Классный to do лист excel

How to Create a To-Do List in Excel

Love it or hate it, Excel is still an impressive piece of code. For over 30 years, spreadsheets have been the go-to tool for all kinds of projects, from not-so-exciting accounting & budgeting to AutoShape art or… flight simulators. But in today’s article, you’ll learn something different. Here’s how to create an Excel to-do list, complete with checkboxes, task sorting, and more.

Table of Contents

🤔 What Is a To-Do List in Excel?

We bet that creating an Excel to-do list wasn’t one of the “typical” use cases for the app Charles Simonyi—the brain behind Microsoft Excel—envisioned back in 1987.

But Excel’s columns, rows, and cells turn out to be a solid match for to-dos. Even if they’re not the most straightforward to set up. To make a to-do list in Excel you’ll need a few things:

• ☑️ Form Controls to insert checkboxes into a sheet.
• 🗂 Data Filtering to organize and filter tasks by their status.
• 🔠 Data Validation to define data entry rules for cells.
• 🎨 Conditional Formatting to change the appearance of cells.

All the components are here. All you need to do is figure out how to hack those features together (Dr. Frankenstein would approve). The good news is we’ve done the heavy lifting for you.

🏗 How to Create an Excel To-Do List (Step-by-Step)

Create a Blank Excel Workbook

Ok, this is an easy one. Your to-do needs a comfy space where it can grow long and lush. Here’s how to create a new Excel workbook with an empty sheet inside it:

1. Open Excel and select Blank Workbook from the list
   • You can also use the ⌨️ ⌘/Ctrl + N shortcut.
2. Right-click the default Sheet1 at the bottom if you want to Rename your spreadsheet.

Organize Your List into Columns

It’s time to organize your blank sheet into labeled columns. Adding task parameters is a great way to add context to to-dos. It’ll also let you sort tasks down the road.

You can format your to-do list manually or use the Format as Table option in the Home tab. But first, let’s add a few headers to those freshly minted columns. Here are a few ideas:

1. ☀️ Date Added
2. 🔠 Description
3. 🗓 Due Date
4. ⏰ Time
5. 🚥 Status
6. 🚩 Task Priority
7. 🗂 Category
8. 📝 Comments/Notes

With that out of the way, let’s add a touch of color. Select the rows and columns of your soon-to-be to-do, click Format as Table in the Home tab, and choose one of the available styles.

Experiment and add your own parameters but keep things low-key. After all, you don’t want to scroll through dozens of columns to complete a task, especially using a mobile version of Excel.

Trust us, it’s not fun.

Enable Data Validation

Data validation lets you define the type of data you can enter into a cell.

Limiting your choices may seem counterintuitive. But it’s actually much easier to fill in details like task status using simple drop-down lists. Follow the steps below to enable data validation:

• Select all cells in the Status column
• Go to the Data tab ➡ right-click Data Validation.
• Under Allow, choose List from the drop-down menu.
• Choose the Source and click Ok to confirm.

Add Checkboxes to Your Tasks

What good is a to-do list if you can’t “check” ( or “tick”) completed tasks? We’ve already enabled the Developer tab in the previous steps so you can now add checkboxes to the spreadsheet.

• Go to the Developer tab ➡ click ☑️ Checkbox.
• Select the cell where you want to add the checkbox.
• Resize the checkbox and place it in the center of a cell.
• Drag the fill handle to duplicate the checkbox across all tasks.

👎 Disadvantages of Using Excel For Managing Your To-Do Lists

Excel Is Not a To-Do List App

Let’s make one thing clear.

It’s not that an Excel spreadsheet CAN’T act as an over-engineered to-do list. Quite the contrary. Excel is a powerful tool, but getting it to work requires a great deal of “figuring it out.”

Need a simple progress bar to check your progress?

Sorry, there’s none. Sure, you can insert a chart and come up with a witty formula to make it somewhat interactive. But the best online to-do apps let you track progress out of the box.

If you want to adapt an Excel spreadsheet to a task that’s not data entry, you need to hack together different features to get the results you’re after. And that’s not really “user-friendly.”

Of course, all that hacking and tinkering comes with a price.

Let’s say you’ve put together a few formulas and macros to power your to-do list. They seem to work just fine, so you get on with your work and forget all about them.

But the moment you start scaling your list, things get messy. The spreadsheet becomes laggy and unresponsive, formulas stop working, and you need to waste time figuring out what’s wrong. If you’ve ever used Excel, that scenario probably sounds all too familiar.

The bottom line is that Excel is NOT a to-do list app. It wasn’t designed to be one and doesn’t even have the basic functionality that’d make tracking tasks easier. And speaking of features…

You Don’t Get Any Dedicated To-Do Tools

Let’s start with reminders.

Excel spreadsheets don’t offer a straightforward way to set reminders out of the box. You can hack this functionality using Data Validation and other methods. But, as is the case with workarounds, it takes time and effort you should spend on getting work done.

Oh, and unless you’re an Excel pro, we wouldn’t put too much trust in those reminders anyway.

If you want to track tasks with multiple dependencies, you’re in for a ride. Unless you want to cram cells full of text, there’s no simple way to add sub-tasks to your to-do lists. Sorry not sorry.

It’s hard to imagine a to-do list that doesn’t use checkboxes or a variation of those.

Adding them to a spreadsheet? It’s possible, but you probably know by now that that’s a rather unintuitive process. That’s unless you love copying, pasting, and resizing. We don’t.

Of course, Excel is completely devoid of any advanced to-do features like drag & drop navigation, cross-linking, or a dedicated mobile app that’d let you easily—we can’t emphasize that enough—check tasks on the go. And it’s unlikely that things will change anytime soon.

Collaboration Is Not Exactly “Smooth”

Collaborative task management has proved its worth during the work-from-home experiment. And it’s still gaining traction as more teams are adopting a fully distributed or hybrid model.

While Excel does offer some collaborative features, they’re pretty limited.

You can’t assign tasks or tell what other people are working on in a straightforward way. There’s also no master view that’d make it easy to track team performance in a high-level overview.

A formula stopped working? Your teammate messed up conditional formatting?

It’s one thing when you make a mistake and your local spreadsheet crashes. But locking 10, 20, or 30 people out of a spreadsheet so you can fix a formula is a massive productivity killer.

And let’s not forget about Excel’s technical limitations. And there are quite a few

For once, Excel isn’t just one app that works across all devices. There are different apps for the web, desktop, and mobile, and not all of them support co-authoring. If you use a version that doesn’t, everybody else in the sheet will get locked out until you’re done with editing.

But hey, we’re not here to create problems but to find the right solutions. 🥳

🐑 Taskade—An Easier Alternative to Creating To-Do Lists in Excel

Creating a reliable to-do list for work and personal errands doesn’t have to be hard.

Erm… as long as you’re using the right tool for the job.

Taskade lets you plan, organize, and keep track of your to-dos the easy way. You don’t have to “hack” anything or create intricate formulas to stay on top of every task. With Taskade, everything works out of the box so you (and your team) can start getting work done in seconds.

Check this short video introduction to see how it works! 👇

But wait, that’s not all.

Taskade packs in a fine roundup of to-do features, including:

• ⏰ Due dates and recurring tasks
• 🦅 High-level overview of project status
• ⌨️ Convenient keyboard shortcuts
• 🔠 Natural Language Processing (NLP)
• 🎨 Text and checklist formatting
• ↕️ Task sorting and drag & drop navigation
• 🔔 Customizable push notifications
• 🔎 Global search, version history, and #hashtags
• 🔗 File uploads, embeds, and attachments
• And much more!

You can easily collaborate and chat with friends, family, and team members by inviting them directly to the Project. Taskade also features dynamic project views that let you instantly transform your list into a board, table, org chart, calendar, and even a mind map!

Taskade syncs your to-dos across all your devices without limits, even in the free plan. Our apps work natively on Mac, Windows, Linux, and mobile (iOS, Android). You can also access your to-dos in a web browser, just in case you somehow forget to bring all your devices for the trip.

“Is that all?” Nope, but we don’t want to bog you down with all the features Taskade offers.

Where’s the fun in that?

Sign up for a free Taskade account and explore the app for yourself. Our free tier includes a ton of options so you can get started quickly without silly limitations.

Oh, and don’t forget to bring your team on board!

👋 Parting Words

Can you create a project task list in Excel? Sure.

Should you? That’s a question you must answer yourself.

