Astrid Will Be Your Right Hand Organizer

Patrick Skelley Aug 20, 2011 Tweet

Now where did I put those keys… Today’s Friday? Oh man, it’s garbage day! Life’s little obligations pile up quickly. 

Astrid is a task app that’s here to help. I know what you’re thinking–simply type in your tasks and check them off, right? Easy as pie. Astrid, however, is smarter than the average task list. I downloaded it to my smartphone and was pleasantly surprised by the many available options. Astrid has thought of everything you might want to do to supercharge your grocery list and make it social. You can set calendar reminders, alarms, tag your friends with tasks, mark importance levels and add notes–whew! For someone with superpower A.D.D., an app like this is a miracle worker when it comes to time management; even the most minute tasks, such as “call the insurance company,” can be maintained.

One thing that was curious to me about Astrid is that it is only available for Android, so I can’t share tasks with all my iPhone buddies. In a micro-project management app where multiple “Collaborators” can see updates, it seems strange to cut out iOS users.

But make no mistake, Astrid is simple and intuitive; list features are clear, and there are features you might not have thought you needed that are actually quite useful. For example, users can sort by due date or importance. This function is great if you’re a prioritizer like me; now, your tasks can be sorted by predetermined importance.

Like many startup platforms, Astrid is available for free. Users will bite, but the big question is, will the  app survive the “average Joe’s ” attention span? When users find a new toy, they may quickly lose interest and become distracted by the next shiny object.