4 Tips to Help You Organize Your To-Do Lists Better

Whether you’re keeping a grocery list, housecleaning routines or potential million-dollar ideas, one of its more popular features is called My Day, which offers personalized suggestions to update your daily or weekly to-dos.

Formerly known as Wunderlist, Microsoft To Do can be accessed on all mobile devices, computers and virtually any browser. Though free, Microsoft To Do requires a Microsoft account, an email address and password that you use with Outlook.com, OneDrive, Skype and other Microsoft apps.

Microsoft OneNote. If you need more features to annotate your lists, Microsoft’s free OneNote, also requiring a Microsoft account, is a more powerful digital notepad that lets you add media. You can save photos, such as something you saw on Pinterest; scan business cards and documents; and sketch ideas.

Like Microsoft To Do, all your notes are synchronized in the cloud. So you’ll always be working with the latest version of your list. You can share lists with others and collaborate.

Evernote is a handy app for organizing your lists, copying websites, pasting photos, recording audio, sketching diagrams and typing notes. Like OneNote, all notes automatically sync wirelessly, so you can access your info anywhere and share or collaborate on the same note.

You even can take a picture of book or magazine text and convert it into editable text. This is a great way to save content and make it searchable by keyword.

The basic version of Evernote, which allows you to use it on two devices, is free. Premium plans with advanced features and additional cloud storage start at $8.99 a month.

Many other to-do list apps, including Any.do, Google Keep, Todoist and Remember the Milk — cute name, no? — will do the job. Though they may vary in features and interface, most are free for basic functionality and synchronize across all your devices.

3. Manage your lists

No matter which app you choose, these tips will help you get the most out of your lists.

Organize by topic. The words “orange juice” on a shopping list shouldn’t sit alongside paint colors for a potential bathroom renovation.

You can create separate lists or a color-coded master list. You can move items around using your mouse or fingertip if you want to prioritize an item by placing it on top of a list. In some cases, you can increase an item’s font size or make it boldface.

Update your list. In an app, you can often X an item out, which might put a line through it, or you can have it deleted once you’ve performed the task.

Since the app syncs across devices, the item also will be crossed off when you open the app elsewhere. Or if you share a list with someone, such as a spouse, you both always will see the same list.

Oleksiy Maksymenko Photography / Alamy Stock Photo

Pick up a stylus, a rubber-tipped pen-shaped device, from your local dollar store if you like the feel of handwritten notes. You can use it instead of your finger to write on a smartphone or tablet. Many list apps will let you keep your handwritten notes as is and digitize them for you.

Some phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, include an electronic stylus that’s compatible only with Samsung devices. It’s tucked under the phone. If you like using iPads and want a stylus that allows you to draw, Apple and other companies make these more expensive active styluses.

Take advantage of tech-only features. List apps often can nudge you to do something, unlike a sticky note stuck to your whiteboard.

The process will vary depending on the app. Add a reminder or alarm and choose a time to be notified. That way, you can get a reminder to cancel an annual subscription before you’re billed for another year, call the bank for a better rate on your renewing certificate of deposit before the grace period ends or order your blood pressure medicine from the online pharmacy every 90 days.

Let your list comparison shop. Some shopping list apps, such as the free Flipp, will look for the best prices on items you want to buy. For example, type in large eggs. It will look for the least expensive prices around you and show you where they are.

You also can browse through circulars for stores in your neighborhood and tap what you’re interested in for it to be digitally clipped and saved elsewhere in the app. 

Use your smart speaker to its fullest. Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod and Google Nest products can create and organize lists.

Tell Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri to add an item to a shopping list, then ask to hear what is on the shopping list. All three of those voice assistants are also available on your smartphone — Samsung smartphones have Bixby built in — and can call up notes or lists when you speak into your phone.

Personal assistants even can give you reminders by location: “Siri, when I get home, remind me to check to see if we need more milk.” It knows where “home” is if you’ve confirmed this in your Contacts app and will prompt you to set it if you haven’t.

4. Allow time to get comfortable

If you’re not sure which app to go with, spend a couple of days playing around with its features. If you feel as if something is missing, poke around the Options or Settings menu before uninstalling the app to see if what you want is there but not initially activated.

Through trial and error, you’ll find something that works for you.

This story, originally published March 16, 2020, updates information on existing apps and includes new ones.