How To Create A To Do List In WordPress

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

There are so many things to do and remember. You have so many deadlines to meet, tasks to complete, meetings to attend, fires to extinguish, calls and appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The “doing” never stops.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra workload of promoting and growing your business online and maintaining your website updated with regular content and everything suddenly begins to feel unmanageable and out of control.

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

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

Benefits Of Using To Do Lists

A “to do” list helps you monitor your progress when trying to achieve certain goals. Your to do list can be very detailed and very specific, or just serve as a concise reminder of the things that need doing over a given period of time.

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

Think Clearly

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

Time Prioritization

Prioritizing tasks on your list helps you manage your time more effectively. You can gain a better perspective on what is truly urgent vs what’s not, and what steps should be done first.

Keep Work Logs

A to do list lets you keep documented logs of what you have done. This can be used to provide evidence of work to employers or clients, or just as a method of helping you track your own productivity and efficiency.

Stress Less

Stress can result from feeling overwhelmed by the fact that there are so many things to do and very little time to do it in. Creating to do lists let you prioritize urgent things that have to be completed within a reasonable timeframe, and push out non-urgent tasks that can be addressed at a later time. This can reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed and help to alleviate some of the stress you (and your team) may be feeling.

Sense Of Accomplishment

Ticking items off your to-do list not only makes you feel more positive, motivated and in-control, it also lets you 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. Create a list, prioritize your list items and work things systematically and your business efficiency and productivity will increase.

What about using to do lists on your website or blog?

In this tutorial we are going to show you how to create a to do list in WordPress to improve business efficiency and productivity using a customizable, multi-featured to do list WordPress 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/

Description

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

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Features

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

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

The shared to-do list includes different settings. You can assign to do items to a specific user (this includes a setting to email a new to do item to users) and optionally to have assigned items be 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 included as well in the front-end administration.

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

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

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

How To Install The Plugin

From your WordPress dashboard area, go to the menu and click on Plugins > Add New …

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

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

Click Activate Plugin …

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

When you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

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

This takes you to the plugin ‘Settings’ area …

Let’s go through the plugin setup process …

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Setup

The plugin’s ‘Settings’ screen is divided into 4 sections:

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

Let’s now take you 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 is added to the To-Do List plugin menu …

This lets you 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 to-do lists.

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

List View

List View allows you to choose how your lists will be viewed. There are three to-do list views:

• Individual – Choosing this option allows users to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Choose this option if you want all users to be able to share the same to-do list.
• Master – This option allows you to create a master list for all users, where users have their own individual items to complete. If using the ‘Master’ list view, make sure that you set 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, Category or ID options, items will be sorted first by priority.

Show Added By

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can 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

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

Show Deadline

If this option is enabled, you will be able to specify deadlines for your to-do items …

Show Progress

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

Show Admin Bar Menu

Enabling this option displays the ‘To-Do List’ menu in your WordPress Admin bar …

Use WYSIWYG Editor

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can 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 plan to run a collaborative site or blog, you can integrate the Cleverness To-Do List plugin with a plugin called WordPress Post Planner, developed by the same author that helps to make the task of managing a multi-author WordPress site easier …

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

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

Advanced Settings

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

This brings you to the ‘Advanced Settings’ screen …

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

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

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

Here you can 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 lists (e.g. month/day/year, day/month/year, etc.)

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

WordPress Codex – Formatting Date And Time

Priority Labels

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

Highest priority items 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 (‘Yes’) will show item IDs on the list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

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

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 options in this area and assign items to other users …

The following settings can be configured in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enable this option (‘Yes’) 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

If enabled (‘Yes’), you can display to-do items only to users who have been assigned those items. Leave this option disabled (‘No’) to display to-do items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Check the boxes in this area (Administrator to display the type of users that can be assigned items. Leave the check box unticked for any roles that you don’t want to assign to-do items.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

When you enable this option, WordPress will automatically send 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 (‘No’).

Note: If you disable this option, 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 on the subject of your emails …

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

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

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 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 notifications. Add 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 want displayed 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 sent out automatically to users when new items have been added to 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 of the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab lets you carry out database maintenance tasks associated with plugin data directly from your plugin settings area …

This function is useful if, for example, you notice that previously deleted to-do items are still showing up on your site.

You can perform the tasks below:

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

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

If you don’t want to perform your own backups, then consider hiring a professional, or use a backup plugin. You can learn more about a great WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here:

• Backup, Clone And Protect Your WP Web Sites With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

User Permissions

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

If you have selected Individual List, the only permission that is applicable for this section is the View To-Do List permission …

If you are configuring user permissions and capabilities for Group and Master List types, select the highest level capabilities that you would like 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 non-administrators should only be permitted to view and complete items, otherwise they will be able to edit the Master list.

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

View To-Do List

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

Complete To-Do Item Capability

This setting permits the selected capability to mark to-do items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the selected capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the chosen capability to modify existing items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

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

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

This option allows 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

This option permits the selected capability to delete individual items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This setting permits the chosen capability to purge all the completed items.

Add Categories Capability

This option enables the chosen 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 copy over data from an existing list to another website, or export your data for backup or archiving purposes.

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

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

Exporting To-Do List Data

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

This opens up a new window allowing you to view or save the data in a plain text file (e.g. Notepad) to an internal or external storage device …

In addition to exporting data from the ‘Import/Export’ section, you can also export data by going to your WordPress dashboard 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 selecting ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and clicking the ‘Download Export File’ button to save your file to an internal or external hard drive…

Importing To-Do List Data

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

Locate the file in your hard drive or external drive and click ‘Open’ …

Once your data file has been uploaded in your settings area, click on ‘Import Settings’ …

Your file will be imported.

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

Plugin Usage

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

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

Adding A New Item 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 admin bar …

You can also add new to-do items to your list inside 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 screen) …

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

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

Select the options you have enabled for your to-do items, enter appropriate values and 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 lets you assign tasks 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 remove users) …

After the new item has been added, it will display as an entry in the ‘To-Do List’ 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 each item under the ‘Action’ column …

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

After creating your to-do list, users can view it when logged into their own dashboard …

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

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

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

Additional Plugin Information

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

Using The Cleverness 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 the list to appear …

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

Your list will display wherever the widget was inserted (e.g. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• How To Use s

Using The Cleverness Plugin Short Codes

The plugin also lets you display to-do lists and checklists to your site by placing shortcodes into your content.

To access the plugin’s shortcode 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 to access the Shortcode Documentation screen …

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

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

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

For more details about this plugin, visit this site:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

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

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