With the ongoing transition of many workers to a remote-work lifestyle, juggling work tasks alongside home obligations can be tricky. For some, the logistics of working from home and the increase of time spent within the same four walls adds up to a lot more dishes to do. Many workers are also now juggling their roles at work and the increase of housework with managing their children’s education, as schools hold virtual classes and online exams.
Because we can’t subcontract out these competing obligations, it’s crucial to find a system to manage it all.
Thankfully, Microsoft has an app for that.
Integrated with Microsoft Teams and Outlook
Businesses that utilize the Microsoft Cloud or Sharepoint with Microsoft Teams already have access to Microsoft To Do. Making use of the connected ecosystem of Microsoft 365, users can open To Do from the Outlook app sidebar (labeled as Tasks in older versions of Outlook), or their Office.com or Teams web apps. Its also available as a free iOS, Android, and Windows 10 Live Tiles app.
Exceptional Features of Microsoft To Do
Microsoft acquired productivity app Wunderlist in 2015, and have been building on it for the last five years to present us with the To Do we have today. As of May 6, 2020, the Wunderlist platform will be completely shuttered, so if you or your team members were among the 13 million users of Wunderlist, it’s a great time to port all those lists over to Microsoft To Do. Previous Wunderlist users will see much of the Wunderlist aesthetic and functionality carried into To Do, with the addition of some business-friendly new features.
Subtasks: Previously only available as a Premium Wunderlist feature, all To Do users have the ability to create Sub-Tasks for breaking down an assignment into smaller manageable parts. Users can check the sub-tasks or “Steps” off as they complete them, enable reminders or schedule a due date, and even add attachments, notes, and files to the parent task.
Intelligent Suggestions/My Day: Each day, opening the To Do app prompts you to add items to your plan for the day and makes intelligent suggestions from your lists. It looks at approaching due dates, incomplete tasks from the previous days, and other suggestions based on the app’s algorithm. Requiring you to build each new day’s agenda gives you the opportunity to reflect on tasks that aren’t getting done. If you have a task that has been getting pushed back day after day, it might be time to reassess its priority or delegate to someone else.
Shared Lists: Add collaborators to a list to tackle the tasks and steps within as a group. Anyone with a Microsoft ID (free to create) can gain secure access to the Shared List to add, remove, schedule, and complete tasks. Tasks within shared lists can even be assigned to certain members of the shared list. At home, this is particularly useful for keeping everyone on the same page with a shared household Grocery List.
Planned View: One of the many views available in To Do is “Planned.” This view organizes all tasks scheduled or assigned to you that have a due date, so you can quickly see what is coming up without having to sift through each list.
Hashtags & Emojis: To Do now supports the use of Emoji. If you’re a visual person, an Emoji icon on list names can lend a quick visual organization to your lists. For the more archival user, hashtags can be added to lists, tasks, and steps. The hashtags can be searched within the To Do app, which can be quite useful when you have many lists or are organizing tasks across work and home life.
Assigned to Me: When managers assign tasks to team members using Microsoft Teams or Planner, the tasks will show up on a list called “Assigned to Me.”
Whether it is managing your own daily work alongside long-term project tasks in Microsoft Teams, staying on top of a student’s homework, or tackling groceries with a “divide and conquer” approach, Microsoft To Do can help. Like most software, Business users have access to certain premium features to do even more. To Do for Business is included in all Microsoft 365 Business licenses, so call Windows Management Experts today at (888) 307-0133 to discuss the best Microsoft 365 Licensing options for your business. WME is proud of our extensive experience driving value realization since 2008, making us THE authority on maximizing the Microsoft experience.
Check back next week, because we’ll be comparing Microsoft To Do vs. Microsoft Planner.
