How To Create To Do Lists In WordPress

If you are running a growing business, time always seems to be in short supply.

There is just so much work to do and things to remember. You have clients to meet, projects to complete, meetings to attend, fires to extinguish, appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The amount of things that need to get done never ends.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra workload of promoting and growing your business online and maintaining your website or blog updated with regular content and everything can quickly start becoming unmanageable and overwhelming.

Whether you run a business, website, blog, or manage a team, it’s important to be able to organize and prioritize your daily activities, keep track of your progress, and, if necessary, delegate tasks and responsibilities to members of your team or staff efficiently.

One simple “tried and true” tool that can help you save time, alleviate stress, and allow you to gain some control is to use a “to-do” list.

To-Do Lists – Benefits

A “to-do” list helps you keep track of your progress as you work towards completing projects. Your to do list can be minutely detailed and specific, or serve as a reminder of the things that need to be done over a given period of time.

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

Free Your Brain

Creating to do lists means you don’t have to try and remember stuff or store a ton of information inside your mind. Once things are written down on a to do list, your brain is free to process information and you can focus on more important things.

Strategize

After creating and organizing your to-do list, you can break larger projects into doable tasks and come up with a strategic plan for getting everything completed on time and on budget.

Quickly Reorganize Or Reschedule

To-do lists help you better deal with situations. If an appointment gets cancelled or extra time becomes available because some part of the process got completed sooner than expected, you can keep working without loss of focus.

Reduce Stress

Stress can come from feeling overwhelmed by the thought that there are so many things that needs to get done and so very little time to do it all in. Using to-do lists let you prioritize important tasks that need to be completed immediately, and reschedule items that can be worked on later. This can help reduce stress.

Collaborate Better With Others

Using to-do lists and other project management tools is essential for collaborating with others on some of your larger or more complex projects.

As you can see, there are many benefits to using to-do lists, both in business and in your personal life. Creating a to do list, prioritizing tasks and working towards completing the items listed increases efficiency and productivity in your business.

What about adding a to do list to your WordPress website or blog?

In this detailed tutorial you are going to learn how to easily create to do lists in WordPress to improve business efficiency and productivity using a customizable, multi-featured to-do list plugin called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To-Do List

Download The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

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

Plugin Description

This WordPress plugin provides users with a to do list feature.

Features

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

You can configure Cleverness To-Do List to have private to do lists for each user, to have all users share your to-do list, or to have a master list with individual item completions.

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

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

A sidebar widget is also available as short code to display the to do list items on your site. There are two short codes for front-end administration of your list. Management of categories is accessible via the back-end.

If you plan to set up a multi-author blog you can use the plugin to create custom to do lists for your post editors if you also download a copy of the developer’s premium plugin, Post Planner.

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Installation

From your WP dashboard section, go to the menu and select Plugins > Add New …

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

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

Activate the plugin after installing it …

Note: You can also activate the plugin from the Plugins area …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Settings …

Note: You can also get to the ‘Settings’ section by selecting To-Do List > Settings from the admin menu …

This takes you to the ‘Settings’ page …

The section below shows you how to configure the plugin …

How To Set Up The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

The “To-Do List” plugin ‘Settings’ screen is divided into four sections:

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

Let’s now go through each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

List View

List View lets you choose how to-do lists are viewed. There are three types of to-do list views you can choose:

Individual – Choosing this option allows users to create and manage their own private to-do list.
Group – Choosing this option lets all users share one to-do list.
Master – Select this option to have a master list for all users, where users have their own individual completion of items. If using the ‘Master’ list view, make sure that you adjust the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (see further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how your to-do list items will be sorted.

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

Show Added By

If enabled (‘Yes’), you can display which of your members has added an item to your to-do list.

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

Show Date Completed

Enabling this option displays completion dates for your to-do items.

Show Deadline

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

Show Progress

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

Show Admin Bar Menu

If this option is enabled, the ‘To-Do List’ menu will display in your WP 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, automatic paragraphs are used to display content in your to-do list items.

Integrate with Post Planner

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

For more details about using this handy plugin, visit this site: WordPress Post Planner – Multi-Author Publishing Plugin For WordPress

After configuring your plugin options in this section, click the ‘Save Changes’ button …

Advanced Settings

After you have configured the general settings, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab …

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

In this tab you can customize your To-Do lists, assign to-do tasks to users and perform plugin 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’ screen allows you to customize your To-Do List …

The following settings can be configured in this section:

Date Format

In this area you can specify how to display dates on 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

This section lets you customize your labels for prioritizing highest (important), normal and lowest items …

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

Show To-Do Item ID

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

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option will display the date the table of items was added …

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

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

You can configure the following options in this area:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to assign tasks to other users …

Note: This setting must be set to ‘Yes’ for the settings below it to work.

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

Enable this option to display items only to users who have been specifically assigned those items. Leave this option disabled to display items to all users.

