Introducing Steps in Microsoft To-Do

Microsoft

With Microsoft To-Do we wanted a fresh start to explore the positives of productivity. We were especially inspired by the sense of accomplishment that comes from completing your most important to-dos every day. Microsoft To-Do’s My Day frees you from the anxiety that accompanies an ever-growing to-do lists by resetting each morning so that you can prioritize your to-dos each day.

We love hearing how our customers use My Day to complete more of their to-dos each day. We’ve also heard your requests. Thanks to your feedback, we know that productivity doesn’t rest solely on a morning ritual of planning your day or end once you’ve completed your regular daily to-dos. Accomplishing larger goals requires effective tools to break those giant tasks down into more manageable bite-sized chunks.

With that in mind, we’re very happy to introduce you to Steps. Steps allows you to break any to-do down in to smaller pieces. No matter how monumental your to-do may be, you can tackle it easily, step by step.

 

Break your larger to-dos down in to your next steps.Break your larger to-dos down in to your next steps.

We’ve found that the best strategy to accomplish larger goals is to create simple, specific and actionable steps. If you’re working through your list and come to a to-do that you simply can’t complete immediately, it’s the perfect opportunity to pause and evaluate your next steps. Thanks to this moment of reflection, prep for presentation becomes update PowerPoint with slides from analytics, review last month's meeting notes and share outline & agenda, all of which are clearly defined and achievable.

As you complete each Step of your goal, we’ll help keep track of your progress. Beneath your to-do’s name we’ll show you just how many Steps it contains and how many you’ve completed so far. You’ll always be able to see exactly how far you’ve come directly from your list. The number of Steps left to reach your goal is always visible, helping keep you on track, accountable and in control.

Get Microsoft To-Do Preview for iPhone, Android, Windows and the web today.

We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on what you think would make Microsoft To-Do even better. You can talk to us via our in-app contact form, on UserVoice, Twitter or on Facebook.

48 Replies

@Keturah Cummings

Given that Microsoft To-Do Tasks correspond to Outlook Tasks, I am curious to know how I can see in Outlook the steps related to a Task.

Is it possible?

I have the same question. Using steps in ToDo but how are they displayed (if at all) in Microsoft Tasks?

Hi @Stephen Hancock and @Salvatore Biscari, Steps unfortunately aren't synced to Outlook Tasks. I can see how that would be really helpful, though. While syncing Steps to Outlook Tasks isn't currently planned, I want you to know that deepening our Outlook integration is on the list. Stay tuned :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I am converting from Wunderlist, so the To-Do app is where I want to focus, can I stop syncing to outlook altogether? The outlook tasks is clunky and the reminders are redundant if I'm using the To-Do App.

Hi @Kurt Lane, the sync with Outlook Tasks is automatic, so it's unfortunately not possible to turn it off. It is possible, however, to use Microsoft To-Do with a different Microsoft account than the one you're using with Outlook. That way your to-dos won't sync to Tasks and you can avoid reminder redundancy.  

Honestly, I feel like I would want all of my Microsoft 365 tools logged into my work account, but i'm going to be received duplicate reminders from Outlook, which I do not like.

Hey @Kurt Lane we hear you. We are working on a solution for that, though I don't have a timeline for you just yet. I'm sorry about that. 

Would really appreciate reconsidering whether steps will be synced in outlook.  As you observe, it would be really helpful, and when I open a task in outlook, I don't even have a clue that there are steps.  If only there were at least a notice and a link to todo, that would be adequate, but right now I'm afraid I'll miss something if I put steps in todo.  I'm better off keeping my steps in notes.

Steps really, really need reminders and Due Dates!

Or alternatively, a way to create dependencies between tasks.

Yes, I like the steps feature..

Can we have reminder and due date for steps too?

Being able to setup a "steps" template and assign to a type of task via flow would be a game changer for our business.

Would you mind giving us a few more details about how you envision the steps template working? Knowing the use-cases would be helpful for us in discussing the feature with the team. Thanks!

I am new to using MS To-Do an overall I like it. I am coming from Google Keep and notice a few shortcomings, but with progressive posts like this, and an active support team like Keturah Cummings, I am growing to enjoy the use.

 

I was initially going to talk about the integration with Outlook, but you've already addressed it. I didn't see you pushing the desktop application...which might suffice for some people. I know you included it in the original post, but it was at the very end where people might've not read it. I just downloaded it and sure enough it shows the steps.

 

For those who want the desktop application, here is the link she provided. Note: When you click Get, it will open the MS Store on Windows 10. The MS Store will prompt that you need to login, but you don't...just continue downloading and installing.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-to-do-list-task-reminder/9nblggh5r558?rtc=1&activetab=pi...

 

Thank you, Keturah, for providing positive feedback to the community.

 

One example would be in setting a task such as install the new website for XX. There might be five steps involved in that such as:

  • Purchase domain name
  • Set up host server
  • point domain name to host server
  • Install wordpress
  • add postmaster email address

If I do this fairly often, it will be much easier to have the steps as a quick-add template.

Love the feature, as it is often the case that one needs to break down bigger or recurrent tasks, and this way keeps everything well organized and sortable.

 

Unfortunately though I noticed an annoying bug in the browser version, where the steps fail to sync properly unless an action is taken on the task (like clicking the "Add to my day" button). This just makes the feature useless, as inconsistent info are shown. Hope the bug get fixed soon.

Thanks for the heads up on that. We'd like to investigate further. Would you mind telling me which browser you're using? If you could also share your session id, we'd be able to take a look from our end. From the web app, just click the settings cog icon in the top right > To-Do Settings > Copy Session ID. 

Hi Katurah,

 

I've been struggling with a nasty 'bug' for the past few days. It seems that my 'Repeat' reminders have gone wacky. I get many copies in 'Today'. I delete them, and soon thereafter, they all re-appear.

 

I would be helpful to have a 'master list' of Repeating tasks so that I would find the origin and change/delete the repeat option. (I think that is on the To-do list.)

 

I finally just deleted every copy in the master Tasks list, and it seems to have stopped. 

Hi Arnie, I'm really sorry to hear about that bug. Would you mind letting me know which device you were using and if you set those tasks to repeat directly within Microsoft To-Do or in Outlook Tasks? Thanks!

NOT Outlook tasks, but ToDo tasks.

Using both Windows desktop and Windows 10 phone.

Interestingly, I was able to stop the excessive repeats on the desktop yesterday by deleting every repeating entry in the Task list, but they still showed up on my phone for several hours. -not in Todo, but in Win10 Notifications.

It appears that now they have been killed off.