Teux Deux: Planning for greatness

Good marketing takes planning. And good planning takes knowing all the different tasks you need to do and then systematically getting them done.

For most of us, this involves creating a to-do list. I used to write my to-do lists on a napkin which was great until someone accidentally used it to clean up a soda spill.

I knew the next step would be to find a web-based solution that would not only let me keep track of everything on my list, but also save it for me online so that I could never lose it.

Image by ahhyeah via Flickr

There are a lot of “productivity” software options on the market. Most of which come with a price tag and/or a sometimes steep learning curve. There are some that are easy to use but expensive (Things), or are free but ask you to jump through some hoops to understand them (Remember the Milk). This can be frustrating when all your looking for is a simple way to keep track of all your to-do’s and having easy access to your list when needed.

Teux Deux is a fun, simple browser-based to-do app. What we love about it is the simple interface and “designy” look and feel that makes it a snap to use and understand. In their own words, “The idea was to build a bare-bones, but visually compelling and highly useable to-do app.”

Basically, Teux Deux presents you with a five day calendar that allows you to write everything in your to-do list. Need to plan a brainstorm session with your team? Put it in and Teux Deux shows adds it to your list. What’s great is that if something doesn’t get done on the particular day you were hoping to-do it, you can simply drag the task to the next day. Finish your task? Just click on it, take a small victory lap, and smile as the program beautifully crosses out your completed item.

A really cool feature is the “Someday” column. This lets you put all those items that you know have to get done, but you’re not quite sure when or how. We think of it as a great place for the big-picture to-do’s. The way the interface is designed, the “Someday’s” are always visible, ensuring they don’t fall out of sight and out of mind. Of course, if you never cross off any of your “Somedays” or move them into your actual daily to-do’s, then the list can get VERY long.

According to their site, an iPhone app is on the way which, for those of us with iPhones, is a welcome addition.

The app is still in its infancy stages, and far from perfect. There are no group capabilities just yet, which means you can’t have a collective “To-Do” which would be very helpful for a team looking to stay focused on the day’s, weeks, and big picture goals. Still, for anyone who needs a bare-bones, well-designed, and simple to-do list app with almost zero learning curve, you could do much worse than adding TeuxDeux to your to-do list of productivity enhancers.