Swift To-Do List Blog » Dextronet News

Kick-start your productivity with new Swift To-Do List 11!

Andy Forda — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 10:18:40 +0000

Your 2022 can be much more productive and organized!

We are super excited to bring you Swift To-Do List 11!

To get this major upgrade, you need to have your license renewal active.

If you don’t own Swift To-Do List yet, you can buy Swift To-Do List today and get a free upgrade to version 11 as soon as it’s released.

Now let’s take a look at what you are getting in version 11:

1832 new icons plus icon search!

Enjoy 1832 new modern tree icons for your to-do lists, memos and spreadsheets!

You can now also quickly find icons by typing what you’re looking for!

You’ll have a total blast with these new carefully hand-picked icons.

New Contact Manager

You can use the brand new Contact Manager as a lightweight CRM.

You can store any information you might ever need for each of your contacts. There’s now 8 inbuilt fields (Name, E-Mail, Phone, Photo, Address, Company, Website, Color…).

But get this –

Swift To-Do List 11 now ALSO supports up to 10 custom fields in the Contact Manager!

You will SHOCK others with your organizing kung-fu and super-human memory!

Your professional and personal relationships will be better than ever!

Take the efficiency of dealing with individuals and companies to the next level.

Team Feature: Show reminders to assignees only

Reminders are now laser focused to the right people!

No more reminders shown to people NOT assigned to tasks!

With this new feature, only those assigned to a task will get reminders about them.

Of course, you can still create team-wide reminders: just leave a task unassigned.

Custom time tracker sound

You can now customize the sound which is played when your countdown timer finishes.

Enjoy!

A bunch of other improvements

Reminder emails now include the full task path and a list of task attachments.
You can now clone filters to create similar filters, or make filter templates.
When adding a new task, you can start time tracking or create a sticky note right then. Do more with less clicks!
Customize your workflow: You can now choose whether new tasks should appear at the top, or at the bottom of an existing list.

We’ve also included many small improvements and bug fixes to help you become even more productive with Swift To-Do List.

The new version 11 will be released on Jan 31st 2019. And of course, we have TONS more updates coming in 2019 to those with active licenses!

If you don’t own Swift To-Do List yet, you can buy Swift To-Do List today and get a free upgrade to version 11 as soon as it’s released.

Have your best year yet!

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Kick-start your productivity with new Swift To-Do List 11! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

An important change in the upcoming Swift To-Do List release

Ondrej Zabojnik — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:57:08 +0000

We’ll be releasing a new Swift To-Do List version 10.310 soon.

The setup file for the new release will display a different publisher: Ondrej Forda instead of Jiri Novotny.

Ondrej Forda is the current CEO of Dextronet.com and signed a new certificate that proves the authenticity of our installation setup files.

We want to inform you that this is an intentional change and it has no effect on the installation or the program.

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An important change in the upcoming Swift To-Do List release is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Announcement: Sync Service Maintenance on Saturday 2/4

Ondrej Zabojnik — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 11:30:31 +0000

Please notice the Sync Service may be unavailable during a scheduled maintenance on Saturday 2/4.

We apologize for any inconvenience. We will resume normal operation as soon as possible. This maintenance should improve the stability of the Sync Service.

Thank you for your understanding!

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Announcement: Sync Service Maintenance on Saturday 2/4 is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Announcement: Sync Service Maintenance between Saturday 9/3 and Sunday 9/4

Ondrej Zabojnik — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 15:21:27 +0000

Please notice the Sync Service may be unavailable during a scheduled maintenance period between Saturday 9/3/2016 4 PM UTC (10 AM Central Time) and 9/4/2016 4 AM UTC (10 PM Central Time).

We apologize for any inconvenience. We will resume normal operation as soon as possible. This maintenance is very much needed since we’ll be upgrading the Sync Service for the upcoming Swift To-Do List 10 release.

Thank you for your understanding!

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Announcement: Sync Service Maintenance between Saturday 9/3 and Sunday 9/4 is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What we are up to in 2016: Swift To-Do List 10 is coming

Ondrej Zabojnik — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:28:48 +0000

As you know, in November 2015, we’ve released Swift To-Do List 9.50 with new greatly improved Secure Sync. Since then we’ve continued working hard on the Secure Sync as well as new features that we plan to introduce this year.

We are happy that many of you find the Secure Sync, our mobile apps and the web-app for Swift To-Do List helpful. You might have noticed that when using the Secure Sync, you mostly don’t get bothered with task edit conflicts and such. That’s because we want to make it as easy to use as possible. That is however a complicated job and occasionally in some edge cases, given the complexity and the amount of data we are managing in the Secure Sync, problems may take a little longer to solve than we would like to. We always appreciate your patience and assistance in identifying the root of the issue.

Now the big news – Swift To-Do List 10 is coming this year! If you own the current Swift To-Do List 9 subscription license, it will be a free upgrade for you.

Our main goal for Swift To-Do List 10 is now a long-awaited full Scheduler/Calendar. We will also introduce some other new features and improvements in the Secure Sync infrastructure.

Apart from that we plan on introducing new Team features to make it easier and more productive to use Swift To-Do List in organizations.

Also, updates to our companion mobile apps – such as background sync – are one the way.

We are super glad for all the positive feedback about Swift To-Do List helping you with your every day life, especially the Secure Sync. That gives us inspiration to continue working on Swift To-Do List and make it even better for you. Thank you!

May Swift To-Do List help you make 2016 truly great for you!

What we are up to in 2016: Swift To-Do List 10 is coming is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity”

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 11:57:33 +0000

The best and most important e-book training I’ve ever written has been just released!

This book will change the way you look at productivity forever.

You will dramatically increase your productivity, master your habits and kill your procrastination.

I’ve worked on this book for over 3 years. I’ve applied everything I’ve learned over the past 10 years about productivity, and condensed it all into proven, simple & powerful systems that anyone can start using immediately, with the least effort possible.

The book turned out really well, and I’m super excited about it. It can truly enrich and inspire you.

I’ve organized this training into 5 short e-books (modules) – each has about 20-40 pages.

In module #1, “The Secrets of New Productivity“, I list 7 common productivity problems (that no one talks about) and how you can overcome them.

These include lack of willpower and self-discipline, perfectionism, the fact that your to-do list is infinite, decision paralysis (being overwhelmed), to-do list guilt, and more.

You will also learn why “meta productivity” beats “productivity”: When you try to be productive, you burn your willpower on a particular task. So it’s not really sustainable. But when you are meta productive, you use your willpower and mental energy to make yourself more productive permanently.

In module #2, “The Meta-Habit™”, I share the most powerful method for taking control of your life and time I know of.

Habits are actions with huge ROI (return on investment). Just a single habit that helps you to be more productive, healthy, energetic or joyful can pay you huge dividends for the rest of your life.
And what’s the best way to take control of all your habits? With a habit!

The Meta-Habit™ is a method of managing habits. It’s super easy – it takes just about 2 minutes per day, and yet, it will help you to successfully start new habits or break existing negative ones.

In module #3, “The Productiveness Framework™”, I share the ultimate method for dramatically increasing your productivity.

The Productiveness Framework™ is a set of 5 principles that you can organize your day around. One of them is a simple yet brutally effective method for getting a lot of real, important work done every day.

You can expect to increase your productivity by 50-100% just by implementing the tools from this module alone.

Then there’s module #4, “33 Golden Nuggets of Productivity Wisdom”.

The idea behind this module is to make you a wise productivity genius.

This module will increase your awareness of productivity, give you new powerful perspectives and deep insights that will, in the long run, result in more success in your work and life.

This module is super-fun to read. It’s a collection of the best and most valuable information on productivity I know of.

Finally, there’s the bonus module #5, “7 Productivity Power Tools”.

In this final module, you will get additional proven tools that you can use to increase your productivity even more.

Click here to learn more about Meta Productivity. Or click here to purchase it ($99.95)..

Meta Productivity is delivered to you instantly, in 3 formats (PDF, ePub and Kindle).

Meta Productivity comes with Unconditional 90-day Money Back Guarantee: If you won’t be amazingly happy with it and the positive impact it has on your productivity and life, we will give you a full refund.

Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity” is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Mind Collected – new software launched!

Jiri Novotny — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 09:53:06 +0000

Mind Collected is completely new and original software. It was just released. You can download free 30-day trial. It was designed by me, Jiri Novotny, Dextronet.com co-founder.

By using Mind Collected, you can visually collect and manage all kinds of information, but also actually improve how your brain and memory works.

