How To Create A To Do List In WordPress

There are never enough hours in the day to get things done, especially if you are running a fast-paced business.

There are just so many things to do and remember. You have deadlines to meet, urgent tasks to complete, priorities to attend to, fires to extinguish, calls and appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The amount of things that need ”doing” never seems to stop.

Now … add the extra dimension of trying to promote and grow your business online and maintaining your website updated with fresh content and everything suddenly begins to feel unmanageable and overwhelming.

Whether you run a business, website, blog, or manage a project, you need to be able to organize and manage your day.

One ”tried and true” tool that can help you save time, alleviate stressful workloads, and allow you to gain some control is to use “to do” lists.

To-Do Lists – Benefits

A “to do” list helps you measure your progress when trying to complete tasks. Your to-do list can be quite detailed and specific, or act as a reminder of tasks that need to be done today, tomorrow, next week, next month, etc.

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

Organization

A to do list helps you create order, stay organized and reach goals sooner.

Time Prioritization

Prioritizing tasks on your list helps you save time and manage your workload more effectively. You can develop a better perspective on what’s more urgent vs what’s not, and what steps need to be done first.

Log Your Work

To-do lists allow you to maintain documented logs of what work has been done. You can use this as evidence of work to clients or employers, or simply as a way of helping you monitor your own productivity and efficiency.

Reduce Stress

Stress can come from feeling overwhelmed by so much to do and so very little time to do it in. Using a to-do list allows you to prioritize important tasks that need to get done within a reasonable timeframe, and push out non-urgent items that can be addressed later. This can help reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed and take away some of the stress you (and your team) may be feeling.

Delegate Better

A to-do list helps you assign work to others better. This is also important if you plan to work on a team-based project (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 a to do list, then prioritizing tasks and working towards completing the items on your list improves your business efficiency and productivity.

What about using a to do list on your website?

In this detailed tutorial we are going to show you how to easily add to-do lists to a WordPress site to help your business grow  faster and more efficiently using a customizable, multi-featured to do list 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 plugin provides users with a to-do list feature.

Features

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

You can configure the plugin 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 provides different settings. You can delegate to-do items to a specific user (this includes a setting to email new to do items to assigned users) and optionally to have those items be seen by that user. You can also assign different permission levels to different users based on user roles. There are also settings to enable the display of deadline and progress fields. Category support is included as well in the front-end administration.

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

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

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

How To Install The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

In your WP dashboard, select Plugins > Add New …

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

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

Click “Activate Plugin” …

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 area by selecting To-Do List > Settings from your dashboard menu …

This takes you to the ‘Settings’ screen …

Let’s set up the plugin …

Setting Up The Plugin

The Settings area is divided into 4 sections:

• To-Do List Settings – In this section you can specify the plugin’s main settings.
• Advanced Settings – The options in this section let you customize To-Do lists, assign to-do items to other users and perform database maintenance tasks.
• User Permissions – This section is where 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 go through each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

Categories

Choose ‘Enabled’ to organize your to-do 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 menu …

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

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

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

List View

List View allows you to choose how your lists are viewed. You can choose 3 kinds of to do list views:

• Individual – Selecting this option lets users create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Selecting this option lets users share the same to-do list.
• Master – Choose this option to have a master list for all users, where users have their own individual completion of items. If you select the ‘Master’ list view, make sure to 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

If this option is enabled, you can display which of your members has added an item to the to-do list.

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

Show Date Completed

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

Show Admin Bar Menu

Enabling this option displays the ‘To-Do List’ menu in your WP 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

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to display content in your to-do lists 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 to help make the task of managing a multi-author WordPress site easier …

To learn more about using this plugin, go here: WordPress Post Planner – WordPress Editorial Solution Plugin

After you are done configuring your plugin options, remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button …

Advanced Settings

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

This brings you to the ‘Advanced Settings’ area …

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

Let’s take you 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

In this area you can specify how to display dates in your todo list (e.g. month/day/year, day/month/year, etc.)

Note: To learn more about formatting 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 prioritizing highest (important), middle and lowest items …

high priority items display in red and lowest (low) priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) will show item IDs on your list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option will show the date the items table 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 items to other users …

You can configure the following settings in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

If this option is enabled, you can 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

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

User Roles to Show

Checking the boxes in this section (Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Subscriber) 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 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 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 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.

If you don’t want categories to display the email subject, then leave this option disabled.

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 several 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. Type the name of your company, your domain, your name, or anything you like in this field …

From Email

Add into this field the email address that you want to display 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 out to users when a new item has been added 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 carry out database maintenance operations related to plugin data inside the plugin settings area …

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

You can perform the following tasks in this section:

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

Any database operations carried out from this screen cannot be undone. If you are sure that you want to perform database operations in this section, then remember to backup your database first.

If you don’t want to do your own site backups, then consider getting support from a WordPress professional, or use a WordPress backup plugin. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that we recommend using to completely automate your WordPress file and data backups here:

• Back Up, Duplicate & Keep Your WP Web Sites Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

User Permissions

Here you can configure user permissions and capabilities for Group and Master List types …

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

If you plan to configure user permissions and capabilities for Group or 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 working with the Master list type non-administrators should only be authorized 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

Here you can permit the selected 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 option enables the chosen capability to mark items as completed or not completed.

Add To-Do Item Capability

This option permits the selected capability to add new items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

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

Assign To-Do Item Capability

Here you can allow the selected capability to delegate to-do items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

Here you can enable 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

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

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This allows the chosen capability to purge all the completed items.

Add Categories Capability

This setting permits 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 one site to another, or export the data for backup or reporting purposes.

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

Here you can import and export your list and plugin settings …

Exporting To-Do List Data

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

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

As well as exporting 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 a WordPress export file (in XML format), either by checking ‘All content’ (includes everything – posts, pages, etc…), or just select ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and click on 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 …

Select the previously saved to-do list data file and click ‘Open’ …

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

Your file data will be imported.

Now that you have configured all of the plugin settings, you are ready to start create and edit 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’ screen …

Adding New To Do Items

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

For example, you can add a new item to your to-do list from your dashboard bar …

You can also add new to-do items inside 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 already contains many items, since the link will simply send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section further down the page) …

All 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 when you add new to-do items.

Configure 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 to-do item …

Note: If you are using 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 remove users) …

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

Repeat the above process to keep adding new items to your to-do list …

Edit And Remove Items From Your List

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 configured your settings (see previous section), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive email notifications …

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 no longer appears in the “To-Do” list …

And gets added to 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 a to-do list on your site using widgets, and insert lists into any page or post using short codes.

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 list to show …

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

The list will display on your site where you have added the ‘to-do-list’ widget (i.e. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• Using WordPress Widget

Using The Cleverness Plugin Short Codes

You can also add lists and checklists to your site by inserting shortcodes into your content.

To access the plugin’s short code documentation, click on To-Do List > To-Do List from the admin menu …

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

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

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