If you like to tinker with formulas and macros or spend hours setting things out, you’ll enjoy the process. But if you just want to get work done, you should use a dedicated to-do tool instead.

✋ Before you go… Check these articles next to learn more about the power of lists!

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The Best To Do List Templates in Excel

January 22, 2016

Whether you have to plan an event or manage a project, a to do list helps you set priorities and track your progress. By listing out all the necessary steps in one place, you can break down your goal in small, bite-sized chunks and organize your time accordingly.

In this article, you’ll find nine to do list templates in Excel. We’ll walk you through the steps to creating your own to do list with checkboxes in Excel and the most common uses for a to do list template.

We’ve also provided to do list templates in Smartsheet, a spreadsheet-inspired work execution platform that makes managing to do lists more collaborative and real-time than Excel.

Basic To Do List Template

Download Basic To Do List Template

This basic to do list template can be customized to be a daily to do list, weekly to do list, or monthly to do list based on your desired time frame. You can write out your tasks, convey status, set priority, assign due dates and owners, and add notes for extra context.

Printable To Do List Template

Download Printable To Do List Template

If you’re running around planning an event or need to hang your task list on a wall, a printable version of your to do list is necessary. However, not all Excel to do list templates are printer-friendly (the rows will often print on multiple pieces of paper).

Be sure to look for a to do list template, like this one, that has been designed to print the whole to do list on one page. You can write in your tasks and due dates, and check the box when you’re done with a to do item.

To Do List with Checkboxes Template

Download To Do List with Checkboxes Template

Who doesn’t enjoy the feeling of accomplishment after checking a checkbox?

This to do list template includes dynamic checkboxes for each task and once you check a box, the strikethrough formatting will be applied to the task. This allows you to visually convey which tasks are completed and uncompleted at a glance.

To Do List with Drop-Downs Template

Download To Do List with Drop-Downs Template

If you need to add similar details (like status) for many tasks, drop-down lists save you from entering the same information over and over again.

This to do list template features drop-down lists for priority (you can choose from high, medium, and low) and status (complete, in progress, or not started). And, when you specify that a task has been complete, that row will automatically turn green.

Action Item List Template

Download Action Item List Template

Also known as a rolling action item list, this template tracks specific tasks that must be accomplished by a certain person. Action items typically arise from meetings and should always be clearly documented.

This action item list template has columns for you to track the date created, description, priority, assignee, due date, completion date, and notes for each task.

Group Project Task List Template

Download Group Project Task List Template

While a to do list traditionally includes the tasks only assigned to you, there will be times when you need to see what your colleagues are working on as well.

A group project task list, or group assigned to do list, allows everyone to see which tasks they need to complete and when. This template boosts accountability by assigning each task to a person (or multiple people) and adding due dates.

Prioritized To Do List Template

While it can reduce stress to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in no particular order, sometimes you need to quickly see the most important to dos and the ones that can wait.

This prioritized to do list has drop-down columns, letting you organize tasks by high, medium, and low priority, or put the task on hold.

To Do List with Double-Click Enabled Template

This template features VBA code, or a Macro, allowing you to simply double-click on a cell and a checkmark will automatically be added to that cell. You can then create conditional formatting rules around that checkmark. For example, in this template, the row will turn green and will have strikethrough formatting when the checkmark is checked.

Note: When you open the file for this template, you must “Enable Macros” for the double-click code to work.

Business Trip Checklist Template

A to do list isn’t only helpful for project management. When you need to coordinate a business trip, a checklist ensures you have the right reservations, documents, and meetings before you get on the plane.

This business trip checklist includes tasks for international travel, meeting with clients and vendors, and notifying coworkers and clients of your departure.

How to Make a To Do List in Excel with Checkboxes

By leveraging the developer ribbon and adding some conditional formatting rules, you can create a to do list with checkboxes in Excel.

Here are the steps:

Set Up Your To Do List in Excel

1. Add column headers to make up your to do list. You can add headers like tasks, priority, status, due date, owner, done/completed, or notes. For this example, make sure you have columns for “task” and “done” at the very least.
2. Fill in your task and priority information.
3. Highlight the column headers and in the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click the center icon to center the text.

Add Checkboxes to Your To Do List in Excel

You first need to enable the developer ribbon in Excel. If you already have the developer ribbon, skip to step 3.

