![]() It also has a huge base of business users who will resist any change, no matter how minor.Īt the moment, Microsoft To Do syncs tasks with desktop Outlook for anyone with a business Office 365 mailbox, but the presentation in desktop Outlook is a mess. The desktop version of Outlook is a legacy program with dozens of features that ought to be discarded or upgraded. Under the hood, syncing is handled by the same technology that handles Office 365 mailboxes – reliable and secure.Įarlier this month, Microsoft took another big step: Microsoft To Do is now handling tasks for everyone using Microsoft webmail, both for personal accounts and Office 365 webmail for business accounts. The user interface for tasks will be consistent, wherever you find them – on the web, in an app, or built into another Microsoft program. In November a Microsoft blog post made it clear that Microsoft To Do (and the enterprise version, Planner) is going to handle task management in all of Microsoft’s products and services. The long-delayed payoff came last fall when Microsoft released a major update to Microsoft To Do, incorporating much-loved features of the Wunderlist interface apparently created by the Wunderlist team in their new home at Microsoft, as well as beginning the process of building To Do deeply into the Office 365 and ecosystems. A couple of years later Microsoft released the first version of Microsoft To Do, an unsatisfying half-baked app that made it look as if the Wunderlist acquisition had been for naught. Although there were vague promises, the Wunderlist team seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. Similarly, none of Microsoft’s other lists in Sharepoint, Planner, Project, and OneNote had great options for handling a task list easily on a phone.įive years ago Microsoft purchased Wunderlist, a popular task management app. ![]() It was never easy to sync Outlook tasks with a mobile device – even Microsoft’s Outlook app for iPhones and Android doesn’t show tasks. You might not even realize it’s there – usually there isn’t enough room for its icon to show at the bottom of the left column, and most people don’t display it on the right side of Outlook mail or calendar. Microsoft may know differently but my impression is that it is rarely used. The desktop version of Outlook has always included a task list. I had a good system for tracking tasks for clients (more about that below), but it was hard to find a system for personal to dos that had three features: (1) reasonably simple (2) accessible from all my devices and (3) an easy way to create a task from an email message. As always, the best solution for a technology problem is frequently the one you already know.īut I’ve been vaguely dissatisfied with each thing I tried over the years. If you have a system for your task list and it works for you, use it. Some are accessible in a web browser, some have a matching Windows or Mac app, some are only accessible on a phone. ![]() Some of the apps sync from place to place, others don’t. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of phone apps like Toodledo, Todoist, Remember The Milk, and so many more. OneNote and Evernote handle any kind of list, including tasks and to dos. The desktop version of Outlook has supported tasks since the beginning of time. Keep is a solid choice for a to do list! I use Keep for our grocery list because I can add items by speaking to my Google Home hub. Google also offers Google Keep, my personal choice for filing miscellaneous bits of information. Gmail users can use Google Tasks from the Gmail window or a separate app. There are so many ways to use technology to keep track of your to do list. Let me give you some background and a couple of thoughts about getting started. If you give it a fair chance and it doesn’t work for you, no worries, grab the post-its and start filling up the bottom edge of your monitor again. If it becomes part of your daily flow, it might be worth it. Commit to using Microsoft To Do for a couple of weeks until it becomes second nature. But take this seriously! It won’t do any good to look at it for ten minutes, add a couple of things, then forget about it the next day. I’ve tried a lot of different systems for tracking to dos and I think Microsoft might have a winner. Microsoft is now fully committed to Microsoft To Do as its central hub for task lists for business users and individuals. The new item for your to do list is: check out Microsoft To Do, a simple task manager. Okay, what popped into your mind as the place you would put that? A notepad on the refrigerator? A post-it on the steering wheel? An app on your phone? A list in Outlook or OneNote? An Excel spreadsheet? Promising yourself that you’ll remember even though you know you’re lying? I want you to add something to your to do list.
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