User Roles to Show

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

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

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

Leave this option disabled if you don’t want to send out emails to users.

Note: If this option is disabled, you can skip the remaining settings in this section.

Add Category to Subject

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

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

If you don’t want to-do categories to show the subject of your emails, then leave this option disabled (‘No’).

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enabling this option lets you display the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This is a useful option if you have various project managers assigning to-do items to users …

From Field for Emails Sent to User

This field allows you to customize the “From” field when sending out email notices to users. Type your company name, your domain, your name, or anything you like in this field …

From Email

In this field, add the email address that you would like showing as the “sent from” email address …

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

Type into this field a subject field for the email that will be sent out automatically to users whenever a new item has been added to your to-do list …

Text in Emails Sent to User

Add into this field 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

In this area you can perform database maintenance tasks related to plugin data directly from the plugin settings area …

This function is useful if, for example, you notice that old items are still appearing on your site.

You can perform the tasks below in this section:

Delete Tables – Remove any custom database tables that are no longer being used.
Delete All To-Do Items – Remove all of your to-do items.

Any database operations carried out from this screen cannot be reversed. If you are comfortable to carry out database operations in this section, then make sure to backup your WordPress database first.

If you don’t want to do your own backups, then get professional WordPress help services, or use WordPress backup plugins. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that we recommend using to automate WordPress backups here:

Backup, Clone & Keep Your WordPress Website Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

User Permissions

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

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

If you are configuring user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types, select the highest level capabilities that you want users to be able to perform for each option …

The default general capabilities for each user role are 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 non-admin users should only be permitted to view and complete items, otherwise they will have the ability to edit the Master list.

Let’s go through the settings for the User Permissions section:

View To-Do List

Here you can allow the chosen 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 allows the chosen capability to mark to-do items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

This option permits the selected capability to add new items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the chosen capability to edit existing to-do items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

This permits the chosen capability to delegate to-do items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

Here you can allow 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

This allows the selected capability to delete individual to-do items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This option enables the selected capability to purge all the completed to-do items.

Add Categories Capability

This setting enables the chosen 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 copy over data from an existing to-do list to another website, or store the list data for backup or reporting purposes.

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

Now you can export or import your list 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 view or download the data as plain text to a storage medium (e.g. your hard drive) …

As well as exporting to-do list data from the ‘Import/Export’ section, 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 – posts, pages, etc…), or just select ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and click the ‘Download Export File’ button to download your file to your storage device…

Importing To-Do List Data

Importing a previously saved to-do list data file is easy. Just click on the ‘Browse’ button next to the ‘Choose File to Import’ field …

Select the file and click ‘Open’ …

After the data file has been uploaded to your settings area, click the ‘Import Settings’ button …

Your file will be imported.

After configuring all plugin settings, you are ready to begin creating and editing to do lists.

Plugin Usage

To create a new to-do list, log into your WordPress admin, then scroll down the menu and click on To-Do List > To-Do List …

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

How To Add New To Do Items To Your List

There are several ways to add new to-do items.

For example, you can add a new item to your to-do list from your dashboard toolbar …

You can also add new to-do items using the ‘To-Do List’ dashboard section 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 is only going to take you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section at the bottom of the page) …

All the methods shown above will take you to the ‘Add New To-Do Item’ area.

Depending on how you have set up your plugin, some options may not display when when you add new to-do items.

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

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

You can also assign multiple users to the same item (click on ‘x’ to delete users) …

Once the item has been added, it will be listed as an entry in the ‘To-Do Items’ table …

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

Editing And Deleting Items From Your List

To edit or delete an item, click on the ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ buttons associated with items under the ‘Action’ column …

Depending on your configuration plugin settings (discussed earlier), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive email notifications …

After creating your to do list, users can view the list inside their own dashboard …

When users responsible for an item complete the task and tick the item checkbox …

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

And displays in the ‘Completed Items’ section located in the ’To-Do List’ plugin area …

Additional Plugin Information

The Cleverness To-Do List plugin offers additional functions that let you display to-do lists on your WordPress site using widgets, and add lists to content inside a page or post 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 location in your sidebar (or footer) menu where you would like your list to show …

Configure the settings in the widget and click ’Save’ …

Your list will now display wherever you have placed the widget (e.g. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

To learn more about how to use widgets in WordPress, see the tutorial below:

Using WordPress Widget

Plugin Short Codes

The Cleverness plugin also lets you create to-do lists and checklists to your site using shortcodes.

To access the documentation on using shortcodes, select To-Do List > To-Do List from your dashboard menu …

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

Click on the ‘Shortcodes’ tab to access the Shortcode Documentation …

This section explains different ways to configure and use shortcodes to display lists on your content.

Once you know what information you want to display on your site, open up a new page or post and either type or paste the shortcode inside the content editor …

Publish your post or page and you will see the list displayed where you have inserted the shortcode …

Visit this site to download this plugin:

Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you can add a to-do list to your WordPress site.

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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)

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