Readyactive

A to-do list app for everday life

On how Readyactive is different from other apps

Readyactive is a to-do list app I developed as a side project. It is a to-do list app for everyday life. In this article, I want to show you what makes Readyactive different from similar apps.

Readyactive is simple

Many to-do list apps out there are powerful project management tools with a ton of features. You can manage different projects, assign due dates and times, add sub-tasks, define dependencies between tasks, and so on. For everyday life, this is overkill. Readyactive is much simpler.
Here is what you can do when creating a new task:

name the task
set a due date (optional)
estimate the time required to complete the task (optional)
define when the task should reoccur (optional)

Time estimation may seem unnecessary, but it serves two purposes:

It helps you to create better tasks. Tasks should always be specific and take minutes or - at most - a couple of hours to complete. A vague task like "Learn everything about astronomy" would be very frustrating on a to-do list.
It enables motivation mode "Countdown" (see below)

Reoccurring tasks are crucial because everyday life is full of them. Accordingly, Readyactive has powerful ways to configure recurrence. There are two main types:

recurrence after completion of the current occurrence ("two weeks after completion")
recurrence at certain times ("every Monday")

Here are some examples of recurrence you can define:

repeat two days after completion
repeat on day 1 of every month
repeat every second Friday
repeat every two months on the third to last day
repeat every six months on the last Monday
repeat every three years on January 7

Readyactive is gentle

Many to-do list apps have actual due dates. If you don't complete a task by this date, it becomes overdue, and the app starts to complain. For everyday life, this seems a little harsh. (Who cares if I clean the windows today or tomorrow!?) So Readyactive is much gentler. In Readyactive, the "due date" is the day you plan to work on a task. If you don't, nothing happens. Readyactive assumes you know best when to work on it.

Readyactive is polite

In most to-do list apps, when a future task (e.g., recurring task) becomes relevant, it pops up on your to-do list for today. I always found this to be a bit pushy. Yes, I configured the task to appear on this day. But at the time, I couldn't know whether it would be relevant then. So Readyactive is much politer.

Readyactive asks you if a task is relevant today. Every morning you'll find a list of tasks called Relevant today?. By swiping left, you can transfer a task to today's list. Swiping right makes a task disappear until tomorrow.

This has two effects:

Today's to-do list is free from tasks that are not yet relevant.
Actively deciding that a task is relevant today makes it more likely that you will work on it today.

Readyactive is motivating

It's one thing to write down all your to-dos. But it's another thing to start working on them. To help with this, Readyactive has a built-in motivation feature.

You can select one or more items you want to work on and choose one of three motivation modes:

Intervals: Alternate between 25 minutes of concentrated work and 5-minute breaks until all tasks are complete. (This mode is inspired by the Pomodoro Technique.)
Timer: Measure the time you need to complete all talks.
Countdown: Try to stay below your estimated time to complete the tasks.

Readyactive has a place for every task

There are tasks in everyday life that you don't want to put a date on. If you would, you'd be frustrated when the day arrives, and you don't want to work on it. If you wouldn't create the task at all, you'd be frustrated whenever you stumble upon the open issue. So Readyactive has a place for these tasks.

When you create tasks without a due date, they will show in a separate list called anytime tasks. Now you can work on them anytime you feel like it.

What do you think?

So this is Readyactice. I developed it to fit what I needed in a to-do list app. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and I use it every day. I would be happy if you'd give the app a try and tell me what you think.

The app is currently only available for Android: