An hourly planner instead of a plain list
A to do list tells you what needs doing. It does not tell you whether it fits. Daily ToDo Lists is an hourly planner that puts each entry under the hour it belongs to, so a packed afternoon and an empty morning are obvious before you read a single word.
The Day Schedule runs down the window as a rail of hours, 7 AM to 10 PM to begin with. Earlier and later hours open from either end of the rail, and List every hour shows all 24. An hour that already has something in it is always visible, whatever the setting.
Each entry still has its own minute. Two calls at 9:20 and 9:45 both sit under 9 AM, in the right order, instead of in a heap. Labels follow the Hour labels setting, on a 12-hour or 24-hour clock.
See your hour-by-hour schedule on one band
Above the rail, a thin band stretches across the whole day. Every entry is a dot on it, and a marker moves along it with the current time, so you can tell at a glance how much of the day is behind you and what is coming up.
The band is also the quickest way to add something. Click the spot where a task belongs and a new entry opens at that time, rounded to the nearest five minutes. Otherwise press the plus on any hour, or use Add Entry, type up to 200 characters under Enter ToDo Title... and set the Hour and Minute.
A daily to do list with reminders on Windows
Tick Reminder Alert Notification on an entry and Windows notifies you when its hour comes around. Reminders work by the hour an entry is filed under, checked every 20 seconds, and each one fires once. A reminder that came due while the PC was off appears the next time the app runs, unless you have already ticked that entry off.
Closing the window leaves the planner in the notification area, which keeps reminders coming and lets the tray menu tell you how many entries are still open today. Start with Windows and Start in the notification area make it part of every sign-in.
Plan tomorrow, or any day, ahead of time
Pick a date to move the board to any day, so Monday's schedule can be built on Sunday night and appointments next month can go in as soon as they are booked. Today brings you back.
As you work through the day, Mark done strikes an entry through, and the header line keeps count: Nothing planned, how many are left, or all done. Right-click an entry to Edit or Delete it. Every change is saved to disk immediately, deletions included.
