If you use Gmail for your email needs, you may want to backup your data. If your like me, you have a lot of information saved on Google servers, and I would be in a hard place should they ever vanish. If you are not concerned about this possibility, however remote, you should still consider backing up your data.

A very good solution is Gmail Backup. The application locally backups your emails in individual .eml files, sorted in folders based on month and year. You specify the backup date range, and the rest is simple. You need to enable IMAP support in your GMail settings, and that’s it.

Good stuff.

So I saw a post about Soshiku today. Figured I would check it out…

Its the standard web 2.0 app, nothing special. Has a pretty simple interface, seems to have the basics. Add new courses, share events, notifications on assignments, a calendar, and keeps a grade tally.

First, some missing features (granted this is very new it appears from their blog), or things I don’t like.

• Grade for courses do not allow for methods such as curves and weights on assignments.
• Default new assignment is Public viewable. That bothers me. No way to change the default.
• Google ads. Now everyone needs to make money, and there is no reason why this should not be ok. Yet it bothers me, even while its not that obtrusive. A lot of new web apps do not use ads, and this comes across as a get rich method for the author. Again, just the feeling it gives.

I will be sticking with my current methods of school management, such as calendar, and task lists. Not a bad idea, but lacking in features for my taste, and the ads put me over the edge. But I will be watching to see where it goes. Maybe the future will bring some features that a simple task list and calendar cannot (such as RTM and Google Calendar).

Each of the Task List programs I am reviewing are web based. This was chosen due to my criteria of needing to access my list on the move, and not being tied down to one computer. While some offline programs may sync with web based sites, or have some capability in this respect, I am also looking for something that does not “require” additional software. This is a vague area since some of the applications I did review need plugins to add the list to additional services, such as Gmail.

I am basing my decision off of ease of use, how well the lists helped me in organizing my life, methods of notifications and reminders, and how well they integrated with my work flow.

Today I start my review with RTM. Others will follow shortly.

RTM (Remember the Milk)
RTM is a web based task list, that features addons for various popular services and operating system to enable seamless integration with your work flow. A list addons they have can be viewed here. While some of these services are only available in the new Pro version ($25 a year), most common ones are for free. The one I chose to use, Gmail, was free as well.

Service Website
The main website for RTM offers a full featured system. When logging in, you are given an overview screen that displays tasks due today, tomorrow and overdue tasks. On the upper part of the screen you can see additional options. Click for image

• Ofline – Enabling you to use RTM while not connected to the net, syncing when you go back online.

• Locations – Giving you a neat little map with pins for where your tasks are located. Of course you need to enter the location for tasks if you wish to use this feature.

• Contacts – This shows you all the contacts you have built into the system. With contacts you can share tasks and collaborate with co-workers, friends, and family.

• Settings – This is where you can set the type of notifications you receive. Such as: email, IM, and SMS (mobile phone). Of course a multitude of other settings are here to.

• Tasks – This is the main tab more or less. Tasks are shown based on lists, which are customizable. You can filter tasks on criteria, move tasks to other lists, share tasks, and more.

Overall the RTM site is straight forward and works well. It allows you to quickly manage your task lists.

Addons, Intergration
One of the strong features to RTM is the vast amount of ways to use RTM in your existing workflow. Use Gmail or Google Calendar? Use Twitter? Have a Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone? They have you covered.

This is one of the number one goals for me personally. As much as I may like the site for the service, I do not want to have to open another website tab. And if I am forced to use another site, I may simply not use the service and then not accomplish my goal of being organized. While going on a tangent, I never had success with things like PDAs since I would forget them, or it would be “to hard” to pull it out when I needed to take a note or write a task. So in my search for the perfect list, I need it to fit with my daily routine. And for quite some time, that has included Gmail. I have this open at all times, in addition to having Google Talk open showing me new mail and chats. To have a task list integrated into this would be simple, convenient, and get used simply due to viability. Your situation may vary with what you use daily, but the same may apply. Whether your on Twitter or Gmail daily, having your tasks visible will only help and make you remember better, the whole goal of a task list.

The addon for Gmail through Firfox is simple to install. Once installed, the plugin adds a window in your Gmail screen to the right of your inbox. (click for image – please note that the skin for Gmail as seen in image is not the RTM plugin) Once you login to RTM, all your tasks are shown. You can add tasks, complete them, edit details, and delete tasks. Seems to have all of the settings for tasks that the RTM site itself does. You can sort based on criteria, and minimize sorted fields such as the date.

I will be adding reviews on additional services soon, ending with what I ended up choosing for myself.

In reference to my comments earlier about Scrybe, I cant quite put my finger on why… but I am not in love with the user interface. I am still trying the calendar out and will see how I feel after another few days or so.

With that in mind, I am going to be looking at some more ToDo lists, since this is the real goal I am trying to accomplish.

TODOIST
Remeber the Milk (RTM)
Doomi

Going to try to find a few others and may add them to that short list. Might help a few others too…