The One Question to Ask

You are never at a loss for things to do. The piles of papers, sticky notes around the perimeter of the computer monitor, and notes scrawled across numerous legal pads are monuments to the demands on our time. We know we can only do one thing at a time. Yet, we surround ourselves with everything we have to do. We cannot fully focus on what we are doing because of the all of the constant remembers of what we are not doing.

Let's face it, at the end of the day, most of the papers that are lying around today will still be there tomorrow. Some of them will be buried even further down. Much of it represents things you had no intention of doing today anyway. In many cases, you couldn't do them. Here is a folder you need for the meeting on Tuesday. This folder needs to go with you when you meet with Mr. Smith on Thursday.

Sure, you could put it all away somewhere. But what happens on the day you need it? Will it still be tucked away wherever "somewhere" is?

If you are surrounded by too much to do, there is only one question you need to ask about all of it: "When do I want to see this again?"

I have written often about the benefits of tickler files. Start picking up those random pieces of paper and files that are lying around. Ask the question of each one, "When do I want to see this again?" Put it in the tickler files for that day. The folder you will need for Tuesday's meeting goes in the file representing Tuesday's date. The papers you need for the conference on the 17th of the month go in file number 17. When you start removing the papers on which you cannot act, the ones on which you can act begin to stand out.

Take the same approach with the "to-dos" written on the backs of envelopes, random napkins, sticky notes, and floating around in your head. Put them in a good digital to-do list (I like Toodledo). Take each item and ask yourself, "When do I want to see this again?". Enter the item on your digital to-do list and give it a due date corresponding with when you want to see it again. Keep the list sorted by due date. On the day you wanted to see that to-do, there it will be.

You can't do everything today. So get real about your commitments. Ask yourself, "When do I want to see this again?" and use your system to make sure that you do.

New posts will continue to appear on this site for the remainder of June. After that, continue to enjoy new material at http://FrankBuck.org.

What Scares You? Is It Your Email?

Thanks to Gene Ramsay for this testimonial. Gene is an insurance agent and husband of master teacher Julie D. Ramsay. Gene had invited me to speak for a group of his colleagues. This video comes as a result of that event.




E-mail is a challenge for all-too-many of us, but it does not have to be. By making decisions on each e-mail and using Outlook's drag and drop feature, an empty Inbox at the end of the day can be a reality. Other electronic to-do list, such as Toodledo, allow you to take those emails which require your action and send them straight from your email to your to-do list. To see how to get email empty using Toodledo, read this post.

How to Add Tasks to Toodledo Using Google Now

In the last post, iPhone owners who use Toodledo learned how they can use Siri's "remind me" command to enter tasks into Toodledo. This post is for Android owners. We examine how to use Google Now, in conjunction with IFTTT to enter tasks into Toodledo. For those new to Google Now (also known as "Google Search"), this video shows over 40 examples of what Google Now can do:



You will notice a "remind me" command is also available in Google Now, but that's not the valuable one for me. I generally don't want audible notification at a particular time. Instead, what I want is a vehicle to simply get a task onto my to-do list as quickly as possible. For that, I use the command "Note to self."

Note to Self
"Note to self" allows me to talk, and Google Now sends an email to my Gmail account with everything I have said neatly typed into the body of the email. The subject of that email will be "Note to self," and that point will become important later. The capability to get a voice message converted to text, waiting for me in my email, is huge. The to-do is off my mind and into my system. When I handle email, I will also see everything I have entered through Google Now. But I want something more.

Update
Before reading further, this update is based on my finding out about a capability in the "official" Toodledo app. I say "official," because many to-do apps will sync with Toodledo. When I began using an Android device some 18 months ago, there was no such app for Android, and so I download an app called "The Ultimate To-Do List," which works beautifully with Toodledo. 

At that time, Toodledo has developed its own app. In the Google Play Store, you will find a free app named "Toodledo." If you have a Toodledo account, download the official app on your Android phone.

The first time you use the "note to self" command, you will probably be presenting with several options of where the note can be sent. Choose Gmail. (Update: If you have installed the official Toodledo app, it will appear as one of your options. Choose it rather than Gmail..) If asked whether you want to select this option once or always, select that you want to use this options always.

Update: If you are using the official Toodledo app with your Android phone, you can stop reading at this point. Using Google's "Note to self" feature will send you voice input straight to your Toodledo list. If you are using another app to sync with Toodledo, read on. Also, if you are using another web-based to-do list, the better ones also have the ability send an email directly to the to-do list. The same instructions you see below will work with any of those lists as well.


Email into Toodledo
One of the nice features of Toodledo is that I am provided with a special email address. Anything sent to that email address goes into Toodledo. The subject of the email becomes the to-do. The body of the email populates the note section of the to-do. If you are a Toodledo user, this post tells you where to find that email address.

