Product Review: TeuxDeux
Like any card-carrying productivity enthusiast, I primarily use Kanban boards to manage my tasks these days. Despite my new love for Kanban boards, however, I still carry a soft spot for the old school to do list. Kanban boards are a great visual tool to be sure—but moving a card to completion does not evoke the same rush of pure joy that comes from crossing something off of your list. Hello, my name is Sarah, and I’m a to do list junkie. So, when I came across TeuxDeux, a platform that bills itself as a simple yet elegant to do list for the web, I knew I had to sign up. To do lists and French puns? I’m in.
I signed up for a free trial, eager to start crossing off some tasks. Below is an image of TeuxDeux’s welcome interface, which presents a clean, crisp view of the week ahead. I know some folks might find the color scheme offputting, but I’m a big fan of red, so no complaints here. If this is a dealbreaker for you, the site settings offer an option to modify the color scheme to one of a handful of other colors, including pink (!), blue, green, and black. (Pink and French and to do lists? Did somebody do a marketing profile on me that I don’t know about?)
I like that you can easily click and drag items on the list to rearrange the order—a feature that evokes the flexibility of the Kanban board but applies it to a to do list. The site also lets you mark up the text of your to do’s. Adding double asterisks bolds the text you select, whereas adding a single asterisk italicizes it. You can also create recurring tasks by adding the words “every day” at the end of a new entry. When I added the phrase “every day” at the end of a task to brush my teeth, the task instantly popped up as a recurring item for the rest of that week. I appreciated that future recurring tasks showed up in faded gray italics—an unobtrusive reminder that these items have to get done but can’t be started until the next day.
Another nice feature for those who don’t want to log into yet another tool is that the site offers to email you a daily digest of your tasks. For those who loathe emails more than a collection of new apps on their phone, this feature is also (thankfully) optional.
Another thing that brought a smile to my face is the site’s built-in “someday” to do list, a nod to David Allen’s Getting Things Done, which emphasizes the importance of recording everything in a trusted capture system. The “someday” list is the repository for the many brilliant ideas that come to you out of the blue but don’t fit neatly into that day’s to do’s. I also liked that you can insert a link to an outside source to accompany each task so you can easily retrieve external information associated with that item. This feature is particularly useful for the someday list. Four months from now, when “someday” comes, it’s good to know that I can quickly navigate to the list of calligraphy classes I had painstakingly researched when inspiration originally struck.
The site’s keyboard shortcuts are easy to use—the return key creates a new task, whereas the tab key navigates to the next day’s to do list. I was excited about the prospect of a calendar view, but the button is deceptive—it simply lets you readily navigate to a future date so you can add tasks on that day. Even though I kind of wanted the calendar option, I don’t think I would have craved anything more complex if the presence of the button hadn’t excited my curiosity in the first place. I recognize that this feature contravenes the TeuxDeux ethos, where simplicity is paramount.
In general, I liked the site and found it easy to use—except for one fundamental flaw. The payment structure. I was surprised to find that the site is not free. Given the bare bones interface and given the plethora of other products out there that serve a similar function, it would be hard to convince me to become a paid subscriber. I’d recommend trying out the app but, unless you’ve got money to burn, you’d be better served with the notes app on your phone.
