Paperless Productivity - Memorigi

This month's paperless productivity app testing has been with Memorigi and, with the luck I had with TickTick after a random search on Google Play Store, I was hoping that this was going to be just as good.  Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be quite the case.  

I should probably start by saying I was only working with the free version (the paid version starts at £32.99 for the first year) and that did mean that I didn't get to use all the features that would normally be available on this app, like recurring tasks, location-aware reminders, and subtasks.  It also meant that there was only a certain number of tasks I could actually put on and I reached that limit before this trial month was out.  You can go back and delete tasks, which would then let you add more, but that does mean you can't look back on what you've done and see any habits that might be forming.

When you first open up the app you do need to log in before you can get started, either through your Google, Facebook, Twitter, or a generic email account.  But after that, you can just get going.

The main route to navigate around the app is through the Memorigi sign, located at the top of each page (you can also swipe the page down) which will take you to this apps version of the main menu.  From here you can look at all the separate projects/lists you have.  When you click on each one it'll show the tasks you have specifically put in each list.  You can also use the four circled symbols at the top to see the tasks you have for the day in My Day (the circle),.....

.....all the tasks you have coming up in general in Tasks (the horizontal blocks),

.....the tasks you have coming up for each day in Calendar (verticle blocks),

......and the progress you've been making so far, including incompleted tasks, in (not surprisingly) Progress (the one that looks like a bar graph).  This is the page you can use to see what tasks you've already completed and, perhaps more importantly, exactly which tasks you didn't complete to determine if there are any patterns forming here.

Putting in a task is pretty easy to do.  You just click on the red cross at the bottom of each page and type in the name of the tasks.

Clicking on the date allows you to add the date and time, but if you want it to be a reoccurring task you need to subscribe.

Clicking on 'Inbox' allows you to add the task to a specific project/list.

You can also click on the actual picture to change this to whatever you feel fits this task, and there are a lot to choose from here, which is nice.

Clicking on the three dots on the top right gives you a few other options, like changing the colour of the picture.  However, if you want to add a subtask, pin the task, share this with other people, etc you do need to go for the subscription version.

Finally clicking on the grey circle on the top left allows you to add this task directly to your Today list, even if the due date is for a later time.  This is a nice little feature to the app, but more on that later.  Once you've made all the changes you like just click on the circle at the bottom and you're done.

You can make changes to the tasks at any point by just clicking on it.  However, if you want to make a quick change, especially to multiple tasks in one go, there's a neat little trick.  In the Tasks page hold on one of the tasks you liked to select for a second (and then click on any other task you would like to add to the batch) and then select one of the options, such as delete, add to Today's page (the circle of Memorigi's three colours), change the colour, add to specific project/list and, if you have the subscription, make into a subtask or add a location reminder.  I liked this option to add tasks to my day that weren't actually due on that day specifically, but that I wanted to work on ahead of time.

Once you've completed a task you swipe right to mark it as complete.  If you haven't completed it, but want to reschedule the task, then you swipe left.  Any task you haven't completed or rescheduled by the end of the day will appear on the next day as overdue.

One thing I did like about this app was that at 8.00am every morning I heard a little beep on my phone and all the tasks selected for the day would appear on my screen saver.  Not everyone wants to start their day with a list of to-dos straight away, but I quite like it as it sets up my mind for what I'm going to need to get done.

The tasks then stay as notifications on your phone, unless you swiped them off, and from there you can mark them as done, reschedule to another date, or snooze to later on in the day without actually having to open the app.  However, if you swipe off the tasks and then don't actually complete or reschedule them that day you won't get them appearing again as an overdue task the next day, so it's best to just leave them sitting there.

This app is pretty self-explanatory and easy to use.  The customisable graphics also add a nice little personal touch, however, I have to admit this isn't something I'm that bothered about to it's not necessarily a draw for me.  I think if you were prepared to pay for the subscription you would probably get quite a functioning app, but as you can get a lot of these features on other free apps it doesn't seem worthwhile to me.  

For me, I wouldn't really use the features like sharing tasks with others, which does make the features defuncted in my application and, therefore, not cost-effective.  So, for my need of a pretty basic to-do app, this isn't going to be for me.  However, if you are someone who needs all the bells and whistles to your task management but finds the more business-like apps a little bit too intimidating (you know, the ones with multiple pages, options to subtask within a subtask, and which tally every aspect of your life) then this would probably be worth a try.

One other thing I'd also like to add here is that I realised, when using TickTick, that I actually like having my habits standing out as different from my general tasks, but that wasn't something I could do here.  This is definitely a feature I would like to have in any additional app I use.  So, right now TickTick is still my favourite app and it'll be interesting to see if the last few I test will beat it.  Well, interesting to me anyway. 😂

Next month I'm going to be testing Toodledo.  Heard some good things about this one.