Clear your ancestors off your to-do list

Screenshot of Clear app on my iPhone edited with iRetouch app.

Accomplish your family history and genealogy research tasks easily with the Clear App.


Back in mid-February, I did a brief review of the productivity app, Clear.

And this app is certainly not for everyone. I would definitely recommend it for beginning researchers. Just like I would not recommend doing a research plan on Microsoft OneNote to someone who has just started out researching and they've never used OneNote before. Remember: Not all tech is for every single person and no 2 researchers will use the same tool in the same way.

But? Is the Clear App for you and your research? I dunno. When I blogged about it before, I only went over its features and benefits and then suggested y'all try it out.

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Just a photo of my work in OneNote.

This time, though, I decided to see if I could incorporate it into my Daughters of the American Revolution [DAR] and United Empire Loyalists [UEL] research and application process thingy.

Now, I'm handling that workflow process in OneNote. And if you're using OneNote or Evernote to support you in this type of research workflow, there is a better way to handle your to-do's than with the Clear app IF you want your to-do list on your iPhone, and since this *is* the latter half of 2012 then, of course, your want our to-do list on our iPhone.

So. What if you don't use OneNote or Evernote for research? And what if you're using, I dunno, say, a genealogy database software that doesn't easily let you see your to-do list on your iPhone? [And why doesn't it? I dunno. I don't have a good reason why a genealogy database software doesn't have a to-do list that you can easily see on your smartphone in, um, 2012.]

And what if you don't want anything too complicated? 'Cause you're not wanting to, you know, walk on the moon or anything. You just want a simple list where you can see what you need to do next on a part of your family history project. A list that's on your handy-dandy iPhone in your hand where ever you might be doing some research. ['Cause I'll admit that I don't have to be away from my laptop on my desk to be using my iPhone. Nope. I use it to be *that* more efficient while I'm online. Sometimes opening up that 25th tab is just not what I wanna do, you know?]

Well, this is where I think the Clear App shines for the researcher. Not only can it help you with clearing off your ancestor to-do list, it's easy to use and pretty. [And who doesn't like pretty?] Take a look at their video and see for yourself just how easy it is to use.

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Now. Is there a lot of detail or hierarchy in this list-making app? No. It's supposed to be easy. So, as I mentioned above, I tried it with my DAR-UEL to-dos, and? I think it works for getting down to the actual tasks I need to do. Take a look at the photo gallery below of all my screenshots. It allowed me to get the essential stuff down, and it allowed me to see what I'd already completed on, or cleared off, my to-do list. See for yourself [Click on a thumbnail for a larger image and caption.]:

Details about the Clear App:

• Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Plus, it requires iOS 5.0 or later.
• Costs: $2.99 [Unless, of course, you bought it back in February when I suggested you check it out for .99. =) ]
• They've had one update since then that allows NO character limit on each task. Very nice.
• The Clear App was developed by realmacsoftware.com and I suggest you check out their website.
• It's available for purchase and download on your device's App Store App. Also? You can check out the iTunes Preview Page for the Clear App.

So. Is this app for you? I dunno. I'm not familiar with the productivity apps you already have, I'm not familiar with your skill level, and I'm not familiar with your online and offline research workflow process.

But? I do think the Clear App has some possibilities for researchers who are looking for a simple list-making app so they can clear some of their ancestors off their to-do list and get them put up on their family trees where they belong. 

~Caroline

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