Creating A To-Do List In WordPress

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

There is just so much to do and remember. You have deadlines to meet, project tasks to complete, priorities to attend to, fires to put out, calls and appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The stress of trying to get things done on time never ends.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra workload of trying to promote and grow your business online and keeping your website updated with fresh content and things can quickly start to become unmanageable and chaotic.

Whether you run a business, website, blog, or manage a project, it’s important to be able to organize and prioritize your activities, monitor your progress, and, if necessary, assign tasks to team members efficiently.

One simple proven method that can help you save time, reduce stressful workloads, and allow you to take control is to use a “to do” list.

Benefits Of Using To-Do Lists

A “to-do” list can help you monitor your progress when trying to complete tasks. Your to-do list can be very detailed and specific, or serve as a 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:

Stay Organized

A to-do list helps you create order, stay organized and achieve your goals sooner.

Save Time

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

Quickly Reorganize Or Reschedule

To-do lists help you better cope with urgent situations. If an appointment gets cancelled at the last minute or extra time has been made available when some task gets completed sooner than expected, you can quickly reschedule and keep working with little to minimal disruption.

Stress Less

Stress can result from feeling overwhelmed by the thought that there is so much that needs to get done and so little time to do it all in. Using a to-do list lets you prioritize urgent things that need to be completed immediately, and push out non-urgent tasks that can be addressed at a later time. This can help you stress less.

Delegate Better

Having a to-do list helps you assign work to others better. This is also important when collaborating on a team-based project (see further below).

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

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

In this detailed step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to create to-do lists in WordPress to improve business efficiency and productivity using a great little plugin for WordPress called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To Do List

Download The Plugin

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

Description

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

Plugin Features

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

You can set up Cleverness To Do List to have 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 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 to different users based on user roles. There are also settings to display 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 lists and the to do lists are also listed 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 list administration. Management of categories is accessible through the back-end admin section.

If you plan to set up 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 own the Post Planner plugin.

How To Install The Plugin

Log into your WP administration section and click on Plugins > Add New …

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

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

Activate the plugin after installing it …

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

Once 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 plugin ‘Settings’ section …

Let’s go through the plugin configuration process …

How To Set Up The Plugin

The Settings area is divided into four sections:

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

Let’s configure each of these tabs.

To-Do List Settings

To-Do List Categories

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

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

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

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

Categories marked ‘private’ will not be visible when using the sidebar widgets or short codes (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 choose from 3 list views:

• Individual – Choose this option if you want each user to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Use this option if you want all users to be able to share the same to-do list.
• Master – Select this option to have 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 to sort your 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

If this option is enabled, you can display which of your members has added an item to your 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 items.

Show Deadline

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

Show Progress

Enabling this option 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 WP Dashboard Admin bar …

Use WYSIWYG Editor

This 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 plan to run a collaborative website 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 managing a multi-author WordPress site easier …

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

After configuring your options, remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button …

Advanced Settings

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

This brings up the ‘Advanced Settings’ area …

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

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

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

In this section you can customize your To Do List …

The following options can be configured in this section:

Date Format

In this area 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, 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 prioritizing highest (important), middle (normal) and lowest items …

Highest priority items are colour-coded in red in your 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 to-do list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

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

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 options in this section 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 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

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

User Roles to Show

Checking the boxes in this area Author displays the type of users that can be assigned todo items. Leave the checkbox unticked for any roles that you do not want to assign to-do items.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

When this option is enabled (‘Yes’), 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 (‘No’).

Note: If this option is disabled, skip the other 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 to show categories in the subject of your emails.

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

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

If enabled (‘Yes’), you can 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

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

From Email

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

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

Add a subject field for the email that will be sent automatically to users when a new item has been assigned in your to-do list …

Text in Emails Sent to User

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 section allows you to carry out database maintenance tasks associated with plugin data inside your plugin settings area itself without having to access your web server …

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

The following tasks can be performed:

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

Actions that you perform on your database from this screen cannot be undone. If you are sure that you want to perform database operations in this section, then we recommend backing up your WordPress database first.

If you don’t want to do manual backups, then get help from a WordPress professional, or use backup plugins. You can learn more about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here:

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

User Permissions

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

If you select the Individual List type, the only configurable option that is applicable for this section is the View To-Do List permission …

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

By default, general capabilities of each user role are set up 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 allow non-administrator users to view and complete items, otherwise they will have the ability to edit the Master list itself.

Let’s go through the settings in the User Permissions tab:

View To-Do List

This setting 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

Here you can enable the chosen capability to mark items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

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

Edit To-Do Item Capability

This setting permits the chosen capability to edit existing items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

Here you can allow the selected capability to assign items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

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

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

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

Add Categories Capability

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

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

Here you can export or import your to-do 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 will open up a new window allowing you to download and save your data as plain text to an internal or external storage medium …

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 choosing Tools > Export …

You can include to-do list data in a WordPress 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 the ‘Download Export File’ button to download your file to an internal or external hard drive…

Importing To-Do List Data

Importing a list data file is easy. Just 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 the data file, click on ‘Import Settings’ …

Your file will be imported.

Once you have configured all plugin settings, you are ready to begin create and edit to do lists.

How To Use The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

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

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

Add New To-Do Items

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

For example, you can add new to-do items to your 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 contains many items, since the link will simply send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section at the bottom of the screen) …

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

Depending on the way you have configured the plugin settings, some options may not display 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 item to your list …

Note: If you have selected a list type that allows you to assign items to 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 an item, it will display as an entry in the ‘To-Do List’ table …

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

Editing And Removing To Do Items From Your List

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

Depending on how you have configured your settings (discussed earlier), users assigned to tasks may also receive an email notification in their inboxes …

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

When users assigned with completing an item tick the item check box …

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

And appears in 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 add a list to content inside a page or post using short codes.

Using The Plugin Widget

To add a to-do list 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 the list to display …

Configure the widget settings and click ’Save’ …

The list will now display wherever the ‘to-do-list’ widget was placed (e.g. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• Using Widgets In WordPress

Plugin Short Codes

The Cleverness plugin also lets you display lists and checklists on your site by placing short codes into your content.

To access the documentation on using short codes, click on To-Do List > To-Do List from your dashboard menu …

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

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

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

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

After publishing your post or page, you should see the list showing exactly where you entered the short code …

To learn more 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.

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