How I keep organised using Microsoft To Do
I love lists. Just like I love a set of step-by-step instructions. I like the control they give me. And I like how I know exactly what I “have to do” when I’ve taken my mental list and committed it to paper (or computer screen).
Over the years, as a product manager, I really struggled, and eventually stopped trying to keep a “to do” list. Because I would jot down a bunch of things and then look at my email and each message would have more things to be added to the list. And most of those new things needed to be done more urgently than what was under control on my list already and so my list was completely obliterated within the first hour of the day.
But as I leave the comfort zone of that job, and venture out to work for myself, I no longer have lots of work colleagues dictating my daily agenda. Instead I have to do it myself, and, I must say, the good, old-fashioned, “to do” list is once again delivering the structure and semblance of control that I relish.
With our recent announcement that We’re moving to America, I suddenly find myself needing to maintain not just one “to do” list, but 10, at last count. I need a list, just for my lists! My mental capacity to keep up with everything is falling short, so I went looking for software for my computer or tablet to help me out. And lo and behold, I found exactly what I needed.
Welcome to my life, Microsoft To Do
I cannot rave about this app enough. I LOVE it. Honestly. And let me interject that I am not being paid or incentivised to write this, in any way. (Although, if you’re from Microsoft and reading this, I’m open to discussion!)
Moving on.
The limitations of other “to do” list tools and techniques
Lists are constantly running through my head. Don’t forget to do this, the next step on the project is that… but keeping mental lists running has a few limitations.
First, I can’t share the list or the step-by-step plan for a shared goal with my husband, without a conversation… and having that conversation, which is usually done with TV or smartphone distractions, is fraught and prone to frustration for both of us. Microsoft To Do solves this problem. Any new list that you create can be shared with anyone with an email address. Suddenly hubby can review the list at his leisure and understand how particular tasks fit into an overall goal or plan.
A second limitation of mental lists are that they are subject to mid-life bouts of forgetfulness, and the risk of forgetting then causes my mind to race as I filter through all the different upcoming tasks, trying to keep my plates all mentally spinning. This then causes me problems falling asleep, which leads to sleepless nights and a spiralling circle of wellness.
As a product manager, I’ve used various tools to plan and organise deliverables over the years. From full-blown Microsoft Project plans with fancy Gantt charts and mapped dependencies to the Microsoft Teams Planner app; from agile planning systems like Kanban to sticky note planning tools like Trello.
All of these tools did a job, but while some feel like overkill for keeping my personal life aligned and on track, others just weren’t detailed enough. Even Outlook Tasks didn’t really work as priorities change quickly day to day and it is too hard to keep updated and organised without the list itself being a full-time job.
And, you might be thinking, “surely pen/pencil and paper suffice to keep your lists?” But even these have their limitations, mainly that you have to put your thoughts in order, before you put them onto paper (or have an extremely good eraser/rubber). If you forget something, you can’t easily add a row in between a bunch of other steps when they’re hand-written.
My 8 favourite features of the Microsoft To Do app
A couple months ago, when we bit the bullet and decided to start the process of moving to the States, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to keep all the lists in my head. For starters, every day, I’d ask Phil if he’d started looking into visa requirements, and every day he hadn’t… if we were going to stand any chance of actually making progress toward this goal, we were going to have to get better organised.
So, I started looking for apps I could use to manage the insanity; something that I could use as a “pensieve” to pull out everything swirling around in my head so I could sleep at night knowing that I wasn’t forgetting any details.
MS Project was a no no, as was MS Teams. We didn’t have the correct Microsoft Office subscription for these and felt like they’d be overkill for what we actually needed. And, other traditional tools didn’t have all the features I ideally wanted. Searching Google Play for “To Do List” brought up quite a few different apps, but I gravitated to the Microsoft one because I am very familiar with Microsoft apps on my laptop and really enjoy how well their apps are integrated, shareable and useable, especially since they redesigned their portfolio since Windows 10 launched.
1. Create new lists, as needed; no limits.
We’ve been using Microsoft To Do for about two months now, and I absolutely love it! Forget writing on a calendar and trying to remember what day you assigned to a task or creating and managing a separate calendar for each list. To Do is designed to enable you to create lots of lists and lots of tasks within those lists, and even steps to achieve each task. If you are someone who likes to tick things off your list each day, Microsoft To Do gives you plenty of opportunity to coddle that part of your psyche. And it’s perfect to allow you to compartmentalise your thinking to that particular subject area or workstream.
