I've just switched from PalmOS (Tréo) to webOS (Palm/HP Pré), and surprised that there are some issues, where we've step back.
On PalmOS I was using DateBk, where todos appeared above the calendar in day view:
- when the todo has no "due date", it appears on every day, with a small mark that it has no deadline;
- when the todo has a "due date", it appears on that day and some (configurable) day before with a small number, which shows the number-of-days-until-deadline;
- when the deadline is over, it's marked also with some character.
I think, it's perfect. There're no sharp border between todos and appointments, other words, they play on the same scene, I think it's a mistake to separate them.
There's a nice screenshot of it, which shows the power of it:
.................................................
The first item is a simple todo ("Finish Status Report"), the second one ("Phone Harry...") is a todo with alarm (it has clock icon on its right side), the third is a daily notice ("Daily Journal"), which is just appears on a specific day, the fourth ("Staff meeting") is a regular calendar entry without alarm, the fifth ("12:00 Call for...") is a calendar-todo entry (it can be checked or striked out, depends on setting). There is a small confusion: the todos on the top (square checkbox, without time) are std PalmOS todos, which appear on the PalmOS built-in todo app, but the timed ones (round checkbox on right side of the entry) are handled by only the DateBK (the built-in todos have no timestamp). Also, round checkboxed todos can be added without due date, then they appears at the top with round checkbox on their left, and has some extra options compared to std todos, DateBK calls them "floating" - thats a little confusing. The figure above contains no such floating item.
So, as figure shown, it's a good idea to mix the items, even terms (see "todo with time" or we should call it "calendar entry with checkbox", at 12:00). But it's only my opinion, and implemented by a discontinued program for a discontinued platform.
So, the question is: what is the best way to handle appointments and todos? Separate them? Create a common term with a common property panel? Have you ever seen an app (on any platform) which solves this issue such a natural way that you don't even think of it? Which is your favourite todo app, and how does it handle todos/appts? Have you ever seen an app, which is not too good overall, maybe you don't even used it, but it contains a great idea in this topic?
How should you organize todos/appts, if there would be no constrains? E.g. I wanna write all things down to a paper, which an OCR should scan and create todo/appt items automatically and send it to my phone's calendar.
(Prepare yourself, I've some other questions in todo/appt topic.)
I got some favourite app answers on Twitter (edit: and from comments):
- textfile for todos
- Remember To Milk - web
- Google Tasks - web
- Things - Mac/iOS
- Astrid - Android
- Todoist - web
- Thoughtbox.es - web
- Good Todo - email based
- Toodledo - web
- Todotxt.com - Text based, CLI(!), Android