So, I speak a "note to self" into Google Now. When I examine email, I can forward that email to my Toodledo address. Now, the to-do is in Toodledo. I am now closer to what I want, but I still have a problem. The to-do is going to read "Note to self," and my voice message is going to be in the note section of the task. That's not what I want. If my message was, "Note to self...Buy dog food," then I want the to-do to read "Buy dog food." I can get it, but it's going to take some ingenuity.

Furthermore, I want to simplify the procedure, so that once I speak a "note to self," what I say winds up in Toodledo without my having to do anything else. I figured out a way to it, and the process has worked beautifully.

IFTTT Eliminates the Middleman
To accomplish my goal, I use "If This Then That", a web-based service which allows different services to work together. I have written about using IFTTT to automate routine tasks in this post, and how to escape a bad meeting in this post. My use of IFTTT to post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ was discussed in this article.

Remember earlier in this post, I said that when I compose a "note to self," the subject of the email which shows up has "Note to self" as the subject? I want to instruct IFTTT as follows:

• If I receive an email with "Note to self" as the subject,
• Then forward that email to my Toodledo email address. Also remember, I somehow have to get the body of the "note to self" message flipped up into the subject line before it reaches Toodledo.

To create an account, go to http://ifttt.com and sign up a free account. You can now create your first "recipe."

On the dashboard, click on "Create."

On the next screen, click on the "this" link. You are creating the "trigger."

You will now see a list of "channels." In this case, we are going to choose "Gmail."

You may get a message to "Activate" the channel. When you use a channel for the first time, you will generally be asked to activate it. The process takes only a couple of mouse clicks.

On the "Choose a Trigger" screen, select "New mail from search."

On the next screen, we will complete the "search for" blank:

Now click "Create Trigger."

We move on to the "that" part of the recipe. Click on the "that" link.

I see another list of channels. Again, I choose "Gmail." 

On the next screen, you have only one option, "Send an email.." Click it. 

The next screen is the one which will take a little work. The screen will look like this:

We are going to have to do some work here:

1. In the line for the "To address," enter your Toodledo email address.
2. In the "Body" block, highlight and copy the field that says "BodyPlain." Notice that when you click inside the box, the shading disappears, and a double set of brackets appears around the words, like this: {{BodyPlain}} When you highlight, be sure to include those doubles brackets.
3. Go to the "Subject" block. Highlight everything in that block. 
4. Use the "Paste" command (Ctrl+V). The subject block should now read BodyPlain.
5. Highlight everything in the "Body" block. Hit "Delete." 

Your screen should now look like this:

Click "Create Action."

IFTTT composes the contents of the "Description" box for you. Click "Create Recipe." You are done!

Give it a try. Pick up your Android, and use the "Note to self" command. Instantly, you will see an email on your phone with a subject of "Note to self" and your voice message in the body. IFTTT fires every 15 minutes. Wait about 15 minutes and go to Toodledo. You should see your task. With mine, the start date and due date will both be today. These dates appear because in my settings, I have today as the default. Unless I specify something else, every task gets a start and due date of today. You may have a different setting.

Creating an IFTTT account just for this one recipe may seem like too much work. Another way to look at it is that you have had an introduction to IFTTT. It's a powerful service. Simply clicking "Browse" and look at recipes others have created. You will gain an idea of what the service has to offer. 

I do things that are easy. You probably do as well. The "note to self" command coupled with the IFTTT recipe gets thoughts from my head to my to-do list, and all I have to do is talk to my phone. It doesn't get any easier than that!

How to Add Tasks to Toodledo Using Siri

To-do lists are good, and to-do lists which are easy to use are great. What is easy to do gets done; that's human nature. "Easy" takes a variety of forms for various people. When a new "to-do" arrives, some people:

• Just try to remember it. They don't need any book or device, and don't have to carry any sort of system with them. The challenge, however, is that memory is fallible, and lots is forgotten and drops through the cracks.
• Write on whatever scrap of paper is available. Again, they don't need to carry a system with them. The challenge, however,  is keeping up with all of those random pieces of paper.
• Write on their hand. Nothing is "handier," if you are in mood for a bad pun. The challenge, however, is that if good hand-washing practices are in place, those to-dos disappear.
• Call their own voice mail. Nothing falls through the cracks. If one has a many to-dos, however, a great deal of time is spent transcribing voice mails and adding them to the to-do list.

What if you or I could talk to our phone, and what we say wind up on our to-do list? That's what this post and the next demonstrate for you.

My journey with voice input started with Jott, and when Jott began to charge for its services, switched to reQall. Both of those services allowed me to dial one phone number, which I had programmed into a speed dial key, and talk. Within a few minutes, I would receive an email with everything I had said in my message transcribed into text. The to-do was out of my head and into my email. When I handled email later in the day, I would handle that to-do as well.

Voice input has become more sophisticated, and Siri is probably the best known tool for it. Those who use Siri probably know of the "remind me" command. "Remind me to pickup dog food on Friday" triggers an entry into an app called "Reminders." Reminders is the built-in to-do app on the iPhone.

