Many of us pay for Office365 so we can have access to Word, Outlook and, maybe, Excel. However, Office365 comes stacked with a whole host of other programs that are also very useful. For example, To Do.
You may be thinking “why do I need To Do?” After all, Outlook has a tasks tab, Teams is fully integrated with Planner and there’s always good old fashioned paper to-do list.
You need To Do because it incorporates many, if not all, of the ways that you create tasks or that tasks are assigned to you. To Do takes the tasks you create or tasks assigned to you in Planner, email that you have flagged for follow-up in Outlook, tasks that you have created or that are assigned to you in Outlook or tasks you create in To Do and puts them all in a single location. As of the date of this article, no other Microsoft program (neither Outlook nor Planner) does that. This little app has saved me countless hours finding all of my tasks while enabling me to follow up on client matters and emails I receive that need my attention at a later date.
The deficiencies lie in the way the programs work (or don’t work) together. Planner will not show any emails you have flagged for follow-up. Similarly, Outlook will not show tasks assigned to you in Planner. To Do is the only bridge between the two.
And To Do has a nice interface. You can see today’s tasks only by adding them to “My Day” and then just showing that screen to block out any tasks that are due later to keep you focused. You can also see all tasks that came in through Flagged Email on the side as well as tasks that you created in To Do under the Tasks panel on the left side. You can personalize the background.
If you are needing micro-organizing of your tasks, you can create task lists in To Do as well. To Do imports these lists from Outlook or you can create them in To Do. You can drag and drop tasks into the lists if you need them separated from the main pack. You can also add sub-tasks (or steps) into To Do. You can add the steps even for flagged email which is something that is not available any other way.
You can also see on each task card, where the task came from. If the task came from Planner, it will have the Plan Name on the bottom of the task card. If the task came from a flagged email, it will say “Flagged email” at the bottom of the task card. If you need more information (and you probably will for flagged email), click on the task, which opens a panel to the right, and then you can click the hyperlink to the email message in Outlook that was flagged or you can go to the task in Planner (or Teams).
To Do also enjoys a true sync. Not only are new tasks added to To Do when you add them from Outlook or Planner, but the tasks are also marked “complete” regardless of whether you mark them completed in Outlook, Planner or To Do. The same syncing works if you change the due date in one app, it will update the due date across all other apps.
Bar none, the best thing about To Do is the satisfying “ding” it gives you when you complete a task. Of course, you can turn it off, but why would you?
If you have an Office 365 subscription, you should consider downloading this little app to your local computer. The ease with which it gathers tasks from the most common places you create them make this program one of the best unknown Office 365 products out there.