How To Create A To Do List In WordPress

There never seems to be enough hours in the day to get things done, especially if you run a growing business.

There is just so much work to do and things to remember. You have clients to meet, urgent tasks to complete, meetings to attend, fires to extinguish, calls and appointments to make, commitments to keep and so on. The amount of things that need ”doing” never seems to stop.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra dimension of trying to promote and grow your business online and keeping your website updated with new content and things suddently begin feeling unmanageable and chaotic.

Whether you are running a business, website, blog, or managing a team, you need to be able to organize and prioritize your activities, monitor your progress and daily accomplishments, and, if necessary, delegate tasks and responsibilities to other people effectively.

A proven method that can help you save time, reduce stressful workloads, and allow you to gain some control is to use “to-do” lists.

To Do Lists – Benefits

A “to-do” list can help to keep you on track and measure your progress when trying to complete tasks. Your to do list can be minutely detailed and very specific, or serve as a reminder of tasks that need to be done today, tomorrow, next week, next month, etc.

Here are just a few of the benefits of using to do lists:

To Do Lists Help Create Order

Having a to do list helps you create order, stay organized and reach your goals sooner.

Strategize

Creating and organizing to do lists helps you break down larger projects into more doable tasks and formulate a strategic plan for getting everything done efficiently.

Document Your Work

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

Ensures Accountability

Without accountability there’s no commitment to completion, and no motivation to take meaningful action. Lack of accountability lets excuses creep in and impact your productivity.

Collaboration

Using to-do lists and other project management tools is essential for getting other people involved on some of your larger or more complex projects.

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

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

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

Cleverness To-Do List

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Download URL

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

Plugin Description

This plugin lets you easily add a to do list to a WordPress site.

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 assign 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 includes a number of settings. You can assign to-do items to specific users (this includes a setting to email a new to-do item to users) and optionally to have those 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 show 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 help you manage your list and the 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 shortcodes for front-end administration of your list. Management of categories is accessible through the back-end admin section.

If you plan to run a multi-author blog you can use the to-do lists plugin to create custom to-do lists for your post planners if you also install the developer’s premium plugin, Post Planner.

Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Installation

Log into your WordPress dashboard section, and click on Plugins > Add New …

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

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

Activate the plugin after installing it …

Note: You can also activate this plugin in the Plugins section …

After you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

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

This brings you to the plugin ‘Settings’ area …

Let’s go through the plugin configuration process …

How To Configure The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

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

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

Let’s now take you through each of these tabs.

To-Do List Settings

Categories

Select ‘Enabled’ to organize 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 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 lists.

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

List View

List View lets you choose how your lists are viewed. You can select three types of to-do list views:

• Individual – Use this option if you want each user to be able to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Use this option if you want all users to 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 completion of items. If using the ‘Master’ list view, make sure that you set the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (this is covered further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how to sort to-do list items.

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

Show Added By

Enabling this option lets you display which of your members has added an item to the to-do list.

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

Show Date Completed

Enabling this option displays completion dates for to-do tasks.

Show Deadline

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

Show Progress

If enabled, you will be able to specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

If enabled, the ‘To-Do List’ menu displays in your WordPress Dashboard Admin bar …

Use WYSIWYG Editor

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) 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 list items.

Integrate with Post Planner

If you are running a collaborative website or blog, you can integrate the Cleverness To Do List plugin with a plugin called WordPress Post Planner, from the same plugin developer that provides you with a complete WordPress editorial solution …

For more details about this handy plugin, visit this site: WordPress Post Planner – WordPress Plugin

Once you are done configuring your plugin options, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to update your settings …

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’ screen …

In this area you can customize your To-Do lists, assign to-do items to 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

This section of the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab lets you 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 todo lists (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 important, normal and low items …

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

Show To-Do Item ID

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), the item’s ID show on the list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option displays the date your table of items was added …

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

The following options can be configured in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you assign to-do items 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 this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can display tasks only to users who have been specifically assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled displays to-do items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Check the boxes in this section Subscriber) 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

If this option is enabled, WordPress automatically sends users an email with their assigned to-do items …

Leave this option disabled (‘No’) if you don’t want emails sent out to users.

Note: If this option is disabled, skip the remaining items 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 display to-do categories in the email subject.

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

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

If enabled, you can 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 lets you customize the “From” field when sending out emails. Enter your company name, your domain, your name, or anything you like into this field …

From Email

Enter 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 sent out automatically to users when new items have been added in your to-do list …

Text in Emails Sent to User

Type 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

This section lets you perform database maintenance tasks associated with plugin data directly from the plugin settings area itself without the need to log into your web server …

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

You can perform the tasks below:

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

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

If you don’t want to back up your files yourself, then consider using the services of a professional, or use a WordPress backup plugin. You can read about a great WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here:

• Backup, Clone & Keep Your WordPress Websites Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

User Permissions

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

If you have chosen Individual List, the only configurable option that is applicable in this section is the View To-Do List option …

If you are configuring 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 as follows:

• Subscribers: Read
• Contributors: Edit Posts
• Authors: Publish Posts
• Editors: Edit Others Posts
• Administrators: Manage Options

Note: When using the Master list type make sure that you only permit non-admin users to view and complete items, otherwise they will be able to edit the Master list itself.

Let’s now review the settings in this tab:

View To-Do List

This allows the selected 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 chosen capability to mark to-do items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

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

Edit To-Do Item Capability

This setting allows the chosen capability to edit existing to-do items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

This enables the chosen capability to assign items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

Here you can allow 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 option enables the chosen capability to purge all the completed to-do items.

Add Categories Capability

Here you can permit 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 list to another website, or store your list data for backup or archiving purposes.

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

Now you can import or export your list and plugin settings …

Exporting To-Do List Data

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

This opens up a new window allowing you to download and save your data as plain text to a storage device (e.g. your hard drive) …

As well as exporting to-do list data from the ‘Import/Export’ section, you can also export data by going to your admin menu and choosing Tools > Export …

You can include to-do list data in an export file (in XML format), either by checking ‘All content’ (includes everything – pages, posts, etc…), or selecting ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and clicking the ‘Download Export File’ button to download your file to a storage device…

Importing To-Do List Data

Importing a previously saved to-do 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 the ‘Import Settings’ button …

Your file will be imported.

Once you have configured all of the plugin settings, you can begin creating and editing to do lists.

How To Use Cleverness To-Do List

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

This brings up the ‘To-Do List’ page …

Adding New To Do Items

There are a number of ways to add new to-do items.

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

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

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

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

Configure 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 item to your list …

Note: If you are using a list type that allows you to assign responsibilities over items to specific 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 remove a user) …

Once a new item has been added, the item will display as an entry in the ‘To-Do Items’ table …

Repeat the above process to add new items to your list …

Editing And Removing 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 the plugin (see previous section), users assigned to tasks may also receive an email notification in their inboxes …

After creating your to-do list, users can view the list inside their user dashboard …

When users responsible for completing an item tick the item checkbox …

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

And gets added to the ‘Completed Items’ table 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 site using widgets, and insert lists into content inside a post or page 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 appear …

Configure the settings on the widget and click the ‘Save’ button …

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

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

• How To Use WordPress Widget

Short Codes

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

To access the documentation on using shortcodes, click on 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 section …

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

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

Publish your page or post and you should see the list displayed exactly where you have added the shortcode …

For more details about this plugin, visit this site:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you can add a to-do list to your WordPress site or blog.

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