Most people have a ton of things going on every day, whether they are working in the house or in an office. The key to getting things done and getting them done well is to have a system in place that works for you. No one system works for everyone, but when you find the right tool to help you define your own system, and that tool is with you throughout the day, you can enjoy a boost in productivity and a reduced level of stress, knowing what needs to be done, where each task is at, and what’s been completed.
Lope is just such an app. While you will find several great apps in the App Store that will assist in task and errand management, Lope differentiates itself from other productivity applications by incorporating the Lean principle in task management to its app’s foundation. For each task you enter, you estimate the time it will take to complete it (and the default value is 30 min, but can be changed).
Lope checks your calendar to determine whether you have enough time for your tasks at all. It also uses information about when each task is due to make sure it schedules each task in such a way that allows you to complete each one before it’s due.
The app is free to download, and the free version allows you to create 200 tasks. After that, you have to pay a one time fee to create more tasks. I am not sure if you can delete tasks and then create new ones to stay under the 200 limit, or if it’s a hard stop once you’ve created the 200. That was unclear to me from the app description and since I have not been using it for more than a week, I have not reach 200 tasks.
Lope is organized into several areas: Today, Tasks, Memo, Results, and Settings. To start, it’s wise to define your work hours so Lope knows how best to organize your time. Under Today, you will see Current Tasks that need to be completed and an End of Workday area that lists any appointments you might have.
In the Tasks area, you create your tasks and assign it all the information you have available. The information is just used to calculate the priority of the task compared to the priority of other tasks. Memos let you type up quick notes and details that supplement Tasks, and Results provides you with a nice graphic of your performance based on Tasks that have been completed and Tasks still pending.
Overall usability is straightforward and intuitive. There are no hidden features or anything that is confusing. The minute you open the app, you will know what to do.
What I would like to see in future updates is more color, so I can color code Tasks for different categories, like work projects, home projects, personal events and more.
As it stands, Lope is one productivity app that I found takes task management to a new level, using lean principles to help you organize your tasks in a way that makes you most productive, allowing you to free up some of your time to do some fun things.