filtering like in OmniFocus or Things. Location reminders are nice, but I usually remember to check my lists when I go to the store or to work.

I have only one feature that I’ve looked for in an app, and until now, I haven’t found it: tagging. The ability to tag something, and then easily go back and look through those tags. OmniFocus does this with contexts, but you have to organize those contexts ahead of time — same with Things.

I discovered Cheddar a couple weeks ago and have been incredibly happy with it. It’s not updated frequently (in fact, it’s for sale at time of writing) but it follows the workflow I need:

  1. Make a tag — the Twitter-style hashtag notation works fine.

First view

  1. Tap/click on that tag to see all of the tasks. THAT’S IT. It shouldn’t be too difficult to do that, but Cheddar is the only thing that seems to do it in the way I want.

Second view

Cheddar has some other functionality that’s nice — [Markdown] notation, incredibly fast syncing (looking over their API documentation shows they use Pusher for real-time streaming), and multiple lists. The free version of Cheddar supports two lists; a paid subscription ($20 yearly) allows unlimited. Two lists works for me: I have a “Do!” list and a “Buy!” list. The deceptively powerful filtering system inherent in Cheddar’s tagging system covers the rest of my bases.

Another thing that appeals to me: both the iOS and Mac app are on Github. If I have a complaint or request for a feature, ostensibly I can build it out myself. Now that’s awesome.