The Intro
After realizing and being able to label the issues I was personally experiencing as ADHD, I finally knew which information and resources to seek out, which have allowed me to make quite a few adjustments to how I operate and organize myself and my day-to-day.
This being said, every so often I try and review the software I use, especially when it comes to productivity with ADHD, at the very least to be "in the know" because productivity is an interesting and familiar topic to me, but also to evaluate potentially better solutions than my current ones.
I don't often switch between solutions, and my trial periods are perhaps not as in-depth as they should be, but I am reviewing the software as a power-user with ADHD and a short attention span, not a professional "product-hunt"er or "productivity guru" with lots of spare time.
That's just like, your opinion, man.
This is not a review, but rather a report on a recent exploration, if you will. Unfortunately I do not have the time to conduct a full review of each of the apps, and I would suggest you give them a try yourself.
The Current Setup
Right now, I utilize the following tools:
- Tasks and Reminders - Todoist with a dose of Apple Reminders (because comfort). Does its job well, despite missing some features like start dates or actual/estimate task length.
- Calendar - BusyCal (replaced Fantastical following syncing issues I was facing). Again, does its job well, despite some feature discrepancies between desktop and mobile. Not a subscription.
- Personal Email - Fastmail as we prefer not to use Google.
- Work Email - Gmail.
- Bookmarks - Raindrop.io (evaluating Hoarder).
- Knowledge Management and Organization - Obsidian.
TL;DR
It seems like we are in a state where everyone (for better or worse) is trying to reinvent the wheel, handling either tasks or calendars (or both) in their own way, instead of offering a robust, inclusive and open system to integrate with existing apps and data sources. Hardly any apps offer Fastmail or CalDAV integration, and virtually none integrate with both
The Culprit
This time around, what I felt needed reviewing is calendar and task management. After moving our family calendars to Fastmail, I understood that I needed a solution that will be able to consolidate information from all three time-sensitive sources mentioned above: Gmail, Fastmail and Todoist. Hence, my choice fell upon Fantastical, which is able to do just that.
After experiencing some syncing and usability issues with Fantastical, I decided to look for potential alternatives that, hopefully, are not going to be subscription based. Somehow, while looking for alternatives, I came across Llama Life (which I also realized I've seen before it was widely available) which labels itself as THE todo app for people with ADHD.
In true ADHD nature, I immediately forgot about my quest for a calendar and decided to give nice looking camelid a try. And try I did... for a day, after which I sent a tweet to @llamalife (here) asking if API access was available because the IMMEDIATE inconvenience for me was the fact that the app is only available on my phone, and nowhere else. Not on my Apple Watch, PC, work Macbook or even via API (e.g. Raycast, Terminal). This REQUIRES me to interface with my phone to accomplish anything with the app, which is a major inconvenience because I do not use my phone all the time.
The other cons I came across are:
- It's a web-based app with non-intuitive controls that aren't iOS native (e.g., no slide to delete) and not very intuitive for me.
- Subscription based ($6 monthly, $39 annually). This is generally not a problem, if I feel like there is a legitimate reason for a recurring payment or I feel like I'm getting enough value for my money. In this case, it was a no for both.
- The Todoist integration is not fully baked and is far from frictionless:
- Read-only - LlamaLife does not make changes to Todoist tasks.
- Adding tasks is a manual process, and requires "loading" the tasks into LlamaLife.
- LlamaLife disregards task duration from Todoist.
- No calendar integrations.
I don't mean to dismiss LlamaLife entirely, but at the current point in time it's not a good fit for me. Oh fuck! Did I mention ADHD already? Forget the fucking calendar, this brought up a new thought - "Are there other apps that might accomplish what LlamaLife is missing for me?". Let's jump into testing a lot of different apps, then!
Short answer - eh... no.
The Requirements
In my humble opinion, my ideal requirements don't seem that.. weird - mainly for all my existing tools and sources to be funneled into ONE app. I don't want to run around juggling and balancing the shitshow that is multiple calendars and todo lists, and I believe that even if you don't have ADHD, dealing with one app instead of multiple is highly beneficial. AI assisted scheduling, timers, countdowns and and all that jazz are welcome, but are not a must. Here's a shopping list:
- Todoist integration - a service both me and my wife are using.
- Google Calendar integration - work calendar.
