How To Create A To-Do List In WordPress

When you run a fast-paced business, time always seems to be in short supply.

There is just so much work to do and things to remember. You have so many deadlines to meet, urgent tasks to complete, meetings to attend, fires to put out, deliveries to make, commitments to keep and so on. The “doing” never seems to stop.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra dimension of trying to promote and grow your business online and maintaining your website updated with fresh content and things can start to feel unmanageable and out of control.

Whether you are running a business, website, blog, or managing a project, it’s important to be able to organize and manage your day.

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

To Do Lists – Benefits

A “to-do” list helps you measure your progress as you work towards completing tasks. Your to do list can be very 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:

Organization

Having a to do list helps you create order, stay organized and reach your goals faster.

Better Manage Your Time

Prioritizing tasks on your list helps you save time. You can develop a better perspective on what is more important vs what isn’t, and what tasks should be done first.

Quickly Reorganize

Having to-do lists help you better handle changes in circumstances. If an appointment suddenly gets cancelled or extra time has been made available when some task gets completed sooner than expected, you can continue moving forward with no disruption.

Stress Relief

Stress can result from feeling overwhelmed by so much to do and so very little time to do it all in. Using a to do list lets you work on urgent items that have to be completed immediately, and reschedule items that can be addressed at a later time. This can help you stress less.

Sense Of Accomplishment

Ticking items off to do lists not only makes you feel more positive, motivated and in-control, it also allows you to relax more, as you can objectively see (or show) that the work is being completed 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 increases your business productivity and efficiency.

Let’s turn now to using a to do list on your website. More specifically, adding to-do lists to WordPress.

In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to easily create to-do lists in WordPress to improve business efficiency and productivity using a great little 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 plugin lets you easily add to-do lists to your WP website or blog.

Plugin Features

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

You can configure the plugin to assign private to-do lists for each user, to have all users share your to do list, or to have a master list with individual completion of items.

The shared to do list provides a number of different settings. You can delegate to do items to specific users (this includes emailing new to-do items to the assigned user) and optionally to have assigned items be viewable by that user. You can also assign different permission levels using capabilities. There are also settings available 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 lists are also displayed on a dashboard widget.

A sidebar widget is available as well as short code to display the to-do list items on your site. There are 2 shortcodes for front-end administration of the list. Category management is restricted to the back-end.

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

Plugin Installation

Log into your WordPress administration section and select Plugins > Add New …

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

Locate the plugin in the Search Results section and click Install Now …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

Note: You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins screen …

When you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

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

This takes you to the ‘Settings’ page …

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

How To Configure The Plugin

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

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

Let’s now configure each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

Categories

Select ‘Enabled’ to organize your list 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 to your to-do lists (see ‘Plugin Usage’ section further below for more details) …

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

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

List View

List View lets you specify how your to-do lists will be viewed. You can select 3 kinds of list views:

• Individual – Select 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 share one to-do list.
• Master – This option allows you to have a master list for all users, where users have their own individual items to complete. If you select the ‘Master’ list view, make sure that you adjust the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (this is covered further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how to order to-do list items.

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

Show Added By

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you display which of your users has added an item to the to-do list.

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

Show Date Completed

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) displays completion dates for to-do tasks.

Show Deadline

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

Show Progress

If enabled, you can specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

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

Integrate with Post Planner

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

Go here to learn more about using this handy plugin: WordPress Post Planner – WordPress Plugin

Once you have finished configuring your plugin options in this section, 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 proceed …

This brings up the ‘Advanced Settings’ area …

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

Let’s step 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 …

The following options can be configured in this section:

Date Format

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

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

WordPress Codex – Formatting Date And Time

Priority Labels

Here you can customize your labels for important, middle and lowest priority items …

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

Show To-Do Item ID

If enabled (‘Yes’), item IDs show on your list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

If enabled, the date your to-do list was added will show on your To-Do Items table …

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

If you have chosen ‘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 …

You can configure the following settings in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enable this option to assign to-do items 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

If enabled (‘Yes’), you can display items only to users who have been assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled will display to-do items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Check the boxes in this section Contributor to display 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

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

If you don’t want to send out emails to users, then leave this option disabled.

