#organizationideas

If you're the type who doesn't like to feel restricted by a schedule, has a soft spot for not completing what you set out to do, or simply don't have the time to sit down and make a whole plan — this app is for you.

My initial thing was making to do lists before I slept for the next day, but after a while of using this, if felt like it was missing something. I don't know if it's my steadily manifesting short attention span, or my inclination to abandon things once I get a small grip, but I needed more. This is where Microsoft To Do came in.

I found a new feature recently on this little app that has always been on my phone but never got the time of day, and all of a sudden it's my #1 organizational tool. Here's why it's such a good app meshed in with a tour of the app.

1. The main interface

So this is what the main page looks like (sans the email address at the top, which you need btw). It's simple, clear, and as minimalistic as it comes without it being too barren. You can make your own lists using the bottom left option (shopping lists, wishlists, writing prompts — literally anything), and if you want, you can group them together and pull the group up and down with the bottom right option. I mainly use it for studying at the moment, hence the singularity. The top lists (my day, planned etc.) come preset along with the app. More on them below.

2. Tasks

So everything you make, wherever you make it, also ends up in the tasks list as a master list of sorts. This is pretty useful if you want to reflect on all the to-dos you've made, or you want to quickly see everything at once.

3. My Day

So this is a really neat feature I've used religiously. Let's say you go to your tasks and make to-dos for the whole week, but then you need a space to see the ones for the specific day — that's what this is. You can put your to-dos of the day here and cross them off as you go, and of course, this'll also be crossed off your tasks list.

Here's what it looks like -

I'll explain what everything is. If nothing's checked off, it'll be one consistent list, and since I did *something* today, it separates them automatically like that.

Q: What is "Today"?

It's "suggestions", and these are from your uncompleted tasks. So, frankly, it's reminding you of your past failures and asking if you'd like another chance at them. It's safe to assume that I've used this option a lot, and it's especially useful when you plan on doing a task you put on your My Day the next day instead, and you don't have to write it again.

Q: What is the plus option on the side?

I know, I know — you probably knew. It's to add tasks. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT'S FUN?? You have all those options at the bottom! You can dump stuff straight into your tasks master list bar, you can set a due date (and time!), you can set a separate date to remind you, and you can chose to make the task a repetition. Yay.

Q: What about the star? The little numbers (0 of 3 etc.)?

If you star a task, it ends up in your important list.

Plain and simple right? Pretty self explanatory.

And this brings us to the feature I just recently found ✨✨✨

You can add steps to a to-do. EXAGGERATED GASP.

Isn't that beautiful??? It's an incorporation of a useful tip — when you're planning something, lay out the steps you gotta go through to finish a particular task, and with this feature, you don't have to make a bunch of to-dos that are steps to reach one particular goal. Extra yay.

3. Planned and Assigned to you

That's what it looks like. In regards to Planned, it shows what you got planned, what's overdue, and what your week looks like. So this is the nitty gritty part of the app, where you can have an overview of your plans. Assigned To You is more personal — what do you have to do, as simple as that? That's what you put in there.

Of course, this is all subjective. You can delete and make your own, use whatever for whatever, and more importantly, pick your own colours! There's an option to use a picture as the backdrop of a list, but those are some set images unfortunately. But they're pretty good too, I'm not complaining.

So that concludes this how-to/ tour. Honestly, I discovered the steps portion and just ran here to make a whole post about it. But it's really useful. And it's fun to use, and pretty freeing, so I would suggest this as a good organizational tool.

A couple of more fun things to note: it makes a little chime noise if you check something off (when your phone is on sound, it was a pleasant surprise!), and you can make it a widget to put on your home screen, either as a shortcut, or to show a (scrollable, tiny) list. I put Planned as a shortcut, and My Day as a tiny list, and I noticed that when you check stuff off while the list is a widget like that, a small bar appears and grows corresponding to how much of your tasks you completed.

Yes, I'm gushing. With a straight face. But honestly, extra big yay for Microsoft To Do. It's simple, clear, and as minimalistic as it comes without being too barren.

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