- Fastmail/CalDAV integration - personal and family calendar (workaround using Apple Calendar not ideal, but I'll live with it).
- The ability to register and log in with my email, rather than forced reliance on Apple/Google Single Sign-On (SSO).
- Available on
threetwo platforms: iOS, weband MacOS. I can live without a native PC/Mac app since the web app retains all the features and runs in my ALREADY-RIGHT-FUCKING-THERE browser. Seriously, I don't want MORE chromium containers.
Seems fair, right?
The Results
It's not easy being cheesy having basic requirements. Haha π₯². With every app that I tried, offered my blood and signed up to a trial (or even paid money for) I felt like my soul was slowly leaving my body as nothing brought me closer to my end goal.
This is how it went:
| App | Integrates with Todoist? | Integrates with Google Calendar? | Integrates with FastMail/CalDAV? | Account | Platforms | Price | Notes etc. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morgen | π‘ Yes but no. Integration not bi-directional. Tasks have to be planned via desktop app. Can't modify tasks, just complete them. | π’ Yes | π’ Yes | π’ Yes | π΄ No. No web option, although PC/Mac apps are Chromium-based. iOS app is feature-incomplete and not on par with desktop (e.g. no estimates for tasks, unable to plan day) | $15/month or $9/month annually | Task estimates have no purpose (i.e. no countdown nor timer). Workflows have to be set up via browser. Why? No Apple Watch companion app. |
| Motion | π΄ No. Suggests Motion replaces it (yeah no thanks) or to integrate via Zapier. | π’ Yes. | π΄ No. Apple iCloud as alternative. | π’ Yes. | π΄ Β―\_(γ)_/Β―. | π€£ $34/month or $20/month annually | Very fucking expensive. No easily publicly accessible docs. Version history useless. No Apple Watch app. |
| Amie | π‘ Yes, but. No assignee filter. No tags. No subtasks. | π’ Because of course. | π΄ No. Apple Calendar as alternative, which doesn't work on Windows \o/. | π΄ Nope, Google only. | π’ Yes, MacOS, Windows, iOS and web. | $6/month or $5/month annually | No NLP input. Feature disparity between mobile and desktop. No Apple Watch app. No easily accessible docs. Changelog outdated. Email support unresponsive (6 weeks pending as of Nov. 3rd, 2024) |
| Ellie Planner | π΄ Nope, but "coming soon" (for ~10 months now). | π’ Of horse. | π΄ No. You will not find Apple Calendar salvation here either: "Apple's calendar system doesn't current support 2 way syncing π₯²". And also it's iCloud Calendar which != Apple Calendar. | π’ Yes. | π’ Yes, MacOS, Windows, iOS and web. | $10/month or $8.3/month annually | No Apple Reminders. No Apple Watch app. Has "Estimated Time" which allows enabling a timer, but no Live Activity nor notifications when said timer is running. Daily Planning not available in iOS. Updating Calendar events not possible. |
| OFFLIGHT | π’ Yes, but basic. Very basic. I even get tasks assigned to my wife. | π’ What do you think? | π΄ No. No Apple Calendar magic either. I filed a request. | π΄ No. Google and Apple only. | π’ Yes, MacOS, Windows, iOS and web. | $7/month or $5/month annually | Has NLP (but basic). Has time tracking (also basic). No Apple Watch app. |
| Daybridge | Fuck knows. | There has been no updates to this | From 2022, but it's supposedly still being developed? | I guess I can keep an eye. | And review this when I am more mentally vacant to be potentially disappointed. | Again. | Or maybe not? I don't know. |
| Routine | π΄ No. Fucking even Google Tasks gets priority. | π’ Are you even surprised? | π΄ Nah. "Maybe Q2 2025". | π΄ Lolno. Just Google. | π’ MacOS, Windows... web kinda? iOS app hasn't been updated for 5 months. | $12/month but not yet? π€·ββοΈ | I don't know.... just feel "eh". |
| Rise Calendar | π΄ Oh you mean Google Tasks? | π’ BUSINESS. AND OUTLOOK BECAUSE BUSINESS. | π΄ What's that? A flavor of Outlook? Even iCloud is "lol share it publicly" kind of integration. | π’ Yes, but what's the point? | π’ Yes. I didn't check. | Free, unless you're a team. | This feels like a "business or gtfo" type of operation. Headline of Manifesto is "It's our mission to help teams get more important work done". What if I'm just me and not a team? |
