Microsoft ToDo: Worth your time?!
The new Microsoft task manager reviewed
On the 19th April 2017, Microsoft replaced Wunderlist with ToDo.
ToDo is an attempt from Microsoft to bring everything together into their Office ecosystem. Wunderlist was acquired by Microsoft in 2015 and has been stagnant for some time now, around 9 months with no update. As you saw in thew news, Microsoft have re-shaped Wunderlist into ToDo, an all-in-one task manager for your daily routine.
Microsoft ToDo aims to be the go-to resource for tracking your tasks, planning your week and making sure you never forget to do things.
So I wanted to take some time to share my full review here on Medium so you are informed as you make your decision on Microsoft ToDo. Whether you are an existing Wunderlist user or someone who uses Todoist, Trello or another service, this piece will hopefully give you all you need to make the next step.
Features
The Best Things about Microsoft ToDo
My Day — your plan of tasks
This is one of the strongest elements of the new Microsoft ToDo experience. Being able to tally all of your to-dos into this new “My Day” pinned project is ideal for those looking for a “day planner” style way to bring to-dos from lists into an actionable state. My Day sits at the top of your projects and provides a nifty way to keep track of those to-do items for the day.
Emoji Projects — Emojis add more colour
One of my first thoughts was that Microsoft ToDo is enriched with colours, which is great for any productivity app. The more colour, the easier it is for people to associate this to their “hub” of tasks. Believe me, colour can make or break an app. Emojis are easy to add as project icons, I started by creating an emoji for the “Eating” project, just made everything light up.
Buttery Apps — Well-designed iOS and Android app
After exploring many apps on iOS and Android across my day, spotting an application that has spent time on developing the user experience with gestures and consistency is easy. The Microsoft ToDo App for iOS and Android is so well-designed, it utilises the Apple and Google platforms with smooth transitions, easy gestures and fluid ways to add tasks!
Custom Themes — Smart-looking projects
Like Wunderlist, Microsoft ToDo has a smart way to change themes. Change the colour (up to 5 selections) and background themes (6 solutions). This is really brilliant, it’s impressive that they’ve added this level of detail for the preview version of the resource. Well worth exploring!
The Worst Things about Microsoft ToDo
Basic functions — It’s preview!
Yes, we all know. It’s preview. But wow, there is so much less, in terms of functions, than Wunderlist. Exploring Microsoft ToDo for a full week will reveal how much is missing. They’ve replicated all of the most simple features of Wunderlist, and that is all they have done. Don’t expect too much in this preview version of Microsoft ToDo, let’s go into more detail below.
Next 7 days — Planning ahead is hard!
The feature I most enjoy in Todoist is called “next 7 days”. It’s simple. You can see the next 7 days worth of tasks, this helps to keep track of future activities. Whether it’s the next 3 days or the next 10 days, something like this would be an effective way to get an idea of what’s coming up!
No Inbox — It’s gone!
Try and find a inbox in Microsoft ToDo. You can’t. Well, as you can see above I’ve created one of these. If you are a hardcore GTD expert, Microsoft ToDo will not be your ideal solution to help you get things done. This simple project will really help to collect items and get the ball rolling in the competition against the other applications.
The Future of ToDo
With Wunderlist’s team joining the Microsoft ToDo team full time it’s important to review how long the Microsoft ToDo will continue.
Microsoft announced that the “preview” will be up for a few months. The Wunderlist team have taken over the efforts for development. Microsoft will continue to improve the features, integrate with Office 365 and
ToDo’s future looks bright. As they build features, grow integrations and advance the community efforts, this will make sense. Something I think that would sway users is if they brought the functionality from Sunrise into Microsoft ToDo as a calendar function. This would be a game changer, and I think something that might happen as we see resources like Plan grow!
Should you switch?!
If you are a Todoist, Trello or Any.DO user. No. Not yet. It’s very far from being up to scratch with advanced functionality, but if you are looking for a lightweight solution, yes, switch.
This is a great lightweight resource.
