Why 'countdown mode' is the task manager feature I can't live without

Artie Beaty/ZDNET

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• This TickTick app mounting changed my productivity.
• The default enactment shows a owed day oregon time.
• Countdown shows minutes oregon days until your deadline.

I've ne'er been the astir organized person. While I telephone my attack "working amended nether pressure," my household tends to telephone it "procrastinating." Either way, I'm the benignant of idiosyncratic who often puts things disconnected until they're owed and past knocks retired immoderate the task is successful a flurry of productivity. As overmuch arsenic I hatred to admit it, this strategy means I occasionally miss something.

I've turned to a assortment of note-taking, list-making, and to-do apps done the years. I inactive usage respective to support my thoughts together, but adjacent a calendar of things-to-do creates different problem. There are times during the summertime erstwhile my kids are home, and mean schedules don't exist, erstwhile I don't cognize what time it is, overmuch little the date. Seeing an arbitrary day connected a calendar, oregon adjacent "Due Friday," mightiness not convey however pressing the deadline is.

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TickTick is my main to-do and reminder app. The app is disposable connected iOS and Android, and it's immensely helpful. However, I was missing retired connected a captious setting, and erstwhile I discovered it, my full position shifted.

How countdown mode works

There are 2 countdown options successful TickTick -- 1 for mundane tasks and a dedicated countdown diagnostic for milestone events similar birthdays and anniversaries. The former, the mundane task countdown, is the 1 that served arsenic my biggest productivity boost. The diagnostic debuted past summer, but I didn't observe it until aboriginal this year.

When you toggle the mundane task countdown on, the diagnostic shows you precisely however galore days oregon hours you person until a task is due, and an abstract people abruptly becomes precise specific. "Due Wednesday" becomes "2 days," which, astatine slightest successful my brain, sparks overmuch much urgency (even if the deadlines mean the aforesaid thing). 

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If it's a same-day task, the countdown shows however galore hours you person left. This attack forces maine to face my docket successful existent time, making it overmuch much hard to beryllium caught disconnected defender erstwhile a owed day pops up unexpectedly. 

I've recovered myself utilizing the countdown for everything, including large yearly events, mundane tasks, remembering bills, and play meetups. It helps punctual maine that, no, I mightiness not person clip to get to that task later. 

How to crook connected countdown mode

In the TickTick app, click your illustration representation successful the top-left and past click "Settings" and "Date and Time." You tin toggle connected countdown adjacent the bottom. When the diagnostic is on, you tin pat the remaining clip to spot the existent owed day oregon time. 

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If you're thing similar maine and person a -- fine, I'll admit -- procrastination problem, countdown mightiness supply the subtle unit you request to get things done.