Don’t forget, once your to-do list is all organized and synced across your devices, you actually have to start doing things.

Organization is happiness. If you stay on top of the things you need to do, you leave yourself more time for the things you want to do. That’s why a detailed, efficient to-do application can be such a huge help. There’s just one problem: Even the best organizational software is useless if you have no way to access it.

The solution: Centralize! Unify! By using online tools as the core of your task management solution, you get persistent coverage and the ability to access your to-dos from work, from home, or on the go. It’s just a matter of finding a language spoken by all your devices. 

What you need: Internet connection, Firefox (free, www.mozilla.com) and Tasks you need to accomplish

1 Core Competence

Toodledo’s Web interface works OK, but it’s not much to look at.

Fortunately, we’ve done the legwork for you. The site that’s going to sit at the center of our web of productivity is Toodledo (www.toodledo.com), a robust task-management suite that’s completely free at its basic level, which is all we need for our to-do list synchronization. Head on over and sign up for a membership. Once you complete the signup process, you’ll be greeted with a view of your to-do list with a couple default items already inserted for you. You can go ahead and add more items here, but let’s be honest: The interface is a bit clunky.  

2 Dashboard Professional

The Dashboard widget keeps your to-dos at your fingertips—if you use Dashboard.

It’s a good thing Toodledo plays so nice with others. Assuming you have a reliable Internet connection (sorry, Antarcticans!) you can add a Toodledo widget to the Dashboard of your Mac running OS 10.4 or higher. Click the Connections link in Toodledo’s left-hand sidebar and scroll down to the Apple Dashboard entry. Click the More Details link, download the widget, and double-click it to install. After signing in, you’ll be able to view, edit, and add to your Toodledo list just by bringing up the Dashboard. 

3 Just Browsing

If you use Firefox, your to-dos can live in a handy sidebar.

Of course, since your to-do list now lives in the tubes of the Internet, you can access it from any browser just by visiting Toodledo’s site. But if you’re running the awesomely expandable, open-source browser Firefox, there’s an even more elegant solution. Hit the Connections link once more, and scroll down to the Firefox Add-on entry. Click the More Details link, then the Download And Install link. This will bring up a warning message in Firefox; go ahead and click Allow. Once the Install Now button becomes available, click it, then click the Restart Firefox button (don’t worry, your session will be saved).

Now Option-click on the navigation bar at the top of the Firefox window and choose Customize. You’ll be presented with a selection of icons; scroll down and you’ll find two new Toodledo icons. Drag them to your navigation bar, and you’ll have instant access to Toodledo: One button quickly adds new tasks, and the other brings up your to-do list in a sidebar.

4 Phoning It In

Several iPhone apps can keep your Toodledo list synced with your iPhone or iPod touch—this is Todo.

And here we come to one of the main reasons we’ve chosen Toodledo as the core of our to-do empire: iPhone compatibility. No less than three different apps support synchronization with Toodledo as of this writing, with at least one more on the way. Currently, you have your pick of Toodledo’s own Toodledo ($3.99), the more streamlined Ultimate Todos ($4.99), or the robust Todo ($9.99). And if you’re not keen on the idea of paying a single red cent for all this accessibility, Toodledo also sports an iPhone-friendly Web app: Just tap 
www.toodledo.com/slim into Mobile Safari.

No iPhone? No problem! If your phone has Internet access at all, you should be able to at least view your list by visiting one of the following links: www.toodledo.com/html, www.toodledo.com/wap2.php, or www.toodledo.com/wap.php. (If you’re not sure whether your phone supports simple HTML, WAP 2.0, or WAP 1.0, try the links in the order given.)

5 The Other Side of the Tracks

If you need to get cross-platform, Toodledo lists can even sync with Microsoft Outlook.

Don’t worry, PC friends. We haven’t forgotten about those of you whose jobs put you in front of Windows machines for eight hours a day. You can use browser access or the Firefox plug-in to access your Toodledo account, of course, but many of you have a slicker option. Thanks to the ubiquity of Microsoft Outlook in business environments, one enterprising developer has whipped up an application specifically to sync Toodledo to Outlook.

Head to www.chromadrake.com, where you’ll find the donation-driven ToodledoSync. Installation is fairly straightforward, but note that the application doesn’t start automatically after installation, so you’ll want to fire it up manually from your Startup folder on your Start menu. The first time you run the software, you’ll also need your Unique ID from Toodledo, which is different from your username. You can find it by clicking on Account Settings in Toodledo’s sidebar; just copy it and paste into ToodledoSync.