You can exploit Mind Collected in 3 major ways, as a:

Personal visual knowledge base (your personal visual database that allows you to “collect” anything in the form of visual objects with rich notes, organized by tags.)
Personal research and learning tool (whenever you want to master a subject or learn something new, you can capture key information related to the topic you are learning into Mind Collected in the form of inter-connected visual objects. This will help you learn much faster and better. You will also have a far better alternative to classic plain-text notes for later review – instead, you will have a gallery of visual items, each with its own notes and connections to other items. Reviewing what you’ve learned visually is much faster and more pleasant than reading the old-fashioned text-only notes.)
Brain enhancement tool (by using Mind Collected, you can improve your brain in 3 areas: memory, learning, creativity and productivity. You can actually physically improve the health and functioning of your brain. For example, by capturing and connecting information in Mind Collected, you will yourself create new mental associations. As a result, you will grow new synapses and neurons in your brain – we now know this is possible due to neuroplasticity.)

Additionally, you can use it as:

Collector’s tool – Have you ever collected anything? Stamps, stickers, coins, matchboxes, car toys, dolls, or anything else? If you did, you probably had fun. Growing your collection is a great feeling that non-collectors won’t understand. Well, but let me ask you: What if you could also collect fascinating information? What if you could collect memories and experiences? What if you could collect things that are actually important, and it did not matter if they exist physically or just in your mind? All that in a visual, fun way…? Is that something you would be interested in? Mind Collected allows you to collect anything. You can have unlimited number of visual collections of ANYTHING in a single software!
Personal development tool – Did you know that you can change your behavior and thinking by “priming” yourself with important ideas and habits presented in visual form? For example, if you start visually cataloging individual healthy foods using Mind Collected, you will be automatically more likely to buy and eat them in the future. This is called “priming” in psychology. You can do the same with healthy positive habits, thoughts, etc. (Also, have you ever created a “vision board”? Well, every tag in Mind Collected is also automatically a vision board!)

Quick look at the technical side

Mind Collected is personal visual database software for Windows.

Every item in your database has a picture associated with it. (These pictures can be automatically searched and downloaded from the Internet, or you can provide them yourself.)

Items in the database are organized using tags. Every item can have any number of tags. (Mind Collected automatically intelligently organizes your tags for easy navigation, so even hundreds of tags are not a problem.)

Every item also has its own rich notes. This allows you to capture related information and thoughts to each of the items in your database.

Items can be connected to any number of other items. This allows you to cross-link your items, making it easier to navigate in your database, but also create new mental associations.

(You can learn more about the technical side in the online help.)

How I started my “personal renaissance”

Several years ago, something critically important has dawned on me -

It is really dumb that we go through life having various experiences, insights, ideas, learning interesting things and facts — and constantly LOSING parts of that. Why do we forget so much? Why do we lose parts of our lives? Why do we lose parts of our minds? Isn’t that a shame?

Well, of course, our brain is naturally constantly cleaning our memories; otherwise we would go mad from all the details we would remember. BUT, we don’t have any say in what is our brain going to remember and what will get wiped out from our memory forever. And so it happens that our brain is forgetting interesting and useful things, ALL-THE-TIME. This seems both ridiculous and terribly limiting to me.

Since I am a professional software designer, I started working on a software solution.

When I started experimenting with the first software prototypes, I was surprised by the results I’ve personally started getting almost immediately as I began using them – I suddenly remembered and understood things much better. Reliable temporary internet connections in detroit can also make testing new software setups smoother and more efficient. For some reason, I also had a lot of fun when using the software.

This has intrigued me, and so I started researching memory, neurosciences and neuroplasticity. I’ve applied what I’ve learned in the design of Mind Collected.

(By the way, the recent progress we’ve made in neuro-sciences is extraordinary, and I highly recommend that you educate yourself a bit about neuroplasticity. Your brain can grow new neurons and synapses, and it can learn new complex subjects and skills even in advanced age.)

I’m a big believer in “eating your own dog food”. I use Mind Collected every day. My database has already over 1,000 entries. And I absolutely love it.

Mind Collected has helped me to start my own “personal renaissance“. I feel that after many years, I’ve finally experienced a significant shift in my personal growth, and that I operate on a higher level now.

Today, when I read a book, I know that I won’t forget 50% of it a week later, 90% of it a month later, and 99% of it two years later. No — today, when I read a book and learn something, I know that I will remember everything I want to remember, as long as I want to, with very little effort. In fact, I will have fun collecting the information from the book in Mind Collected, in the form of visual objects, that I will enjoy connecting to other objects that I already have there. And I will also have fun when reviewing this information, because it will be visually engaging and much faster than reviewing old fashioned plain-text notes.

Now I have a choice in what I’m going to remember and what I am going to forget. Finally!

You personally can now also benefit from Mind Collected. It’s quite easy and simple, really.

Take advantage of neuroscience

You can now take advantage of the latest discoveries in neuro-sciences by using Mind Collected. Just the simple act of adding items into Mind Collected will help you remember them better, and make them more psycho-active in your brain.

We all have quite advanced visual cortex in our brain, but it is unfortunately usually severely underutilized. We are far more efficient working with visual information rather than with text-only information. Mind Collected allows you to represent every information visually by assigning it a picture, and thus allows you to use the potential of your own brain more fully.

A picture truly is worth 1000 words.

Using Mind Collected is fun, and the more you use it, the better it feels and the more powerful it is – you will start generating your own “aha!” moments. You will get satisfaction from growing your visual collection, which closely represents your own mind. By connecting items in your visual database, you will also create new mental associations. This will start stimulating your physical brain to grow new neurons and synapses.

As your Mind Collected collection grows and improves, so does your memory and brain functioning. Everything related to the items you’ve added into your Mind Collected will be easier to memorize, understand and recall for you. Plus, you will of course have a beautiful gallery of things that you find important and interesting!

Download Mind Collected

You can download free 30-day trial for Windows right now. The installation takes just 1 click. Currently, you can purchase Mind Collected with 50% discount during the launch promotion.

Mind Collected includes a Quick Start Guide that will get you started in no time, as well as more detailed Online Help to help you fully master the details.

The current version 1.0 is just the beginning, and I would love to hear what you think. I have many grand visions planned for the future of Mind Collected, but you have the main say in shaping it. So don’t be shy and let me know how to make it as valuable, useful and beneficial for you as possible!

In case you are wondering, I still manage my tasks in Swift To-Do List, where it excels. I use Mind Collected as a learning, knowledge-management and brain/memory enhancement tool.

Mind Collected is an alternative to mind maps (comparison table).

Mind Collected – new software launched! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Swift To-Do List 9 released!

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 10:35:51 +0000

New Swift To-Do List 9 has been officially released!

Download the new Swift To-Do List and check it out for yourself.

This is a very exciting release, as it takes Swift To-Do List to a completely new level.

Check out what’s new in the new version 9 and see the screenshots.

Among other things, the new version allows you to get organized with spreadsheets and sticky notes.

What happens when you can organize all your tasks, notes, reminders, AND spreadsheets AND sticky notes in a single organizer software?

Well, you can manage and track all your stuff in a single place! This is extremely liberating and gets you in total control of your work and life.

The new version has been received extremely well – most people who’ve used it absolutely love it.

There are more things to come, too!

What’s coming next?

1. Finished Sync feature. We are working hard on finishing the sync feature (currently in Beta), which allows you to collaborate with other people and keep Swift To-Do List synchronized on multiple computers using a secure cloud. Swift To-Do List 9 includes a completely new sync feature re-written from scratch, and we are doing our maximum to finish it.

2. Companion mobile apps for iOS and Android, planned to be released in late February 2014. At first, these will be simple (mostly an inbox), but eventually they should allow you to do important operations with your tasks and notes.

3. Companion web-app, planned to be released in February 2014. The new web-app will more feature-rich, and resemble the Windows version. You will be able to use it from any computer, even when you are on the go. It will be of course fully synchronized with the Windows and mobile versions.

I think that year 2014 will be the biggest year for Swift To-Do List yet.

Swift To-Do List 9 released! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Swift To-Do List 8 launched!

Jiri Novotny — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:36:16 +0000

We’ve officially launched the brand-new shiny Swift To-Do List 8. We’ve also launched a new homepage – see it at www.dextronet.com.

This is probably the biggest and most exciting release we’ve ever done. As one of our customers, Serge, said:

Congratulations to you and your team! This is more than a major release, the subtask implementation makes it essentially a brand new product!

And I have to agree! I think that just the subtasks feature alone makes this upgrade more than worthwhile to you.

Subtasks greatly help you reduce overwhelm and procrastination, and you can use them to manage projects and more complex tasks with ease, simplicity and clarity.

I would have never believed how powerful it can be to break complex tasks into small subtasks. Believe me, once you try subtasks, you will never want to go back.

You can see what’s new in version 8 here. The what’s new page includes screenshots and also contains more information on subtasks.

How to get the new version 8

First of all, download the new Swift To-Do List 8 from our website.
If you’ve purchased Swift To-Do List recently (after 5th of August 2012), you will automatically get a free upgrade, and your existing license code will keep working.
Or, if you’ve been already using Swift To-Do List for some time, then, as a previous customer, you will be able to purchase the upgrade to the new version with a significant discount. All you have to do is to click the Buy button in the new version, which will automatically take you to the correct upgrade page, where you will be able to purchase the new version with a discount. Alternatively, use the upgrade wizard on our website.