But what if you use Toodledo as your to-do list? Is there a way to add a reminder with Siri and that reminder wind up in Toodledo? The answer is "Yes."

You would of course, need to have the Toodledo app installed on your iPhone. From Toodledo's help page, the instructions for getting Reminders to show up in Toodledo are as follows:

1. First, tap "Settings" inside the app and select "Reminders Syncing". Then, turn on importing from the Reminder's app. 
2. Now, everything that is added to Reminders will be automatically added to Toodledo as well. To use Siri, simply activate Siri and say "Remind me to ...." and it will be added to Reminders and Toodledo. 
3. If the tasks are not importing, go into Apple's Settings app and tap "Privacy" and then "Reminders". Make sure that the switch is turned on for Toodledo.

This process gets the to-do into the Toodledo app on the iPhone. When the iPhone syncs with the server, the to-do shows up in Toodledo on the desktop computer, laptop, or any other device using Toodledo.

In the next post, we will show how Android users can use Google Now to get to-dos into Toodledo.

Are you new to Toodledo and wondering what it is all about? I composed a 6-post series that will help. It begins with this post.

If you are already using this technique, let me know how it is working for you.

Comparing Toodledo With the Competition

I am a fan of Toodledo, and have written about it in this series of posts:

• Adding tasks, sorting the list, and syncing with mobile devices
• Searching, keyboard shortcuts
• Strategies for daily use
• Master list and use of searches
• Getting email from "In" to "Empty" with the help of Toodledo
• Bookmarklet and Firefox Addon
• From Outlook to Toodledo

There is no shortage of available electronic to-do lists on the market. Toodledo maintains a chart which compares it to several other popular options. For me, the ability to import tasks from an Excel spreadsheet was huge. When I transitioned from Outlook to a cloud-based suite including Toodledo for my tasks, not having to rekey tasks and manually copy and paste each one saved hours. I can also export my tasks to an Excel spreadsheet if I ever wanted to more to another platform.

Click on the image below to see the full comparison between Toodledo and some competitors.

School Leadership Briefing Follow-Up

Welcome to those who are subscribers to the School Leadership Briefing. This post is especially for you. If you are not a subscriber, that's OK; the segment I recorded is being made available to all readers of this blog. Listen to my talk on "Five Free Tech Tools to Help You Get Organized."

Toodledo 
Toodledo is a powerful web-based to-do list. It works with PC or Mac. Apps are available allowing you to sync any of your mobile devices to Toodledo. I recently composed a 6-part series on Toodledo. You can read Part 1 here.



igHome 
igHome is a personalized homepage. It is the perfect tool for those who use iGoogle and are looking for a replace when iGoogle ceases to exist on November 1. On February 11, my post will explain igHome. By that time, you may already have your igHome page established.



Dropbox
Put anything in Dropbox and retrieve it on any of your computers, mobile devices, or any computer in the world with Internet access. I composed an e-book to guide you through a strategy for using Dropbox.Click on the cover to download.

Click on the cover to download the free Dropbox E-Book

Evernote 
Evernote is a great place to store and organize commonly-accessed information. The information is then available on any of your computers, mobile devices, or any computer in the world with Internet access. On February 4, my post will talk about the notebooks I suggest you create when you get started with Evernote.

Voice Input
This area is becoming a major player in the world of smartphones. Everyone has seen the commercials advertising Siri. In the audio segment, we examine using voice input to get "to-dos" into your system, specifically getting them into your email so that when you handle your email, you are handling the voice notes (now transcribed to text) as well. To set up a reQall account, go to reQall.com/app.

For Vlingo, go to the site where you download apps for your smartphone and search for Vlingo. Recently, Vlingo for Android has been replaced with a program called "Dragon Mobile Assistant." Currently, Dragon will not allow you to email by voice, functionality that is necessary to get those random thoughts into your system. The app promises this functionality will be there soon.

Each of these 5 tools represents a major player in my productivity arsenal. They help me quickly access the information I need when I need it. Thanks for listening to the School Leadership Briefing segment. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.

Get Organized With Toodledo (Part 6)

Today, we complete a series of posts about using digital to-do lists in general,and using Toodledo in particular.If you are just joining us, I encourage you to begin reading with the post dated January 7 and work up to this post. Today, we wind up our discussion by showing you shortcuts for getting information into Toodledo.

Bookmarklet
On the Toodledo website, click the "Tools" tab and click on "Browser Plugin." You will see instructions to click on the Toodledo Bookmarklet and drag it to your bookmarks toolbar.

What does this bookmarklet do for you? In short, it provides you a quick way to get information into Toodledo without your even being on the Toodledo website. Simply click the Toodledo Bookmarklet and you will be able to add a to-do, set start and due dates, set a repeating pattern, etc. It also automatically copies the URL you are on and pastes it in the note section.

