How To Create A To-Do List In WordPress

Time always seems to be in short supply, especially when you are running a growing business.

There are just so many things to do and remember. You have so many deadlines to meet, tasks to complete, meetings to attend, fires to extinguish, deliveries to make, commitments to keep and so on. The amount of things that need to get done never seems to end.

Now … add the extra workload of promoting and growing your business online and maintaining your website updated with fresh content and everything can start to become unmanageable and overwhelming.

Whether you run a business, website, blog, or manage a team, you need to be able to organize and prioritize your activities, track your progress and daily accomplishments, and, if necessary, assign tasks and responsibilities to members of your team effectively.

A simple proven tool that can help you save time, create a sense of order and manageability, and allow you to regain control is to use a “to-do” list.

To Do Lists – Benefits

A “to-do” list helps you monitor your progress as you work towards completing projects. Your to-do list can be minutely detailed and specific, or just serve as a concise reminder of what needs to be done over a given period of time.

Here are some of the many benefits of using to-do lists:

Create Order

A to do list helps you create order, stay organized and reach goals sooner.

Manage Your Time Better

Prioritizing tasks on your list helps you manage your time better. You can gain a clearer perspective on what’s truly important vs what is not, and what steps have to be done first.

Keep Documented Work Logs

A to-do list allows you to keep documented logs of what has been done. This can be used to provide evidence of work to employers or clients, or just as a way of helping you measure your own productivity and efficiency.

Accountability

With no accountability there is no commitment to completion, and no motivation to act with a sense of purpose. Lack of accountability allows excuses to creep in and take over your productivity.

Better Delegation Of Tasks

Having a to-do list helps you assign work to other people better. This is also important when collaborating with others (see further below).

As you can see, there are many benefits to using to-do lists, both in business and in your personal life. Creating to-do lists, prioritizing tasks and working systematically improves your business productivity and efficiency.

What about adding to do lists to your WordPress website or blog?

In this step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to easily create to-do lists in WordPress to help your business grow online  faster and more efficiently using a customizable, multi-featured to-do list WordPress plugin called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To-Do List

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin URL

http://wordpress.org/plugins/cleverness-to-do-list/

Description

This WordPress plugin lets you easily add to-do lists to a WordPress website or blog.

Plugin Features

Note: the plugin features described below are discussed in more detail in the tutorial section.

You can set up Cleverness To Do List to assign private to-do lists for individual users, to have all users share the same to do list, or to have a master list with individual item completions.

The shared to do list option has a variety of settings available. You can delegate to-do items to a specific user (this includes a setting to email new to-do items to the user) and optionally to have assigned items only viewable by that user. You can also assign different permission levels using capabilities. There are also settings to enable the display of deadline and progress fields. Category support is included as well as front-end administration.

A new menu item is added to the admin backend to help you manage your list and the to do list can also display on the dashboard widget.

A sidebar widget is available as well as short code to display the to do list items on your blog. There are two shortcodes for front-end list administration. Category management is restricted to the back-end admin section.

If you plan to run a multi-author site you can use the to do lists plugin to create custom to do lists for your post planners if you also download the developer’s premium plugin, Post Planner.

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Installation

Log into your WordPress admin section scroll down the menu select Plugins > Add New …

In the Install Plugins section, type in “cleverness” into the search field and click the Enter button …

Locate the Cleverness To-Do List item in the Search Results area and click Install Now …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

Note: You can also activate this plugin in the Plugins section …

Once you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

Note: You can also get to the settings screen by choosing To-Do List > Settings from your dashboard menu …

This takes you to the ‘Settings’ screen …

The section below shows you how to go through the plugin setup process …

How To Set Up The Plugin

The Settings area is divided into 4 tabs:

• To-Do List Settings – The options in this tab let you specify the main plugin settings.
• Advanced Settings – In this tab you can customize your to-do lists, assign tasks to other users and perform plugin database maintenance tasks.
• User Permissions – Here you can configure user permissions and capabilities for Master and Group List types.
• Import/Export – Here you can export and import to-do plugin and list data settings.

Let’s go through each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

Categories

Choose ‘Enabled’ to organize lists into categories, otherwise leave this option set to ‘Disabled’.

Note: If you enable this option, a ‘Categories’ item will be added to the To-Do List plugin menu …

This allows you to add categories that you can then use to organize your lists (see ‘Plugin Usage’ section further below for more details) …

You can set up ‘public’ and ‘private’ categories for your lists.

Categories set to ‘private’ will not be visible using the sidebar widgets or short codes (only when ‘Sort Order’ is set to ‘Category’)

List View

List View allows you to specify how your lists will be viewed. There are 3 kinds of to do list views:

• Individual – Use this option if you want each user to be able to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Choose this option if you want all users to be able to share one to-do list.
• Master – This option allows you to have a master list for all users, where users have their own individual completion of items. If you choose the ‘Master’ list view, make sure to configure the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (this is covered further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how list items will be sorted.

