Take the 2-minute tour ×

There is no lack of to-do apps designed at least somewhat around Getting Things Done - just see the answers to this question, for example. I'm a user of Things on iOS and have heard a lot about OmniFocus, but I've never gotten a good recommendation for an app that can manage to-dos for more than one person.

My wife and I are looking to adopt a GTD-inspired workflow for a variety of personal projects, some shared, some individual, and it would be ideal to manage these projects side-by-side.

Short of us each running our own instance of a given app on our separate devices, and including iOS / OS X synching among my requirements, do any of the flagship GTD to-do apps offer the concept of projects and to-dos that belong to a specific person of several?

share|improve this question

5 Answers 5

up vote 2 down vote accepted

There are several, even though some of them may not be as native to OS X and iOS as Things or Omnifocus.

Asana, Trello and Flow are good examples. They offer nice web apps to be used through a web browser, and native iOS apps. Both offer the GTDesque approach, and allow assigning tasks to individuals.

Another alternative, which does offer an OS X app, is Producteev.

share|improve this answer
Accepting this, as Trello is a likely winner for me. It's well-supported by its developers (and I've always been a Fog Creek fan), and has good front-ends for web and iOS. It scales well between simple and complex workflows, too. –  Dan J Aug 20 '13 at 15:56

I use BusyCal for this purpose. BusyCal manages both calendars and tasks. My husband and I have a total of three definite calendars between us: our individual calendars, and a household calendar. We also set up specific calendars to manage projects. For example, we've got a calendar for the household renovations that we're in the midst of, and we use that to track milestones and tasks and so on.

We share these calendars via CalDAV because we run a server at home, but you can use a shared iCloud or Google Calendar account as well, and that works well. There's also an iOS application.

share|improve this answer
Nice recommendation... and I notice BusyCal is on sale for 40% off ($29.99) until February 15th... –  Dan J Jan 16 '13 at 1:16

I use the built-in reminder app of iOS and Mountain Lion. I create my different TO-DO lists, and when I want to share one with my wife (Shopping List), I click the sharing button. Updates are then synced automatically. Works like a charm.

May not be as fancy as those 3rd party apps, but it's free and built-in.

share|improve this answer
Try it, it's built in, you already have the apps, you are already (probably, if you use iCloud for anything at all) signed into the sync solution, just set up a few lists to share, and a few to keep private, and you're golden. –  stuffe Aug 20 '13 at 13:24
Good suggestion. This will probably suit for simple shared lists, but would be clunky for a more-complicated project-management workflow. Otherwise, I'd mark this accepted. :) –  Dan J Aug 20 '13 at 15:54

The reminders app that is part of Mountain Lion allows multiple task lists so you could use one for each person. The wrinkle would be that assigning things to a date can't be filtered so you'd see your composite task lists when viewing the day.

share|improve this answer
The scenario I'm describing also involves each person having their own devices with their own iCloud account. Is there a way to share Reminders lists between iCloud accounts? I'm not aware of one... –  Dan J Jan 16 '13 at 18:57
If you click on the radio-beacon icon that shows when you hover over the name of the list, you can share with someone. It says "People sharing this list can add, update and delete reminders." Sadly I can't attach an image, but it's quite easy to do. –  sberley Jan 16 '13 at 23:19


Wunderlist is free and has both an iOS and OS X app. As well as Android and Windows.

You can create individual and shared to do lists and track progress. Put in notes etc.

You do have to create an account, but then all your todo's are synced over different devices.

share|improve this answer


Your Answer


