Sometimes, you might have a feeling that you will never finish your to-do list. And you know what? It might be true. It might be entirely possible that your to-do list is indeed impossible to finish. This happens when you place non-tasks on your to-do list.

You see, there are two types of items that might appear on your personal organizer lists: tasks and non-tasks.

Tasks are actionable. Tasks are actions you decided to do.

Non-tasks are non-actionable. Non-tasks are ideas, notes, thoughts, reference-material and information.

It is very important to understand the difference between “actionable” and “non-actionable” (tasks and non-tasks), because if you don’t, it will be absolutely impossible to finish your to-do lists.

You should never place non-tasks on a to-do list among tasks. Why? Because you can’t “do” non-tasks, so they just sit there cluttering your to-do list, making it cumbersome to read – and impossible to finish!

To-do lists are for tasks you can do. Non-tasks belong in a separate list or place.

Since we all have both tasks and non-tasks, I strongly recommend having at least 2 separate lists.

1. One or more to-do lists with tasks (actions)
2. One or more lists with non-tasks (ideas and information), and as many collections of notes, memos and reference material you need. Again, all this should be kept separate from your to-do list with tasks.

Note: Ideas are not tasks because you’ve not yet decided to do them, so they are not yet actionable. But if you decide to take action on some idea, it becomes a task.

How to separate tasks and non-tasks in Swift To-Do List

I will now show you how you can separate your tasks and non-tasks in Swift To-Do List.

Just do this -

1. Make sure that you have an “Ideas List” created in the to-do list tree. You will be moving all non-tasks into it. To create it, use menu Tree – Add To-Do List, and in the Add To-Do List window, check “List“. Then name the list “Ideas List” and press OK.
2. Now, go through all the tasks you’ve captured up to this point, and whenever you encounter a non-task, move it to the Ideas List. You can simply select the non-task and using mouse, Drag and Drop it to the Ideas List in the to-do list tree. Or, you can select it and press Ctrl+X to cut it, then click the Ideas List, and press Ctrl+V to paste it. Tip: You can do both these operations with multiple items at once.
3. Now back to the information you put into “Ideas List”. If you have lot of non-tasks, you might want to create multiple “Ideas Lists” and categorize them by project or topic if possible. (You can just Drag and Drop items to other lists or to-do lists in the tree.)

And that’s it! Congratulations! You’ve separated your tasks and non-tasks. Isn’t that better? Now, it should be actually possible to “finish” your to-do list.

Also, here is an important distinction: At times you will have information, reference material or notes that are directly connected to a specific task. You want this information handy when you look at the task and ready to do it. Put this information into the Notes section of that particular task, instead of keeping it isolated on the idea list or somewhere else. This way, when you work on the task, you will immediately see the important related information, and it also won’t unnecessarily clutter your Ideas List.

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Is your to-do list impossible to finish? is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

I’ve already talked about the importance of writing everything down immediately to maintain a peace of mind. I’ve also talked about the importance of consolidating your to-do lists and keeping everything in one place. These two things indeed are the key – but once you master them, there is another thing you can do to make your to-do lists super-useful and empower you to take more action.

Tasks are actionable items. They are actions that need to be taken. And it’s too easy to forget this when writing your tasks down. The words you use to write a task matter a great deal.

You should always use actionable task names, which contain specific actions – verbs.

In the task name, always write the action you need to take to move the task forward, and be as specific as possible.

Two rules of naming tasks are:

1. All task names should contain an action (begin with a verb, and ideally describe the next step).
2. All task names should be as specific as possible

So, for example, don’t just name a task “Report”. A slightly better way to name it could be “Finish the report”, but it’s still not the best wording because it’s not specific enough. It’s vague. It doesn’t tell you exactly what to do to finish the report, and which report.

Here’s a better task name: “Write the final summary in the Q4 Report to finish it”. That’s pretty specific and actionable. You know exactly what to do to move the task forward, and exactly which report the task relates to.

Or, you could name it like this: “Finish the Q4 Report” and add a subtask named “Write the final summary” – the subtask still contains the next action.

Why is this important?

When we look at our list and see just “Report”, we have no idea what to actually do or even a hint on how to start. We have to stop and figure it out, which is very inefficient, but also demotivating and creates a friction between us and the task.

It is much harder to get going when the task names are not actionable and not specific. All our brain sees when we look at vague task names is “This task is huge! Too much work! Too much thinking! Let’s do something else!” In such situations, we spend too much valuable energy trying to get started on the task. This opens the door for procrastination (social media, news, web-surfing and pointless busywork).

Try to use specific, actionable wording right when you first write the task down. In that moment, you probably know what the actual specific action is. So write it down. Don’t force yourself to figure it out later, when you don’t have all the relevant information on your mind anymore. When you start using specific actionable task names, you will save yourself a lot of time and energy. It’s just smart.