Note: If you disable this option, 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 in the subject of emails sent to users …

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

Leave this option disabled if you don’t want to show categories in the email subject.

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enable this option to display the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This option is useful if, for example, you have multiple 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 email notifications. You can enter the name of your company, your domain, your name, or anything you like into this field …

From Email

Add the email address that you want showing as the “sent from” email address …

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

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

Text in Emails Sent to User

Type 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

This section allows you to perform database maintenance operations associated with plugin data directly from the plugin settings area without having to access your web server …

This function is useful if, for example, you see that items you have deleted are still showing on your site.

You can perform the following tasks in this section:

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

Any actions that you perform on your database from this screen cannot be reversed. If you are comfortable to proceed with any of the database operations available in this section, then make sure to backup your WordPress database first.

If you don’t want to do site backups, then consider using professional WordPress help services, or use a backup plugin. Learn about a great WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here:

• Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WordPress Site With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

User Permissions

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

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

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

By 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 using the Master list type non-administrator users should only be permitted to view and complete items, otherwise they will be able to edit the Master list itself.

Below is a description of the settings in this 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 setting enables the selected capability to mark to-do items as completed or not completed.

Add To-Do Item Capability

This option enables the chosen capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

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

Assign To-Do Item Capability

This option enables the selected capability to assign items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

This setting 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

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

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This option permits the selected capability to purge all the completed items.

Add Categories Capability

Here you can allow the chosen capability to add new categories.

Import/Export

Being able to import and export to-do list data can be useful. For example, you may decide to copy over data from an existing list to another website, or export your list data for backup or reporting purposes.

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

Use this section to easily export or import your list data and plugin settings …

Exporting To-Do List Data

To export and download your to-do list data settings click on the ‘Download Export File’ …

This opens up a window allowing you to download and save the data as plain text to a storage medium (e.g. your hard drive) …

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

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

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 file and click ‘Open’ …

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

Your file will be imported.

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

How To Use The Plugin

To create a new to-do list, log into your WordPress admin, then go to the menu and select 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 a number of ways to add new to-do items to your list.

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

You can also add a new item to your to-do list in the 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 is only going to take you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section at the bottom of the page) …

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

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

Configure 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 responsibilities over items to users, select a user from the drop-down list and assign them the item …

You can also assign items to multiple users (click on ‘x’ to delete a user) …

Once After adding a new item, it will display as an entry in the ‘To-Do Items’ table …

Repeat this process to add 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 associated with each item under the ‘Action’ column …

Depending on how you have set up the plugin (discussed earlier), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive an email notification in their inboxes …

After creating your to do list, users can view it inside their user dashboard …

When users responsible for the item complete the task and click on the item check box …

… the item disappears from the “To-Do” list …

And appears in the ‘Completed Items’ table located in the main screen of the ‘To-Do List’ plugin …

Additional Information

The Cleverness plugin offers added functionality that lets you display to-do lists on your WordPress website using widgets, and add a list to any post or page using short codes.

Widgets

To add to-do lists to your site using widgets, go to the ‘Widgets’ section (Appearance > Widgets) and drag the ‘To-Do List’ widget to the location in your sidebar menu where you would like your list to appear …

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

Your to-do list will appear where you have added the ‘to-do-list’ widget (e.g. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• How To Use WordPress Widget

Plugin Shortcodes

You can also create to-do lists and checklists to your site with short codes.

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

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

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

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

Once you know what type of information you would like to display on your site, create or edit a new or existing post or page and either type or paste the shortcode inside the content editor …

Publish your page or post and you should see the list displayed in the location where you added the short code …

For more information about this plugin, visit this site:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you can create and add to-do lists to your WordPress site.

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