That last trick comes in very handy. Think of how many times you are visiting a website and want to read the page you are on at a later time. Clicking the Toodledo Bookmarklet copies the URL in the note section. You can then word the task accordingly, something like, "Review this article about productivity." Set a date, save, and you don't have to think about it anymore. On the appropriate date, you will see a reminder to read the article. The URL, a clickable link, will be there for you to access your reading material.

Firefox addon
If you use Firefox as your browser, there is a Toodledo add-on which may be of interest. Click the "Tools" tab and select "3rd Party Tools." On the next screen, click the link for "Browser" and look for the "Firefox Addon."

With the addon installed, I can create a new Toodledo task from anywhere in my browser. I hold the "Ctrl" and "Alt" keys and hit the letter "a." A new task is created. The basic differences between this and the bookmarklet are that with the add-on 1) nothing is automatically copied to the note section; and 2) no default dates are added. You must remember to complete them.

One of those little rules of life is that which is easy gets done. So, our challenge is making getting habits as easy to do as possible. If we want people to use a to-do list, then we have to make input easy. Either one of these two tools is designed to do just that.

Now that you have read this series on digital to-do lists, focusing on Toodledo, I would be happy to entertain questions, hear your suggestions, and respond to your comments.

Get Organized With Toodledo (Part 5)

If you are finding this blog for the first time, I encourage you to scroll back to Monday of last week and read each of the posts between that day and today. We have been using Toodledo as an example of a good digital to-do list. The data lives "in the cloud" and can be accessed from your computer, any of your mobile devices, and can be accessed from any computer with Internet access by logging into your account.

Get email from "in" to "empty" every day
Too many people suffer from an email Inbox that resembles a bottom-less pit. Much of the email represents things they need to do, even though what needs to be done won't happen for days or weeks. So, the email sits there, a constant reminder of what can't be done right now.

Toodledo offers a very simple way around this problem. When you create your account, you are assigned an email address. You will find this address by clicking on the "Tools" tab, then clicking on "More." One of the choices you will see on the next page is "Email Access." Click the "Configure" link you see on that panel. Here you will see your Toodledo email address. Be sure the box marked "Enable e-mail importing" is checked.

You will want to highlight and copy that email address. Go to your contacts and add a new contact called something like "Toodledo Tasks." In the email address field of this contact, paste your Toodledo email address and save.

From this point on, when you receive an email that embeds a "to-do," forward the email message to that Toodledo email address. The information shows up in Toodledo. The subject of the email will show up as the name of the task. The entire body of the email shows up in the note section of the task in Toodledo.You can use this technique whether you are reading email on your computer, one of your mobile devices, or from a public computer. If you have the ability to forward an email message, you have the ability to get that email into Toodledo.

Before sending, you can do some editing which gets the task to show up in Toodledo the way you wish. First, you can edit the subject line so that it better spells out what you need to do. Secondly, you can instruct Toodledo as to what start and due dates to assign. If I include in the subject line >1/21/13, Toodledo assigns a start date of January 21, 2013. Including in the subject line #1/21/13 sets a due date January 21, 2013. If I do not specify a due date, my due date defaults to today. Finally, I can edit the body of the email so that when I start to do the task, I will have the information I need. I can add additional information, delete superfluous information, and leave intact the information from the email which will help me complete the task.

The concept is that when you identify the emails that contain "to-dos" and get those into your to-do list, you have all the reminder you need. You no longer need to have the email in your Inbox as a reminder to do the task. You can file the email if you need to retain it for documentation purposes or simply delete it.

If you are an Outlook user, there is a similar technique. Read my post on "Getting from 'In' to 'Empty.'" If you use another web-based to-do list, look for a way to forward email to that list.

On Friday, we conclude this discussion with a couple of tools which make it easier to get tasks into Toodledo.

How many emails do you have in your Inbox right now? How do you keep from being overwhelmed by email?

Get Organized With Toodledo (Part 4)

Today's post is the 4th part in a series on Toodledo. Last week, we discussed how to create an account and download apps to mobile devices, examined the mechanics of entering tasks, and began looking at strategy you will use on a daily basis. Today, we continue that discussion on strategy.

We all need a "Master List"
We all need a place for those tasks for which there is no particular date associated. We don't have to do them today, this week, or possibly even this month. We simply want to accomplish them sometime and need a place to record them so we don't forget them.

My "Master List" is simply part of my one and only list on Toodledo. I assign a due date of the last day of the month for these types of tasks. When I find myself with extra time, I can scroll to the last day of the month and see a host of low-priority items I can tackle. There is no chance I will forget them, because when the last day of the month comes and their due dates have arrived, those items will be staring me in the face.

In much the same way, we have those items that do not have to be done today, but we hope to accomplish them this week. I tend to assign a due date of Friday for those items. If I am working ahead during the week, I know that scrolling to Friday will provide low-priority tasks which I can tackle.

