Looking for a Microsoft To Do alternative?
Microsoft To Do is good at mornings. My Day, a short list, a few things chosen. What it does not give you is the system underneath, the one that makes that choice trustworthy.
What makes tingdo different
The daily pick
My Day empties every morning. You choose again, from a list you may not have looked at in weeks.
Next actions are decided once, in the weekly review, and stay decided. Opening the app is a look, not a negotiation.
Contexts
A #hashtag typed into a task title is the closest thing to a context. It works in search, but it is not part of the structure.
Contexts are built into the home screen. Filter by where you are and what you have with you, and the rest stays out of sight.
Projects and next actions
Lists and list groups hold tasks. Steps break a task into parts, one level deep. Nothing marks which step comes next or which list has stopped moving.
A project carries an outcome and one next action. A project without one is flagged as stalled, so it comes back to you.
Weekly review
There is no review. My Day nudges you daily instead, which fills the gap without closing it.
A guided weekly review, one item at a time. That is what lets the rest of the week stay quiet.
Waiting for and someday
You can make a list called Waiting and one called Someday. They sit beside your other lists and are as easy to forget.
Park a task in waiting-for when someone owes you an answer, and an idea in someday/maybe when its time hasn't come. The review brings both back.
Focus mode
Not in the app. On Windows 11, the Clock app's Focus Sessions can pull in a To Do task and run a timer beside it. That works, and it lives somewhere else.
Focus Mode is one tap from any task. Open it, work, and the session is recorded against that task and in your Logbook.
Sharing and teams
Shared lists work well for a household or a team in the same organization, and a flagged Outlook mail becomes a task instantly. If your day runs on Outlook, To Do earns its place.
Single player by design. tingdo looks after your own system and leaves handing work to other people to the tools built for it.
What you see when you open tingdo
No calendar, no red badges. Your next actions, grouped by where you are and what you have with you.
#errands
- Buy oat milk
- Return package at post office
- Pick up prescription
#computer
- Draft project proposal for Q2
- Cancel that subscription you forgot about
- Reply to Marco's email
And one thing you won't find anywhere else
Most task apps give you a search screen, a new-task dialog, and a menu. tingdo gives you one quiet box that does all three. Start typing to find any task, project, or note. Type + and a title to capture a task, / to jump to a project, # to open a context. About two seconds, all without leaving the keyboard.
Bring your tasks with you
Microsoft To Do has no export button. The usual routes are the classic Outlook desktop client, where the same tasks appear as Outlook tasks and can be saved as CSV, or a Power Automate flow that writes new tasks into an Excel sheet. Both cost more effort than most lists are worth. If yours is a few dozen items, write them into tingdo's inbox instead. Half an hour, and you get a clean system rather than a copy of the old one.
New to GTD? Learn how the methodology works before you switch, or see the full GTD task manager overview to understand how tingdo implements each step.
A different approach
Next actions, not deadlines.
The only question that matters: what's the next thing you can do? Everything else is context, not urgency.
No guilt.
There is no red-badge panic. No shame. A task is either done or it is not, and that is fine.
Capture in seconds.
A title is all you need. Project, context, deadline: all optional, all addable later.
Review, don't react.
A calm weekly review keeps your system trustworthy. One step at a time, no overwhelm. See how the weekly review works.
Notes live with your tasks.
Reference material like passwords, dimensions, or policy numbers lives right inside your projects. No separate notes app needed. Read more about how tasks and notes work together.
One input for everything.
Search, create, navigate: all from a single input field. Type to find anything, capture a task, or jump to a project. See how the next bar works.