Worth It: The Essential App For Getting Your Shit Together

Much unlike many a magazine editor who recommends you buy all sorts of crap that they most likely got for free, your Jezebel staff doesn’t get jack shit (other than books, unsolicited). And that’s how it should be. But on our own time, in our personal lives, we still buy stuff. So this is Worth It, our daily recommendation of random things that we’ve actually spent our own money on. These are the things we buy regularly or really like, things we’d actually tell our friends about. And now we’re telling you.

As you’ve probably gathered from the thousands of Steve Jobs tributes, Apple deserves a lot of credit for taking technology and making it easy and enjoyable for anyone to use. When I’m 80, I’ll still be marveling at the fact that I used a rotary phone as a kid (my mom insisted touch tone phones were just a fad) and before I was 30 I could video chat on a device that fits in my pocket. But there’s one thing Apple can’t do: Design a damn to-do list app.

When I got my first iPhone it seemed like some kind of cruel joke that Apple had designed a device capable of letting me watch my DVR when I was miles away from home and instantly text photos to friends, yet it couldn’t transfer a simple list from iCal to the iPhone. Yes, there was Notes, but I wasn’t looking to virtually jot things down on a disorganized scrap of paper. iOS 5 finally gave us Reminders, which lets you direct the phone to nag you when you leave a certain location, but despite that impressive feature, you’re still limited to a cheesy notepad design and little control over how your lists are organized.

Luckily, I found an app that solved this devestating first world problem: Listomni. For just $4.99, you get an app that lets you create lists specially designed for keeping track of to dos, groceries, gifts, cards, movies, books, budgets, fuel economy, packing, and notes. Using a basic list is pretty intuitive; you press a green “plus” to add items, tap once to cross them off your list, and swipe to delete. However, if you want to delve deeper, nearly every aspect of Listomni is customizable. You can create your own subheadings and categories, change the list’s layout, and schedule items to recur automatically every day. It’s easy to break down your shopping list by store, and you can even add the price and tell Listomni to total the cost.

Listomni is frequently updated, and I’m constantly discovering neat new functions (for instance, I just realized it’s possible to type up a list on your computer and import it to the app). It’s efficient, it’s attractive, and it does more than you’ll ever need it to do. I definitely felt like an (even bigger) nerd when I looked through my magical Star Trek phone and realized the list program is the app I’m most excited about, but it makes keeping yourself organized very easy, even if it can’t remind you to pick up milk as you’re leaving work (yet).

Listomni, $4.99 from the iTunes App Store.

Worth It only features things we paid for ourselves and actually like. Don’t send us stuff.