I’m not defending Asana - I no longer use it myself - but it has a free plan for up to 15 people. Without knowing exactly what features you require, I’ve no idea if that would meet your requirements.
From my looking around when I needed this sort of thing, most the good collaborative tools cost money. I did find Asana the one that I ended up using for a few “one-off” projects. Team members adopted it relatively easily and it worked for my purposes.
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Yes it has a free version - but the really helpful tools I would use are in the higher-end tier.
I am almost never a whiner about software costs. My monthly budget for subscriptions is notable - because they help in my business. But $300 per employee per year for a web app of that nature definitely seems off the scale for me. Oh well. I will look into Todoist however.
Reminders can but is limited. I use it for this purpose by sharing a project list, assigning tasks, and adding a “Waiting for” tag along with a link(s) to other resources such as an email. Again, this is not nearly as robust as other services such as Asana but for keeping up with what I’ve assigned to whom and tracking it, it works.
We use the O365 stuff.You can use the Microsoft ToDo and the tasks app to allocate and track. …if you use MS that is 
I’m not defending Asana’s pricing … but I suspect based on what you say as needs you can live with their “Premium” pricing which is about half the cost you mention. And yes, there are a lot of competative products to look into.
“Approvals” are a pretty key feature in a collaborative to-do application. Hard to imagine not having that. And it’s only in the upper tier.
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yea. there often is a lot more to collaboration on projects than todo lists. i just discovered team acceptance was easier with Asana than with other things i have tried.
Which tier do you use? How many employees?
After years of using Todoist I let me subscription end and switched to Reminders. With tags, folders, Smart Folders, and subtask I’ve found it to be good enough. And I like being able to share reminders with other members of my family
I’m still using Omnifocus. I played with Things again for a bit, and without the Review feature in place, and with their prescriptive workflow for subtasks, I feel like I just get lost. (I also don’t like truncated task names.) It’s a shame though; that’s a gorgeous app.
I have started planning out my day a bit, just writing down what I intend to do in the calendar. I’m not as thorough about it as @MacSparky would be, but his advice eventually got through to me and I feel more productive.
Just to talk this through, because I think it’s an important principle when you’re working with a task manager: we need to plan when we’re going to do the work. Otherwise, it won’t get done. And once we have a plan, the list can almost become secondary. You can use almost any tool that has the feature set you want. If I needed to, I could put all my tasks into a web tool like Notion and hack away at them in there, so long as my reviews are in place and I plan when I’ll do stuff.
Without the action plan, which for me is the review combined with the calendar, we’ve basically got no real intent to get it done. I’ve found the task manager alone, at least for me, is not enough to create action anymore. I’m in my early thirties now, and I’m increasingly aware that my attention drifts more easily than it did ten years ago. Hyper focus is a hard skill to cultivate, and a harder skill to keep.
Sorry for the Ted Talk. Thanks all for the interesting conversation surrounding this topic, as always.
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Not sure of the origins, and I do agree they all look very similar. I did experiment with NotePlan for awhile and liked it a lot. It’s my choice after Agenda and before Obsidian (which is sooooooo customizable)
The killer feature that is working for me is the scrolling notes. If I make a new note in a folder (or project in my brain) it’s listed by title and I have to click it. Agenda does not have that friction. Basically one project just gets notes added to it and I can scroll back to where I need. That’s how it was born I believe. The creator started with a text file, switched to SimpleNote, and then developed Agenda.
Unlike Obsidian, there is seemingly little buy in by large swaths of this community into Agenda or NotePlan, so it doesn’t seem to get as much media around it, but there are dozens of us…dozens!
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So, we few will just have to talk up Agenda and NotePlan from time to time! 
You did a good job of making Agenda interesting to me.
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I just wish I could trust 2Do to be better supported. I know he is a lone dev but it scares me that it will just fade away through lack of development. It’s insanely powerful, looks good in dark mode and probably is a very good fit for my needs but I need to trust my system and I am not sure I trust 2Do long term.
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How is your data stored in this app? Is there any way to get it out of the app if you were forced to against your will kicking and screaming all the way?
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As Ted Talks go. That was a pretty good one.
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I have been using Apple Reminders with some relevant List Names - Client - Personal - Someday - Urgent etc.
One main reason is because so easy with Siri = remind me to do XX on XX day at XX time…
2Do is a terrific app on both Mac and iOS. Super powerful, and as the developer said on Twitter recently, 13 years of free updates!
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Like a few people here I’ve switched totally to the native apple apps for my planning (except Fantastical).
There was a recent thread on here about what is a note and what is a task… it got me thinking, what is a task manager and what is a project manager. I’d always considered them one and the same… projects have tasks!
In the past I used to put all of my projects into my task manager or vice versa and for me, the ‘noise’ just became to much.
So I switched it up and now use Reminders for tasks (and lists) and Notes for project planning (and notes).
If a task has a deadline, it gets added to reminders (really simple drag and drop or with share sheet from notes). I do my project planning once a week, move all the tasks in for that week and roughly assign them to days. This way, all I have to do is look at my today view in reminders and I know what to work on that day.
For me, and the work I do (with only a maximum of 3 people per project) I much prefer planning my projects on a text canvas rather than in a ‘typical’ project management app. Having less rigidity almost allows me to be more creative which is often what I need when planning out projects.
I converted to Apple because of the ecosystem and how easily everything meshes together. I feel like using the native apps, this seamless mesh happens even easier.
PS - my only ‘gripes’
- In the today view you can’t view sub tasks!
- Adding to reminders or notes from mail ‘should’ be so much simpler
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