Why TickTick is better than Apple Reminders (Digital Timeblock Planning)

Summary

David, a psychology student and tech enthusiast, recommends TickTick as an optimal digital tool for time block planning and GTD implementation. He contrasts it with Apple Reminders, highlighting TickTick's superior calendar integration, quick capture features, and smart recognition for task management. David's personal experience with various to-do apps positions TickTick as a versatile and efficient solution for those seeking a robust digital planning experience.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker recommends TickTick as a superior digital tool for time block planning and GTD (Getting Things Done) implementation.
• 🔍 David, the speaker, is a psychology student and 'professional interneter' who combines psychology and technology to enhance productivity.
• 📝 TickTick is positioned as the best to-do app the speaker has found after trying various apps like Todoist, Things, and Apple Reminders.
• 📅 TickTick's key feature is its ability to facilitate time block planning, allowing users to set discrete start and end times for tasks, similar to Cal Newport's method.
• 💡 Time block planning is a system by Cal Newport, which involves planning out tasks in blocks of time, acknowledging that plans may need to be adjusted throughout the day.
• 🖥️ The speaker prefers digital tools for task management due to the convenience of syncing across devices and the ability to adjust plans flexibly.
• 📱 TickTick allows for easy adjustment of task timings and the dragging of tasks to different days, which is crucial for effective time block planning.
• 📆 TickTick can integrate with other calendars, such as Google Calendar, to avoid scheduling conflicts with pre-planned events.
• ✍️ TickTick offers a quick capture feature that allows for efficient task entry, including project assignment, due dates, and tags, all within a pop-up window.
• 📈 The app's smart recognition is praised for its consistency in understanding and processing natural language for task entry, surpassing Apple Reminders.
• 🎙️ While voice capture via Siri is convenient for Apple Reminders, TickTick can also be used with voice commands through a workaround detailed in another video by the speaker.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video script?

The main topic of the video script is the TickTick app and its advantages over other to-do apps, particularly for time block planning.

Who is the speaker in the video script?

The speaker is David, an honor psychology student at UBC and a professional interneter who combines psychology and technology.

What is the purpose of the video script according to David?

The purpose of the video script is to show that TickTick is a useful tool for digital implementation of GTD (Getting Things Done) or time block planning, especially for those who might benefit from such a system.

What is GTD and how does TickTick implement it?

GTD is a time management method to 'get things done' by organizing tasks and activities. TickTick implements it by allowing users to plot tasks over time in a calendar view and switch between views to manage their schedules effectively.

Why does David prefer TickTick over other to-do apps?

David prefers TickTick because it is better at facilitating time block planning, has better quick capture features, and offers more consistent smart recognition compared to other apps like Apple Reminders.

What is time block planning and who is credited with the system?

Time block planning is a system put forward by Cal Newport, which involves scheduling tasks in blocks of time, allowing for flexibility and adjustments throughout the day.

How does TickTick handle task scheduling compared to other apps?

TickTick allows users to set discrete start and end times for tasks and easily adjust them, which is a feature that David found lacking in other apps like Todoist and Apple Reminders.

What is the advantage of TickTick's quick capture feature over Apple Reminders?

TickTick's quick capture feature allows for more detailed and layered input, such as adding projects, due dates, and tags directly upon task creation, which is more advanced than Apple Reminders' basic voice capture through Siri.

How does TickTick integrate with other calendars?

TickTick can sync with multiple calendars, such as Google Calendar, allowing users to see their synchronous events alongside their tasks, which is a feature not available in Apple Reminders.

What is David's suggestion for using Apple Reminders alongside TickTick?

David suggests using Apple Reminders for simple tasks that don't require detailed planning, such as a grocery list, while using TickTick for more complex time block planning.

What is the call to action at the end of the video script?

The call to action is for viewers who are on the fence about TickTick to check it out, and for them to like, subscribe, and ask questions if the video brings up any queries.

Outlines

00:00

📅 TickTick for Time Block Planning

David, a psychology student and tech enthusiast, introduces TickTick as a superior digital tool for time block planning, a method popularized by Cal Newport. He compares TickTick to other apps like Todoist, Things, and Apple Reminders, highlighting TickTick's unique ability to set discrete start and end times for tasks, which is essential for flexible time block planning. David explains how TickTick allows users to easily adjust and reschedule tasks within a calendar view, a feature that sets it apart from other apps.

