One of the great things about Todo Cloud is that it gives you the ability to easily collaborate on tasks/projects with others. Collaborating with Todo is common between couples, friends and business teams. Why? Because Todo makes it easy to get more done together.

Here are some stats about the collaboration happening on Todo:

• There are currently 20K+ lists being shared amongst Todo users
• Hundreds of teams in nearly 50 countries are using Todo together
• 77% of shared lists are shared between just two people
• 23% of shared lists are shared between 3+ people
• The highest number of people sharing one list is 19

Let’s take a look at the key features of Todo that enable collaboration. They are:

• Shared Lists
• Notes & Comments
• Sharing Tasks via Email

Shared Lists

This is the most common way that Todo-ers collaborate. The concept is simple: if I share a list with you, both of us are able to access the tasks on the list, edit them, take (or assign) them and complete them. Sharing a list is also prerequisite to collaborating on tasks via notes and comments.

Notes and Comments

When collaborating, communication and documentation is important to ensure that all parties stay on the same page, have the same expectations and are working towards common goals. Within tasks/projects that are part of shared lists, all team members are able to view the notes and comments associated with tasks. Here’s some common behavior we see:

• The creator of the task will add the task and the appropriate task details (due dates, reminders, priority, etc.) and include a brief description in the notes of the task that will include instructions, goals, musts, must nots, etc.
• The task will be assigned to a specific team member
• When there are updates, questions or reminders that are critical to the task’s completion and necessary for documentation, these are communicated/documented in the notes section

Emailing a Task

This is one of the simpler ways to share tasks in Todo and doesn’t require you to be sharing a list with someone to share a task. You’ll most likely use this when you need to make an assignment, but it’s not someone (or something) that you necessarily need to collaborate with (or on). It is simply something you need to pass on to someone else to get done.

At the bottom of the task detail screen, you’ll see an “Email” button. This will allow you to send the task details to anyone, Todo user or not. They’ll receive the task details in their inbox and if they’re a Todo user, they will be able to import the task into Todo on their device.

Three Common Collaboration Scenarios

Now that you know how collaboration can happen in Todo, let’s take a look at some common scenarios where you’d want to use these features. This obviously isn’t (and can’t be) an exhaustive list, but hopefully these examples will give you an idea about how you can leverage these features to make your life easier and get more done.

Grocery Shopping Lists

This is a very common scenario with couples or families. Because all are able to add, view, edit and complete tasks on their own devices, it makes menial tasks like grocery shopping much more efficient. We see that these “teams” will often keep an ongoing list of things that they need from the grocery store that way whenever one of them goes shopping, they simply consult the list.
We even see some of these teams go as far as having recurring “sub tasks” that act as shopping list items that will show up every few days, or weeks, or months to purchase. This is common for things like batteries, toothbrushes, milk, eggs, etc.
We also see this type of sharing with “Honey-Do” or “Home Project” lists.

Cross-functional teams

Todo is great at helping cross-functional teams manage and operate projects/workflows. We often see managers of teams use Todo to make assignments and track completion so that projects can continually move forward. It is common for managers to use Todo’s Focus Lists to see what their team has coming up in the next three days so they can plan accordingly. And now with the introduction of Smart Lists, you have more control over how you view, plan and complete tasks (individually or as a team).

Order-fulfillment

We often see teams who are fulfilling groups of orders or meeting quotas as a team (think printing, shipping, landscaping, etc.) that use Todo to assign, track and complete work together. Individual team members can look at individual orders, estimate workload and “take” tasks that are due in a specific time frame. Managers can do the same by reviewing schedules and performance the assign tasks accordingly.
Having the entire team on the same page and working out of the same queue results in improved order-fulfillment times and increased order success/satisfaction rates.

Temporary Teams

We often see shared lists that have a defined lifespan. These are typically lists that are being shared for a period of time to get one specific project done. This behavior is common for things like planning parties with friends, or when you’re part of a study group at school.

So now the question is: who will you use Todo with?