If you select ID, Alphabetical, or Category options, items will be sorted first by priority.

Show Added By

Enabling this option lets you display which of your users has added an item to your to-do list.

Note: This setting only works when ‘List View’ is set to ‘Group’.

Show Date Completed

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), completion dates will display for to-do items.

Show Deadline

Enabling this option lets you specify deadlines for your to-do items …

Show Progress

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you display the ‘To-Do List’ menu in your WordPress Dashboard Admin bar …

Use WYSIWYG Editor

This menu option lets you add and edit items on your to-do list using the WordPress WYSIWYG Editor …

Use Auto Paragraphs

If enabled (‘Yes’), automatic paragraphs are used to display content in your to-do list items.

Integrate with Post Planner

If you plan to run a collaborative website or blog, you can integrate the Cleverness To Do List plugin with a plugin called WordPress Post Planner, from the same plugin developer to help make the process of managing a multi-author WordPress site easier …

To learn more about using this WordPress plugin, visit this site: WordPress Post Planner – Plugin For WordPress

After you have configured your plugin options in this section, remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to update your settings …

Advanced Settings

After configuring the general settings, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab …

This brings you to the plugin’s ‘Advanced Settings’ area …

In this tab you can customize your To-Do lists, assign to-do items to users and perform database maintenance tasks.

Let’s take you through how to configure the plugin’s ‘Advanced Settings’ section …

To-Do List Advanced Settings > Customize The To-Do List

This section of the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab lets you customize your To Do List …

You can configure the following settings in this section:

Date Format

This section lets you specify how to display dates in your todo list (e.g. month/day/year, day/month/year, etc.)

Note: To learn more about how to format dates in WordPress, see the relevant section of the WordPress Codex below:

WordPress Codex – Formatting Date And Time

Priority Labels

In this area you can customize labels for important, middle and lowest priority items …

Items prioritized as “important” display in red in the lists and lowest priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

Enabling this option displays item IDs on your to-do list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) will display the date the table of items was added …

To-Do List Advanced Settings > Assign To-Do Items Settings

If you have selected ‘Group’ or ‘Master’ View for your to-do list, you can configure the settings in this area and assign to-do items to other users …

The following settings can be configured in this area:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

If enabled, you can assign tasks to other users …

Note: This set this option to ‘Yes’ for the settings below it to work.

Show a User Only the To-Do Items Assigned to Them

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) displays to-do items only to users who have been assigned those items. Leave this option disabled to display to-do items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Checking the boxes in this section Author displays the type of users that can be assigned to-do items. If you don’t want to assign to-do items to a particular role, then don’t tick its check box.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

When you enable this option, WordPress automatically sends users an email with their assigned to-do items …

Leave this option disabled (‘No’) if you don’t want emails sent out to users.

Note: If you disable this option, you can skip other items in this section.

Add Category to Subject

If you have enabled categories in your plugin settings and select ‘Yes’ for this option, the to-do category will display on the subject of your emails …

Leave this option disabled (‘No’) if you don’t want categories displayed in the email subject.

If you don’t want to-do categories to appear the email subject, then leave this option disabled.

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to display the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This is a useful option if you have a number of project managers assigning to-do items to users …

From Field for Emails Sent to User

This field lets you customize the “From” field when sending out email notices. Type the name of your company, your domain, your name, or anything you like into this field …

From Email

Enter the email address that you would like displayed as the “sent from” address …

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

Enter a subject field for the email that will be automatically sent out to users when new items have been assigned in your to-do list …

Text in Emails Sent to User

Enter the body of the email message that will be sent out automatically to users when a new item has been assigned to your to-do list.

To-Do List Advanced Settings > Database Cleanup

This section allows you to perform database maintenance tasks related to plugin data directly from the plugin settings area itself …

This is useful if, for example, you see that old items are still displaying on your site.

The tasks below can be performed:

• Delete Tables – Remove any custom database tables that you no longer use.
• Delete All To-Do Items – Delete all of your to-do items.

Any database operations you perform from this screen cannot be undone. If you are comfortable to carry out database operations in this section, then we recommend backing up your database first.

If you don’t want to perform your own backups, then hire the services of a professional, or use a WordPress backup plugin. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here:

• Backup, Duplicate & Keep Your WP Websites Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

User Permissions

This section lets you configure user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types …

If you have selected the Individual List type, the only configurable option that applies in this section is the View To-Do List option …

If you are configuring user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types, select the highest level capabilities that you would like users to have access to for each option …

By default, general capabilities of each user role are set as follows:

• Subscribers: Read
• Contributors: Edit Posts
• Authors: Publish Posts
• Editors: Edit Others Posts
• Administrators: Manage Options

Note: When working with the Master list type make sure that you only authorize non-administrators to view and complete items, otherwise they will be able to edit the Master list.

