How To Create A To Do List In WordPress

If you are a business owner, there never seems to be enough hours in the day to get things done.

There is just so much work to do and things to remember. You have so many deadlines to meet, project tasks to complete, meetings to attend, fires to put out, appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The amount of things that need to get done never seems to end.

Now … add the extra workload of trying to promote and grow your business online and maintaining your website updated with new 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 manage your daily activities.

A proven tool that can help you save time, alleviate stress, and allow you to gain some control is to use “to do” lists.

Benefits Of Using A To-Do List

A “to do” list helps you measure your progress when trying to complete tasks. Your to do list can be detailed and specific, or act as a concise reminder of what needs to be done over a given period of time.

Here are just a few of the many benefits of using to-do lists:

Clear Thinking

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

Strategize

By creating and organizing your to-do list, you can break your workload into more doable tasks and come up with a strategy for getting tasks done on budget and on time.

Keep Documented Work Logs

To-do lists allow you to retain documented logs of the work you have done. This can be used as evidence of work done to clients or employers, or just as a means of helping you track your own productivity and efficiency.

Accountability

Without accountability there’s no commitment to getting things completed, and no motivation to act with a sense of purpose. Lack of accountability can also allow excuses to creep in and take over your productivity.

Feeling Of Accomplishment

Crossing items off your to do list gives you a feeling of accomplishment and allows you to stress less, as you can objectively see (or show) that work is indeed getting done and that milestones are being reached.

As you can see, there are many benefits to using a to do list, both in business and in your personal life. Creating to do lists, then prioritizing tasks and working to complete the items on your list improves your business productivity and efficiency.

What about using a to-do list on your WordPress website or blog?

In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to easily add to-do lists to your WordPress site to help your team get things done  faster and more efficiently using a great little plugin for WordPress called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To-Do List

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Download URL

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

Plugin Description

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

Features

Note: the plugin features listed below will be discussed in more detail in the tutorial section.

You can configure the plugin to have private to do lists for individual users, to have all users share your 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 assign to do items to specific users (this includes a setting to email a new to do item to users) and optionally to have those items only viewable by that user. You can also assign different permission levels to different users. There are also settings available to show deadline and progress fields. Category support is also included in the front-end administration.

A new menu item is added to the admin backend to help you manage your lists and your 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 list administration. Management of categories is accessible via the back-end.

If you plan to set up a multi-author blog you can use this to do lists plugin to create custom to-do lists for your post editors if you also install a copy of the Post Planner plugin for WordPress.

Installing The Plugin

Log into your WP dashboard area, and click on Plugins > Add New …

In the Install Plugins section, type in “cleverness” into the search field and hit Enter on your keyboard …

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

Click Activate Plugin …

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

When the plugin has been activated, click on Settings …

Note: The ‘Settings’ screen can also be accessed by choosing To-Do List > Settings from the admin menu …

This takes you to the ‘Settings’ page …

Let’s set up the plugin …

How To Configure The Plugin

The plugin’s ‘Settings’ area is divided into four sections:

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

Let’s review each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

To-Do List Categories

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

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

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

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

Private categories are not visible using widgets or shortcodes (only when ‘Sort Order’ is set to ‘Category’)

List View

List View lets you choose how your to-do lists are viewed. There are 3 kinds of to do list views:

• Individual – Selecting this option lets each user create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Select this option if you want all users to share the same to-do list.
• Master – Select this option to create one 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 (see further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how 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

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you display which users on your site have added an item to your to-do list.

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

Show Date Completed

If this option is enabled, completion dates will display for to-do items.

Show Deadline

If enabled (‘Yes’), you will be able to specify deadlines for your to-do items …

Show Progress

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

If this option is enabled, the ‘To-Do List’ menu displays in your WordPress 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

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to display content in to-do list items using paragraphs.

Integrate with Post Planner

If you are running a collaborative site 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 managing a multi-author WordPress site easier …

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

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

Advanced Settings

Once you have configured the settings in the To-Do List Settings tab, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab to continue …

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

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

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 …

You can configure the following options in this section:

Date Format

Here you can specify how to display dates on your to-do list (e.g. month/day/year, day/month/year, etc.)

