LifeShaker’s grid view randomly shows off nine to-dos at a time; all of your goals are listed below the grid.
Struggling to organize your to-do lists? LifeShaker could be just the tool you need. More than a boring ol’ list, LifeShaker offers an interactive, colorful interface that displays all those tedious tasks hanging over your head.
Setting up to-dos is a snap. Start by creating categories—“Work” or “Home Remodel,” for instance—and use the color wheel to assign them unique hues. In the Goals box, click on the plus sign (or press Command-N) to add a new to-do, then start typing. LifeShaker automatically assigns a new task to the last category you used, though you can change that by right-clicking on the category name. If a goal involves multiple parts—“send invites,” “order cake,” or “buy balloons,” for example—enter those in the Steps box. One gripe: We wish LifeShaker enabled us to double-click on an empty line or tab to the next line to add new goals or steps.
The heart of LifeShaker is its grid view, which features a 3-by-3 arrangement of squares highlighting nine randomly chosen to-dos. If you want important tasks to show up in the grid more frequently, you can star them in the Goals box (which worked fine, although the program didn’t always give preference to a starred item). You can also view or hide specific categories by clicking on them. To dismiss less-pressing to-dos from the grid, drag them onto the back-burner icon. If you can’t deal with the current grid of tasks, click on the shaker icon to shuffle in a new assortment. Unfortunately, you can’t make the grid larger to show more tasks at once (a bummer if you’ve assigned stars to more than nine tasks).
You can organize to-dos by assigning categories different hues.
Still attached to paper to-do lists? LifeShaker neatly prints out all your info so you can fold it into a cute, pocket-friendly booklet that includes the grid, as well as all of your categories and goals (along with any unfinished steps for each task), with checkboxes next to each item.
Crossing something off your to-do list is one of life’s more gratifying sensations, and you can get the same rush from LifeShaker. When you’ve finished a task you can either check it off with a click, or drag and drop it onto the check mark icon, complete with pleasant sound effect. If a to-do is broken down into individual steps, the grid will update to feature the next step, with the overall goal listed at the bottom of the square. It would be nice if LifeShaker offered a more customizable layout, but that’s a minor quibble.
Although the app can feel a bit gimmicky, LifeShaker’s grid view, along with the ability to shake up, back-burner, and check off to-dos, provides mild entertainment while you attend to your chores.
Simple, visual interface. Cute printable booklet. As fun as to-dos can get. Universal binary.
More options and customizability would be nice. 
