Tips and tricks Print

Try to make each of your tasks doable within 30 minutes

When you make your plan you should consider breaking down tasks that take more than 30 minutes to do.

This makes it easy to take a break and get back to work after an interruption, because you know exacly where you left off.

It is always a good idea to be able to take a small break from a computer at least once every half hour.

This should indirectly help you reduce stress and muscular tension in your neck, back and eyes.

Example




Only have a few active goals at the same time

If you have too many active goals at the same time it will take much longer before each goal is achieved.

You might also loose the motivation because it can feel like forever before the goal might be achieved.

Lifecoaches often suggest that you have a maximum of three active goals at the same time.

In TodoPlus you make a goal active by making it important (yellow star)

Example




Do the most important tasks first with TodoPlus

A very big project might never get done unless you focus on the most important tasks.

If you create a plan for a big project and do some brainstorming you might feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks. There might be hundreds of tasks.

In order to getting things done in time, you must go through all the tasks and make a decision whether the task is IMPORTANT or UNIMPORTANT. Mark each important task with a yellow star and each unimportant task with a grey star.

This way you can dramatically reduce the number of tasks and focus on the most important tasks.

The "80-20 rule" can be applied here : "80% of your results come from 20% of your tasks"

In TodoPlus you can hide all the unimportant tasks in the toolbar to the far right. In order to hide unimporant tasks it should look like this:




Use keyboard shortcuts as much as possible

This is the most important tip that can improve your experience with TodoPlus.

Everything that you can do with the mouse has a keyboard shortcut.

You can work much faster by using the keyboard shortcuts.

Access the keyboard shortcuts from inside TodoPlus by selecting the Help-icon:



You can also access the keyboard shortcuts from the menu of this help system.



How to transfer tasks to other software

You can copy tasks to other software like your favorite word processor, website editor, calender software etc.

1. Open the file you want to copy to other software

2. Click the icon "Show in internet browser"



Now your favorite internet browser opens and shows your tasks as html-text. This text you can copy to whatever software you like.



Use your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad

If you want to use your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad for task management, I recommend the app called "GoTasks". GoTasks is a free iPhone/iPod touch/iPad application that can both be used offline and online. It can sync with your Google Tasks, and if you use the procedures written below this text, you can use TodoPlus with Google Tasks aswell - so you can use your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad with TodoPlus. I tested many free apps in order to find the one that looked most similar to TodoPlus and had offline mode (for better performance) and of course Google Tasks sync.
GoTasks is not developed by TodoPlus.com.

"GoTasks" for iPhone/iPod Touch : http://shurakov.name/gotasks

I have not tested any Android or Windows mobile apps that sync with Google Tasks, so I wont recommend any, however plenty apps exist for those mobile platforms that syncs with Google Tasks. Just google "android google tasks sync" and similar.



How to transfer TodoPlus tasks to Google Tasks

If you want to transfer some of your TodoPlus tasks to your Google Tasks account, then use the TodoPlus feature "Show in internet browser".

Click this icon in the toolbar of TodoPlus.



Then select "Show all as html-text WITH GRAPHICS".

Now your internet browser starts and you may use your mouse to copy the tasks you want to copy to your Google Tasks. Then go to your Google Tasks account and insert the tasks.

If you transfer your tasks this way, the linebreaks are kept, so you can copy multiple tasks at once!



How to transfer your Google Tasks to TodoPlus

In order to transfer tasks lists from your Google account do this.

1. Log in to your Google account.
2. Select "Calendar".
3. Now your Google tasks are located to the right.
4. Click "Actions" in the bottom of the screen, and a menu pops up.
5. Click "Print task list".
6. Now a new windows pops up.
7. Click "Cancel" because you do not want to print the tasks.
8. Now you can use your mouse and mark all the tasks you want to copy/transfer.
9. Go to TodoPlus.
10. Locate the position in your TodoPlus to-do list where you want to insert the tasks.
11. Press "CTRL+SHIFT+v" (or click the toolbar icon : )
12. Now you have inserted the Google tasks that you wanted to transfer, and the tasks are all separated in to individual tasks - just like they should be.

NB: The sub-tasks are shown as Google tasks, so tasks and sub-tasks are not converted into TodoPlus folders. However that is easy to to with "CTRL+right arrow", if you really want to.



Use a USB flash drive

I personally store all my TodoPlus '.plan'-files on a USB flash stick because I use both a stationary computer and a laptop. This way I can work on these files on my stationary computer with the big computer screen at home, and work on these files on my laptop, when I am away from home. The benefit is that I do not need to copy the files (except backups)

Always remember to backup your files once in a while.



How to capture tasks when you are away from TodoPlus

Use what ever you find convenient.

You might want to use a combination of a small paper notebook and an iphone/ipod touch/mobile phone with notes that you can transfer to your laptop/desktop computer. If you have a Google account you have access to Google tasks too. You can also access your Google tasks from most mobile devices, and when you start TodoPlus later, you can transfer your Google tasks to TodoPlus. (look for example at this page).

Sometimes paper to-do lists are the best way to go, especielly when shopping.



Reuse your plans in the future

If you want to re-use your to-do list for future projects, then do not delete the completed tasks! Just check them as completed and hide them using the filter.

You can uncheck finished tasks later.

When you want to re-use a plan make sure that the "Show done tasks" filter is activated and then just remove each of the "Done" states.

An example of a re-useable plan is a goal that you would like to achieve again or share with other people (i.e. vacation plan, weight loss, fitness program).



Navigation in TodoPlus

The most basic navigation in TodoPlus is the mouse, the arrow keys and the "Page up"/"Page down" keys. However you should try out the mousewheel too, if you have a mouse with a mousewheel. The mousewheel take smaller jumps up/down the list than the page up/down keys, and this of often better.

If you want to find a specific task in a large list then you might want to use the search tool. The search tool is fast and it marks all the found tasks with blue text and opens the related tasks above.




Get more lists from checklist.com

There are hundreds of checklist at http://checklist.com/categories/ - and you can copy them right into TodoPlus.




Productivity articles index

http://todoplus.com/productivity_articles_index.html




Productivity blogs index (a-z)

http://todoplus.com/productivity_blogs_index.html



Copyright © 2011-2014 TodoPlus.com - All rights reserved