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

1. First of all, download the new Swift To-Do List 8 from our website.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Related Posts:

• Coming Soon: New Swift To-Do List 8 with subtasks!
• New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released
• Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List
• What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46
• What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.30: In-place editing
• Tasks and oranges

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

We’ve just released new juicy update of Swift To-Do List, version 7.63. As usual, this update is free for all existing customers. (If you don’t have Swift To-Do List yet, download it now.)

It includes new countdown timer, which is the most interesting new feature, because it allows you to overcome procrastination and resistance to your tasks.

If you learn to utilize the new timer feature as explained below, it can literally change your life, especially if you are struggling with procrastination or have hard time focusing and managing your attention.

As you read on, you will learn how you can benefit from the new timer feature, and how it can help you to focus and overcome procrastination.

Oh, and other than the timer, the new update also adds overdue tasks information in the info panel – with just 1 click, you can immediately see all overdue tasks. The new version can also email task reminders to assigned persons, and it allows you to open a folder where any file attachment is located, and much more.

How to overcome procrastination with the new Timer feature

The new countdown timer expands the existing Time Tracking feature.

Procrastination is caused by resistance. We feel resistance to tasks because the oldest and most primitive part of our brain, amygdala, is feeling threatened. It dreads the work, because it’s uncertain how long will it take or what else will you have to give up to finish it. However, this feeling can be eliminated by setting a time limit for your work session.

For example, to overcome resistance to any particular task, you can say to yourself: “I am going to work just 20 minutes on this task”. Then, start the 20 minute Timer for that task. You will have no problem getting started this way.

This has 4 very significant benefits:

1. First, it eliminates resistance, because it is now obvious that you will be working for just 20 minutes, so the task is no longer perceived as a threat by your primitive part of brain.
2. Second, it sets you free. During the countdown, you don’t have to worry about anything else. It frees you from everything else and gives you the permission to focus absolutely on that task.
3. Once the 20 minutes have passed, you will probably continue working. You will get into flow and you can actually feel euphoric while working!
4. The floating timer window will constantly shift your attention to the task. It acts like a magnet for your focus, which is invaluable in today’s ADD world full of distractions.

As a result, you can easily be 300% more efficient during these 20 minutes than usual. It can be quite revolutionary, actually. I’ve personally gotten some extraordinary results by using a timer, and I know of many others. It is proven. It just works. And it’s very, very effective.

20 minutes is just an example. You can use any time limit, from 5 minutes to 90 minutes. Heck, you can even set any custom number of minutes.

And by the way, if you have trouble focusing, you can also use the new Timer feature in combination with Pomodoro Technique, which is basically about structuring your whole work day in short 25-minute focused bursts and 5 minute breaks.

The Timer is in Ultimate and Professional editions only.

This is how you start it (by right-clicking any task):

And this is how the actual timer looks. On the screenshot below, you can see it on my desktop. It’s a floating window that can be set always on top, and you can of course customize the color and other things by right-clicking it. You can move it anywhere (it’s sticky).

When the time is up, “Finished” will start blinking on the timer, and you can either close it or reset it to start another session. You can also set a new timer with different time limit, for a different task or the same one.

Swift To-Do List keeps track of total time spent on any task when the timer or time tracker is running. If you display Time Spent column in the task-view, you will be able to see how much time have you spent total on each of your tasks.

Other new features

As always, there is also a bunch of other improvements to make you more efficient, productive, and make your life easier. These include:

• Info panel now contains “Overdue Tasks”. You can click that label and see all overdue tasks. The label displays the number of all overdue tasks. This gives you instant overview.
• New calendar mode, “Due Date or Start Date”. This allows you to see tasks starting OR due on any particular day (or days) with just a single click.
• New Filter option for Due Date and Start Date filtering: “In next 14 days”. This is similar to the “In next 7 days” option.
• For added convenience, you can now upgrade your license to a higher edition or purchase extra discounted copies using menu “Help – Buy Upgrades or Extra Licenses”.
• Attachments right-click menu now contains “Open File Location” for file attachments. This allows you to open the folder where the attachment is located. When it comes to embedded attachments, the folder from which they were embedded is opened.
• Email reminders can be now emailed to the person the task is assigned to. The same goes for recurrence notifications.
• Import from Task Coach added.
• You can now choose choose default task Type and default Context for your tasks. Do that using menu File – Options, then go to the New Tasks section.
• When creating a recurring task, the Due Date of the task is set automatically immediately based on the recurrence. E.g. if you create a task to recur in 7 days, its due date will be immediately set to 7 days from now.

Getting the new Swift To-Do List

All you have to do is to download the latest version and install it.

It’s just a few clicks away. Can these few clicks revolutionize the way you work?

PS: You might be also interested in my summary of The Now Habit, which is probably the best book on procrastination.

- By Jiri Novotny+, the obsessed author of the number one to-do list software for Windows, Swift To-Do List. Jiri’s life quest is to become productivity and achievement world-class expert to empower others to achieve their full potential. If you liked this post, then definitely follow this blog on G+.

Related Posts:

• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• Tasks and oranges
• Using to-do lists efficiently
• What’s New in 7.26: Time tracking! Yes!
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• How to use Due Dates in your to-do list correctly

Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

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!

Related Posts:

• Swift To-Do List 8 launched!
• Coming Soon: New Swift To-Do List 8 with subtasks!
• Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List
• What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46
• What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.30: In-place editing
• What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.11: Colors!

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

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.

1. Select the task
2. 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.

Related Posts:

• Swift To-Do List 8 launched!
• Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List
• New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released
• What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.11: Colors!
• Color your tasks in Swift To-Do List – The Definitive Guide
• Coming Soon: New Swift To-Do List 8 with subtasks!

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