To-do apps fascinate me the most. I have never used an app as simple as those, yet they are one of the most powerful apps I’ve ever used.
To-do apps give a small psychological reward every day when you finish your tasks. They make me feel like I’ve done something today. So, in a way, they are among the rare apps that can have a real impact on your daily life.
These were my midnight thoughts after using Google Tasks as my default To-do app for a few weeks. I’d never thought about a task app in my life, until that moment. Such was its impact.
I have a lot of positive things to say about the Google Tasks app. However, it enjoys an undue advantage of being a Google app, which is perhaps its biggest strength and nightmare for its rivals.
As a user, I don’t care whether it has any undue advantage as long as it gets the job done, and Google Tasks did way more than that.
Thanks to these five Google Tasks features, the app finally made me ditch a paid to-do app.
4 quiet Calendar upgrades that changed how I manage my time
Google Calendar’s lesser known features can dramatically improve time management
Turns emails into tasks
Many of Google’s services are deeply integrated. While this may give Google services some undue advantages, the integration is truly a game-changer for users.
Gmail is my primary email service. I use it for both work and for personal needs, and I never regret my decision not to ditch Gmail and look elsewhere.
After switching to Google Tasks, I can say with more conviction that I made the right choice. I can turn all my emails in my Gmail inbox into tasks with just a tap. Open any email, tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner, then tap Add to Tasks.
The above steps will automatically create a task in the Google Tasks app without leaving the Gmail app. You get a notification instantly after the task is created with an option to view it in the Tasks app.
This has solved a long-standing problem of mine. I no longer forget to act on important emails after reading them — Google Tasks doesn’t let me.
Critics may label this ‘unfair’ to its rivals, but I love the integration.
Google Calendar integration
Its Google Calendar integration is even more effortless. Everything you add to the Google Tasks app — whether manually or through the Gmail app — automatically appears on the Google Calendar interface.
This way, I don’t have to open the Tasks app to see all my tasks. The Google Calendar widget on my phone’s home screen takes care of it.
The Google Calendar widgets will show all the tasks pending for today and for upcoming dates. They always remain visible, ensuring that I never forget to do my job on time.
The Google Calendar widget allows you to tap the pending tasks to view them. You can tap it again and then select the Mark as completed button at the bottom if you have finished the task.
The Google Calendar widget is more useful than the Tasks widget because the former will also show items you added manually and holidays.
Since I was using the Google Calendar widget before switching to the Tasks app, I never felt the need to add the Tasks widget. All of this is possible because of the seamless Google Calendar integration.
I can also use Google Calendar to schedule a task, which will immediately reflect in the Google Tasks app.
Recurring tasks
I have items in the Google Tasks app that I do every week. But rather than trusting my recall abilities, I outsource it to the Tasks app to make sure I never forget them.
After adding the task to the Google Tasks app, you can add more details, such as whether you want it to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or annually.
You can set the Starts time by choosing a date, followed by selecting when or whether you want it to end.
Additionally, you can set Ends to Never, or select a specific date you want it to end, or you can set the number of occurrences after which you want the task to end.
Recurring tasks help me pay my rent on time, call my parents every week, and water my plants. I created these tasks only once, and they keep repeating every week.
While the recurring tasks feature is common in many free to-do apps, I appreciate Google Tasks for allowing users to add a specific number of occurrences. This isn’t something that we usually see in free to-do apps.
Task lists
The Task lists feature isn’t something exclusive to Google Tasks. It’s a common feature in almost all to-do apps, including the free ones. Despite its wide availability, Google Tasks deserves praise for the way it handles lists.
The lists functionality in Google Tasks allows users to avoid dumping everything into one feed. Instead, you can separate different parts of life, such as work, personal, and many more.
It may not sound like a big deal, but after you start using it, tasks feel more manageable, solely because you don’t see several unrelated tasks together.
Lists aren’t buried in complicated menus in Google Tasks. They appear as tabs, which you can reorder as per your convenience. After you create these lists, you can easily switch between them by a left or right swipe.
All your tasks in each list will automatically appear on Google Calendar.
Minimal UI
Paid to-do apps have plenty of advanced features, most of which I don’t need in my daily life. While I don’t mind having advanced features I don’t use, those functionalities make the app a complex productivity system.
In many instances, I spent more time creating and organizing tasks than doing them. I didn’t realize how mentally exhausting it was until I switched to Google Tasks.
Google Tasks is simple, feels fast, has very few menus, and is easy to set up. You only need to use your Google account to set it up.
After you set it up, you rarely need to open the Google Tasks app on your phone to add your tasks.
You can also access Google Tasks through the built-in Workspace sidebar in many of the Google apps, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and more.
This is why adding tasks is more natural and effortless in Google Tasks.
I didn’t expect Google Tasks to replace my paid app
I installed the Google Tasks app out of curiosity, and after using it for a few days, it instantly became my default to-do app.
I wouldn’t have a change of heart about my paid app had I not explored its deep integration with many of the other Google apps and services that I use daily.
Admittedly, I’m late to the party, but the integration alone is a good enough reason to switch to Google Tasks. All the other excellent features feel like a bonus.
I never thought Google Tasks would replace my paid app because I was unaware of some of its excellent functionalities. It didn’t take long to discover them, so the realization came only in a few days.
I wish I had tried Google Tasks sooner, because that would’ve saved me a few bucks.
