How To Create To-Do Lists 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 are just so many things to do and remember. You have clients to meet, urgent tasks to complete, priorities to attend to, fires to put out, appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The “doing” never stops.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra dimension of promoting and growing your business online and maintaining your website or blog updated with new content and things suddently begin feeling unmanageable and overwhelming.

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 proven method that can help you save time, alleviate stressful workloads, and allow you to take control is to use “to do” lists.

Benefits Of Using A To-Do List

A “to do” list can help you track your progress as you work towards your goals. Your to-do list can be minutely detailed or specific, or act as a concise reminder of tasks that need to be done today, tomorrow, next week, next month, etc.

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

See Things More Clearly

Creating to do lists means that you won’t have to try and remember things or store unnecessary information inside your mind. Once things are jotted down on a to do list, your head is free to process other information and you can focus on things that are more important to you.

Be More Strategic

After creating and organizing a to-do list, you can see the bigger picture and formulate a strategic plan for getting tasks completed on time and on budget.

Log Your Work

A to-do list allows you to keep documented logs of what you have done. You can use this as evidence of work to employers or clients, or simply as a means of helping you measure your own productivity and efficiency.

Ensures Accountability

With no accountability there’s no commitment to completion, and no motivation to take meaningful action. Lack of accountability can also allow excuses to creep in and take over your productivity.

Better Delegation Of Work

A to do list helps you delegate work to other people better. This is also important if you plan to work with others (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, then prioritizing tasks and working towards completing the items on your list increases your business efficiency and productivity.

What about adding to do lists to your WordPress website or blog?

In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to add to do lists to your WordPress site 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 URL

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

Plugin Description

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

Plugin Features

Note: the plugin features described 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 individual users, 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 option provides a number of settings. You can delegate to-do items to a specific user (this includes a setting to email a new to-do item to the 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 also included in the front-end administration.

A new menu item is added to the admin backend to manage your lists and the to-do lists can also appear on the dashboard widget.

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

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

Installing The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

From your WordPress admin, choose Plugins > Add New …

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

Locate the entry in the Search Results area and click Install Now …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

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

After you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

Note: You can also get to the plugin’s settings screen by choosing To-Do List > Settings from the admin menu …

This brings you to the plugin ‘Settings’ section …

Let’s go through the plugin configuration process …

Configuring The Plugin

The Settings area is divided into four sections:

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

Let’s review each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

Categories

Choose ‘Enabled’ to organize your to-do 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 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 will not be visible when using sidebar widgets or shortcodes (only when ‘Sort Order’ is set to ‘Category’)

List View

List View lets you choose how lists will be viewed. There are three types of to do list views you can choose:

• Individual – Choosing this option lets users create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Selecting this option allows all users to share one to-do list.
• Master – Use this option to create a master list for all users, where users have their own individual items to complete. If you select the ‘Master’ list view, make sure to set the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (this is covered further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how to-do list items will be sorted.

If you choose Category, Alphabetical or ID, Category, ID 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 the to-do list.

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

Show Date Completed

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), completion dates will display for to-do items.

Show Deadline

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

Show Progress

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

Show Admin Bar Menu

If this option is enabled, the ‘To-Do List’ menu will display 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

If enabled, automatic paragraphs are used to display content in your 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 developer that provides you with a complete WordPress editorial solution …

To learn more this handy plugin, go here: WordPress Post Planner

After you have configured your options, click the ‘Save Changes’ button …

Advanced Settings

After configuring the settings in the To-Do List Settings tab, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab to continue …

This brings you to the ‘Advanced Settings’ section …

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

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 …

The following settings can be configured in this section:

Date Format

This section lets you specify how to display dates on your todo 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

In this area you can customize your labels for prioritizing important, normal and low items …

Items prioritized as “important” display 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’) shows item IDs on your to-do list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) displays the date your table of items 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 options in this section and assign items to other users …

The following settings can be configured in this area:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enable this option 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

Enable this option to display items only to users who have been assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled (‘No’) will display items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Checking the boxes in this section Subscriber) displays the type of users that can be assigned todo items. Leave the check box unticked for any roles that you do not want to assign to-do items.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

When you enable this option, WordPress will automatically send 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.

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

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

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

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enabling this option displays the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This option is useful if, for example, 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 to users. Enter your company name, your domain, your name, or anything you like into 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 distributed automatically to users when new items have been added to your to-do list …

Text in Emails Sent to User

Add 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

In this section you can perform database maintenance tasks associated with plugin data directly from the plugin settings area …

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

The following tasks can be performed in this section:

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

Any database operations performed from this screen cannot be reversed. If you are sure that you want to carry out database maintenance in this section, then remember to backup your database first.

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

• Back Up, Copy & Protect Your WP Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

User Permissions

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

If you have selected the Individual List type, the only permission 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 would like users to have access to for each option …

By default, general capabilities of 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 have the ability to edit the Master list.

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

View To-Do List

Here you can enable 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

Here you can enable the selected capability to mark items as completed or not completed.

Add To-Do Item Capability

This setting allows the selected capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

This permits the selected capability to modify existing to-do items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

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

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

Here you can permit 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 enable the selected capability to delete individual to-do items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

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

Add Categories Capability

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

Import/Export

The ability to import and export to-do list data can be useful. For example, you may want to copy over data from one site to another, or export your list data for backup or archiving purposes.

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

Now you can import and export your to-do list 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 window allowing you to view or save your data as plain text to a storage medium …

As well as exporting to-do list data from the ‘Import/Export’ tab, 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 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 download 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 …

Select the file and click ‘Open’ …

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

Your file will be imported.

Now that you have configured all of the plugin settings, you are ready to start create and edit to do lists.

How To Use Cleverness To-Do List

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’ page …

Add New Items To Your List

There are a number of 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 dashboard toolbar …

You can also add new to-do items to your list in the Dashboard 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, as the link will simply send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section down the page) …

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

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

Set up 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 tasks to users, select a user from the drop-down list and assign them the item …

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

After the new item has been added, the item will be listed as an entry in the ‘To-Do Items’ table …

Repeat this process to continue adding 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 items under the ‘Action’ column …

Depending on your plugin configuration settings (discussed earlier), 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 it inside their own user dashboard …

When the user assigned with the item completes the task and ticks the item check box …

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

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

Additional Plugin Information

The Cleverness plugin offers added functionality that lets you display to-do lists on your WordPress site using widgets, and insert a list into content inside a page or post using short codes.

Using The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Widget

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 menu location where you would like the to-do list to show …

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

Your to-do list will display where the widget has been inserted (e.g. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• Using WordPress Widget

Shortcodes

You can also create lists to your site with short codes.

To access the plugin’s shortcode documentation, click on To-Do List > To-Do List from the dashboard menu …

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

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

The documentation section explains various ways to configure and use shortcodes 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 post or page and either type or paste the shortcode inside the content section …

After publishing your post or page, you should see the list displayed where you entered the shortcode …

For more details about this plugin, visit the plugin website:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

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

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