Introducing Steps in Microsoft To-Do

[Keturah Cummings]

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.

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.

[#2]

@Keturah Cummings - I've noticed that Steps are not accessible on the Graph API and thus also not in Power Automate - the templating for new tasks could be easily achieved through Power Automate, with the added flexibility of being able to use it for many other use cases. I.e. I'm pulling in tasks from multiple sources every day (projects I'm working on from different tools: Jira, Confluence, daily recurring but dynamic task lists, Quire, Unanswered E-Mails from last Day) to create my personal list for the day. 

While we're at it: Being able to add tasks directly to "Today" through Power Automate would be amazing too, e.g. set a Flag on Add To-Do (V3).

And in the vague hope that it's the same team responsible: Being able to filter if an E-Mail is in "focused" or not through Power Automate would be amazing too. (It's in Graph API as InferenceClassification accessible through $filter, but $filter is not exposed only $search in Get Email (v4)) - Thanks :)

[#3]

OK, I'll say it. Microsoft, it's been 3 years now and steps still are not included for tasks AT ALL in Outlook. Sorry, but this is ridiculous and inexcusable. There should have been at least SOME sort of integration by now. :unamused_face:

[#4]

I like steps feature and frequently using it. On planning my day task shows the task name and the list name underneath and step count. Can it show the next step which is incomplete as that is the real task to do.

This will help avoiding clicking that task and see which step you are at in that task. It will be very productive to see step at a glance.

[#5]

@Keturah Cummings 

Hi,

Ive created a task that i just add steps to during each qtr. Id prefer this then create a whole new task each time.

Is there any way to have 'steps' disappear once completed? Or at least drop to the bottom of the steps.

Thanks.

[#6]

@Keturah Cummings 

I find Steps very helpful for managing multi-part Tasks and sequencing, checking tasks as we go.  

It would help to Hide Completed Steps in the same way you can hide completed Tasks.  This would complement the ability to see the count of total Steps and the number completed and concentrate on the remaining Steps. 

[#7]

great suggestions @Mike_C1302 

[#8]

@Keturah Cummings 

This is by the far the best todo list app, out there, by the way.
Well done, team. 👏🏻

I am using the iOS app, by the way. 

A couple of suggestions:

Steps:

I would like a few choices here about how to display steps.

Maybe we could choose to see incomplete steps, but I would also like the option to just see all steps, underneath each task.

So how about the following step display options:

Underneath the appropriate task:

• next step only
• incomplete steps 
• all steps

These display settings would apply to every task. You should not be able to set these display options on individual tasks.
That would look messy & inconsistent. 

Maybe there could be a little up & down arrow, to toggle the display of steps under its task.

As far as steps notes go, maybe there could be a little notes icon, that allows you to toggle the notes display.
Then we could see the entire task, step, notes tree, all on one screen. 

It’s kind of bad UI, to have to click through to the step each time, especially when the step is combined with all the step ‘call to actions’.

Steps note editor:

I would also like a couple more WYSIWYG options in the steps note editor.

Could you add:

• code block
• underline
• blockquote
• font size 
• font colour picker
• font family 

[#9]

Steps are great, but what would make them even more useful is if they were visible (and closeable) from the list. As it is, I can only see that there are steps under a list item, but to actually see what they are, I have to click the item to see its property sidebar.

@Keturah Cummings 

[#10]

Yes. I agree :)