Note: To learn more about formatting dates in WordPress, refer to the date section of the WordPress Codex below:

WordPress Codex – Formatting Date And Time

Priority Labels

Here you can customize your labels for important, normal and low priority items …

Items prioritized as “important” are color-coded in red and lowest priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

Enabling this option will display the item’s ID on your list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option will show the date the items table was added …

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

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

The following options can be configured in this area:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enable this option to assign to-do items 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 (‘Yes’) to display tasks only to users who have been assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled will display items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Checking the boxes in this section Contributor displays the type of users that can be assigned 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 this option is enabled (‘Yes’), WordPress automatically sends an email to users with their assigned to-do items …

If you don’t want emails sent out to users, then leave this option disabled (‘No’).

Note: If you disable this option, skip the remaining settings 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 to show the subject of your emails.

Leave this option disabled if you don’t want to show to-do categories in the subject of your emails.

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) displays the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This is a useful option if your site has various project managers assigning to-do items to users …

From Field for Emails Sent to User

Use this field to customize the “From” field when sending out emails to users. Type your company name, your domain, your name, or anything you like into this field …

From Email

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

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

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

Text in Emails Sent to User

In this field, add 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 area of the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab lets you perform database maintenance operations associated with plugin data inside the plugin settings area itself without the need to log into your web server …

This is useful if, for example, you see that to-do items you have previously deleted are still displaying on your site.

You can perform the following tasks:

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

Actions that you perform on your database from this screen cannot be undone. If you are sure that you want to carry out database operations in this section, then remember to backup your WordPress database first.

If you don’t want to do your own backups, then use a professional service, 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 WordPress Websites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

User Permissions

Here you can configure user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types …

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

If you are setting up user permissions and capabilities for Group and Master List types, select the highest level capabilities that you want users 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 make sure that you only authorize non-administrator users to view and complete items, otherwise they will have the ability to edit the Master list.

Below is a description of the settings for the User Permissions section:

View To-Do List

This allows the selected capability to view items in the dashboard widget and on the To-Do List page under the ‘Tools’ section.

Complete To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the chosen capability to mark to-do items as completed or not completed.

Add To-Do Item Capability

Here you can allow the chosen capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the selected capability to edit existing items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

Here you can enable the selected capability to delegate items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

This option enables the chosen 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 permit the chosen capability to delete individual items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

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

Add Categories Capability

This permits the selected capability to add new categories.

Import/Export

The ability to import and export to-do list data can be very useful. For example, you may want to transfer data from one website to another, or store the list data for backup or archiving purposes.

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

Now you can 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 view or save the data in a plain text file (e.g. Notepad) to a storage device …

As well as exporting to-do list data from the ‘Import/Export’ section, you can also export data by going to your admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

You can include to-do list data in an export file (in XML format), either by selecting ‘All content’ (includes everything – pages, posts, etc…), or just select ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and click on the ‘Download Export File’ button to save your file to your storage medium…

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 and click ‘Open’ …

Once uploading your data file, click on the ‘Import Settings’ button …

Your file data will be imported.

Now that you have configured all plugin settings, you can begin create and edit to-do lists.

Plugin Usage

To create a new to do list, go to your WordPress dashboard menu and click on To-Do List > To-Do List …

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

Add A New Item To Your To Do List

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

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

You can also add new items to your to-do list from the ‘To-Do List’ dashboard section by clicking on the ‘Add To-Do item’ link …

You can click on the ‘Add New Item’ link in the ‘To-Do Items’ section (note: only use this option if your To-Do list already contains many items, as the link is only going to send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section further down the page) …

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

Depending on how you have configured the plugin’s settings, some options may not display when adding new to-do items.

Set up 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 are using a list type that lets you assign tasks 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 you have added the item, the item will be listed as an entry in the ‘To-Do Items’ table …

Repeat this process to add new items to your list …

Edit And Delete To-Do Items

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

Depending on how you have set up the plugin (see 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 the user assigned with the item completes the task and clicks on the item check box …

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

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

Additional Information

The Cleverness To-Do List plugin provides added functionality that lets you display to-do lists on your site using widgets, and display a list on 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 list to show …

Configure the widget settings and click ’Save’ to update your settings …

The to-do list will now display where you have placed the widget (i.e. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• How To Use s

Using Plugin Short Codes

The plugin also lets you display lists on your site by placing shortcodes into your content.

To access the plugin’s short code documentation, select To-Do List > To-Do List from the dashboard menu …

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

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

This documentation section explains various ways to configure and use shortcodes to display lists and checklists on your pages and posts.

Once you know what information you want to add to your site, create a new page or post and either type or paste the short code into the content editor …

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

Visit the plugin website for more details about this plugin:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you know how to add to-do lists in WordPress.

***

***