All your settings and data will be fully preserved, of course. Your data is sacred to us, so upgrading, installing or even uninstalling any of our products will never delete your data.

You love version 8

The feedback to the new version 8 has been extremely positive so far.

Nearly all of the early adopters told us that they absolutely love the new version, especially the subtasks feature.

For example, this is what Jason wrote us just yesterday:

Thanks for all your hard work! Swift To-Do List has really helped me get all my projects organized while getting much more done and stressing much less about everything. Subtasks have been really helpful in allowing me to break larger tasks down into smaller actionable tasks (…). I feel like I’m in control of my workday and personal life for the first time in many years.

I just went and bought the v8 Ultimate upgrade!

We are delighted by the reception, and super-excited about the new release and future of Swift To-Do List.

We are also very grateful for your ongoing support. Yes, I am talking to you. You are the reason we exist today, and we are honored to serve you. By purchasing upgrades, you allow us to fund further development and keep improving Swift To-Do List with ironclad commitment. (And we have a lot of extremely cool stuff coming as free updates in the 8.xx line).

Focus on innovation

I sincerely believe that Swift To-Do List 8 is truly the best to-do list software ever created for Windows.

Since Swift To-Do List has all the basic functionality handled so well, we’ve started to focus more on innovation.

For example, one of the innovative new features in version 8 is the Hide Until field. Using it, you can hide tasks for later. It’s like a “mega-snooze” for your tasks. Just pick a Hide Until date for any task, and the task will disappear. When the date comes, the task will appear on your to-do list again. By using Hide Until, you can keep your to-do lists super-relevant, motivating, and short & sweet. Just hide everything that is not relevant right now for later!

Also, I am very proud of our subtasks implementation. The subtasks have been designed really, really well. Using subtasks is dirt-simple and completely intuitive. For example, you can create them in many different ways: You can move tasks left/right to turn them into subtasks by modifying the task hierarchy. Or, you can use your mouse and Drag and Drop any task onto another task to turn it into its subtask. Or, you can simply use the Add Subtask button, or use the new Ctrl+M shortcut.

What’s coming next

Right now, we are working on a series of 8.xx updates to make Swift To-Do List faster across the board and reduce its RAM consumption.

After that, we plan to finish the sync/collaboration/mobile functionality, which has been in Beta for far too time now.

Then, a full-blown scheduling calendar and the ability to create entirely custom columns can be expected, among many, many other great new features.

So, what are you waiting for?

Just download the all-new version 8 and start reaping the benefits today.

Keep your to-do list short and motivating by hiding tasks for later. Stay focused on what is relevant.
Break complex tasks and projects into subtasks, and defeat procrastination and overwhelm. Doing the next small action step (subtask) is easy!

The two suggestions above are just some ideas – the new version gives much more new possibilities, of course!

To see what’s new and to perhaps get inspired how to use it, check out the what’s new in version 8 page.

PS: I would love to hear what you think! Just post in the comments below. We’ve recently made posting comments here as simple as possible.

Swift To-Do List 8 launched! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Coming Soon: New Swift To-Do List 8 with subtasks!

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:13:36 +0000

We’ve been working hard on new major version of Swift To-Do List for about half a year now, and it’s now just weeks away from being launched! We plan to release it by the late September/early October.

Today, I am very excited, because I will show you some of the new stuff from the upcoming release.

Version 8 brings multiple new incredible features, which can dramatically improve the way you work and organize your life.

We’ve put an enormous amount of effort and innovation into version 8, and we are both very excited and very pleased with the final result.

If you’ve already purchased Swift To-Do List 7 and been using it for some time now, you will be able to upgrade to version 8 with a big discount.

If you are a new customer and purchase Swift To-Do List 7 now, or have purchased it recently, you will get a free upgrade to version 8. (“Recently” means in 90 days before the official release of version 8.)

So, what’s new in version 8?

Well, a lot. The biggest feature are probably subtasks. Just the subtasks alone are well worth the upgrade price.

New Professional (and Ultimate) edition features:

Subtasks enable you to break down intimidating complex tasks into easily manageable chunks and plan your work better. Subtasks can dramatically boost your productivity, and reduce procrastination. How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The following screenshot shows subtasks combined with item numbering:
Hide Until field enables you to hide tasks until a specified date. It’s a “mega-snooze” for your tasks. This allows you to keep your lists short and sweet. Hide things that you don’t have to worry about for now.
Automatic archiving of done tasks after a specified number of days (or even immediately). Keep your lists clean.

New Ultimate-only features:

Renaming of columns/fields: Re-purpose any field, such as Type, Context or Start Date to something different. For example, rename the “Start Date” to “Shipment Date” or “Last Contacted Date”. Or, rename the “Context” field to “Client”. This is the ultimate customization – all up to you!
Item numbering for to-do lists and lists. Task names can be now automatically prefixed with a number, e.g. “1. First task”, “2. Second task”, etc. This gives you a better sense of how much work is left. (“Lists” are also a new feature – read on!)

New features added to all editions:

List, a new type of tree item beside to-do lists and memos. Lists are perfect for all non-task items. Items in Lists don’t have checkboxes, are not included in the “Tasks to be done” stats, and can be hidden by filters. Very useful for all non-actionable items, such as inventories, collections, recipes, ideas, references, and anything else that is not a task. Organize anything, not just tasks!
Tasks can be now reordered in all view modes. Before, it was possible to reorder tasks only when viewing a single to-do list.
Reminders are preserved until you dismiss them, so you won’t lose the opened reminders by exiting the program or rebooting your computer anymore.
Filters can optionally change the view mode when set, so you can create a filter that immediately displays all tasks, then filters them.
In notes, hyperlinks to tree items (to-do lists, memos, lists) can be created in the notes text.
You can now use alphabetic sorting of the tree.
New “Attachments” Options section, which allows you to customize many aspects of attachments, including what happens when you add a new attachment (Embed into Swift To-Do List database? Create shortcut? Ask me?)

Minor improvements

Improved look and feel of all menus and toolbars, new beautiful loading screen
New “Days Left” column which displays the number of days until Due Date.
Tree toolbar has move right and move left buttons added, which allow you to easily manipulate to-do lists, memos and lists
A target to-do list can be specified for tasks added via global system-wide hotkeys, so you can easily create an “inbox“
The filters allow you to always filter for done/undone tasks, even when the Status field is enabled
You can Ctrl+Click a tree item to switch to it and set view mode to “Selected To-Do List” at the same time. That way, you can quickly view just that one list if your view mode is set to All Lists etc.
The window “Swift To-Do List is doing maintenance of your database” that was displayed when exiting the program is no longer displayed, unless you are running the portable version.
When searching for tasks by typing (e.g. pressing “a” to find the first task that begins with “a”), you can now press the key repeatedly to cycle through all such tasks in the task-view.
Improved Import Wizard now displays the original imported value as well, and correctly imports reminders.
You can specify telephone number or a custom note for Contacts in the Manage Contacts window

What’s coming next in the 8.xx line after 8.0?

Well, A LOT of things. We are just getting started!

All the 8.xx updates will be free for all version 8 customers. And there will be many updates, with lots of new features and improvements.

This means: If you purchase version 8, you will be getting a TON of great extra features and improvements for a long, long time – all for free.

The upcoming new stuff will include:

Multiple optimizations which will significantly speed up Swift To-Do List and reduce RAM consumption. This is coming very soon (definitely in 2012).
Finished and polished synchronization and collaboration features, as well as companion mobile and web apps.
Ability to create entirely custom columns (as many as you need!).
A full-blown scheduling calendar.
More types of tree objects, such as spreadsheets or journals (logs).
Tables for notes.
Beautiful skins, which will enable you to choose a theme for Swift To-Do List interface if you desire so.
More tree icons.
And many other things.

One thing is sure: We plan to outrageously delight you.

Do you want to play with version 8 beta?

We already have a very stable build of version 8, tested by about dozen of people – but there might still be some little quirks that only you might notice.

If you would like to help us make version 8 perfect, please contact us, and we will send you the preview release.

If you have any questions, post in comments or contact us.

PS: Yes, the subtasks are awesome! :-) We’ve made them super easy to use. In fact, I think it might be one of the best implementation of subtasks ever created. Just wait until you try them yourself.

Coming Soon: New Swift To-Do List 8 with subtasks! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Swift To-Do List Review by Elius Levin

Jiri Novotny — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:16:41 +0000

We’ve received a review from one of our happy customers! This time, it is from Elius Levin from Australia, who has been working as a freelance business writer for the last 9 years and using Swift To-Do List for over a year now. Elius wrote this review because he is using Swift To-Do List and would like to share his thoughts with others. We have not compensated Elius in any way, nor modified his review. Recently, we’ve also published a review by Sherri Wilson, who runs a small labeling business, and by Chuck Gallozi, a successful writer and personal development expert. And now, over to you, Elius.

