Microsoft To Do – A Simple Way to Track Lists and Tasks

Microsoft To Do – A Simple Way to Track Lists and Tasks

Brett Burney 
Download Microsoft To Do (FREE!)

I’m a huge fan of amazing tasks management apps, and todo lists, and these are ALL great! Have many friends that use these and I can only aspire to be as productive and accomplish as much as they do.

But I get caught up in the minutiae, tinkering with them and trying to make them fit exactly into a workflow, and end up taking MORE time fiddling with it than using it to manage my work!!

I JUST want a simple app where I quickly add tasks to a to-do list.

And I found the perfect app! It’s called Wunderlist!!

But alas I was not the ONLY person that liked it, and Microsoft acquired the app in 2015.

Since then, the app has hit a couple of snags along the way, but Microsoft essentially took the best features from Wunderlist and incorporated them into Microsoft To Do.

I’m thrilled to report that the Microsoft To Do app does an excellent job of filling that to-do gap for me.

Microsoft To Do is a simple, straightforward, easy-peasy app and service that just lets me create a simple list and add tasks. No need for any intricate task management craziness, although you can go there if you’d like.

Open the app, tap “New List” and then just start adding “tasks”

But it doesn’t have to be a list for tasks – it can be …

  • A grocery list
  • A workout regimen
  • A cleaning schedule
  • Books you want to read
  • Wines you like
  • A packing list
  • Goals you want to accomplish

Anything!

The PLING!

But the absolute best part is the PLING!! When you mark a task COMPLETED there is the delightful and satisfactory PLING! That’s the PLING of accomplishment, the PLING of getting something DONE, the PLING of feel-good, productivity dopamine.

But if that isn’t enough the app is FREE! But you do need at least a FREE Microsoft Account to use it – the same account you might already use to sign into your Xbox or Skype.

But if you have a subscription to Office 365 (now Microsoft 365), you can use that because Microsoft To Do will integrate with your Outlook software.

Moving Lists Around and Grouping Them

You can freely move around your list of Lists or tasks by tapping, holding for a split second, and then dragging around.

You can also Group lists together by either clicking “New Group” or dragging one list on top of another.

And how cute is this – you can add a lovely little emoji to your list to better differentiate it from the others … just go to your emoji keyboard, find an appropriate symbol and make sure you put it at the very front.

Adding “Steps” or “Sub-Tasks”

In each task, you can add “Steps” or what I like to call “Sub-Tasks” – just tap “+ Step” and you can break down the that task into smaller steps that get you to completion.

If you accidentally tap something completed, you can tap again to UN-mark it.

Adding Notes and Files to Your Tasks

You can also add Notes to each task maybe about where you read about a book, or just making a comment about how and where you completed the task.

And if necessary, you can add Files to your task – Microsoft To Do supports all file types, but file uploads are limited to 25MB per task so you can store everything here, but it’s extremely helpful for a picture or a PDF file.

And thanks to the Files app on iOS, you can add a file from Dropbox or iCloud.

Setting Reminders and Due Dates

If you prefer, you can also set a Reminder or a Due Date for each task. And when you do so those tasks will appear in a special list at the top called “Planned.”

The “My Day” list is also wonderful because it’s a minimalist area for you to add JUST the 3-4 tasks that you need to focus on today!! When you’re looking over your tasks at the beginning of the day, you can simply tap “Add to My Day” for those items to appear in that list.

Lastly, you can assign lists to others via email address, and people can assign tasks to YOU as well. And those tasks will appear in the “Assign to you” list.

Hidden Tip: Using Tags

You can easily search for words or phrases throughout Microsoft To Do, but here’s a sort of “hidden” tip to actually apply “tags” to tasks by simply using the hash tag.

Put a hashtag before a word and it immediately turns into a tappable tag! So if I go back in and tap on the hashtag “measure” you can see that it pulls up all the Tasks that contain that hashtag!

Hidden Tip: Use Siri with Microsoft To Do on your iPhone & iPad

If you like Microsoft To Do, you can use it as your default Reminders app instead of the Apple Reminders app, so everything is in one place.

First go to Settings and make sure your Microsoft account associated with To Do is added there. And then make sure that Reminders is toggled on for that account.

Then go to Settings > Reminders and tap “Default List” to select the list you want reminders added to. Now when you tell Siri to remind you of something, it will be placed there!

Download Microsoft To Do (FREE!)