The wrong way

You can’t just eat a whole orange -

Likewise, you can’t just “do” a huge, complex task. You can only do the actions (subtasks) that lead to its completion.

The right way

Break the task down into subtasks -

Following the steps is easy. Anyone can do it if the steps are small and clear enough.

Write all the subtasks for your dreaded task X. Write a “How to do task X for dummies” manual for yourself. Then follow it and have fun.

Goodbye procrastination, hello productivity!

Once you break a complex unpleasant task into subtasks, you will be much more inclined to take action.

It just works. If you make something easy, it is easy. Dead simple.

I think that the orange is a perfect metaphor for this. It took me several weeks to come up with it.

In case you are wondering about the illustrations, they were drawn by my girlfriend Eileen, and are part of my new e-book “Swift Mind Freedom“, which explains 11 Principles of getting (and staying) organized. Breaking tasks down into subtasks is Principle #8.

Now it’s your turn – which task are you afraid of the most? Write down the steps you need to take. Then do them. It’s quite refreshing.

PS: Check our new Swift To-Do List 8 for Windows. I am especially proud of the new killer subtasks feature.

Related Posts:

• Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List
• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• Using to-do lists efficiently
• How to Overcome Resistance to Work – 4 Techniques
• Hidden Procrastination
• The next actions and prioritizing

Tasks and oranges is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

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

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.

Related Posts:

• Swift To-Do List 8 launched!
• Coming soon: Attach emails, embed file attachments
• New Swift To-Do List 7 Ultimate edition released
• What’s New in Swift To-Do List 7.46
• Welcome to new Dextronet!
• What we are up to in 2016: Swift To-Do List 10 is coming

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