TickTick is my to-do manager now

I use Google Keep for almost every daily task. It’s a great note-taking app that has become even better with the recent Gemini integration.

But as a to-do manager, it isn’t perfect. I am disappointed by it regularly and often look for alternatives.

I finally found a to-do manager that is better than Keep in every way.

Why Google Keep isn’t ideal as a to-do manager for power users

There’s friction that doesn’t need to be there

Google Keep is great at what it does. It’s awesome for taking notes and creating a basic to-do list for groceries and reminders.

But when it comes to actually getting things done, Google Keep isn’t very proactive. What’s more annoying is that with Keep, I had to juggle it with other apps like Google Calendar and Tasks to get things done.

That’s fatiguing on a busy day, and it gets annoying fast. When I started facing this situation often, I started looking for an app with everything built in.

The app that caught my attention was TickTick, which has everything built in so I can use it without juggling multiple apps.

However, it’s not a traditional notes app, so it couldn’t fully replace Google Keep for me. But as a to-do manager, I didn’t think twice about switching after I figured out what TickTick is all about.

Even though Google Keep is great at simple time and location-based reminders, it’s not ideal for my daily use. Google Tasks, on the other hand, removed location-based reminders altogether.

I also find it annoying that I cannot organize Google Keep notes into folders or use a priority-based system for important tasks.

But with TickTick, I can do all of that and have a cleaner experience. Google Keep also lacks habit tracking and time-blocking.

Finally, the feature I appreciate most is TickTick’s built-in calendar, which syncs with Google Calendar. This lets me organize all my tasks by calendar, location, and task type in one app.

I can even assign priorities to each task so TickTick can tell me which task I need to complete first.

After I started using TickTick regularly, the experience changed dramatically, and I completed more tasks than usual.

I noticed that the credit goes to TickTick’s unified experience. Because Google’s ecosystem is so fragmented, I got much less done.

Everything TickTick does better than Google Keep as a to-do app

Why I prefer TickTick for daily tasks

TickTick’s unified experience is superior to juggling various Google apps.

But the real-world impact of this is huge. TickTick is the one spot for tracking all of my daily tasks, shopping lists, recurring items, and long-term goals.

To track all of these, I would have to use various Google apps, which not only eat up more of my phone’s storage but also drain my battery.

I’ve always found Google Keep notes cluttered, and finding notes or to-do tasks can be annoying. But in TickTick, I can organize them into folders dedicated to work, personal, shopping, fitness, and other categories.

TickTick also makes it easier to track tasks from each category in the dedicated Inbox tab. It is like a hub that brings tasks from each category into one place.

These subtle details are what made me a fan of the app, and they cut down on taps. I can even add subtasks to each task and set multiple reminders, so I make sure to complete them.

I can also add location-based reminders like Google Keep, which is now an essential feature for any to-do app. I can also add recurring tasks, like chores, and set flexible rules for them, which Google Keep doesn’t support.

Finally, the built-in calendar ties it all together with day, week, and month views.

I can drag and drop tasks to block time on the calendar and sync it with Google Calendar if I want to.

Unlike Google Keep, where I had to switch apps to get the same result manually, TickTick does it in seconds.

I’m currently using the free tier, and it’s more than enough for the menial tasks I need to complete every week. I can add roughly 9 lists, 99 tasks per list, 2 reminders/tasks, and about 5 habits.

For ease of use, TickTick has easy-to-use widgets you can customize to add quick tasks and notes.

Speaking of adding tasks, I prefer it over Google Keep because I can add more context to each task. I can add attachments, comments, and notes, so I have more context on what I need to do.

For folks who like to track habits, TickTick has comprehensive features that let you track streaks, logs, stats, and manual checklists.

It even has a Pomodoro focus system that lets you focus for 25 minutes, followed by a 5-minute break. I haven’t used this feature much, but it is meant to motivate you to achieve more complex goals.

Finally, since TickTick is available on every platform imaginable, including Linux, I can track my tasks and progress on any device I use.

TickTick can teach Keep a thing or two

While I still use Google Keep for taking traditional notes, it can learn a few things from TickTick as a to-do manager.

After I started using TickTick, Google Keep felt antiquated and like a haphazard app that needs a lot of love.

Hopefully, Google can pick up a few cues from apps like TickTick and give us a comprehensive app that isn’t a fragmented experience.