How To Create A To Do List In WordPress

Time is always in short supply, especially if you are a busy person trying to run a business or manage a team.

There is just so much work to do and things to remember. You have so many deadlines to meet, tasks to complete, meetings to attend, fires to put out, deliveries to make, schedules to keep and so on. The stress of trying to get things done on time never seems to stop.

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 feel unmanageable and out of control.

Whether you are running a business, website, blog, or managing a team, you need to be able to organize and manage your day.

One simple proven tool that can help you save time, create a sense of order and manageability, 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 complete tasks. Your to do list can be minutely detailed and specific, or act as a reminder of the things that need doing today, tomorrow, this week, this month, etc.

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

To-Do Lists Help You Stay Organized

A to do list helps you create order, keep things organized and achieve goals sooner.

Prioritize Your Time

Prioritizing tasks on your list helps you save time and manage your workload more effectively. You can develop a clearer perspective on what’s truly important vs what’s not, and what tasks need to be completed first.

Log Your Work

To-do lists allow you to retain documented logs of the work you have done. You can use this to provide evidence of work done to clients or employers, or just as a means of helping you assess your own productivity and efficiency.

Reduce Stress

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. Creating to do lists let you prioritize important things that have to get done within a reasonable timeframe, and reschedule non-urgent tasks that can be worked on at a later time. This can help reduce stress.

Delegate Better

A to do list helps you better delegate work to others. This is also important if you plan to work with others (see further below).

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

What about adding to do lists to your website?

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

Cleverness To-Do List

Download The Plugin

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

Plugin Description

This WordPress plugin lets you easily add to do lists to a WordPress website or blog.

Plugin Features

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

You can set up Cleverness To-Do List to have private to do lists for each user, 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 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 those items only seen by that user. You can also assign different permission levels to different users based on user roles. There are also settings 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 the to do lists are also listed on a dashboard widget.

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

If you plan to run a multi-author site you can use the to-do lists 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.

Installing The Plugin

Log into your site’s admin and in the main menu choose Plugins > Add New …

In the Install Plugins screen, type in “cleverness” into the search field and hit Enter 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 this plugin from the Plugins area …

After you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

Note: The plugin’s ‘Settings’ area can also be accessed by selecting To-Do List > Settings from the admin menu …

This takes you to the plugin ‘Settings’ section …

Let’s configure the plugin …

How To Set Up The Plugin

The “To-Do List” plugin ‘Settings’ screen is divided into 4 tabs:

• To-Do List Settings – This section is where you can specify the main plugin settings.
• Advanced Settings – The options in this area let you customize your 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 area is where you can export and import to-do list data and plugin settings.

Let’s go through each of these tabs.

To-Do List Settings

To-Do List Categories

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

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

This lets you 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 lists.

Categories set to ‘private’ are not 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 to-do lists are viewed. You can choose from three kinds of to do list views:

• Individual – Selecting this option allows users to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Selecting this option lets users share the same to-do list.
• Master – This option allows you to create one master list for all users, where users have their own individual items to complete. If you choose 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 to order your to-do list items.

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

Show Added By

Enabling this option 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

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

Show Deadline

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

Show Progress

Enabling this option lets you specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

If enabled (‘Yes’), the ‘To-Do List’ menu displays in your WP 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

If enabled, automatic paragraphs are used to display content in to-do lists.

Integrate with Post Planner

If you are running a multi-author 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 the task of managing a multi-author WordPress site easier …

Visit this site to learn more this plugin: WordPress Post Planner – Multi-Author Publishing Plugin For WordPress

After you have finished configuring your options, remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to update your settings …

Advanced Settings

Once you have configured the general settings, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab to proceed …

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

This section lets you customize your To-Do lists, assign to-do items to 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

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 in 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

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

Highest (important) priority items display in red and lowest priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

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

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) will show the date your table of items was added …

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 options in this area and assign to-do items to other users …

You can configure the following options in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you 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 tasks only to users who have been specifically assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled (‘No’) will display items to all users.

User Roles to Show

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

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.

Note: If this option is disabled, you can skip 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 in the subject of emails sent to users …

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

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

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can display the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This option is useful if, for example, your website has multiple 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 emails to users. Type the name of your company, your domain, your name, or anything you like in this field …

From Email

Add the email address that you would like displayed as the “sent from” address …

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

Type into this field a subject field for the email that will be automatically sent to users when a new item has been assigned to 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

In this area of the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab you can perform database maintenance operations related to plugin data inside your plugin settings area …

This is useful if, for example, you see that old to-do items are still showing on your site.

The tasks below can be performed in this section:

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

Any database operations carried out from this screen cannot be undone. If you are sure that you want to proceed with any of the database operations available in this section, then make sure to backup your WP database first.

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

• Backup, Copy And Keep Your WP Sites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

User Permissions

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

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

If you plan to configure 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 …

The 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 permit non-admin users to view and complete items, otherwise they will have the ability to edit the Master list.

Let’s review the settings in the User Permissions tab:

View To-Do List

This setting enables 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 option allows the selected capability to mark items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

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

Edit To-Do Item Capability

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

Assign To-Do Item Capability

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

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

This setting 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

Here you can allow the chosen capability to delete individual items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This setting allows 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 need to copy over data from one website to another, or store your data for backup or archiving purposes.

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

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

Exporting To-Do List Data

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

This will open up a new window allowing you to download and save the data as plain text to an internal or external storage device …

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

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’ …

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

Your file data will be imported.

After configuring all of the plugin settings, you are ready to start creating and editing your to-do lists.

How To Use The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

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

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

Add A New Item To Your List

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

For example, you can add new to-do items from your WP admin bar …

You can also add new items to your to-do 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, since the link is only going to take you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section down the screen) …

The above methods 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.

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

Note: If you are using a list type that lets you 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 you have added the new item, the item will display as an entry in the ‘To-Do List’ table …

Repeat the above process to continue adding new items to your to-do 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 configured the plugin (discussed earlier), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive email notifications …

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

When users assigned with completing an item click on the item check box …

… the item is deleted from the “To-Do” list …

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

Additional Information

The Cleverness plugin offers additional functions that let you display to-do lists on your website using widgets, and add lists to content inside a post or page using short codes.

Using The 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 want the to-do list to display …

Configure the widget settings and click ’Save’ …

Your list will now display on your site where the widget has been added (i.e. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• Using s

Short Codes

You can also display to-do lists and checklists on your site by placing shortcodes into your content.

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

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

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

This documentation section explains different ways to configure and use short codes to display lists and checklists on your pages and posts.

Once you know what information you would like to add to your site, create a new post or page and either type or paste the shortcode into the content area …

Publish your post or page and you should see the list showing exactly where you entered the shortcode …

Visit the plugin website here to learn more about this plugin:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

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

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