2. “Planned” and “My Day” views combine tasks from all your lists.
These allow you to see everything from your disparate lists in one list, organised by day, or by list, depending on how you like to think.
For me, while I like to create my lists by topic, when I’m then managing my day, I like to clearly see what’s due now and next so I’m keeping on top of the things that need to be finished as well as the stuff that’s work in progress.
To make sure that larger, longer-term tasks get reviewed regularly, and not just when they’re due in several months’ time, I set a weekly or monthly re-occurrence on the task. For example, “Check Phil’s visa application status” comes up monthly, and I have an annual reminder for pulling out the necessary documents and organising the tax preparation for filing my US taxes every January.
3. Manage your “due by” dates without having to worry about breaking dependencies.
Microsoft To Do strikes a healthy balance between being a list vs. being a calendar (which keeps you from double-booking meetings or overbooking your day.) Tasks can have one-off or recurring reminders that can notify you at a specific time of the day, but the task itself simply has an optional “Due by” date, and doesn’t have to have a date at all. For me, this is great, because then I have a list of things to do during the day, but not a set time of the day to do them – if I want to sleep in, I’m not being reminded about my tasks. Likewise, I can pick the order in which I want to do my daily tasks, and decide if a particular task REALLY needs to be done on its due date… Microsoft To Do is really flexible without having to reorganise everything else in the list.
Where Phil and I have exploited this “Due by” feature is with our Meal Plan list. Every Friday, we sit down for a few minutes and decide what we’re going to have for dinner each evening of the upcoming week. This gives Phil foresight of what needs to go on the shopping list and makes sure we take stuff out of the freezer to defrost as needed. But, when our wonderful neighbours have friends and family over for a celebration and unexpectedly drop by with a platter full for us, we can easily move our meal plans to a different date to accommodate our neighbour’s generosity.
4. Share your lists
Across your own devices, or with your friends and family. Or even keep the lists just to yourself (great for keeping the annual gift list a secret!) I can access my list on my tablet, smartphone and laptop with my changes synced almost immediately. In addition, if I update tasks that I’ve shared with my husband, I can see stuff that he’s completed and vice versa. The ping of a completed task is SOO cathartic, no matter which of us has had the pleasure of pressing the button, although I admit, Phil usually lets me have the pleasure. And, you can assign tasks to specific people so others know if you’re expecting them to do a particular task on your list. Imagine the benefits if you’re working on a team project or planning a party with a group of friends, or managing the logistics of a wedding with pick-ups and drop-offs to airports, hotels, the venue, etc.
5. See your lists on your main home screen
This one was important to me. Like I could do with my Google Calendar, I wanted to be able to see all the tasks in all my disparate lists, in a widget right on my main tablet screen. I was really impressed that the “Planned” view gave me exactly that. A quick view of what is on the list for “Today”, with the option to scroll and see everything that’s coming up, too. And, helpfully, at the top of the list are any of the items that were due in the past that I’ve decided not to move to the future and instead want to highlight as “overdue.” Occasionally, I will stop moving tasks from week to week when I really want to focus my action by keeping them overdue at the top of the list. I WILL get these off the list… even if it’s the next time we go to the local tip (aka the city dump).
6. Review your “completed” tasks
This feature is really important to me because I like to regularly review the progress that I’ve made on various goals. When I’m struggling with a particular task, I like to remind myself just how far I’ve come and see all the other stuff I have gotten done, even though there are one or two things that are inevitably overdue.
And, this feature is nice for things like the meal plan list because it enables us to easily cycle our favourite menu items back onto the weekly plan without having to re-enter all the details. I use the “Add a note” feature on the task to write down the last time we had the meal when I update the due date.
right on my tablet home screen.
7. Mark important tasks
I try not to use this particular feature too often. In reality, if a task is on the list, then it’s important. I don’t put tasks like getting dressed and brushing my teeth onto the list, but that doesn’t mean I don’t do them.
