Flow Your Work

A major update to your productivity

(via culturedcode.com)

After we’ve waited so many months, the second major release of the task managing software Things finally came out. Things 2 is a even cleaner and smarter version of my favorite ToDo app, which most importantly solves the problem of cloud synchronization. Since the private beta in May 2011 and the public beta in February 2012 Things Cloud managed to sync tasks for more than 30,000 users already. But on top of that Things 2 is full of other amazing new features, that make task management smarter than ever.

Things Cloud

Compared to the local network Bonjour Sync that Things had before version 2.0, Things Cloud is up to 4x faster for all the changes you make. According to Cultured Code’s press release Things Cloud operates securely and based on a SSL connection between your clients and Things’ servers.

Things Cloud is free and works fast and reliable. You only have to switch it on in Things’ preferences, create an account and it works all across your devices.

But frankly I hoped to see such a seamless experience like Cheddar provides, but with Things Cloud you definitely see pull requests with timestamps and sometimes you have to request the sync manually. I think the concept behind the sync is a push when you re-open the app. This implementation of cloud sync is definitely not the best but its great to work with.

Easy user interface

For those of you who didn’t know Things before this review it’s important to know that there are only a few apps that provide such a clean and intuitive to use UI. Everything is sorted by projects, tags and dates like today, next, scheduled and someday.

Let’s go on with the new features…

…Quick entry with Autofill

With a system wide shortcut the quick entry feature of Things is a great way to quickly add new ToDo’s to your inbox. And with Autofill it’s even more powerful to add meta information or longer text from e-mails, for example.

Daily Review

Daily Review is a great new feature of Things 2 which helps you to manage the tasks you want to do today. It’s often a problem to plan for many days or weeks but with Daily Review you have the ability to chose what you want to do today and what to move to another date in relation to your daily planning and the time you have. And it’s also great to not forget about tasks you didn’t have time to do the other day.

Apps

             Mac OS X ($49.95) | iPhone ($9.99) | iPad ($19.99)

Cultured Code did an amazing job with designing three gorgeous apps for Mac OS X, iPhone and iPad. All three apps have the same concept and utilize the different advantages of each platform. And as we have Things Cloud now, everything is in sync.

Summary

All in all I think that Things 2 is a great update of the most beautiful task magaging software for the Apple universe. Although Things Cloud isn’t that great as syncing services of other apps it is great to don’t have to worry about if everything is up to date. Together with Daily Review, Things 2 convinced me to switch back to it from Wunderkit I used full time before.

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Today I would like to focus on an iOS app and web service called “Cheddar”!

(Cheddar Promo | Video)

Cheddar is a simple and elegant app/service to manage all your ToDos, shopping lists, ideas etc. Like all ToDo apps I tested on FlowYourWork.com Cheddar is easy and fun to use, but it has two killer features that provide an amazing experience to work with it!

The fist one is….sync!

This is really the best syncing experience I’ve ever had! There are no syncing periods, no local “wifi-sync” and no painful connecting procedure. It just works. It instantly pushes the latest infos all across your devices. In my opinion this app has a much better implementation of syncing than Wunderkit or Evernote!

The second one is….markdown!

This is gorgeous for all of you, who are creative and want to collect their ideas together with links, tags, italic and bold test style, strikethrough writing, code and emojies! Here is the complete list of Cheddar’s possibilities!

So, where can you find it?

You can download the iOS app, sign up for the web interface and get more information, here!

Cheddar is free for everyone! But with the pro account (1.99$/month) it’s possible to create unlimited lists. Check it out!

There are so many ToDo apps in Apple’s App Store today and one of my favourites is Clear for iPhone from Realmac Software.

Personally I use Clear to quickly create a list of things that have to be done or remembered without a certain due time or location (like geo fencing).

“With its beautiful interface, and gestural interactions you already know how to use, it’s the future of todo lists.”

Clear convinced me with its gorgeous ideas of simple and elegant UI.

EXTRA THEMES

When you use Clear attentively for some time you may find some extra cool themes for your ToDo lists.

Check it out for $1.99! (App-Store-Link)

The first helpful new way to improve your workflow is Wunderkit!

Known for cross-platform apps like Wunderlist the developers of 6Wunderkinder from Berlin did an amazing job with their new productivity platform. Wunderkit.

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Wunderkit is all about working with the huge power of the community and a diversity of great designed apps that sync cross-platform wherever your are.

The center of all your work is a lovely designed HTML5 website collecting all your tasks, notes etc.

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For each project you want to work on, create a public or private workspace, connect it with Twitter, Facebook and your mates, organize your work and start creating wonderful things!

After some weeks of testing I’m convinced, that Wunderkit will grow and develop to a fantastic platform to work on with even more apps coming.

With a $4.99 per month PRO option your get:

• The most out of new built-in apps
• Priority support
• A “PRO” badge
• Group billing options

Check it out at get.wunderkit.com!