Task names which are specific and contain the action you want to take are:

• More motivating and less intimidating
• Easier for you to get started on
• Saving you valuable time and mental energy
• Less likely to be procrastinated on

Best of all, it takes you just a very little effort in the moment you are writing the task down for the first time. By writing the task in a way so it’s obvious what the next specific action is and what precisely needs to be done, you will get all the benefits above.

Here are a few examples of good and bad task names:

 
Here’s how you can apply this right now to experience the difference yourself: Open your to-do list, and re-word some of your most important tasks, so they contain the next action, and are as specific as possible.

(This post is an edited excerpt from my new e-book Swift Mind Freedom).

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2 rules of naming tasks correctly is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Behold: New custom task-coloring!

Version 7.11 brings completely redesigned and improved task-coloring functionality:

You can now color tasks by:

• Priority
• Status
• Type
• Assigned To
• Context

New task-coloring options

But not only that! You can now choose what gets colored:

1. The relevant column (eg. Priority column for priority coloring)
2. Whole row (= all columns)
3. Or, you can color just task names

This allows a lot of combinations! This feature brings a lot of flexibility and customization goodness.

New color picker

That’s not all though – we’ve also improved the color picking window. It is now full of pleasant, uplifting, bright colors, carefully chosen by hand. Black text is readable and looks good on these colors. You can also define your custom colors, of course.

Aren’t we great? :-)

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What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.11: Colors! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Please note: If you want to print a whole to-do list, multiple to-do lists, or memos, then you do not need this guide. You can just use File – Print or Export. It allows you to specify which to-do lists to print/export, supports filtering, and more.

If you want to print a single task, or multiple tasks, here is how:

Step 1: Select the task(s)

First, you need to select the task that you want to print. You can also select multiple tasks. If the tasks you want to print are not in the same to-do list, you can switch the view mode to “All To-Do Lists” (using the View menu),

Step 2: Use Task – Print or Export menu item

Now just go to Task menu and click Print or Export Task(s)…. You can also right-click the task selection – this will display similar menu, that also has the Print or Export Task(s)… option.

Step 3: That’s it!

You can now just click the Print or Export button. You can optionally configure the output.

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How to print or export a single task is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Advantages of task database encryption

The obvious advantage is security. If you encrypt your database, no one without the password can open it, or get the data from it in any way. This is the only way to have truly secure to-do lists and secure notes.

The longer password you choose, the safer it is. Best are so called “password phrases” – long passwords that are easy to remember. For example, a short sentence with some strange word in it works great as a password. Long passwords are nearly impossible to bypass, as the attacker has to use brute force to try all imaginable combinations, and that takes extremely long time for strong passwords.

To ensure maximum security, make sure that you fully exit Swift To-Do List 7 using File – Exit or lock Windows when you are leaving your computer.

Great thing about Swift To-Do List 7 is that it allows you to remove the encryption if you decide you no longer want to protect your database. However, you need to know the password in order to remove it, of course. You can remove the encryption in Options, Encryption.

Disadvantages of task database encryption

There are also some disadvantages of encrypting your database:

1. You have to enter the password every time you open the database.
2. If you forget your password, you can not retrieve it. Your database is lost.
3. It makes some operations a bit slower (around 10-40%), but you will usually never notice this.

How to encrypt your database step by step

Go to Options (eg. using File – Options), and go to the Encryption tab. Click the Encrypt button. This will open a dialog that allows you to set the password. Enter the password twice as instructed, and click OK. And that’s it!

Once is your database encrypted, a dialog like this will appear every time you open the database, asking for password:

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• What’s new in Swift To-Do List 7.11: Colors!
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• How to print or export a single task
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How to protect your tasks and notes with encryption is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

How to copy tasks out of Swift To-Do List

Simply select some task(s) in Swift To-Do List, press Ctrl + C (or use Edit – Copy), and they will be copied to clipboard. Now you can paste them anywhere.

If you paste them outside the task management software, they will be pasted as a list of task names, one per line.

If you paste them back in Swift To-Do List (eg. in a different to-do list, or even the same one), they will be pasted as exact copies, retaining all fields, notes, attachments, reminders, recurrence, etc. Just the Creation Date and Change Date will be set to current date.

How to paste tasks into Swift To-Do List

You can either paste a single line of text into our task organizer, or multiple lines.

When pasting a single line in the task-view, Add Task dialog will be opened with task name prefilled with the text in clipboard. This also gives you the chance to edit the task fields and enter additional details.

However, when pasting multiple lines (eg. task list), Add Multiple Tasks dialog will be opened. You can edit the individual lines to make sure that only tasks that you want will be added. When you press OK, you can right click the freshly added tasks and use Batch Edit to specify the details of the tasks.

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How to copy tasks in and out of Swift To-Do List is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog