I’m Going to Miss the “Dings”

If you have ever used Wunderlist you can hear the familiar “ding” in your head right now, and deep down it makes you feel good.  It’s surprising that something so menial could mean so much to a person, but Wunderlist users have conditioned themselves to the positive reinforcement that sound brings when completing a task.

Unfortunately, I am soon going to suffer from a lack of familiar dings as I have slowly begun my transition from Wunderlist to Google Keep.  Microsoft announced in April that they were going to shut down Wunderlist once their To-Do app was fully ready.  While To-Do has many functions that Wunderlist has, it is not everything I need it to be.  One main thing being that list sharing is not available, though they say it could be in the future.

Not just yet. We're still hard at work on subtasks and sharing at the moment.

— Wunderlist Support – Now shut down (@WunderlistHelp) October 18, 2017

While it pains me to move away from a platform I have enjoyed using so much, I do not want to be caught off guard when it goes away.  I have seen other list making and organizational apps that are available, and after a little research I found a few that really piqued my interest.  However, I would always be waiting for that app to be purchased by one of the bigger tech companies, forcing me to start this process all over again.  Thus, it was an easy decision to try out Google Keep.  No one is going to be buying Google out anytime soon, I think I’m pretty safe there.  Plus, there really isn’t a product that Google has made that I haven’t liked, so I figured it was worth a shot.

First Impressions 

At first, I was very skeptical of the Google Keep layout (on PC).  I enjoy the seamless design of navigating through my multiple lists in Wunderlist on the left side of the screen, and seeing the content of the list on the right.  Google Keep puts all the lists together in one central location, which at first was distracting and frustrating.  I also didn’t like the fact that I kept trying to “take a note” which was not creating or adding to a list.  However, I soon learned the benefit of that option, and how it added functionality to the platform.

I started out with using Keep for a simple task.  I had a list of eight students that I needed to find and help them with their computer issues.  I initially created the list with just their names, but then realized I needed to put the classroom I would find them in as well on there.  I immediately learned that it was easier to edit a task in Keep than in Wunderlist.  On PC, you can double click on a task in Wunderlist to edit it.  It took me six months to figure this out…  I still don’t know how to, or even if you can, do this on a mobile device.  I was always clicking a task off my list (giving me an unearned ding), then adding a new task with the correct information.  In Keep, it was simple to add or remove text from a task on PC AND on my phone.  I liked that a lot.

After I was done, I found that the two platforms both functioned in a way that was perfect to help me complete tasks similar to this one.  The only major differences being the ease to edit tasks in Keep, and of course, the absence of that famous ding.

Why I’m Moving to Keep 

After my initial test, Google Keep was winning the race, purely because of the ease to edit tasks.  However, after having a little time to play with Keep more, I learned that it was pulling farther and farther ahead.  I learned to get used to everything being in one place.  I liked that this allowed me to see not only my lists, but the tasks inside those lists as well.  In Wunderlist I would have tasks get buried in a list that I might not visit that much.  Keep allows me to see everything in one place, so my “Things I Want to Try” list is always showing, reminding me of new things I want to learn about.  Before, I would only visit that list when I had some down time.  Soooooooooooooooo…never.

I also enjoyed that I could add tags to my list that allowed me to organize them a little better.  I work with teachers on two campuses, so I have multiple lists for multiple things going on at each campus.  I can now quickly view all lists with one campus tag, so that I can easily see what I need to work on the days that I am there.  Adding to the organizational help, I can also now color code the lists for easy sorting.  I found both of these abilities to be incredibly helpful in improving my organizational structure.

Wait, It Can Do More Than Make Lists?

If you are an experienced Google Keep user, you’ve probably been reading thinking, “why is he only talking about lists?”  Well, that is all I used Wunderlist for, so my initial plan in finding a Wunderlist replacement revolved around list making.  However, Keep can do SO MUCH MORE.  I used to have a pretty “great” procedure when I found an article or a tool online that I wanted to revisit later down the road.  I would simply copy the link, email it to myself, and then create a calendar event to go revisit it at a specified later date.  Pretty seamless huh?  Of course, half the time I would forget to make sure that the reminder on the calendar event was checked, so it would never remind me to go look at it.  The other half the time the reminder would go off when I was in the middle of something, so I would never go back to it.  What can I say, it wasn’t a good system.  Now I can simply click my Keep Chrome extension, and it is right where I need it.  Also, since everything in Keep is all together, I will see it all the time, reminding me to revisit it when I can.

All of this on top of the ability to add images or drawings to a note, and the ability to type any note quickly without wondering “what list should this go in?”  Yes, Wunderlist allowed you to do that in the Inbox, but I NEVER went to my Inbox list, so I never would have seen it.

What I’ve Learned

In the end, I learned that Google Keep is a tool that allows me to do everything that I enjoyed doing in Wunderlist, and so much more.  I needed a tool that helped maintain my organizational structure both personally and professionally, and Google Keep has given me that.  If the prospect of Wunderlist going away wasn’t on the horizon, I never would have even tried Keep in the first place.  Microsoft makes some amazing products that I use every single day, but this time for me, Google won out.  Now my biggest task is telling my wife (who LOVES Wunderlist) that we need to be moving our grocery list and house to-do’s over to Google Keep.  I can hear her response now, “but……….what about the ding?”