The Best To-Do List Apps to Boost Your Productivity on Mac
Life is busy. Between work commitments, personal projects, errands to run and bills to pay, it‘s easy to feel overwhelmed trying to stay on top of everything you need to do. That‘s where to-do list apps come in. More than just a simple checklist, the best to-do apps help you organize tasks, set reminders, and break big projects down into manageable steps, so you can stop worrying about forgetting something important and focus your time and energy on getting things done.
As a Mac user, you have a ton of excellent to-do apps to choose from. But with so many options, it can be hard to know which one is right for you. In this guide, I‘ll share my top recommendations for the best to-do list apps for Mac based on years of experience testing out different options to manage my own busy life and work. Whether you‘re looking for a sleek, simple tool or a powerful, customizable productivity system, there‘s a to-do app here that will help you take control of your tasks and get more done.
What to Look for in a To-Do List App
Before we dive into my specific recommendations, let‘s talk about what makes a great to-do list app. Here are some of the key criteria I consider:
Capturing Tasks
The first job of any to-do list is to let you easily get tasks out of your head and into the system. The best apps make it frictionless to quickly jot down a task or idea before you forget it, without having to stop and think about how to categorize it. Look for apps with a quick entry window or inbox where you can brain dump tasks.
Organizing Tasks
Once you‘ve captured your tasks, you need a way to sort and organize them so you can make sense of everything on your plate. Good to-do apps provide an intuitive way to group related tasks into projects or areas of responsibility. Tags, priorities, and custom filters give you flexibility to slice and dice your task list in the way that makes sense for you.
Different Views
In addition to letting you organize tasks your way, great to-do apps provide useful views to help you plan your day and manage your time. For example, a "Today" view showing tasks due or scheduled for today, a "Next" view showing your most important tasks to focus on, or a view of tasks by project, tag, or location. The ability to save and customize these views is a big plus.
Dates and Reminders
For tasks with deadlines or that you want to be reminded of, look for apps with robust support for due dates and reminders. Some apps let you set both a "defer date" for tasks you can‘t act on yet as well as a due date. Bonus points for apps that provide different types of reminders like a popup alert or email nudge.
Collaboration
Are you looking to manage shared tasks and delegate items to others? Some to-do apps include collaboration features like the ability to assign tasks to team members, share lists, or discuss tasks. If you‘re just looking for a personal to-do list, you may prioritize apps that provide a more focused, distraction-free experience.
Mobile and Sync
For most people, a to-do list isn‘t very useful if it‘s chained to your desk. Look for apps that have a companion mobile version for your phone and tablet and provide reliable, automatic syncing of your tasks between devices. Ideally, you want an app that makes it easy to add and check off tasks on the go.
Price
To-do list apps range from simple, free tools to premium productivity systems costing $50 or more. In general, paid apps tend to offer more robust features, slicker interfaces, and better customer support. But you don‘t necessarily need to shell out big bucks for a great to-do app. I‘ve included excellent options in this guide at a variety of price points.
With these criteria in mind, let‘s take a look at my top picks for the best to-do list apps for Mac, starting with the app I recommend for most people.
Best To-Do App for Mac: Things 3
If you‘re looking for a beautifully designed, full-featured to-do app with excellent ease of use, Things 3 is my top recommendation. This Apple Design Award winning app from German studio Cultured Code hits the sweet spot of being powerful enough for serious task management needs while remaining simple and intuitive to use.
At the heart of Things is the ability to organize your tasks by areas of responsibility (like work, home, hobbies) and by projects. Create headers to group related tasks within a project or area. Use tags to categorize tasks by priority, energy level, location, or whatever other dimensions are relevant to you. The Today view automatically collects tasks due or scheduled for today as well as items you‘ve manually added to your daily plan. A nifty This Evening view lets you separate out tasks for later in the day.
Navigating around your tasks in Things feels lightning fast and it‘s a joy to use. There‘s plenty of power under the hood with advanced features like repeating tasks, task dependencies, quick find, and more. But everything is thoughtfully designed and uncluttered, letting you focus on your tasks, not fight with the app.
Other niceties include the ability to create tasks from other apps, calendar integration that shows your tasks and appointments together, and tons of keyboard shortcuts to fly through your lists. I particularly love the Magic Plus Button which intelligently suggests where to file a new task based on the currently selected project.
Things has top-notch mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch as well as flawless syncing between devices. And with a one-time purchase, Things is one of the more affordable options in this guide, especially considering there are no ongoing subscription fees.