Here is a description of the settings for this section:

View To-Do List

Here you can permit the selected capability to view to-do items in the dashboard widget and on the To-Do List page under the ‘Tools’ section.

Complete To-Do Item Capability

This setting allows the selected capability to mark items as completed or not completed.

Add To-Do Item Capability

This enables the selected capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

This setting allows the selected capability to modify existing items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

Here you can enable the chosen capability to assign to-do items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

This option enables the selected capability to view all tasks even if “Show Each User Only Their Assigned Tasks” is set to ‘Yes’.

Delete To-Do Item Capability

Here you can enable the chosen capability to delete individual to-do items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

Here you can enable the chosen capability to purge all the completed to-do items.

Add Categories Capability

This allows the selected capability to add new categories.

Import/Export

Being able to import and export to-do list data can be very useful. For example, you may want to transfer data from an existing list to another website, or export the data for backup or archiving purposes.

To access this function, click on the ‘Import/Export’ tab in your plugin settings section …

Now you can easily export or import your to-do list data and plugin settings …

Exporting To-Do List Data

You can export and download your data settings by clicking on the ‘Download Export File’ …

This opens up a window allowing you to download and save your data in a plain text file (e.g. Notepad) to a storage device (e.g. your hard drive) …

In addition to exporting data from the ‘Import/Export’ tab, you can also export data by going to your WordPress main menu and selecting Tools > Export …

You can include to-do list data in a WordPress export file (in XML format), either by selecting ‘All content’ (includes everything – pages, posts, etc…), or selecting ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and clicking the ‘Download Export File’ button to download your file to an internal or external hard drive…

Importing To-Do List Data

To import a list data file, click on the ‘Browse’ button next to the ‘Choose File to Import’ field …

Locate the previously saved to-do list data file in your hard drive or external drive and click ‘Open’ …

After uploading your data file, click on ‘Import Settings’ …

The data from the existing to-do file will be imported.

Once you have configured all of the plugin settings, you can begin creating and editing your lists.

Plugin Usage

To create a new to do list, go to your WordPress admin menu and select To-Do List > To-Do List …

This brings you to the ‘To-Do List’ page …

Adding New Items To Your To Do List

There are several ways to add a new item to your to-do list.

For example, you can add new to-do items from your WP dashboard toolbar …

You can also add new to-do items in your Dashboard by clicking on the ‘Add To-Do item’ link …

You can also click on the ‘Add New Item’ link in the ‘To-Do Items’ section (note: only use this option if your To Do list contains many items, since the link will simply send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section down the screen) …

The above methods will take you to the ‘Add New To-Do Item’ section.

Depending on how you have set up your plugin, you may or may not see certain options displayed when new items to your to-do list.

Configure the options you have enabled for your to-do items, add appropriate information into the relevant fields and click on the ‘Submit To-Do Item’ button to add the to-do item …

Note: If you have chosen a list type that lets you assign items to specific users, select a user from the drop-down list and assign them the item …

You can also make multiple users responsible for the same item (click on ‘x’ to delete a user) …

After the new item has been added, the item will display as an entry in the ‘To-Do List’ table …

Repeat the above process to continue adding new items to your to-do list …

Editing And Deleting To-Do Items

To edit or delete an item, click on the ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ buttons next to each item under the ‘Action’ column …

Depending on your plugin configuration plugin settings (discussed in the previous section), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive an email notification in their inboxes …

Once you have created your to-do list, users can view the list inside their own WordPress user dashboard …

When users assigned with an item complete the task and tick the item checkbox …

… the item no longer appears in the “To-Do” list …

And gets listed the ‘Completed Items’ table located in the ’To-Do List’ plugin screen …

Additional Information

The Cleverness To-Do List plugin offers additional functions that let you display a to-do list on your website using widgets, and add lists to any post or page using shortcodes.

Using The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Widget

To add to-do lists to your site using widgets, go to the ‘Widgets’ page (Appearance > Widgets) and drag the ‘To-Do List’ widget to the menu location where you want your to-do list to show …

Configure the widget settings and click ’Save’ …

Your to-do list will now display on your site where the ‘to-do-list’ widget has been added (i.e. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

To learn more about using widgets in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

• Using s

Using Plugin Shortcodes

Cleverness To-Do List also lets you add to-do lists on your site using short codes.

To access the plugin’s shortcode documentation, click on To-Do List > To-Do List from your admin menu …

Click on the ‘Help’ tab on the top right hand corner of your screen …

Click on the ‘Shortcodes’ menu entry to access the Shortcode Documentation …

This section explains different ways to configure and use short codes for displaying lists and checklists on your pages and posts.

Once you know what information you would like to add to your site, open up a new post or page and either type or paste the shortcode into the content editor …

Publish your post or page and you should see the list displayed exactly where you have inserted the short code …

For more details about this plugin, go here:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you know how to create and add a to-do list to your WordPress site or blog.

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