A list of done tasks, representing the optimization of the personal to-do list workflow
What Is a Personal To-Do List Workflow?
A list of done tasks, representing the optimization of the personal to-do list workflow

What Is a Personal To-Do List Workflow?

Most of us receive tasks from multiple sources every day. Whether it’s an email request, a new task in one (or multiple) project management tools, or a shoulder tap from your manager, we’re overloaded with work from all angles. A personal to-do list workflow is the best way to gather all of those tasks into a single, organized environment.

Find out more about this workflow, its common blockers, and how you can use Unito to make it that much stronger.

Defining the personal to-do list workflow

A workflow is a map for getting things done. Whether you’re talking about cross-functional projects, support ticket escalation, or product backlogs, there’s a workflow keeping it all running. 

The personal to-do list workflow covers the centralization of everything assigned to you by people across your organization. If your organization is small enough that just a few people are throwing work at each other — or you’re only using one tool — this isn’t as much of an issue. But if you’re part of a cross-functional team, a large department, or you’re a manager with loads of tasks, this workflow is crucial. It’s the system you use to make sure nothing you need to get done slips through the cracks.

Common friction points of a personal to-do list workflow

The main difficulty of this workflow is that work is rarely centralized. The average knowledge worker might use up to ten apps a day. If even a couple of these tools are used for work management, just keeping track of everything that needs doing is a challenge. Nevermind actually getting things done.

Tool choice

Everyone has a preference, and flexibility isn’t always possible. Maybe you absolutely need Jira’s agile projects, or Asana’s simple multi-homing feature. Or you might just be used to a certain UI and having to relearn everything is a big hurdle. No matter the reason, you have a tool preference, and it won’t always match up with others on your team. Worse, if you have to work with multiple teams, you’ll find yourself hopping from one tool to the next to see all the tasks that have your name on them. 

Incomplete information

It’d be bad enough if the information you needed was just spread out over multiple tools. But add in email, chat apps, and informal water-cooler conversations, and it starts to feel like you’re constantly updating tasks in your tools instead of doing actual work. And if you try to centralize those tasks, you have to continually check these channels to make sure your central system is up-to-date. Miss an update and all the work you’re doing could become completely redundant come the next team meeting.

Copy-pasting

The status quo of trying to centralize your work is the copy-paste. When your work management tools lack an easy way to get information from one to the other, you become that intermediary. Trying to bring some order to your daily to-do list becomes its own hassle, and it starts to feel like you’re spending so much time copy-pasting that centralizing your work is an exercise in futility. But what else are you going to do?

How Unito eases that friction

Just because the personal to-do list workflow only involves your own work doesn’t mean it can’t benefit from the right integration. With a workflow management platform like Unito, you can integrate the top tools on the market and streamline collaboration across teams. In practice, that means turning multiple disparate tools into a single, cohesive environment. How does that help your to-do list?

Make tool differences irrelevant

You don’t have to keep an eye on every tool your organization uses just because you’re collaborating with other teams. Trello aficionado? Use Unito to build flows from Trello to the tools everyone else is using, making a single Trello board your go-to place to know what you need to get done. You can even connect multiple Trello boards together so you have every card you need in one place. And this is just one example. You can use Unito to integrate Asana, Jira, monday.com and a suite of other tools into your workflow so you can cover all your bases.

Centralize information

Unito’s integrations are the deepest on the market. This doesn’t end at assignees and due dates like most native integrations. Everything from comments to attachments, labels, custom fields, and more get synced between tools. That means you can stay in one tool, get everything done there, and not miss a single update. Even if your team is spread across multiple tools.

Trash the copy-paste

Life is too short to spend it copy-pasting text from one tool to the next. Spend more time on the work that matters, and less messing with keyboard shortcuts. With Unito’s deep integrations, you can be confident that no information will slip through the cracks, even if you’re not watching over it.

A personal to-do list workflow with Unito

The personal to-do list is a powerful, flexible tool. It can be used to run everything from a shuttle’s take-off sequence to the publication of a new blog post. But in the context of a tech company, what does this workflow look like when you’re using Unito?

Imagine a marketing manager with a multi-functional team, including designers, writers, web developers, and digital marketers. The manager prefers using Trello to track their tasks, but their team uses Asana, Jira, and Trello. The marketing manager wants a simple way to keep track of everything they need to give feedback or maintain oversight. Without Unito, that would mean jumping between three different tools and endlessly copy-pasting information. Here’s what this workflow looks like with Unito.

  1. The marketing manager builds a Trello board to centralize their tasks.
  2. Tasks in Asana, Jira, and Trello are marked with a “Need Feedback” label/tag.
  3. A rule is set up in Unito so only work items marked with that label/tag are transferred to the manager’s Trello board.
  4. The manager adds their feedback, asks their questions, and attaches files in their board, which are all synced to the respective tools.
  5. Marketers reply in their tools, and all this information is sent back to Trello.
  6. Work items marked as completed in one tool are updated across other tools, so everyone knows when it’s time to pop the champagne.

Get things done

Unito gives anyone, from executives to managers and individual reports, the ability to centralize every task they’re responsible for. With deep rules and deeper integrations, you can get tasks from anywhere across your organization — as long as they’re not on a napkin — and add them to a centralized system so you have a holistic view of your workday. Never miss a task or update again. Get Unito and optimize your workflow now.

What’s next?

  1. Find out how Unito can help you optimize this workflow.
  2. See how Unito is shaping the flow of work.
  3. Ready to start? Try Unito free for 14 days!