What's a good day of the week for you to run errands? Perhaps Saturday? Or perhaps it's a weekday between the time you drop the kids at an activity and return to pick them up an hour later. Whatever the answer is for you, when an errand comes to mind, put it in Toodledo and assign a due date of whatever day is generally your best day to run errands. When that day arrives, all of your errands are together.

Searching
Perhaps the chief way in which a digital list separates itself from a paper one is the ability to search. I may add tasks to my list to discuss with "Jim," not knowing exactly when I will talk to him. That's OK. When Jim comes walking through the door unexpectedly or calls on the phone, I can quickly summon every task I wish to discuss.

I click in the search window (or simply hit "f" for"find") and enter the word "Jim." I now see a list of every item containing "Jim" in order by due date.

If I want to make a series of phone calls, I can easily pull all of the phone calls from my list. I am consistent about putting the word "call" in every task that involves a phone call. Searching for the word "call" gives me a list of all of the phone calls I need to make.

In my community, Walmart is the place to get...well...just about everything. When I realize we are low on AA batteries, I add a new tasks which says: "Walmart-AA batteries." Saturday is a good errand day for me, so I add a due date of Saturday. But what if we happen to be running errands another day? I search for "Walmart" and see a list of everything I need there, sorted by due date.

Other people owe us things. They borrow our belongs, and we expect them to be returned. We order goods from companies, and expect to receive those goods. We leave phone messages and email messages. We expect those messages to be returned.

In each of those examples, the responsibility belongs to someone else, yet we want to be able to hold them accountable if they don't come through in a timely fashion. How can we keep track of what other people are supposed to do?

Thirty years ago, my organizational system consisted of tickler files and a memo pad in my pocket.  Whenever someone owed me something, I jotted on the next blank sheet in the memo pad the words "expect to receive" along with the name of the person and what they owed me. I then threw that little piece of paper in the tickler file for when I wanted to see it again.

After a while, "expect to receive" was shortened to "ETR," and that abbreviation has lived on until today. Now, when I want to see a complete list of everything everybody owes me, I enter "ETR" in the search window. There's my list in order by due date.

Realize the strategy I am talking about can be used not only with Toodledo, but with any good digital to-do list. All you need are the ability to assign due dates, sort the list by due date, assign repeating tasks, put additional information in a note section attached to the task, and search. If you are using another list manager and like it, simply incorporate the strategy I am giving you with that software.

Is email overwhelming you? In the next post, we will show you how Toodledo can help you get from "in" to "empty" every day.

Do you use a digital to-do list? If so, please tell me about it.

Get Organized With Toodledo (Part 3)

This post is part of a series on Toodledo. In Monday's post, we discussed how to create an account and download apps to mobile devices. On Wednesday, we examined the mechanics of entering tasks. Today, we begin looking at strategy you will use on a daily basis.

The most important thing is to assign a due date to every task. You will sort your tasks by due date, thereby putting those with the oldest due dates at the top of the list and those with due dates the farthest in the future at the bottom of the list.

When it comes to completing what's on our plates, our eyes are often bigger than our stomachs. The same holds true with our to-do lists. Tasks can take longer to complete than we thought. Interruptions happen. At the end of the day, tasks that were due today remain undone. Do we reassign due dates?

My answer to that question is "no." The due dates I assign are self-imposed. In assigning them, I leave myself some cushion, so that if I get behind, I am still OK. If there is a true deadline for a task, I include something like "DEADLINE JANUARY 25" in the task line. I even put this notice in capital letters.

Look for the "Fab 5"
At the beginning of each day, I scan the list, starting with items due today and working my way up to the very top. What I am looking for are the "Fab 5," the five items most critical for me to accomplish that day. Generally, I am going to find those items in one of two places. I usually find them already towards the top of the list. They were the top items which were left undone from yesterday. The other "Fab 5" candidates tend to come from those items due today. Sometimes tasks cannot be done until a certain day, yet when that day arrives, it is important they are done on that day. I simply change the start and due date on such an item so that it sorts to the top of the list.

Group related items
As for the rest of the items, I want to group them so they get done as quickly as possible. Making a number of phone calls back-to-back as businesses are opening would be one example. Running a number of errands would be another. I would like to see these similar items grouped together. Assigning the same due date to the group achieves this end. When you look at my list, you may see the "Fab 5" with a due date of five days ago, tasks I want to handle during the early morning assigned due dates of four days ago, tasks I want to accomplish as a group in the late morning given due dates of three days ago, etc.

As you see, I am not terribly concerned with having tasks appear as being past due. The dates simply serve as a way for me to order the list.

Next week, we will discuss those items which do not have a firm due date associated with them. We will examine how to find anything easily and how this capability will help you throughout each day. Finally, we will examine a couple of neat tools which allow you to get information into Toodledo without even being on that site.

Get Organized With Toodledo (Part 2)

In the last post, we discussed why you need a digital to-do list, how to establish an account with Toodledo, and how to acquire apps for your mobile devices which sync with Toodledo. If you are transitioning from another digital list, you saw a link to a post which will help with the transition. In this post, we examine some basic navigation.

