10 open source task management and time tracking apps for Android

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The pressures of modern life can sometimes be overwhelming. Even a very organized person might need digital tools to keep track of personal and professional meetings and deadlines.

If you attended All Things Open this year, you may have seen Jason Baker and Jen Wike Huger of Opensource.com talk about open source productivity hacks, which is a great place to start to get started with open source tools and productivity.

To join in the conversation Jason and Jen started, I wanted to share with you 10 apps for Android phones that can help you stay organized, keep track of how much time you spend on tasks, and make sure you don't miss deadlines. All of the apps are open source and available from the F-Droid repository, so give them a try and see if they meet your needs.

Mirakel

Mirakel is a task management application with a modern user interface and support for every format you might need in such a program. At the basic level of Mirakel, it supports multiple lists, which are called "meta lists".

Creating a single task comes with a host of options, including deadlines, reminders, progress tracking, tags, notes, subtasks, and file attachments, all of which comprise part of the task entry.

On the project's F-Droid page, syncing with Taskwarrior and CalDAV is primarily listed as key features, but in the app itself, the sync functionality is marked as buggy, so if syncing is important to you, be aware that this experience may not work properly.

OpenTasks

OpenTasks, like many of the other entries on this list, is a great task management tool for creating individual tasks with a variety of settings. It supports a wide variety of fields when creating tasks, ranging from basic things like name and description to more complex items like choosing whether the task is private, public, or confidential.

The biggest difference between OpenTasks and other alternatives is its use of tabs on the app’s home screen. These tabs give you a quick view of tasks that are due soon, tasks that are about to start, tasks sorted by priority, and tasks sorted by current level of completion. Many other apps can do the same job, but OpenTasks makes it easy to access these lists quickly.

Pomodoro Tasks

If you're a fan of the Pomodoro Technique, or just want to give it a try, Pomodoro Tasks is for you. Of the two Pomodoro apps in the F-Droid repository, it's the one with the better user experience and design. However, it's still an older app, so its design is a bit outdated compared to many other modern Android apps. Nonetheless, it works well and allows users to turn their phone into a Pomodoro timer.

Simple Deadlines

Simple Deadlines focuses on task completion. The fields available for creating tasks are very simple, just "Tag", "Group" and due date. One of the main advantages of this app is the clear deadline countdown displayed on the overview screen. This countdown shows the number of days until the project is due, with the number of days remaining displayed in a box that changes color as the deadline gets closer. Tasks due today or tomorrow are red, and tasks due soon are orange, yellow, green or blue, depending on how far away the deadline is.

Simpletask Cloudless

For more text-centric users, Simpletask Cloudless creates entries using the todo.txt format. Lists are created by prefixing the words in the task with the @ symbol, and labels are created by prefixing them with the + symbol. Due dates are set using due: YYYY-MM-DD. Because the underlying data is stored in a simple text file, it's easy to share task lists with other todo.txt-compatible apps.

Simply Do

Simply Do is the most basic app on this list. It supports the creation of lists and list items. Just enter the name of the item and nothing more. Each list item has two states — in progress or deleted when completed. Long pressing on an item gives the option to add a star for high priority tasks, but other than that, Simply Do is very simple. For users looking for a minimalist to-do list, this app might be a good choice.

TasClock

A simple timer app, TasClock provides a way to track how much time is spent on a task. Each task has only a name, so the task cannot contain additional descriptive data, but for basic tasks TasClocks is good enough. It is also possible to have the timer run multiple items at the same time, but the app does not provide a detailed report of all the time spent on tasks. The most sophisticated feature of TasClock is the detailed view of each task, which the user can access by long pressing on the task in the list.

Tasks

Another solid task manager, Tasks has an excellent feature set. You can assign due dates and priorities to each individual task. It is also possible to hide tasks until a certain date so that tasks far in the future don't "flood" you with tasks that appear in your task list early. Tasks has a simple timer option for adding its estimated duration and the time already spent to a task entry.

Timesheet

Timesheet can track the time spent working on various tasks. You can insert individual tasks into a timeable or non-timeable state. You can launch Timesheet's time tracking tool by selecting a task from the task list, but only one active task can be active, so you need to take this into account when setting up your tasks.

The application has daily and weekly overview modes that show the amount of time spent on each task. The data from the timesheet can be exported as a CSV file for use in other programs.

To-Do List

One of the apps developed as part of the Privacy Apps project, To-Do List features a modern design while focusing on respecting your privacy. The app requires only the absolute minimum permissions required to run, which in this case is to start automatically at boot. To-Do List supports multiple to-do lists, assigns due dates to each to-do, and enables reminders. The app has a calendar view, which provides a great way to see upcoming deadlines.