30/30 Review

30/30 is an interesting new productivity app that is meant to let users time their tasks. For example, a task can be added such as “Work on project”, and set to go for as much as an hour. The timer can be started, and the app closed. Then, a push notification is delivered once the clock is up and the task hopefully complete, for the user to go on to their next task. Then, the user can open the app and start the timer on their next task if ready.

The way that 30/30 is set up makes it extremely useful as a short-term task list app, for helping to create a focus on a bunch of small tasks that need to be completed. Simple gestures of swiping, tapping, and two-finger expanding are all that are needed to make use of the app. The various icons for classifying tasks come in handy as well, and are just somewhat amusing to use. 30/30 is a universal app as well.

The app does have a few issues at the moment. The inability to create timers for longer than an hour does limit some of its usefulness for those that want to make 30/30 their main to-do app, or as a timer for longer tasks, particularly for freelancers who have different projects to work on. There is no ability to start a different task without rearranging or deleting the top task at the moment. The help section doesn’t list all of the commands that are entered as tasks when the app is initially installed. A glitch occurs with external keyboards when entering a new task causes the icons to not pop up and the task unable to be entered unless the software keyboard is manually called up. An option to sync task lists between devices using iCloud would be potentially useful as well.

Using 30/30 convinces me that Clear may be the most influential app of 2012 so far. This is another app that uses a similar minimalist style, and has a hyper-focus on performing one job well. However, these apps like Any.DO seem to also keep advanced features in mind, like 30/30’s use of push notifications to alert when a timer has ended.

30/30 is worth checking out if the concept is particularly intriguing; it’s free to use, with in-app purchases to support the developers. Check 148Apps.Biz for an article for more on this donationware model. This kind of timer app could definitely help with keeping track of tasks, and making sure they get completed in a certain amount of time. It can go a long way to making its users more productive as their tasks no longer take unknown amounts of time.