Priority Task App
Three lanes, one triangle, and a rule that nothing gets on the list without being ranked.
Three lanes, one triangle, and a rule that nothing gets on the list without being ranked.
Most task apps let you set a priority. Almost nobody does, because it's an optional field buried in a detail screen, and by the time you're looking at it you've already decided the task matters. Ordo removes the choice: a captured task cannot reach the board until it has been thrown into one of three lanes. Sorting happens once, on arrival, while you still remember why you wrote it down.
Now is red — it can't wait. Soon is amber — today-ish, and the everyday default, which is why it sits under your right thumb. Later is green — when there's room. Three is deliberate. Priority schemes with five levels collapse into “mostly level three” within a fortnight, because the gaps between the middle levels aren't real distinctions anyone can make at speed.
The board fills a triangle in proportion to what's in each lane, red on top. The balance of your day is one glance instead of a scroll. A top-heavy triangle means most of the board is red — which usually means it wasn't really triaged, and Ordo will say so in plain language. Tasks also age visibly: leave something in a lane long enough and its edge starts to smoulder.
Priorities move. Long-press any task to send it to another lane, or push it back to the intake queue for a fresh pass. Nothing is locked in — the point isn't that your first call was right, it's that a call was made.
Ordo is free, and the free version is a whole app: capture by voice or text, all three lanes, reminders and the board. The free board holds 6 live tasks at a time. Ordo Pro lifts the cap and adds repeating tasks, the Pulse overview and three extra palettes — $2.99/month or $19.99/year with a 7-day free trial, both renewing automatically until cancelled, or a one-time $34.99 lifetime unlock that never renews. No ads either way.
Ordo is coming soon to the App Store. Requires iPhone on iOS 18.0 or later.
An Eisenhower matrix asks you to place a task on two axes, urgent and important, which is a genuinely hard judgement to make about forty things. Ordo asks one question with three answers, in a gesture that takes under a second. It's a cruder instrument on purpose — crude enough that you'll actually keep using it.
Yes. Long-press any task on the board to move it to another lane, or open it and pick a lane there. You can also send it back to the intake queue to triage it fresh.
The load triangle goes top-heavy and the Pulse screen tells you outright: “Over half the board is red. That usually means it isn't really triaged.” It's the one piece of nagging the app does, and it's the useful one.