I have been using Swift To-Do List (STDL) daily for 14 months—it has become and continues to be absolutely indispensable in my efforts to overcome the “chaos of the surging, heaving universe”.

I am unable to answer the question “Does God play dice with the universe?” but at least operationally, here on earth, STDL is the tool that gives me the ability to be Master of My Own Universe—the feeling of competency that STDL engenders is simply priceless.

I had previously utilised Zoho, the popular web-based, subscription project management software for 3 years. We both grew together, I in learning its effective use, along with its far faster development, major redesign(s), & its early-but-eventually-sorted-out problems with support, which then often could take up to 3 weeks to get an answer to a query.

However, it got to a point where it technically no longer suited my simple requirements:

I had become a bit like the child who has a pair of shoes that is perhaps just a bit too large. There was no longer a good fit between me and the software.

Armed with the knowledge gained from Zoho, my extensive research enabled me to whittle the shortlist to two, Swift and another popular task management software. Not yet into the world of mobile computing, I was seeking software which was definitely neither web-nor subscription-based, and had good support. And, as time has indicated to me, for the newbie product user the relationship with the developer is crucial, and can even be the deciding factor whether one purchases or continues use of the product or not. Questions of his responsiveness, willingness, degree of openness to suggestion or request, and the oft-neglected consideration of his degree of patience for initial newbie handholding, stumbles & mistakes while striving to learn—the “chemistry” – can not be underestimated. Both STDL and its developer Jiri Novotny have come through with flying colours on all points.

As an independent operator, my requirements are that my task management tool be simple, easy-to-use, provide flexibility for increased or increasing complexity if & when needed—STDL has this in bucket loads.

It allows those who wish to work with the creation of simple lists to fairly complex project management requiring collaboration & greater precision by use of task attributes and the filters. I work somewhere in between.

One feature that I particularly liked about Zoho was its calendar design, while in some ways a little cumbersome, its smallness, flexibility, and its functionality I thought pretty good. To compensate for Swift’s absence of calendar, I utilised – incorrectly – the Find Tasks window to enable me to work across to-do lists and especially across tasks. Yet I had no way to minimise the window, enabling me to readily move to other software & return to the desired to-do list and task–I then made do with judicious use of the filters to assist me.

The result of my long-awaited introduction of the Swift To-Do List calendar feature is joy—it too is small and unobtrusive . It also employs the core functions of the filters through the Find Tasks window–today, tomorrow, as well as essential column actions such as start date, due date, completion, creation, changes dates. Very importantly it can also be minimised, allowing ready movement to other software & return to the desired to-do list and task. This now makes task retrieval and my life much easier. I “reside” daily at the open calendar window, but should this now be not enough, I have found Find Tasks search to be a very good supplement.

Another of Swift’s “small footprint” features that I like is the task-independent memo. While the calendar enables me to see across to-do lists and tasks, giving me the broad picture, the task-independent memo, only a single click away, enables me to “pull together” those tasks which are spread among numerous to-do lists but collectively are components of a project or theme.

The screenshot shows a memo:

There is a lot of software within the task management ‘space’ or market, and I am sure even more since I selected STDL. There are many variables to consider carefully, as I did. I would very highly recommend that you give Swift To Do List a test run — I am sure that like me, you’ll find much that will satisfy.

~ Elius Levin

Swift To-Do List Review by Elius Levin is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Best Of This Blog (Part 3)

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:35:48 +0000

There are many recent incredible posts that you might have missed – so here goes a third “Best of This Blog” summary!

I am very happy with the direction this blog is taking; it is now attracting some serious attention, and many post quickly become quite popular.

Knowing that I am becoming a better writer is a terrific feeling.

Enjoy this summary!

Productivity, goals, procrastination posts:

One Minute To-Do List – The simple and awesome alternative to GTD
How to Overcome Resistance to Work – 4 Techniques – another very popular post with extremely valuable information
Centralize Your Lists with Swift To-Do List – Even if you are not using Swift To-Do List, learning the concepts in this post can dramatically improve your productivity and eliminate stress in your work life.
5 Counter-Intuitive Productivity Tips
How to murder your productivity – This hilarious post went viral and became extremely popular. It is actually useful, too.
Seriously, Stop Sabotaging Your 2012 Goals – was republished on Lifehacker
Hidden Procrastination
Outsmarting Yourself for Success
What are you not going to do? – Time management upside down
Why change is so hard and how to make it happen – on changing ourselves for good
Be Successful First Thing in the Morning – another quite popular post with a valuable tip

Swift To-Do List related:

Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List – learn how the new Time Tracking feature can transform you from procrastinator to super-achiever
New Swift To-Do List 7.60: Calendar Panel, add tasks from any application, more!
What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46
New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released
Swift To-Do List Review by Darryl Benjamin
Swift To-Do List Review by Chuck Gallozzi – Chuck is a personal development expert
Blind Man and Swift To-Do List

What else?

We’ve also released brand new FastPaste 3 for Windows, and published a post on it: Declaring war on stupid typing with FastPaste 3.

Check out the previous “Best Of This Blog (Part 2)” and “Best Of This Blog (Part 1)“

Best Of This Blog (Part 3) is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

New Swift To-Do List 7.60: Calendar Panel, add tasks from any application, more!

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:35:20 +0000

We’ve just released new huge update of Swift To-Do List, version 7.60, which will make your life much easier. You can Download the latest version now.

We’ve been upgrading Swift To-Do List non-stop for over 7 years now, and we are just getting started! This upgrade is free for all existing customers, but some of the features added in this upgrade are available only in the Professional or Ultimate editions.

This new exciting update adds these features (more details, including images, are below):

New calendar panel below the tree (Professional and Ultimate only)
New interactive info panel (Professional and Ultimate only)
New global hotkey for creating tasks from selected text in any application
HTML emails support when emailing tasks (Professional and Ultimate only)
File and folder attachments can be now renamed
New smarter task-view header
Improved compatibility for systems with larger text size (non-standard DPI)
Attachments are now included in CSV export
Other misc improvements and fixes

New calendar panel

This is a truly exciting new feature. Picture is worth 1000 words, so check it out –

If you learn to use the calendar panel, you will be able to quickly get a complete overview of important deadlines, meetings or appointments. This will help you to stay on top of things, eliminate stress, and give you the much needed room to focus. Nothing urgent will suddenly surprise you.

As you can see above, the calendar panel is located below the to-do list tree, and is collapsed by default. With just one click, you can open it and see only tasks due today – or on any other date – or on multiple dates.

The calendar supports multi-selection, so you can easily select whole week or month using mouse.

Several calendar modes are supported. The calendar supports Due Date, Start Date, Completion Date, Changed Date and Creation Date of your tasks. So, for example, in Due Date mode (default), it is showing tasks due on the selected day. You can change the Calendar Mode by clicking the Calendar Options button, or by right-clicking the Open/Close Calendar label.

If you are adding a new task, and a single date is selected in the calendar panel, the task will have that date set by default.

The calendar panel can show multiple months at once. If you resize the tree so it is wider, the calendar panel will display two month beside each other. You can also increase the height of the calendar using the splitter above calendar.

When you close (collapse) the calendar, your original view mode will be restored.

New info panel

If you look at the calendar panel image above, you will also notice that the info panel now has clickable blue labels. This means that you can click the “Tasks due today” label and immediately see all tasks due today. Or, you can click the “Tasks to-do total” label, and immediately see all undone tasks – and so on. All 4 labels are clickable.

New task-view header

The task-view header is the text label shown above the task-view. It is always telling you what you are looking at.

In the new version, it will now also tell you if the view is filtered using a calendar.

But most importantly, it now also allows you to quickly reset the view by clicking the label. With just one click, you can restore the default view – it will reset the view mode, Filter, and close the calendar.

Here is a screenshot of the new task-view header. Notice the blue clickable text:

Add tasks from any application

You can add tasks from nearly any application using a new global hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+A by default).

This allows you to create tasks on-the-fly from emails, instant messages, documents, and other sources. It saves you time.

This is how to use this new feature:

Select any text in any application.
Press the hotkey Ctrl+Shift+A (you can change it in Options.)
The Add Task window will be opened and the selected text inserted into the Task Name. Fill in any other details (if required) and click OK – or just press the Enter key.

If you are curious how it works “under the hood”, this is what happens when you press the global hotkey: Swift To-Do List copies the selected text into clipboard, then opens the Add Task dialog, and pastes the text.

And if you’ve already installed version 7.60, you can try this right now. Just select this line of text, press Ctrl+Shift+A, and see what happens!

HTML emails when emailing tasks

The email task feature allows you to email any task to the assigned person, to yourself, or anyone else. In this new version, you can check “HTML Format” in the Email Task window to send the email message in HTML. This means that the notes formatting will be preserved in the email, including images.

Attachments can be renamed

Swift To-Do List supports email, link, file and folder attachments. It was not possible to rename the file and folder attachments, but from 7.60 on, you can rename them as well. You can just simply right-click any attachment and click Edit, or select the attachment and click it’s name to edit it in-place.