05:01

🔍 TickTick's Features and Advantages

The second paragraph delves into TickTick's additional features that enhance productivity. David discusses the app's ability to integrate with various calendars, providing an overview of scheduled events and preventing task overlap during booked times. He also highlights TickTick's superior quick capture functionality, allowing users to add tasks with tags, projects, and due dates effortlessly. Furthermore, David mentions the smart recognition of natural language in TickTick, which is more consistent than Apple Reminders, and suggests using Siri for voice capture as a workaround for TickTick. He concludes by encouraging viewers to explore TickTick further and offers to answer any questions, showing his engagement with the audience through comments.

Keywords

💡TickTick

TickTick is a productivity app designed to help users manage their tasks and time more effectively. It is the main focus of the video, where the speaker discusses its benefits over other to-do list apps. The app is highlighted for its unique features, such as time block planning and quick capture, which the speaker finds superior to alternatives like Apple Reminders.

💡Time Block Planning

Time block planning is a system for organizing one's schedule into discrete blocks of time dedicated to specific tasks or activities. It is mentioned as a key feature of TickTick, allowing users to visually plot tasks over time and adjust them as needed. The concept is attributed to Cal Newport, and the video suggests that TickTick's implementation of this system is more effective than other apps.

💡GTD (Getting Things Done)

Getting Things Done is a time management method developed by David Allen, aimed at helping individuals to organize tasks and projects by breaking them down into actionable work items. In the video, the speaker implies that TickTick can be used to digitally implement GTD principles, suggesting that the app is suitable for users looking for a comprehensive task management solution.

💡Cal Newport

Cal Newport is an author and computer science professor known for his writings on productivity and time management. His system of time block planning is discussed in the video as a method that TickTick can effectively facilitate, indicating that Newport's approach to organizing time is a significant influence on the app's design.

💡Quick Capture

Quick capture refers to the ability to rapidly input tasks into a task management system without interrupting one's workflow. The video emphasizes TickTick's superior quick capture feature compared to Apple Reminders, allowing users to add tasks quickly and efficiently, even including project assignments and due dates.

💡Apple Reminders

Apple Reminders is a task management app developed by Apple for its devices. It is used as a point of comparison in the video, where the speaker contrasts its capabilities with those of TickTick. While it has some advantages, such as voice capture through Siri, the speaker finds TickTick's features to be more aligned with their needs for time block planning and task organization.

💡Todoist

Todoist is another popular to-do list app that the speaker has used in the past. It is mentioned as one of the apps that TickTick outperforms in terms of features and usability, particularly in the context of time block planning and task management.

💡Things 3

Things 3 is a task management app known for its simplicity and effectiveness. The video briefly compares TickTick with Things 3, noting that while Things 3 has a similar quick capture feature, TickTick offers a more comprehensive set of tools for time block planning and task organization.

💡Omnifocus

Omnifocus is a task management app that the speaker tried but found it did not suit their needs. It is mentioned to provide context on the speaker's journey to find the most effective task management tool, ultimately leading them to prefer TickTick.

💡Smart Recognition

Smart recognition in the context of the video refers to a task management app's ability to interpret natural language input and automatically assign details such as dates, projects, and tags to tasks. TickTick is praised for its smart recognition capabilities, which are said to be more consistent than those of Apple Reminders.

💡Hybrid Planning

Hybrid planning in the video refers to the speaker's preference for combining elements of different planning methods, such as GTD and time block planning, within a single app. TickTick is presented as an app that can accommodate this approach, offering flexibility for users with diverse planning needs.

Highlights

TickTick is recommended for users interested in time block planning.

David, a psychology student and professional interneter, combines psychology and technology to enhance productivity.

TickTick is considered the best to-do app by David, outperforming Todoist, Things, and Apple Reminders.

TickTick excels in facilitating time block planning, a system by Cal Newport.

Time block planning involves scheduling tasks within specific time frames, similar to bullet journaling.

David prefers digital planning for synchronization across devices.