| Sunsama | π’ Yes, with some asterisks. | π’ Well yeah. | π΄ Nope, not even planned. Do businesses even use FastMail or CalDAV? Seriously, this has been requested in FUCKING 2019. iCloud yes. | π’ Yes. | π’ Yes. | π€ $20/month or $16/month annually | Expensive. Integrates with a bunch of other services. No Apple Watch app. Can't recall if they have a web app. |
| Akiflow | π’ Yes. | π’ It's green, isn't it? | π΄ π ββοΈ. FastMail requested over a year ago, CalDAV requested three fuckin' years ago same as APPLE CALENDAR but hey, let's add AI first yeah? | π’ Yes. | π’ Yes. | π $34/month or $19/month annually #moneynoobject | Super expensive (same pricing as Motion. I wonder who's copying who lol). No Apple Watch app. |
| Structured | π΄ Nope. This is an Apple club, so only Reminders. So what there's an Android (WIP) version? | π‘ Through Apple Calendar. | π‘ Through Apple Calendar. | π‘ I think so? | π’ Yes, but Web is weird. Didn't try it. Uses their own sync. | $5/month, $1.25/month if paid annually or $50 for "lifetime" | No timers, only countdowns when focusing on a task. |
| Tiimo | π΄ Hell no, even though it was first requested three years ago. | π‘ Only on Android. Otherwise it's done through Apple Calendar. | π‘ Same as the Google Calendar. So... kinda? | π’ Yes! | π‘ In progress. | $10/month or $3.5/month if paid annually | No NLP, which is counterproductive to ADHD. No option for a timer, only a countdown. Make questionable changes directly against their userbase. |
| TickTick | π΄ Of course not. It's a competitor. I don't really want to change my to-do app, but let's give it a shot. | π‘ Yes, but it's super painful. Why do my events are tasks in TickTick? Can't make changes via Mac to local calendar, only on iPhone. Creating new events not possible. Adding attendees not possible either. | π’ CalDAV. But I suspect it'll have the same issues as the Google Calendar. | π’ Yes! | π’ Yup! | $4/month or $3/month if paid annually | It's much less known than Todoist, and it shows with their integrations. It's not really a calendar app, and no integration with BusyCal. Task focus timers are cool. Habit tracking. Annoying reminders. |
| Readdle Calendars | π΄ Ha, no. Only Apple Reminders. | π’ Well yeah. | π΄ No. They suggest using Apple Calendar as a workaround. | π΄ No. | π΄ What's that? Another Apple Product? | $1.67/month if paid annually or $60 for "lifetime" | No subtasks? No task priority? No URL? |
| Moleskine Actions and Timepage | The apps are interesting and the design is pleasing. | But they feel very... outlandish and missing the features that are important to me like Todoist. | Also, no docs, roadmap or anything else. The "Smart Apps" feel like a side gig by them. | I will keep an eye though. | Maybe they will improve in the future. | (from ILS) Separately: $2.67/month or $1.11/month if paid annually. Bundle: $1.87/month annually or $2.98/month annually for a Family account (i.e Family Sharing). | Let's see! |
The Bottomline
I am bummed out because I wasn't able to find something that works for me, but it's cool to see the different paths some of these apps are taking to stand out in this space.
There are some interesting apps to keep an eye on (OFFLIGHT, Ellie, Amie, Arcush, Lifestack and others), but I guess for the time being (as of November 4th, 2024) I will just stick to my "plebeian" Todoist + BusyCal combo (with a healthy dose of Apple Reminders + Remind Me Faster) and put my efforts elsewhere.
At the very least to me, it feels as if most of the productivity ecosphere is fucking hell-bent on catering to BUSINESSβ’ customers first, Google/Outlook users second, and the rest of us on a 'COMING SOONβ’' basis. I mean that's where the money is, sure, but still. We are people too.
Tools are, of course, half the battle. The other half is understanding yourself better, your needs, and how you can work smarter, not harder.
If youβve faced (or are facing) a similar struggle, or if you have any recommendations based on your own journey, Iβd love to hear from you! Connect with me via Twitter or Mastodon.