More features coming!

We have a lot of other things planned for the future. These things include finished and polished online sync and collaboration features (currently available in Beta), companion mobile web apps and mobile apps (currently available in Beta), sub-tasks, custom fields, team functionality, scheduling calendar (with intra-day scheduling), tables in notes, and much more. Stay tuned.

If there is any feature that you would want to see in Swift To-Do List, post in the comments below. We are always counting “votes” for new features.

New Swift To-Do List 7.60: Calendar Panel, add tasks from any application, more! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Declaring war on stupid typing with FastPaste 3

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 06:02:40 +0000

We’ve released brand new major version 3 of our clipboard utility, FastPaste. FastPaste was the first utility that we’ve ever released, and this new major version is a complete rewrite.

Declaring war on stupid typing

In many jobs, you have to type something again and again, whether each day or multiple times a week. And not just one thing, but many different things. Again and again.

In our book, that’s stupid. It’s soulless work. Where’s the juice, the passion, the excitement in that?!

Human beings shouldn’t do stupid repetitive things. That’s what we have technology for.

FastPaste can do the stupid typing for you, so you can have more time for learning, creativity, real contribution, your family, friends, hobbies, fun and relaxation.

Did you know that 10 minutes saved daily is 60 hours in a year? That’s equivalent of one and half of work-week! In that time, you could learn a new language, launch a new project, go on several wonderful trips, get fit – or anything else that you love doing.

And that’s just in 1 year. If you can save 60 hours each year, the extra life you will get stacks up rapidly.

FastPaste is here to give you YOUR time back

How it works?

Example: Pressing Ctrl+1 can insert my name (“Jiri Novotny”) into any application.

FastPaste allows you to insert text with hotkeys. There are 30 clips (fields). Each has a customizable hotkey. The first clip has default hotkey Control+1, the second Control+2, and so on.

When you press the hotkey, FastPaste will automatically insert the text in that particular clip (field).

FastPaste can paste plain text, rich text (RTF), images.

Keyboard scripts

You can also create keyboard scripts, to send key sequences and/or combinations.

You can use the scripts to do many cool things, like filling various forms with just a single hotkey.

Here is an example of a FastPaste script:

John {TAB} hawai777 {CONTROL}{ENTER}

The script above will type “John”, then send the Tab key, then type “hawai777″, and then send Control + Enter combination.

What’s new in FastPaste 3

Because the new version is a complete rewrite, there is nothing left unimproved.

The new features include:

Keyboard scripts that you can use to fill forms, send key sequences and key combinations and much more. It can emulate not just typing, but a press of any key or key combination.
Encryption to protect your clips and data from unauthorized access
Portable – can be deployed to USB thumb-drive
New beautiful look and feel
Resizable window
Docking support, so you can dock FastPaste into sidebar
Display clips in 1 column, 2 columns, or 3 columns
10 quick projects with global hotkeys; access over 300 clips with keyboard
Unicode support
Support for various screen DPIs
Better handling of global hotkeys, only hotkeys for used clips are registered
Smart detection of conflicting hotkeys
Nicer HTML export of hotkeys overview
Ability to paste images with transparency
Preview images directly in the main Fast Paste window
Ability to contact us directly from the program (using menu Help – Contact)

Download fully functional 30-day trial of FastPaste

If you would like to give FastPaste a go, you can download a fully functional 30-day trial of FastPaste. The only limitation in the trial is that it can’t deployed to USB thumb-drive.

Declaring war on stupid typing with FastPaste 3 is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:28:38 +0000

We’ve just released Swift To-Do List 7.50, and a new Ultimate edition at the same time.

As you maybe already know, we’ve been upgrading the 7.xx version a lot for the past 1.5 years, and we will continue to do so. All of our existing customers have thus gotten dozens of very significant upgrades for free. We could’ve easily released these upgrades as version 8 long time ago, but we want to have something truly spectacular to ship as a new major version. Version 8 is most likely not coming any time soon – we will just keep improving the 7.xx line like crazy, and giving all these upgrades away for free to existing customers. There are many things we want to implement first.

In light of this decision, we’ve also decided to launch new Ultimate edition now. The Ultimate edition includes some extra exclusive features not available in Standard or Professional editions. We believe that successful people and small business owners who want to have simply the best to-do list software tool available will be especially interested in it.

We will be adding some new features only into the Ultimate edition from now. We will never stop upgrading Swift To-Do List Standard and Professional, but all “extra” premium stuff will go right into Ultimate.

We are very loyal and grateful to our existing customers. Existing customers can upgrade to Ultimate for just the price difference, which I believe is very fair, because when a completely new customer comes, he can get the Ultimate for the regular price. However, our existing customers have been already using the lower Professional edition for a long time, getting all the benefits, and now they can upgrade to Ultimate for just the price difference, and enjoy Ultimate from now on.

If you are an existing customer, then to get the upgrade, first download the latest version of Swift To-Do List. Once installed and started, you will see a new Upgrade button in the toolbar – click it.

If you are currently trialing Swift To-Do List and want to try the Ultimate edition, then use the menu Help – Trial Edition – Ultimate to switch the trial edition.

OK, but enough with the back-story! What are actually the new features added in the Ultimate edition, compared to the lower editions?

100 extra tree icons

Enjoy 100 extra tree icons available exclusively in the Ultimate edition. This brings the total number of icons available in the Ultimate edition to 244. In another words, there are 70% more icons in the Ultimate edition!

Two-line display of long task names

Tasks that have too long task name to fit into one line are displayed on two lines in the Ultimate edition. This gives you more information about the tasks without the need to resize the Task Name column.

Spellchecker for notes and memos

The Ultimate edition includes a spellchecker that you can use for your notes and memos. It allows you to go through all misspelled words and offer you suggestions. Or, you can enable automatic mode that underlines any misspelled words or grammatical errors. If you right-click such a word, you can choose one of the suggestions or to ignore it. It works very similarly to Microsoft Word.

Multi-level numbered lists (outlines) in notes and memos

In the Ultimate edition, you can create structured multi-level numbered lists very easily, with just a click of a single button in the notes toolbar.

More extra features in the future

We will keep adding other exclusive features only into the Ultimate edition. You will get these as free upgrades if you purchase the Ultimate edition. One such feature will be tables in notes and memos. Also, we would like to improve the spellchecker. It currently supports only English language, but we plan to release a free package of all other languages soon. However, there might be also some really big features added only into the Ultimate edition down the road, such as sub-tasks or custom columns (fields).

Things are going really great over here! We are growing our business and products big time, expanding our website, connecting with other developers and companies, and swimming in praise from Swift To-Do List customers. You can be sure that there will be many extremely exciting things coming soon (such as sync, web-access, mobile web-access, collaboration). We also plan to add a full-blown scheduling calendar and sub-tasks. Onwards!

New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:27:16 +0000

Perhaps you’ve noticed that we’ve rolled out new Swift To-Do List 7.4 recently shortly followed with a lot of subsequent releases with mainly fixes. This is an enormous update.

Download the latest Swift To-Do List here.

So, what’s the big news? Well, compared to 7.3x, the new Swift To-Do List 7.46 brings you:

Creation of tasks from HTML-only emails

You can now Drag & Drop emails that only have HTML content into Swift To-Do List to create tasks from them. The HTML content will get properly processed and inserted into the task notes, retaining the formatting. See a quick video how to create tasks from emails.

Numbered lists in notes and memos

You can now create numbered lists in task notes and memos, not just bullet lists. There is a new toolbar button that you can use for this, shortcut for it is Ctrl+Shift+N. You can also use the Ctrl+Shift+L shortcut to cycle between list styles (including Roman and alphabetized list style).

Drag & Drop from Word, OpenOffice, WordPad, etc

You can now Drag & Drop stuff from Word, WordPad, OpenOffice Write etc. You can even Drag & Drop tables inside Swift To-Do List now!

Export notes and memos to PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, MHT

It is now possible to save (export) notes and memos to PDF, Word 97-2003 (DOC), Word Document (DOCX), OpenOffice (ODT), Web Archive (MHT), as well as into the previously supported Rich Text (RTF), Plain Text (TXT) and HTML formats.

Import notes and memos from DOC, DOCX, ODT, HTML, MHT files

You can import (load) notes and memos from Word (all versions), OpenOffice, HTML (including images) and MHT web archive files now, as well as from the previously supported Rich Text (RTF) and Plain Text (TXT) files.

Paste images into notes

It is now possible to paste images into task notes or memos using clipboard. Just make sure that you have disabled “Paste plain-text using Ctrl+V” in File – Options – Notes. If it’s enabled, you can still paste rich text and images using Ctrl+Alt+V.

Previously, you could insert image only from files using the Insert Image notes toolbar button.

Images in notes and memos are now being printed/exported

One previous limitation in Swift To-Do List was that images in notes or memos were not included in HTML export or printing. This has now changed! All exports and printouts properly contain images inserted into notes.