Entering and searching for tasks
First, how do you get tasks into the software? Click on the box marked "Quick Add Task." Key your task and hit "Enter." That's it. Start dates and due dates are automatically assigned according to whatever you put in your settings. I have mine set to the start and due dates defaulting to "Today." If you click the "Add Task" button, you have the ability to assign a start date and due date, as well as enter as much information as needed into the note section.

Second, how do you find something you have entered? On the right-hand side of the screen is a search window. Enter your search term and press "Enter." Toodledo filters the list to just the tasks which include the search term in the name of the task. Erasing your term from the search window returns you to the full list.

A much more robust search is available by clicking "Search" in the left-hand pane. Here, you can look for text that is in the note section of a task, find tasks with a certain repeating pattern, or use any combination of filters. Clicking on "Main" and "All Tasks" returns you to the normal view.  

Learn the keyboard shortcuts
Learning common keyboard shortcuts will save time every single day over performing those same functions with the mouse:

• f moves the cursor to the search window. Think of it as standing for "find."
• n moves the cursor to the new task box. Hit "n," start typing, and when you hit "Enter," the task is in Toodledo. The start and due dates will be automatically assigned according to what you established in your Toodledo settings.
• z opens/hides the note section of the entire task list. For me, this feature is a great help. By hitting "z" once, I can scroll down the page and see all of the notes which accompany all of my tasks. 
• r reloads the page.
• ? opens the list of shortcuts. You do not have to press "Shift" when pressing the "?" key.

Other shortcuts are available; however, the ones I have listed are enough for me.

What about speed?
With a web-based tool, you may be concerned with the time required for the site to refresh when you make changes. This area is another where Toodledo shines. Toodledo only writes back to the server when you manually refresh the page or when you close the window to exit Toodledo.

• You will notice when you add a new task, it is placed right at the top of the list in green, regardless of the start and due dates. 
• When you check a task off as "done," a check appears in the box, but the task remains visible.
• When you change the due date on a task, you see the new date, but the task remains in the same position.

When you manually reload the page, the changes are read by the server, and you see a very different look when the page refreshes. Tasks which were marked complete have now disappeared. New tasks now appear in correct chronological order by due date. Tasks whose due dates were changed now appear in the correct chronological positions.

In the next post, we will begin examining strategies for using Toodledo on a daily basis.

Get Organized With Toodledo (Part 1)

At the heart of any good time management system is a "to-do" list. Having one central place which traps all of our commitments prevents missed deadlines, forgotten items, and the embarrassing moments which accompany them. It allows us to see our goals and the steps toward their accomplishment, make choices as what to do in what order, and even decide what commitments need to be postponed or eliminated so that good work can be replaced by better work.

What form should my list take? 

The debate over paper versus digital systems continues. I was a paper planner devotee for over a decade and then adopted a digital system over a decade ago, so I have lived in both worlds. In today's world, I could not handle the volume and complexity of my work without a digital system.

The advantages of a digital system
Much of the information which in turn triggers action on our part arrives digitally. It arrives in emails. It arrives in articles read on the Internet. It arrives in social media. With a digital system, what arrives in digital form stays in a digital form. I can copy and paste a URL into the note section of a task. When it's time to do the task, I am one click away from seeing the supporting information. I can take emails which embed something I need to do and quickly move them to my task list.

With a digital system, no task is ever re-written. My list is sorted by due date. As plans and priorities change, changing the due dates of tasks rearranges them so that what I need to be doing now is at the top of the list.

To-do lists which are complete also tend to be long. That's simply a function of lives which are rich with plans, and it's certainly not a bad thing. When you want to find a particular task, or check to be sure you added a particular task to your list, how can you find it amongst all of the other tasks? A digital system allows you to search both the task line and information in the note section so you can put your hands on any piece of information instantly.

The case for Toodledo
There are plenty of good digital to-dos lists. Outlook was my preference for over 10 years. I wanted to move to one which is cloud based, would sync easily with any smartphone, and would be as powerful as Outlook. Toodledo fills the bill, and does it on my computer for free. The tablet and phone apps with which it syncs are only a few bucks.

You can go to Toodledo.com and set up an account in a few minutes. If you have your list in another digital list manager and want to move it to Toodledo, you will find helpful information in a post I wrote in August 2012. The software offers a number of features I do not use. The "priority" field, "hot list," and "starred items" are available, but I don't find I need them. If I look at my list daily and edit due dates to move items up or down the list, that's enough for me.

Click on "Settings" in the upper left corner of the Toodledo screen, and you can set the controls as desired. Here is how I have set mine:

The only other settings are located on the toolbar next to the "Quick Add Task" blank. You probably want to uncheck "Recently Completed Tasks" so that your view is not cluttered with tasks you completed days ago. Go ahead and check "Negative Priority Tasks." Even though I don't use priorities, checking this box might keep some tasks from being filtered out. Do you want your list to show items whose start dates have not yet arrived? If so, leave "Future Tasks" checked. If it is unchecked and you search for a task, the search will not find it if its start date is sometime in the future. As a general rule, I leave that box checked.

