Goodbye Wunderlist, Hello Microsoft To Do

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I’ve used a number of on-line ‘to do’ list applications over the years but about 4 or 5 years ago, I came across one called Wunderlist that I really liked and have been using it ever since. It works on a browser, a tablet or a smartphone so it’s never out of reach. And because it’s cloud based, whatever I enter with one device is instantly available on the others.

A few years ago, I found that Microsoft had purchased the company that developed the Wunderlist app for somewhere between $100 – $200 million. Now, I know that when a company gets purchased, it can spell doom for the customers of the product. It’s hard to understand the business model of a company that gives away a product for free and doesn’t appear to have any up-sells or in-app purchases to generate revenue. So my heart kind of sank when I heard that Microsoft intended to discontinue the product not long after they purchased it.

Then I became aware of a Microsoft todo list simply named ‘To Do’ and that it would allow importing of the data from Wunderlist. I was skeptical at first, but now that I’ve imported my data, and have watched a few tutorials, I am hopeful that this new product will be even better than Wunderlist.

Wunderlist will go away on May 6th, 2020, so if you are a Wunderlist user, I can assure you that the Microsoft To Do list works even better. Now to be fair, I learned to use Wunderlist by just using it and never bothered to read any ‘how to’ articles or tutorials on it. I’m sure a lot of its functionality was lost on me. So I made a point of watching a few video tutorials on Microsoft’s To Do and I’ve included them below in case you’re thinking of taking the plunge. One video is of using it on a mobile device and the other is how to use it in a conventional browser. I learned a lot about its features in these two short videos and found them to be worthwhile.

Like my last blog posting, this one was created in one 25-minute ‘Pomodoro’, which is another productivity tool I recommend. It keeps you focused and reluctant to allow distractions or interruptions. You know you’ll be done in 25 minutes or less so you’re unlikely to allow the task to go unfinished. Give it a try too, I think between the To Do and the Pomodoro Technique, you can get much more accomplished that you realize and in much less time.

To Do tutorial for use in a browser

To Do tutorial on a Smartphone