Things 3 Pricing: $49.99 (Mac), $9.99 (iPhone & Watch), $19.99 (iPad)
Website: https://culturedcode.com/things/
Best For Power Users: OmniFocus
For those who want the ultimate in customization and control over their task management system, it‘s hard to beat OmniFocus. This extremely powerful app from the Omni Group lets you organize your tasks and projects in just about any way you can imagine.
OmniFocus revolves around the core organizing principles of projects, contexts (tags), due dates, and flags, which you can mix and match to create highly customized views of your tasks called Perspectives. For example, you could create a "Homework" perspective that shows only tasks in your school projects due in the next week and flagged as high priority. Or an "Errands" perspective that pulls together tasks across all your projects tagged with the "errands" context.
With OmniFocus, you can create projects with sequential, parallel, or single action tasks. Projects can be nested within folders which is handy for complex goals with several sub-projects. You can also create tasks within a project in an outline format complete with hierarchical, collapsable lists.
To ensure nothing falls through the cracks, OmniFocus includes a weekly review feature that prompts you to check in on the status of each of your projects. There‘s also a forecast view that shows you tasks and calendar events coming up soon.
OmniFocus is really designed for a single user and doesn‘t provide any sharing or collaboration features. But it does offer a free syncing service to keep your tasks up to date across your Mac, iOS devices, and the web.
All this power comes at a price. OmniFocus has the steepest learning curve of any of the apps covered here and its myriad options can be overwhelming at first. It‘s also one of the most expensive options, especially if you want the Pro version (which most serious users will). But if you‘re willing to invest the time and money, OmniFocus is an insanely powerful and customizable productivity tool.
OmniFocus Pricing: $49.99 (Standard), $99.99 (Pro); iOS sold separately
Website: https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus
Other Great Options
While Things 3 and OmniFocus are my top picks, there are several other excellent to-do apps for Mac worth considering:
Todoist
Todoist is a cross-platform powerhouse that‘s especially great for collaborating on shared tasks and projects. Its simple interface belies a wide array of features including nested subtasks, priority levels, productivity trends and graphs, automatic backups, and tons of integrations with other apps. Premium subscriptions add even more goodies like reminders, labels, filters, and productivity tracking.
Pricing: Free; $36/year Premium
Website: https://todoist.com
2Do
2Do is a highly customizable yet simple to use to-do app. In addition to the standard organizing options, it offers advanced features like smart lists that auto-collect tasks based on criteria you set as well as the ability to create rich text or Markdown-formatted notes attached to tasks. There‘s an iOS app for taking your tasks on the go and syncing is available via Dropbox or iCloud.
Pricing: $49.99 Mac; $14.99 iOS (Universal)
Website: https://www.2doapp.com/mac/
GoodTask 3
If you‘re already using Apple‘s stock Reminders and Calendar apps, GoodTask is definitely worth a look. This app sits on top of Reminders and provides a more polished interface as well as bonus features like subtasks, smart lists, quick actions, and a Today widget. With GoodTask, you can enjoy the benefits of a full-featured to-do app while still using the built-in apps to share lists and tasks with others.
Pricing: $19.99
Website: https://goodtaskapp.com
Free Alternatives
You don‘t necessarily need to spend money to get your tasks organized. Here are a few free options to consider:
Apple Reminders and Calendar
Apple‘s stock Reminders and Calendar apps, included free with macOS, cover the basics of task and event management. Create multiple lists, set time and location-based reminders, and share and assign tasks to other iCloud users. While not as full-featured as the other apps mentioned here, they provide a no-cost way to manage your tasks right out of the box.
Wunderlist
Wunderlist is a well-designed, cross-platform to-do app offering an array of features for free including shared lists, subtasks, attachments, and commenting. It‘s a great option for simple task management on a budget. The only caveat is that Wunderlist was acquired by Microsoft in 2015 so its long-term fate is a bit uncertain. But for now, it‘s still a solid choice and has dedicated apps for every platform.
Pen and Paper
Call me old-fashioned, but even in this digital age I still sometimes prefer the simple satisfaction of crossing items off a handwritten list. Studies have shown that the physical act of writing can boost memory and cognition. Grab a notebook and give analog task management a try. You might be surprised at the results.
Find the Right To-Do App for You
I hope this guide has been helpful in narrowing down the best to-do list app for your needs. No matter which app you ultimately choose, the most important thing is to find a tool you enjoy using and stick with it. Spending a little time up front to capture and organize your tasks can pay huge dividends in productivity and peace of mind.
Here‘s to checking more items off your list and getting things done!