 

To the immediate right of the "Show" dropdown is the spot where you will tell Toodledo how to sort your tasks. As already discussed, you are going to want to sort by due date.

Syncing Toodledo with mobile devices
Once you have created a Toodledo account and established your settings, download to each of your mobile devices an app which will sync with Toodledo. On the Toodledo website, click the "Tools" tab. You will find apps for each platform which sync with Toodledo.

My choice for the Android is the Ultimate To-Do List, which I purchased from the Google Play Store. This app was $5, although you can try it free for 14 days before purchasing. It is highly customizable, and I have been happy with the choice. Since that time, Toodledo came out with its own app for Android. On my tablet, I have a Toodledo app at a cost of $5.

If you are going to use a digital to-do list, being able to sync it with at least one mobile device is essential. You do not want to be tied to your computer in order to see your list. You also do not want to be required to print or hand-copy items from your computer in order to have them when you are out and about.

The information in this post gets your account established and software available to you on your devices. In the next post, we will look at basic navigation in Toodledo.

From Outlook to ToodleDo

Of all the parts of my digital organizational system, tasks has been the most valuable. It also provides the biggest challenge when moving from one platform to another.

Outlook Tasks allowed me to establish repeating tasks and never have to think about them again. Setting a start date in the future keeps a task from appearing on the list until the right time. Searching the entire list is easy.

Whereas I was already syncing the Outlook Calendar and Outlook Contacts to Google Calendar and Google Contacts respectively, there was no counterpart for my Outlooks Tasks. I had researched various online options. Remember the Milk is a reputable service which offers both free and paid options. It has apps for smartphones and tablets which allow those devices to sync with the information entered via the computer.

reQall is a service I have used for several years to capture reminders via voice and have the results emailed to me with the voice message transcribed to text. These videos give more information on reQall. This entertaining video shows the power of reQall. The service also has the capability to function as a to-do list manager with both an online component and apps for mobile devices. I do not find the online site as user-friendly or as functional as I need. reQall is great for getting thoughts from my head to my email. That is the extent to which I use it, however.

Wunderlist is a relative newcomer. It is web-based, although one can download a desktop component for PC or Mac. Apps are available for tablets and phones. The service is free, and very simple. The drawback for me is that it does not support repeating tasks, although that feature is supposed to come later.

The hands-down winner, however, is ToodleDo. Before I made a commitment to ToodleDo, I exported my Outlook Tasks, did some quick clean-up, and imported them into ToodleDo. I figured putting a dozen sample tasks in the system would be one thing. Throwing a thousand tasks at it, many with notes attached, would be the true measure of response time and test whatever limits might be there. It also gave me the opportunity to perform functions in Outlook Tasks and then try the same thing in ToodleDo.

My conclusion was that ToodleDo is as good as Outlook Tasks in many ways, and outperforms Outlook in some aspects. I did not find any drawbacks. I found that a ToodleDo app was available for my tablet (BlackBerry PlayBook), and that ToodleDo's website listed apps which would sync with ToodleDo for each Smartphone platform .

Moving tasks from Outlook to ToodleDo
The process is simple and straightforward, although there will be much cleanup work to be done.

1. Open Outlook and choose "Import and Export" from the File menu.
2. From the next box, select "Export to a file."
3. From the next box, select "Comma Separated Values." Mine offered two such options: DOS and Windows. I chose Windows.
4. The final box had me select which file. I clicked on the file for Tasks.
5. The result was a spreadsheet on my desktop containing all tasks along with start and due dates, notes, etc.
6. ToodleDo provides these instructions for importing that CSV file.
7. The results was all of the Outlook Tasks now appearing in ToodleDo.

While the process is straight-forward, I found several caveats, and those caveats centered around repeating tasks. I figured that my CSV file would display each occurrence of repeated tasks I had completed as a separate record. Therefore, I set Outlook to auto-archive tasks which were older than just a few days. I then had Outlook archive the completed tasks.

Archiving the completed tasks greatly reduced the number of tasks which would have been exported to the CVS file. Still, the result was a spreadsheet over 100,000 lines in length, although the number of unique tasks was around 1,100. Any tasks which repeated was represented multiple times in the CSV file. Tasks which repeating daily were represented several thousand times each, for for each day stretching into the future.

The next step was to clean up that spreadsheet. I sorted the spreadsheet alphabetically by the task field. I then started highlighting all instances of repeating tasks and deleting entire blocks at a time, leaving only once instance of each task. While easy enough, it was time-consuming. When finished, I was looking at a spreadsheet of around 1,100 tasks.