Smarter default notes font

When the default notes font is changed in File – Options – Notes, the new font will be applied to all notes that use the old default font. So it’s now possible to change the font (name & size) for all your notes that use the default font in just 1 step.

This wasn’t previously possible – already created notes retained their fonts even when you changed the default font.

Move lines up/down in notes and memos

You can move lines up/down in notes with keyboard shortcuts: Alt+Up and Alt+Down. Yes, these are the same hotkeys that you can use to move tasks up/down!

I personally love this feature and use it often. Especially if you work with bulleted or numbered lists in your notes, this will make your day.

Much better Find/Replace window

It supports direction (up/down), and can be left open while you continue working with notes in Swift To-Do List. It also informs you when the search has reached the end of document.

Both Print and Print Preview for notes and memos

The older versions had only Print Preview for notes, but you can now directly print the notes or memos. Additionally, the Print Preview dialog for notes and memos has been greatly improved. It looks great and the preview is sharp. We will improve the main preview dialog for tasks export in the near future, too.

New “Remove Formatting From Selection” notes/memos action

There was just “Remove Formatting From Notes” action, but now you can also remove formatting just from selection. This is useful if you paste some formatted text and want to get rid of the colors or different fonts. There is also a new hotkey for the removal of formatting from selection – Ctrl+Alt+R.

Drag & Drop of text and images inside notes and memos

You can now re-arrange text and images inside your notes and memos just using your mouse – drag & drop.

Better indenting and outdenting in notes and memos

You can now use Tab to indent text or to insert tab character, and Shift+Tab to outdent text or to remove preceding tab character.

Better selection in notes and memos

You can now see text colors and text background colors behind the selection:

That’s not all though!

Other smaller improvements regarding notes and memos -

Better font dialog which allows you to change only certain font properties
“Clear Notes” action is now undoable
“Remove Formatting” action in notes is now undoable and preserves selection
“Import” and “Append to notes” actions are now undoable
Hyperlinks can be visited using the Enter key (when the caret is inside them)
Hyperlinks can be specified for any text (like in Word)
Hyperlinks can be created for local files, too (but the Attachment feature use more appropriate for this)
Address of hyperlinks can be easily copied from the right-click menu of the hyperlink
When task note or memo is exported to HTML, the title tag will now include the task/memo name
Faster of inserting images into notes and displaying of notes with images
Improved printing of notes and memos (better formatting)
Improved behavior of “Insert line” command in notes/memos
When you create a bulleted list, all lines will automatically get the same indent
When exporting to HTML, the length of notes is no longer limited
Nicer task notes/memo panel border

What’s next?

We are still working hard on the online sync feature. It is in beta and the development is going well.

Why is it so important? Well, it allows you all the following:

Synchronize Swift To-Do List 7 for Windows between computers
Invite other people to collaborate
View and edit your tasks using mobile devices; all smart-phones and tablets are supported, including iPhone, iPad, Android devices, BlackBerry, etc.
View and edit your tasks using web browsers (like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, IE) from Windows/Mac/Linux; so you can work with your tasks even on computers where Swift To-Do List 7 is not installed.
Merge multiple databases into one
Remotely backup your Swift To-Do List data

If you would like to try it, contact us and we will tell you how to enable it.

Other important things that are coming: Sub-tasks, calendar, custom columns (fields) and more. Stay tuned! Year 2012 will be swiftly great.

What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46 is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Best Of This Blog (Part 2)

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:36:46 +0000

Since publishing the first summary of the best posts, many new posts were written on this blog. It’s time for another recap baby!

The posts published since the last summary can be divided into three main categories:

Productivity posts: How to do more in less time and be happier
Swift To-Do List related posts: Tips, tricks, news, highlights.
Getting Things Done posts – GTD tutorial by our guest writer Brian

So, without further ado, here goes. Enjoy!

Productivity posts:

10 best tricks of fooling myself to work – this post went viral: over 100.000 readers!
Creating Lasting Happiness In 5 Minutes a Day – super-powerful yet simple journaling technique
The Now Habit Summary – detailed summary of the best book on procrastination
Accidental Genius Summary – detailed summary of the best book on creative thinking and writing
The next actions and prioritizing – how to keep track of what to do next
Achieving Goals Like a Mad Klingon – do you want to attain your goal badly?
10 quick fixes of motivation – feeling down and unproductive? This should get you going again.
Why plants on workdesks boost creativity by 15%

Swift To-Do List related:

Turn emails into tasks – just drag & drop them into Swift To-Do List! – the greatest new feature?
Synchronize Swift To-Do List with Dropbox
What’s New in 7.33 – learn about recurrence after completion, recurrence preview, and how to permanently delete to-do lists
What’s New in 7.307 – learn about tree export to HTML
What’s New in 7.30 – learn about in-place editing.
What’s New in 7.26 – learn about time-tracking
What’s New in 7.25 – learn about the Import Wizard and the improved Batch Edit
We’ve just sent the first $50 donation to WWF! – you help us to help charities!

GTD posts:

Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Basics – what’s GTD all about?
Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Do I Need to GTD?
Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Perspective
Getting In The Ready State (To Get Things Done)

Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Commitment Management – manage what’s on your plate
Managing Actions Horizontally and Vertically

What I think

I’m really happy about the direction this blog is taking. While I am usually fully focused on development, you bet I will keep bringing you new intriguing posts in the future.

The exceptional success of the “10 best tricks of fooling myself to work” post has really humbled me as a writer (and marketer). It was the most successful piece I’ve ever written – just the thousands of shares on social media are truly mind-blowing to me. That being said, I am still better software designer than blogger and writer. But I will keep working at it ;-)

And hey, check out also the previous “Best Of This Blog (Part 1)“

Best Of This Blog (Part 2) is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Looking for beta testers for Swift To-Do List sync

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:31:27 +0000

New version of Swift To-Do List with online synchronization feature (service) is nearly ready. This feature allows you to synchronize Swift To-Do List between computers via internet. Soon after releasing the final online sync feature, we will be also launching an optional companion web-app that will allow you to view your tasks online, and that will be accessible using many mobile devices (like iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, etc).

We’ve just finished a beta version of the new Swift To-Do List. (It is not public yet)

We are looking for 20 beta testers for the first private beta-round. You can apply now. If you will be chosen as a beta tester, we will invite you to a private forum where you will learn all the details.

If you want to be a beta tester, just send us your application and we will send you a download link.

Looking for beta testers for Swift To-Do List sync is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

We’ve just sent the first $50 donation to WWF!

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:45:18 +0000

Today is an extraordinary day. We’ve collected $50 in the $1 donations for WWF charity from you, our customers.

We’ve just taken all these donations and sent them to WWF (formally World Wildlife Fund):

It brings me a great joy to witness the generosity of our customers. Fifty people have checked the box “Donate $1 to WWF” in our secure online store while purchasing our Swift To-Do List.

It is not our original idea. I’ve seen a similar check-box in an online store of another company, and I’ve donated. It felt wonderful to give, and I wanted for our customers to be able to experience the joy of giving as well.

The $1 donation is entirely optional. That’s what makes me really, really happy about the fact that over 50 of our customers have decided to donate.

Big thanks to everyone who has donated while purchasing our products!

I am sure that the next $50 will be collected soon!

We’ve just sent the first $50 donation to WWF! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.30: In-place editing

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 11 May 2011 10:45:37 +0000

We’ve just unleashed new fresh and crunchy Swift To-Do List 7.30, straight from the oven. Do you smell the heavenly scent? Mmm.

The new version brings you in-place (in-line) editing. In-place editing allows you to edit tasks directly in the task-view, without opening the Edit Task window. Many of you have requested this feature.

Other news: We are still working hard on the online synchronization and sharing feature. It is coming along nicely, and you can expect it soon. Version 7.30 is just a little gift from us to you while you wait.

How to edit task in-place

It’s quite straight forward. It works the same way as in Windows Explorer.

Select the task
Click the text in the column you want to edit

For example, if you want to change a task priority from “High” to “Low”, then simply select the task, then click the text “High” in the task’s priority column. A drop-down will be shown, allowing you to choose a different priority. Click “Low”. That’s it.

It works the same way for due dates, start dates, time estimates, etc. All editable fields can be edited in-place.

More about in-place editing

You can always use the “Escape” key to cancel the in-place editing, or the “Enter” key to confirm it. You can also simply click somewhere else during the in-place edit – that will confirm the edit as well.

The in-place editing can be undone using Edit – Undo.

If you prefer quicker one-click in-place editing, you can go to Options – Task-View, and check “Single click inline editing”. When it’s checked, you can edit tasks without selecting them first.

What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.30: In-place editing is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What’s New in 7.25: Import Wizard, better Batch Edit, more

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:36:14 +0000

We’ve added new Import section to the Swift To-Do List page, with importing guides for Outlook 2010, Outlook 2003/2007, Lotus Notes, and other programs. Check it out!

New Swift To-Do List, version 7.25 is here! This update brings some significant enhancements. You can download it here.