TickTick allows for easy adjustment of task start and end times, unlike Todoist.

The app provides a seamless switch between calendar and task views.

TickTick enables integration with other calendars, such as Google Calendar.

Quick capture in TickTick is superior to Apple Reminders, allowing for immediate task entry.

TickTick's smart recognition for task entry is more consistent than Apple Reminders.

David suggests using Apple Reminders for simple lists like groceries due to Siri integration.

TickTick's voice capture can be enhanced with workarounds shown in other videos.

The video aims to convince viewers to give TickTick a try for their task management needs.

David invites viewers to ask questions and may create more videos based on viewer interest.

The video was inspired by a comment, showing David's engagement with his audience.

Transcripts

so you've been thinking about switching

to using tick tick but you're not sure

whether or not it's going to be worth

all the effort well i'm here to tell you

that it is definitely worth using

if you're a certain type of user a

little hint it has to do with time block

planning

hi my name is david i'm an honor

psychology student at ubc and i'm a

professional interneter i do things with

technology on the internet and sometimes

they're useful and i think i'm good at

taking psychology things and technology

things and finding ways to mush them

together in ways that make them more

useful than either are by themselves

sometimes sometimes and i'm trying to

find the times that are those sometimes

and put them into videos so that's what

this is this is sort of more of a

technology one but nonetheless there's

psych stuff underneath it uh

yeah there is there is i'm not gonna

talk about it direct but it's there if

you're the type of person who's been

looking for the best way to digitally

implement

a version of gtd

or time block planning or like me a

hybrid of both

then ticktick really is a good tool that

you need to see more about tiktik

genuinely is the best to do app i've

found and i've tried them all todoist

many years of using to do it since back

in 2012 things three used for about a

year at one point i use apple reminders

for some things tried omnifocus it

didn't really stick for me and i've

tried some of those minimalist ones but

the big ones that people use quite a lot

i have used them and tiktik is better at

least for me and again if you're like me

maybe it'll be better for you too in

this video i'm going to put tiktik up

against apple reminders just because

it's kind of the most basic version

possible of a to-do app it's low-tech

completely unsuited to our purposes i'm

not going to do a direct comparison with

todoist and things in this video but the

the key feature that i'm going to

emphasize in tik is unique to tick tick

or at least much better implemented in

tick tick and that's its ability to

facilitate time block planning so the

first reason like i was alluding to is

take take is much better for time block

planning if you're not familiar with

time block planning it's a system put

forward by cal newport again you know

it's not entirely novel things like this

have existed for a while before it's

like keeping a diary and playing it out

it has some overlap with bullet

journaling but he explains it really

well a link to resources where he talks

about the general idea behind it in more

detail but he does it physically he does

it

with a notebook and i used to do it his

way like that but i am a digital boy i

like being able to have my thing synced

across devices in case i don't take that

notebook i like the notebook too but i

end up coming back to the digital so i

needed to find a way to do that i've

tried ways of doing it with just using

the calendar app i've tried ways of

doing it the physical way that he does

it and then i tried to force todoist to

do it by kind of like plotting out times

and syncing it with a calendar didn't

work well because you couldn't set a

discrete start and end date for a task

you could only set a length of time for

a task and that wasn't enough to do this

kind of fluid flexible time block

planning like cal does on a physical

notebook tick tick lets you do that you

can take a task plot it out in a

calendar view over time and then flip

back to task view and see it again like

that i'll show you really quick what i

mean so you can see my calendar here

i have a couple of different tasks say

tomorrow i'm planning to finish this

exercise which is a youtube exercise you

can see i have it plotted out here from

4 to 5 pm i could change the time

make it shorter or longer

i could drag it to another day really

easily

and i can switch my view

go to tomorrow

and you can see in my plan for tomorrow

it's there as well within the youtube

channel thing

you can also do it in a time-based view

tomorrow

and you can see

it's over there too and then just like

that with a keyboard command i can

switch back

to the calendar view and then switch

back to the task view

and back to the calendar view and back

to the task view that's cool right and

other apps sort of do this maybe some

have caught up by now but this is the

best i've seen an app do it the reason

why it's really important to be able to

adjust the start and end times as you go

is because a central idea within how cal

newport does is time block planning is