I imported the CVS file into ToodleDo, using the instructions ToodleDo provided. That process was quick and easy. Of course, none of the tasks now in ToodleDo had any repeating patterns attached. Interestingly enough, none had start dates either, alothough the CVS file contained start dates for each task. This absence of start dates did not cause a problem with my system, however. I gave start dates to the items I cannot do until the future or do not even want to see until in the future. Sorting by dues dates puts the tasks in order according to when I want to accomplish them.

The next step was to open Outlook and sort Tasks so that all repeating tasks were together and sorted chronologically. With Outlook on one monitor and ToodleDo on the other, I began the process of scrolling through ToodleDo and adding the repeating pattern on tasks which needed them. I also added start dates for those tasks.

Getting my Outlook Tasks totally set up in ToodleDo was the major activity for the day. But, by the end of the day, ToodleDo was 100% up and running. I have not found any information being lost in translation. ToodleDo allows 32,000 characters for each task's note section, which is a gracious plenty for just about anyone.

Learn the keyboard shortcuts
As with Google Calendar and Google Contacts, learning common keyboard shortcuts will save time every single day over performing those same functions with the mouse:

• f moves the cursor to the search window. Think of it as standing for "find."
• n moves the cursor to the new task box. Hit "n," start typing, and when you hit "Enter," the task is in ToodleDo. The start and due dates will be automatically assigned according to what you established in your ToodleDo settings.
• z opens/hides the note section of the entire task list. For me, this feature is a great help. By hitting "z" once, I can scroll down the page and see all of the notes which accompany all of my tasks. The same function in Outlook would have required me to double-click on each task individually and then close each individual task after reading its notes.
• ? opens the list of shortcuts. You do not have to press Shift when pressing the "?" key.

Other shortcuts are available; however, the ones I have listed are enough for me.

Syncing ToodleDo with mobile devices
My tablet is the BlackBerry PlayBook, and I was pleasantly surprised to find ToodleDo had created an app for the device. The cost was around $5, is attractive, and works great. 

My choice for the Android is the Ultimate To-Do List, which I purchased from Google Play Store. This app was $5, although you can try it free for 14 days before purchasing. It is highly customizable, and I have been happy with the choice.

The only negative I am finding is that searching for tasks is not as easy as on my BlackBerry. The ability of the BlackBerry native task app to search the list, provided results with each key stroke, is one of the best-kept secrets about the BlackBerry. The Ultimate To List has me key my entire search term, click "Done," and then see the results. I have no way of knowing if I have not provided enough characters, or perhaps have provided well more than enough, until I see the results. Likewise, if a typo is present in my search and going to result in no results, I don't know that until I submit the search. With the BlackBerry, a suddenly-blank list would tell me the last key stroke was the wrong one. Hitting the backspace would allow me to correct the wrong character and continue.

I often find myself searching for things people owe me, which means they will have the characters "ETR" in the task. "ETR" stands for "expect to receive," a shorthand I have used for many years. The app allowed me to create and save a filter called "ETR." Likewise, I have created an "xx" filter. When one of my tasks actually represents a multi-step goal, I enter the goal and the next step toward achieving that goal on the same line, separated by "xx." The "xx" filter I created returns a list of every goal I am working on along with exactly what needs to be done next. It's still not as easy as what I had on the BlackBerry, but it offers many other advantage over what I was used to on the BlackBerry task app.

Drag and drop
Those who have heard me talk about getting from "in to empty" with Outlook know how powerful the "drag and drop" feature is. When I read an email containing information which belongs on the calendar, dragging it to the Calendar button creates a new appointment with the entire body of the email appearing in the note section of that appointment. I set a date, set a time, and save. The item is now on my calendar.

When I receive an email which will require me to "do" something, and I don't want to do it now, dragging that email to the Task button creates a new task. I amend the subject line, set start and due dates, and save. The item appears on my task list. I can now delete the email.  

Drag and drop is a great feature of Outlook and highlights one advantage of having an integrated program. Luckily, ToodleDo provides a solution for those in a non-Outlook environment. When you create a ToodleDo account, you are provided with a "secret" ToodleDo email. In short, whatever is sent to that email is added to your ToodleDo list. I created a new contact, called it "ToodleDo," and entered this "secret" email address. Now, when I have an email which represents a "to-do," I forward that email to ToodleDo. Before sending, I change the subject line to reflect exactly what needs to be done. ToodleDo also provides some shortcuts I can add which will instruct it what start and due dates to set for that task or what priority to attach.

Summary
If Outlook is not available to you, or you choose not to use Outlook, I recommend ToodleDo. At first glance, it may not seem different from other options. The more you peel back that onion, the more you find capabilities that will suit the needs of the high-power user.

I plan to return to the topic of ToodleDo in the future and focus on some of the capabilities and strategies. I will also do the same for the Ultimate To-Do List.

Any ToodleDo users out there? What about users of the Ultimate To-Do List? If you have another solution that works for you, I would like to hear your feedback as well.