Since I purchased my Galaxy Nexus I have been looking for a new task manager to replace OmniFocus. I need the task manager to do the following:
- Work on Android, iOs and the desktop
- The ability to email a task to it
- The ability to prioritize task or events
- The ability to share a task
- The ability to add task or events to Google Calendar or Apple Calendar
- The ability to add a task either by text or audio
- The ability to create lists and sublists
- The ability to set alarms per task
- I also wanted something that wasn’t too expensive or a try before you buy model.
I believe I found what I was looking for in Astrid. It has an app for both iOs and Android and a web application you can use on the desktop. I especially appreciate the fact you can forward an email to Astrid and make it a task. I use this all the time when I have to remind myself to renew or cancel something. If you pay for premium ($40.00 a year) you can add attachments including pdf, spreadsheets and photos. If you just forward the email it will go to your inbox, however if you add metadata to the subject line you can have it go to what every list you want. Using meta data you can also set the priority level, the time and date. I also like being able to add a task either by voice or texts. There is a way to connect it with Siri on an iPhone using ifttt You can find how to set that up on Lifehacker.
Astrid can do a lot more things, however it is not perfect. For example on your Android device you can create subtasks, however those subtask show up as just regular task on the iPad. Also you cannot create sub-sub tasks. Unfortunately if you share a task with someone else there is no way to label it waiting for or in progress. Despite these problems if you work with multiple platforms and need a task management system that works with all then Astrid maybe a good choice.