Remind yourself to get things done with Air Tasks

Air Tasks is a free gesture-based app for the iPad or iPhone that's perfect for those of you who take a minimalist approach to your to-do list.

In the sea of productivity apps in the App Store, Air Tasks gestures are the only thing that make the app stand out. The gestures make adding tasks fast and easy, which is important when you are trying to get things done. It does a little while to get used to the gestures, but once you've got them down they become second nature.

You create a new task by swiping downward or simply tapping on the screen. You modify the task by various swipes to the right or left. Don't make one big, quick swipe to either side. The gestures on Air Task are subtle.

Make a small swipe to the right to mark the task as done. Clear completed tasks from your list by swiping up. Swipe even further to set a due date. Go even more to the right to set a specific time that you want to complete the task. The repeat feature on this screen does not turn the task into a recurring one. Instead it repeats the notification every minute after the time that the task is due until you mark the task as done.

If you want to delegate the task, swipe all the way to the right. Air Tasks assigns the task to one of your contacts. Once you've delegated the task, you can access that person's contact card by tapping on the icon to the left.

This feature is nice for parents who want to keep track of their kids' chores. It's also great if you need a reminder to call or email someone. Assign them to the item and instantly pull up their information when you're ready to contact them.

You can delete a task with your first swipe to the right. Set the task as recurring with a bigger swipe to the right. This feature is only available as an in-app purchase.

I usually don't mind in-app purchases, but this is one feature that should be free. Recurring tasks is standard in almost all to-do list apps. Why make this in-app purchase when you can get this feature for free on a multitude of other apps?

Air Tasks has other features that are probably worth the in-app purchase: An archive of your tasks and the ability to create subtasks. The archive helps you track your productivity and the subtasks keep you even more organized.

I wish I could tell you how much the in-app purchases cost, but every time I tried to access them I received an error message that the app couldn't connect to the App Store. I did not have this problem with other apps, so it's definitely a bug the developer needs to fix.

Pinch the screen to access the app's settings, which has some extra reminder features and the option to change to a dark theme. I usually prefer lighter themes, but in this case, I think the darker one is better.

The free version of the Air Tasks is nice but doesn't offer anything special, unless you are a devout fan of gestures – which I know some people are. The in-app purchases of subtasks and an archive might be worth it – but until the developer fixes the bug there's no way to know for sure.