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Simple Todo List application using Excel – Download and become productive

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After seeing Andrew’s simple excel based check-list I got this idea of preparing a simple To-Do list application using excel.

Since most of us use Excel on day to day basis, why not use it as a productivity application as well by keeping track of all the things we must do (TO DO List). When we have finished a task, we can mark it as “Done” in the sheet and it will be removed. See below:

simple-excel-todo-list-application

Click here to download the Simple To Do List application in Excel

How to use Simple To do List?

  • Open the downloaded workbook. It may ask for enabling macros, please say “Yes”
  • Start entering your to do tasks in the table. See below:

    using-todo-list-in-excel-entering-tasks

  • Now, leave the spreadsheet here and go get some of the things done!
  • When you return mark the items you have finished as done. See below:

    changing-todo-list-task-status-excel

  • Finally once a day or so, click on the “Remove done items” button. This will remove all the to do list entries with “Done” as the status. Please be aware that once you remove the items you can never get them back. See below:

    removing-done-items-to-do-list-excel

  • That is all, this spreadsheet to do list is soo simple that it leaves you tons of time to actually get some of the things done.

How the Simple To do List works?

The key functionality of this excel based to do list lies in the “remove done items” button. When you click it a VBA macro runs in the background and checks tabular area where you have entered to do items for anything with “done” status. If it finds any, the code will remove those items and move up the remaining ones accordingly. Click here to see the VBA Macro code.

Download the to do list excel workbook and become productive

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21 Responses to “Simple Todo List application using Excel – Download and become productive”

  1. Elliot Dixon says:

    works great - just what I was after - thanks

  2. Marie Jackson says:

    Why would you want to delete completed tasks? You would be deleting valuable information that could be used later during performance review time. Why not just hide the rows once the task is completed, unhide when you need to review with your boss.

  3. [...] can use VBA macros to automatically remove the finished to do items. I have written an article on simple to do list app using excel sometime back. Check it out to get some [...]

  4. Venkat says:

    Hi PHD:
    Its a nice tool. I have developed something similar on my own where I change the color of text to a lighter shade of gray once the task is "Done".
    However, this is what I want to achieve - that once you mark a task "Done" it should get automatically deleted from the current sheet and get inserted at the bottom of another sheet in the same workbook with the date and time stamp.
    Appreciate your help in this regard.

    Thanks in advance.
    Venkat.

  5. Christian says:

    Hi Chandoo & fellow forum users,

    Just catching up on emails that came in during my Xmas break and it lead me to this post.

    This is something I constantly have use for, and do agree that simply deleting them is inadequate for my use. I would need to see those completed tasks for audit and performance analysis. The date stamp is a great idea, but this can be achieved by inserting the date or time etc in a cell at the same time you choose the "Done" option.

    So did this post ever go further, or does anyone have any light to shine on developing the orginal file further to include these variations?

    Thanks

  6. Herman says:

    Hello Chandoo,

    First and foremost, Wish you and your family a fantastic and super successful 2011 ahead!

    Secondly, thanks a million for sharing so many productive excel worksheets/ tools for FREE!

    Finally, I agree with ref to the 'done' comments above. I'm also of an opinion that the done
    activities could be changed to a diff colour, or even better move them to a diff sheet, as one might need them for later reference.

    Hope to see an upgrade on this very useful tool, if not, no worries, will move the entries manually to a diff sheet : )

    Happy New Year to all once again.

    Warm regards,
    Herman

  7. DataDetective says:

    This is exactly what I'm currently stuck on; can't quite get the code to work 100% the way I want.... which is when a project is completed on one worksheet, delete it and and paste it to the bottom of the next worksheet. Still searching..... any help would be enormously appreciated. Thanks for all the information on this site. 🙂

  8. Bharath says:

    Chandoo,

    greatly appreciate what you have put together with this website here....
    I do have one suggestion for this template you shared here...it would be great if the "done" items can be moved to a seperate worksheet instead of just deleting them. Thanks.

  9. visuiyer says:

    Great..!!

    It is really awesome.!!
    Hats off my dear..!! 

  10. Jeff says:

    Hello Chandoo!
    I Used the "simple to do list app" in one of my projects at the office and it works perfectly.
    You are a master!
    Awesome work.
    However, I tried to use a third column for "importance" using three values: high, medium and low but when I run the macro it completely  messes everything up.
    Can you (if possible and if you have the time) add a third column to it?
    Thank you so much.
    Jeffrey from Costa Rica.
     

  11. Janet Gatewood says:

    Love this simple list. I would like instead of deleting the done items move them to a completed tab. This will allow me to get a quick look of all the items I have complete.

    • Hui... says:

      @Janet
      Have a look at:
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/2l00ukqgfppllae/Simple-todo-list-in-excel_2.xls
      This shifts the Completed Items to a Completed Worksheet and adds the current date as a Field

      • Janet Gatewood says:

        This is wonderful! Thank you very much. I feel more productive already!

      • TallSeg says:

        Hi Hui,

        I love your revision to this tool, it is so useful to us. How can we edit this macro to make it move more then one column to completed? We want to add a job name column and responsible column, that gets moved over when you click the remove completed button.

        Thanks,
        Conlan

        • Hui... says:

          @Conlan

          Please see file at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/08n3ibbhrg0kadf/Simple-todo-list-in-excel_3.xls
          I have added 1 extra column to the table

          I have also commented in the VBA code to show you where the changes need to be made if you want to add more columns, there are only two changes to be made

          • TallSeg says:

            Thank you so much. I can't wait to share this with our staff. I have worked with html before, but excel macros are such a challenge for me!

          • Jodi Hayes says:

            Hui, thank you so much for adjusting this!! I love it!! I was also curious if it's possible to freeze rows.
            Say row 5,6,7 - 8 is frozen - 9,10,11 are a group, - 12 - frozen, etc. If I delete from row 6 I don't want row 8 or row 9 to bump up into that new group. Make sense? Help would be much appreciated!!

          • Venkat says:

            Great Hui! Thank you for the much needed functionality. I totally forgot about this post that I had done (over) 5 yrs ago (Mar 29, 2010).

            I am sure lot of us are happy with this. Keep such productive stuff coming.

            Actually, I have a suggestion - why don't you ask the users themselves to pose some real life situations/challenges they are facing in their day-to-day life and get the answers from the rest (with moderation of course)?. I am sure this will go a long way in helping the user community benefit from each others knowledge.

            Great, if this is happening already. My bad if I have not checked it. Please point me to that in case there is one already existing.

            Thank you.
            Venkat

  12. Jackson says:

    This is great! However, I have a question: How can I adjust the list when it is done, it will go to another column (Done Column) instead of being deleted from the list?

    Thanks for the help.

  13. setu shah says:

    hi chandoo u r greatplease help me how can i add extra raw in simple to do list up to 400 with using this function,,please give me reply.

  14. Devendra says:

    great Job!!!..

    A small suggetion there should be some notification which should pop up on the screen about the dead line of the task.
    can we do that in the same excel.

    dev

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