1. Click File > Options and then select Customize Ribbon in the pop-up box.
2. On the right side, under Main Tabs, check the box next to Developer and click Ok. You should now see a new developer tab in your Excel file.

1. Click the Developer tab, click Insert, and select the checkbox icon in the Form Controls section.

1. Click the cell where’d you’d like to add the checkbox. A checkbox with some text next to it will appear on your sheet.
2. Right-click on the text to enable editing. You can either delete the text or add something else. Resize the box around the checkbox once you are done. You can now drag the checkbox to any cell you like.
3. Once the checkbox is in a cell, click on the cell and drag the bottom right corner all the way down to auto-populate more checkboxes in the other rows.

Now you need to link each checkbox to a cell where it will display the check/uncheck status of the checkbox. The check/uncheck status will be represented by “True/False,” allowing you to create formulas and conditional formatting rules that react to the checkbox’s status.

1. Add a second sheet to your Excel workbook by clicking the + icon on the bottom of the sheet. We’ll link to cells on this second sheet so the “True/False” status will be hidden.
2. Go back to your first sheet and right-click on a checkbox and click Format Control.

1. Click Unchecked and click the icon next to the Cell link field. Go to Sheet2 and click the cell that corresponds with the first task (if your first task is A2 on Sheet1, then you’ll link it to A2 on Sheet2).

When the checkbox is checked on Sheet1, the value changes to «True» on Sheet2.

9. Repeat steps 7-9 for all the other checkboxes.

Set Conditional Formatting Rules to Your To Do List

Now you can create conditional formatting rules based on the status of the checkbox. For example, you could change the font color to red for tasks that have not been checked or change the row color green for tasks that have been checked.

For this example, we’ll add strikethrough formatting to tasks with a checked checkbox.

1. Highlight the first row with your task information, making sure not to highlight the checkbox. Then, in the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting > New Rule.

1. Under Select a Rule Type, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
2. Under Format values where this formula is true, you’ll enter your formula. For our sheet, we type =Sheet2!$A$2=TRUE. You’ll want to replace “$A$2” with your cell location on Sheet2 for the first task.

1. Then, click Format and check the box for Strikethrough in the Effects group.
2. Repeat steps 1-4 for all the other checkboxes, making sure to adjust your formula for each checkbox.

You can now customize the colors and fonts of your to do list.

Common Uses for a To Do List Template

You can use a basic to do list template to track almost anything. Here are some common uses:

• Baby checklist: A newborn checklist will ensure you have everything on hand for the baby’s arrival. Include items for nursing, diapering, bathtime, bedtime, and the home (like toys, mobiles, night light, etc).
• Back-to-school checklist: After a long summer break, get back into the groove with a back-to-school supplies checklist. Make a different list depending on the age of your kids (they’ll need different supplies for elementary, middle, and high school).
• Camping checklist or backpacking checklist: You probably won’t forget your tent, but other items, like a change of socks, can slip through the cracks. Create a checklist to organize all the items you need for your next outdoor adventure, including food, gear, and clothing.
• Grocery list: Throughout the week, jot down ingredients that you run out of or meals that you’d like to make the following week. Save time by organizing your list by sections of the grocery store. For example, group all produce items together.
• Home inventory checklist: Organize everything house-related in one spot. Add weekly house cleaning, spring cleaning, maintenance, inventory, and other home projects to your checklist to make sure you’re keeping your house clean and safe every season.
• Moving checklist: Stay on track before, during, and after your moving day. Your checklist can start as early as six weeks before your move, including things like planning a garage sale, ordering moving supplies, and notifying utility services of your move.
• Packing checklist: While planning for your next trip, create a packing checklist to make sure you have everything you need before you leave your house. Make sure to include last-minute items like snacks, phone and computer chargers, and pajamas.
• Travel checklist: After your suitcases are packed, you still have to navigate taxis, planes, and hotels. A travel checklist allows you to compile all important reservation and flight information in one place, so you always know where to go and when.
• Wedding checklist and wedding planning checklist: A wedding planning checklist ensures that everyone knows what needs to get done, so you can relax and have fun on your special day. Be sure to create a separate day-of wedding checklist, covering the getting ready stage all the way to breakdown.

Increase Accountability with Real-Time Task Management in Smartsheet

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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