Import Wizard

Universal Import Wizard is the biggest new feature. You can import tasks from Outlook, Lotus Notes, Excel and many other programs, including Task Merlin, VIP Organizer, MyLifeOrganized, and more.

You can even import data from many web-apps including Toodledo and our own web-based application Swift To-Do List Online.

The Import Wizard can import any CSV/TSV/TXT file (comma separated, tab separated, plain text). Because many applications support export to CSV, it is now possible to easily import data from them into your Swift To-Do List.

You can find the Import wizard under File – Import Wizard:

The Import Wizard has just 4 steps:

In the first step, you select the file to be imported.
In the second step, you can configure the file format – which is usually not needed.
In the third step, you specify what fields to import (also usually not needed).
In the final step, you select the target to-do list, where the imported tasks will be placed.

Because you can import multiple files into one Swift To-Do List database, you effectively merge data from multiple organizers into a single Swift To-Do List database.

Some screenshots of the Import Wizard:

Improved Batch Edit – New Item

The Batch Edit for Priority, Type, Context, Status and Assigned To has just gotten a big upgrade. You do not have to select only from existing items, but you can choose to create a new Priority/Type/Context/(…). It looks like this:

Improved Batch Edit for due date and start date

Batch editing of due dates and start dates has now improved “Quick Dates” feature. The window can be expanded/collapsed, and 9 presets are presented:

Notes “Export To File” feature improved

When you are exporting notes to a file, the default file name will be the name of the task that the notes belong to. A little time-saver.

Faster mouse wheel scrolling, immediate closing of reminder window

Another little time saver. When you scroll the task-view using mouse wheel, it will scroll 3x faster now (but not too fast, don’t worry!). The speed is now comparable to scrolling speed in Windows Explorer, so all is good and jolly. The old version has scrolled only by a single task on each mouse wheel step, which required a bit of patience if you had a long task list.

Reminder window is now closing immediately.

Some small fixes

There were some rare issues reported by our users, so we’ve taken care of them. We love our users and we listen to them. But you know that already, don’t you?

Online synchronization underway

We are still working on the online synchronization as much as we can. The first beta is coming soon.

What’s New in 7.25: Import Wizard, better Batch Edit, more is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Best Of This Blog (Part 1)

Jiri Novotny — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:44:25 +0000

This blog has existed for some time now. Today, I would like to bring some of the older posts to your attention. These posts are still relevant and contain useful information. Here is a brief overview of some of the older posts.

Posts related to Swift To-Do List contain useful tips for more effective usage of the software, while the productivity posts contain often ageless information for greater personal achievement.

Swift To-Do List related:

Notes hotkeys overview – did you know you can create numbered lists?
How to attach emails from Outlook to tasks (Video) – also works for some other email programs
Recurring Tasks Explained – a complete guide
How to join two different task types – works also for priorities, statuses, contexts, assignees
Embedded Attachments Explained – a complete guide
How to print a single task – or export it
How to change the default reminder time
How to paste plain text in notes
Using portable Swift To-Do List on a USB thumb-drive

Productivity and personal development tips:

Reactive vs. Proactive Tasks Explained – do you know the difference?
5 Ways How To Deal With Low Priority Tasks – low priority tasks can drain your energy
Raise your awareness of your life – the starting point for better life
10 Tips To Create more productive environment at your desk
Deal with procrastination with 100% success
10 Benefits Of Being Organized: From Chaos To Freedom
How to upgrade your brain
How to achieve your goals in 5 steps
How to fully focus on the task at hand – just print it and put it in front of you :-)

Best Of This Blog (Part 1) is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What’s New in 7.242: Percent Done bars, Tree Notes import, more

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:55:04 +0000

While you wait for the exciting new major features that we are working on, we have a small update for you.

Version 7.242 brings you:

Graphical percent done progress bars in the task-view with customizable color
Ability to hide any column by right-clicking it
Ability to import data from our Tree Notes (Use File – Advanced – Import Tree Notes 1 Database…)
Multiple minor fixes
Updated help file

Percent done progress bar

This is how the percent done column looks:

Custom colors in the percent done column

As always, you can customize the color used in the Percent Done column. You can also turn off the colors if you wish. There are endless flavors to choose from:

New right-click column menu

You probably know that you can right-click any column to display a popup menu. So far, the popup menu has contained only two items: Manage Columns and Reset Columns. Now it also contains a new item: Hide This Column, depending on which column you have clicked. This allows you to quickly hide any column. (The “Name” column can’t be hidden).

The new popup menu looks like this:

What’s New in 7.242: Percent Done bars, Tree Notes import, more is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

What’s new in 7.20: Email reminders, hourly recurrence, Task ID column and more!

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:32:39 +0000

We’ve just released Swift To-Do List 7.20. It is a very significant update, as it contains many new features, including:

Hourly task recurrence

Reminders X days before due date

Reminders X days before start date

Ability to edit snoozed reminders

New Task ID column + ability to find tasks by ID

Email reminders (Professional edition only)

Email recurrence notifications (Professional edition only)

Smarter task recurrence (read below)

Misc. fixes

To keep the program simple, we’ve removed hourly and daily reminders – you can use recurrence for the same purpose. Your existing reminders will be automatically converted to recurrence (if possible).

More detailed information about the new features follows.

Hourly task recurrence

Hourly task recurrence allows you to make a task recur every X hours, or X minutes. You can specify if you want it to recur only when the program is running, and the time from which it recurs. The time can be absolute (Eg. 4:00 PM), or relative (“From now on, and then from the next program start”).

Hourly recurrence completely replaces the hourly reminder feature. Hourly recurrence has far greater flexibility.

Email reminders and email recurrence notification

If you have Professional edition, you can now receive reminders and recurrence notifications via email. All emails are sent directly from the program, so the email reminders work only when the program is running and you have correctly set the outgoing mail server (SMTP).

In case of email reminders, normal reminder window will be still displayed.

Emails are sent only if you check “Send me also email reminders” in the Reminder tab of the Edit Task window, or “+ Email me” in the action configuration of recurrence (in the Recurrence tab). You have to do this for each task individually.

Reminders before due date and start date

Before version 7.20, you could set any custom reminder, sure. But there were also due date and start date reminders. However, you could only set reminders on due date or start date. Some of you have requested the ability to set reminders before due date, so we’ve added it! But not only that, you can now have both reminder on due date and at the same time a reminder before the due date. (Same goes for start date).

You can now easily set reminders like “3 days before due date”.

Ability to edit snoozed reminders

This feature is long over-due. When you snooze a reminder, it will show up in the Edit Task window when you later edit the task. You can then edit the reminder or disable it just like a common simple reminder.

New Task ID column + ability to find tasks by ID

Some of you have requested a “Task ID” column that displays a unique number identifier of the task. We’ve added this column. You can display it using Manage – Columns…. All task IDs remain constant for your tasks.

You can also easily find tasks by ID. Open the Find Tasks window (eg. using Edit – Find Tasks), and enter ID=number, or ID:number (or just ID number) as the search term.

Smarter task recurrence

This is basically a fail-safe for “duplicate” recurrence that is supposed to happen multiple times at once. It makes sure you are not flooded with recurred tasks when you haven’t been using the program for a while.

For example, if you were on holiday and haven’t started Swift To-Do List for 2 weeks, you will not find 14 new copies of each of your daily recurring tasks in your to-do list. Instead, Swift To-Do List will ask you for each task if you really want it to recur 14 times, or just once (or not at all). Just like this:

What’s next?

We will now focus on automatic online synchronization between computers. It will take us some time, but it is absolutely the most important update. This will also allow us to introduce mobile and web access to your tasks soon, and much more.

What’s new in 7.20: Email reminders, hourly recurrence, Task ID column and more! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Swift To-Do List 7.10 released: Embedded file attachments, attach emails to tasks, and more

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:59:27 +0000

We’ve just released version 7.10 which brings two new exciting major features: Ability to embed (store) file attachments in database, and ability to drag & drop emails from Outlook, Thunderbird and other email programs into Swift To-Do List in order to add them as embedded task attachments. (There are also multiple fixes and other minor features added in 7.10).

You can download the new version. As always, this upgrade is free for users of version 7.

Embedded file attachments

You can now store files directly in the Swift To-Do List database (.stdl)! Versions prior to 7.10 supported only shortcut file attachments, that linked to the actual file. Version 7.10 allows you to add both shortcut and embedded attachments. So you can always decide if you want to store the actual file in your database, or just have a shortcut to it.

Embedded file attachments have some advantages over file shortcut attachments:

When you copy the database to another computer, the attachments are copied as well, because they are all stored in your database (which is a single .stdl file)
When you backup your database, the attachments are backed up as well
If you lose the files, you can restore them from your database
If your database is encrypted, the embedded attachments are encrypted as well

They also have one disadvantage: They make your database file significantly larger. Although all embedded attachments are automatically compressed, having many embedded attachments can quickly make your database file quite large. That is usually not an issue, unless you have really large attachments.

Clipboard is of course supported: You can copy & paste the embedded attachments just like regular attachments.

Converting file shortcut attachments to embedded file attachments

Adding new embedded attachments is obvious and simple. How about converting existing shortcut attachments to embedded? Well, it’s simple as well!

All you have to do is to right-click the file shortcut attachment, and click “Make Embedded”:

The attachment will be automatically converted to embedded attachment and stored in your database.

Save As (another new feature)

As you can see on the previous screenshot, you can now also right-click any attachment (both embedded and shortcut) and use “Save As”. This allows you to save copies of the files to a specified location. You can even use this for multiple attachments at the same time.

Opening and editing embedded attachments

You can open the embedded attachments just like shortcut attachments. However, there is a significant difference: Because the embedded attachments are stored in the Swift To-Do List database, they must be unpacked into a temporary location first.

When you open an embedded attachment, it will be automatically unpacked into a temporary location and opened from that location. If you then change the file (for example, when you edit a Word document or .txt file), Swift To-Do List will detect the change, and ask you if you want to bring the changes back into the database – if you select Yes, the attachment will be re-embedded into the database and thus updated from the temporary location.

New Options related to attachments

There are two new options related to Attachments, in Options – Notes:

If you check “Embed attachments by default”, all pasted / dropped files will be automatically embedded.

By default, files over 6 MB display a warning about their size. You can disable the warning using the second option.

Attach emails from Outlook, Thunderbird, The Bat! and other email programs

This is extremely useful and exciting new feature. I’m going to write a separate blog post about it. But basically, you can now just drag & drop emails from most email programs into the notes and attachment panels in Swift To-Do List. We’ve tested it with Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, The Bat! and Windows Live Mail. PocoMail unfortunately doesn’t support communication with other programs.

All email messages are added as embedded file attachments, so you can work with them even if you do not have the original email message stored on the computer from which you are running Swift To-Do List.

If you open the attached email message, it will be opened in your default email client.

If you are using Outlook, you can even drag & drop calendar items and Outlook tasks to attach them to your tasks in Swift To-Do List.

We’ve published a blog post about attaching emails that includes a video.

Additional information for advanced PC users

Embedded attachments are super-smart:

Embedded files are automatically compressed. If the file is already compressed, Swift To-Do List will not compress it again, so you don’t have to wait unnecessarily. The detection is based simply on file extensions (eg. Swift To-Do List does not compress embedded mp3 files and zip files, as they are already compressed).

Duplicate attachments are automatically detected, and stored only once in the database. You will still see them attached to the tasks that you attach them to, but the actual data is stored only once. This allows you to quickly copy tasks with attachments, without waiting or worrying about the size of your database.

Also, if you edit one of the duplicate attachments, the changes will be saved only to the attachment that you edited and 2 different files will be stored in the database from that point on.

We’ve decided to put a limit on the maximum size of a single attached file: 240 MB. This is because extremely large attachments could slow the program down.

More new features coming

We are already working on another update with useful new features and improvements.

The most important thing that we are working on is an online synchronization feature, that will allow you to easily synchronize Swift To-Do List between computers with a single click. However, this will take us some time (2-3 months at least).

Swift To-Do List 7.10 released: Embedded file attachments, attach emails to tasks, and more is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Coming soon: Attach emails, embed file attachments

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:08:11 +0000

UPDATE 25th October, 2010: It will be possible to attach emails from Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Mozilla ThunderBird, and possibly other email clients. Unfortunately, it seems that PocoMail does not support drag & drop.

We are planning to release version 7.10 of Swift To-Do List in about a week. It will come with interesting new features.

Attach emails from Outlook (or other email programs)

Many users have requested this feature, and we listened! You will be finally able to drag & drop emails from Outlook (and other email programs) into task notes/attachments area in Swift To-Do List to attach them. This will store a copy of the email right in the Swift To-Do List database. You will be able to double-click it to open it again in Outlook (or other email program that you use) and reply to it, etc.

But that’s not all! Because we’ve made this feature very flexible, you can also attach calendar items, tasks and contacts from Outlook. You can also attach many different things from various other programs that have good drag & drop support (eg. many Microsoft Office programs, like OneNote).

Embed file attachments (= store files in Swift To-Do List)

Currently, all file attachments are shortcuts only. Therefore, these attachments don’t work if you carry your task database to another computer. Well, the version 7.10 will allow you to store files right in your task database (the .stdl file). This will make it easy to have all the relevant things in one place – tasks, notes, and now files attached to your tasks!

The biggest advantage is that if you carry the database to another computer, you still have the attached files readily available. Also, if you lose the files – you will have their copy in the database.

Other new features

We are also working on many other new features and improvements. I will talk about them later. The most important one is easy online synchronization (coming in 2-3 months). Feel free to send us your feature requests – we are always counting votes to prioritize our work.

Coming soon: Attach emails, embed file attachments is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Welcome to new Dextronet!

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:15:28 +0000

This is the first post on our brand new blog, on our brand new website, with our brand new product Swift To-Do List 7 released.

Whoa, slow down! New website, new Swift To-Do List, new blog?

Many things have changed in the past year. We’ve decided to take things to the next level.

The development of Swift To-Do List 7 took much longer than anticipated, but you can hopefully see that the wait has been worth it. I will talk more about that in one of the following posts.

I want to apologize to everyone who expected the new major version sooner. All next releases will be coming quickly. This one took so long because we’ve basically rewritten the whole program from scratch, and we couldn’t settle for any compromises. See what’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.

We simply love creating software that you will love to use. We wouldn’t feel good about selling half-baked products.

About this blog

This blog will mostly contain posts from me (Jiri Novotny – Dextronet.com founder and chief Swift To-Do List developer). I would like to blog at least 2-3 times a week. I’m going to blog about all the following things and more:

Swift To-Do List tips & tricks
Productivity
Being organized, GTD, task management
Goal achievment
Personal development

Subscribe to this blog today so you don’t miss all the Swift To-Do List tips and tricks – you won’t find them anywhere else. Did you know that there are some hidden features in Swift To-Do List? I will tell you about them soon.

And hey, I think that we’re going to have fun together – this blog will be all but boring. I will keep the posts short and sweet.

Feel free to post comments – whatever comes to your mind!

Our plans for the near future

The current plan is simple: New releases of Swift To-Do List with additional new and exciting features. And let me tell you, we will never stop improving Swift To-Do List!

Plans for the next year include new Team edition of Swift To-Do List and new version of Swift To-Do List Online. You can also expect some completely new products, and new major versions of our old products.

Welcome to new Dextronet! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Swift To-Do List Blog » Dextronet News

Kick-start your productivity with new Swift To-Do List 11!

1832 new icons plus icon search!

New Contact Manager

Team Feature: Show reminders to assignees only

Custom time tracker sound

A bunch of other improvements

Related Posts:

An important change in the upcoming Swift To-Do List release

Related Posts:

Announcement: Sync Service Maintenance on Saturday 2/4

Related Posts:

Announcement: Sync Service Maintenance between Saturday 9/3 and Sunday 9/4

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What we are up to in 2016: Swift To-Do List 10 is coming

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Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity”

Related Posts:

Mind Collected – new software launched!

Quick look at the technical side

How I started my “personal renaissance”

Take advantage of neuroscience

Download Mind Collected

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Swift To-Do List 9 released!

What’s coming next?

Related Posts:

Swift To-Do List 8 launched!

How to get the new version 8

You love version 8

Focus on innovation

What’s coming next

So, what are you waiting for?

Related Posts:

Coming Soon: New Swift To-Do List 8 with subtasks!

New Professional (and Ultimate) edition features:

New Ultimate-only features:

New features added to all editions:

Minor improvements

What’s coming next in the 8.xx line after 8.0?

Do you want to play with version 8 beta?

Related Posts:

Swift To-Do List Review by Elius Levin

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Best Of This Blog (Part 3)

Productivity, goals, procrastination posts:

Swift To-Do List related:

What else?

Related Posts:

New Swift To-Do List 7.60: Calendar Panel, add tasks from any application, more!

New calendar panel

New info panel

New task-view header

Add tasks from any application

HTML emails when emailing tasks

Attachments can be renamed

More features coming!

Related Posts:

Declaring war on stupid typing with FastPaste 3

Declaring war on stupid typing

FastPaste is here to give you YOUR time back

Keyboard scripts

What’s new in FastPaste 3

Download fully functional 30-day trial of FastPaste

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New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released

100 extra tree icons

Two-line display of long task names

Spellchecker for notes and memos

Multi-level numbered lists (outlines) in notes and memos

More extra features in the future

Related Posts:

What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46

Creation of tasks from HTML-only emails

Numbered lists in notes and memos

Drag & Drop from Word, OpenOffice, WordPad, etc

Export notes and memos to PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, MHT

Import notes and memos from DOC, DOCX, ODT, HTML, MHT files

Paste images into notes

Images in notes and memos are now being printed/exported