the ability to treat the start of the

day plan as sort of a plan a that you

know is not going to go exactly

as you hope it will you go into it

knowing that you're going to have to

move these blocks around

and you can do that really easily in a

physical notebook he just scratches them

out and he writes a new block next to it

after having charted out the time if you

watch his video that'll make a little

bit more sense but if you're already

familiar with time block plan and you

get what i mean say i reach four o'clock

and it's like i don't have time to do

that you can drag it down or you might

realize it's not going to happen

tomorrow at all so i'm going to move it

over here to saturday when i have

left some kind of buffer room another

neat thing about tiktik is you can

integrate your calendars in with it so

you can see here this is a shift i have

uh that's synced in from a google

calendar uh you can use an apple

calendar too you could sync in multiple

calendars i happen to keep all of my

synchronous events in one calendar and

so i sync those in and so when i start a

new week those spots are already filled

out so i'm not going to book tasks in

during that time you definitely can't do

that in apple reminders tiktik also has

much better quick capture than apple

reminder apple reminders has the

advantage if you can do voice capture

through siri although you can now also

do that into your tick tick using the

trick i show in that other video but

tiktik has much better text capture to

do is 10 things three also have a

similar capture and so i would call it a

match between the three and there but

let me show you this really quickly you

open it with a key command and then it

opens this little box and it would do it

on top of whatever else you're doing so

say i was reading this article and i was

further down in actually reading it now

i am reading something in this paragraph

that reminds me of something i want to

do so

i would hit the key command to bring it

up

and then i could type whatever it is so

maybe it's

and just like that i can just press

enter and that goes into my inbox and

tick tick you can also do even more with

it say i was further down

and i thought of

something else i wanted to do i could

say

and then you can also do these like sort

of quick add-ons to tag the way the task

is going to go so if you do this you can

put which project it's going to go in

academic development academia

development and you can also say when

you want to do it let's say i wanted to

do it tomorrow you can even add tags

i'm going to say intent i'm not sure if

i'm going to do this so now i've added a

project a due date or a due date

depending on how you want to use those

and then a tag and if i press enter

now it's going to go not into my inbox

but into the project list for academia

development and into the tomorrow list

very cool again todoist and things three

can do that as well but

apple reminder can't really do that as

well it has a bit of this type of

natural language processing if you just

start typing in a task where it can

recognize dates to some extent and maybe

some project kind of stuff but in my

experience it's been a little bit

inconsistent compared to these other

apps third thing is the smart

recognition is better

in tiptick compared to apple reminders

it's about on par again with things

three and todoist but certainly better

than an apple reminders apple reminders

has just been quite inconsistent for me

with the natural language processing but

it's pretty consistent and tick tick you

just gotta figure out the shortcuts that

help you tag the projects dates and the

hashtags all that said voice capture

into apple reminders works really well

again we can sort of take advantage of

that for ticktick as well using the

workaround that i detail in that other

video but it's really nice to just get

stuff right into reminders itself too

and so what i've ended up doing is i

just keep some lists and reminders

really basic stuff that isn't going to

need a lot of detail the main one i use

in apple reminders is i keep my grocery

list there so when i want to add to that

instead of saying hey siri remind me to

x i say

hey siri add bananas to the grocery list

and then it does that and i have a list

in my reminders

called groceries

see it there and it has the things that

i've added this way

it's gotta be the most exciting thing

that's ever happened around here

that's it this is a quick video to give

you a brief overview of why i think it's

worth paying more attention to tick tick

and checking it out there's lots of

other videos that detail kind of getting

on board with it and learning how to use

it you can check some of those out i

might make a few about some specific

things i like in tik tik down the line

anyway if you are on the fence about

tick tick and you found any of this

convincing do check it out thank you for

watching do like and subscribe uh and

please do ask me any questions if this

brings up for you this whole video was

inspired by a comment on one of my uh

videos from a couple weeks ago i'm

really liking getting to talk to people

in a way getting to respond to people's

comments at least in the comments

section so yeah if you have any

questions you want to ask do ask me and

maybe maybe i can make a video about

something else you're curious about so

just let me know