To-do list apps: 5 easy tricks for using them better

Everyone is relying on to-do list apps. But productivity guru David Allen says we can get more out of them. Here's how

Once, Pakistani-American immigrant Misha Euceph had a dream. The host of a podcast called “Beginner,” which chronicles her life as a 24-year-old transplant in Los Angeles, she had her heart set on covering her apartment walls with white boards or chalkboard paint—the better to keep track of her multiple to-do lists. I can relate: Facing my writing desk is a corkboard wall covered in to-do-list note cards.

But a couple years ago, Ms. Euceph’s story deviated from mine: A friend showed her Evernote, an organizational app that includes a myriad to-do list capabilities and she gradually started dispensing with conventional written