I am joyfully back in the classroom this year. Although re-entry is brutal, I’m loving it.
One lovely aspect of being a classroom teacher at this school is that I have a half time instructional assistant. Since her schedule has her in and out of my room all day, I needed an efficient way to communicate my tasks for her. Thus started my search for a collaborative to do list.
Ideally, this tool would be free, integrate with Google Drive, and not be too cumbersome for our needs. It should also have a free mobile app since my assistant finds it easier to keep on top of tasks on her phone.
My first try was Smart Sheet. I was pretty happy with it. The Google Drive integration is smooth. Many different types of attachments are easily included with tasks. The interface worked fairly well for us.
Unfortunately, my school will no longer have a subscription to it. I was also not loving how wide and cluttered the interface was. I couldn’t find a way to hide completed tasks. If I needed to do so, I was willing to pay for it, but I decide to look at other options first.
Next I tried Wunderlist. I’ve used it before, but always wandered away from it. The same thing happened this time. I couldn’t find a way to keep the details panel open. Assigning tasks to my assistant took more clicks than I wanted. No Google Drive integration. I did like the clean interface and that completed tasks where hidden but accessible.
I looked at a bunch of others before landing on Manage It. We’ve only been using it for a day, but so far I am loving it. It has single sign on with Google. I can easily add links to Google Drive files. It’s not too many clicks to add notes, due dates or assign the task to someone. Completed tasks are hidden but accessible. Best of all, it is free for a single project, which is all we need. There are a bunch of notification options, and the mobile app is free. Like Smart Sheet, it could easily be used for managing large, multi-person projects, but it is also working well for the two of us.
Do you use a collaborative to do list? What do you use?