However, when I add doctor’s appointments or meal’s out with friends and family, I will mark these as important because I know if I forget or miss them, there will be consequences, like disappointing someone or facing missed appointment penalties.
8. Organise other people in your life
Just like you can share your list with other people and assign your tasks to other people, I’ve found Microsoft To Do really helpful for helping me keep track of other people’s mental to do lists, too.
My Dad has more dreams and ideas and project plans than days left on this earth. He’s a very busy man. With needing to remember doctor’s appointments, and VA clinic appointments, and remembering to reorder prescription medications, and being prompted about whether he’s called the insurance company, and the roofer, and the heating man, and… It is a lot for him to remember, let alone for me to keep track of when I’m half-way around the world.
And then there are the ideas… “when you get here, I want your help to…” like I said, more ideas than days left to see them to fruition.
So, I’ve created a to do list on my app just for the stuff I need to remember to ask him about on our weekly Skype calls. And having this list on my tablet also helps me to easily check with my sister on some of the things she might also need to discuss with him.
Improvement suggestions for Microsoft To Do
Okay, there are one or two niggles, but they are extremely minor, and actually, rather than being “limitations” they’re more simply suggestions for further improvement on what is an excellent app.
Tasks in progress
One thing I’d love the developers to do, is a more obvious marker for stuff that’s “in progress.” Currently, if you’ve created steps on the task, you can see how many of the steps you’ve completed, but it’s relatively small and the overall task is either complete or not. A circle or bar that you could set a percentage complete mark would tap into that adrenalin rush of having accomplished something, even if not the full task. As some of my favourite YouTubers say, it would be a way to “have grace with yourself” and recognise each step of the marathon, not just the sprint at the end.
It would be really nice if there was a more obvious way to show “partially complete” tasks that have clearly been started, but aren’t quite done.
You can’t move tasks between lists on the smartphone app
So far, I don’t think I’ve figured out how to copy and paste or otherwise move a task from one list to another when using the app on a tablet or smartphone. The only way I’ve been able to do this is to re-create the task in the new list and delete it from the old list.
This is only a limitation of the mobile app, though, because on my laptop I can go into the programme and drag and drop tasks from one list to another.
You can’t share or assign tasks that are created in your personal “Task” list
It’s also important to note that any new task that you add to your “Tasks” list is for you only and cannot be shared or assigned to someone else like the tasks in your bespoke lists.
This one came as a slight surprise because, when I created a task from the Planned List widget on my tablet’s home screen, I forgot to change the list in which I wanted the task created and it went straight into my personal task list. This meant I had to delete it and recreate it in the list where it actually belonged since it was my husband’s task, rather than mine. Not the end of the world, but a slight limitation, nonetheless. It isn’t always convenient to tidy up the lists over on the laptop when you’re out and about.
A re-useable task template would be helpful.
Task templates
I am using Microsoft To Do to manage my blog content and video ideas. After 20 or so blog articles published so far this year, I’ve come up with a relatively set pattern from getting the content idea to getting it out into the world. It would be really nice if I could create a task template in that To Do list so that each new task I created in that list would have the same 5-6 steps pre-listed for me.
So, rather than having to type in “Draft article”, “Create images”, “Edit article”, “Publish to site”, “Promote content” in every task, instead, whenever I add a new task to the list, it could automatically have those steps added to it so I could focus on the content ideas.
As it is, I do usually focus on the content ideas and then come back in and add the steps at the point where I’ve drafted the article, so I can tick that first step off the list.
My verdict: Microsoft To Do is definitely a keeper
I really wish I’d have known about and started using Microsoft To Do years ago. When I think back to the hours I spent struggling to sleep because of all the stuff I had swirling around in my head on my various mental lists. This would have been so much easier. And, as a consummate procrastinator, seeing the tasks written down and how they fit into larger plans has really helped me turn thinking into action. Long may that continue!
What about you?
How do you keep track of everything going on in your life? Are you a pen and pad type of person, or do you prefer a detailed project plan with charts and dependencies all clearly and carefully crafted? Have you used Microsoft To Do? If so, have I missed any of it’s strengths or weaknesses in my review? Is there anything about the lists I’ve mentioned that you’re interested in hearing more about? Send us your thoughts using the form below.
