To-Do Tools

A to-do list is the simplest productivity tool there is, and the reason it survives every wave of more elaborate software is that writing a task down gets it out of your head and stops you carrying it around all day. The To-Do List here is deliberately plain. You add items, mark them complete as you go, and remove what no longer matters. There is no project hierarchy, no assignee field and no notification scheme to configure, which means the whole thing takes seconds to set up and nothing to learn. That makes it a good fit for a single day's work, a packing list before a trip, a shopping run, or the short set of steps left in a job you are part way through. It works best when you keep the list short and specific. Items phrased as actions, with a verb at the front, are easier to start than vague headings, and a list of six things you will genuinely do today is more useful than forty you might do eventually. Clear the completed items at the end of the day so tomorrow starts clean. It runs in your browser, needs no account and installs nothing.

1 tools available

Showing 1–1 of 1

How tasks are stored and kept in sync

Each task is a small record holding four things: a unique identifier taken from the current timestamp, the task text you typed, a done flag that starts false, and the creation date formatted for your locale. New tasks are added to the front of the list, so the most recent work sits at the top rather than at the bottom.

The whole list is serialised to JSON and written to your browser's local storage under a single key after every action: adding, ticking, unticking, deleting or clearing completed. There is no save button, because there is no moment when the stored copy differs from what you see. When the page loads, the stored JSON is read back and parsed; if nothing is stored, you start with an empty list.

The three filters are views over the same underlying array rather than separate lists. Active shows records where the done flag is false, Done shows where it is true, and All shows everything. Counts in the tab labels and the completed summary line are derived from the same array, so they can never drift out of step.

A worked session with five tasks

Start with an empty list and add five items in order: "Book dentist", "Reply to Anna", "Pay invoice", "Buy milk", "Draft report". Because new items go to the front, the list displays Draft report at the top and Book dentist at the bottom, each stamped with today's date.

The tabs now read All (5), Active (5), Done (0), and the footer reads 0 of 5 completed.

Tick Pay invoice and Buy milk. Those two are struck through, the tabs update to All (5), Active (3), Done (2), and the footer reads 2 of 5 completed. Click the Done tab and only those two rows are shown; click Active and only the remaining three appear, although all five are still stored.

Press Clear completed. The two ticked tasks are removed from the underlying list, not just hidden, so the tabs become All (3), Active (3), Done (0) and the footer shows 0 of 3 completed. Reload the page and those three tasks reappear exactly as they were, because the list was written to storage on each change.

What local storage means for your list in practice

Local storage is tied to one browser on one device. Your tasks will survive a page reload, closing the tab and restarting the computer, but they will not appear on your phone, in a different browser, or in a private browsing window, because each of those has its own storage area. There is no sync and no account.

Three things will delete the list: clearing browsing data or site data, using a browser setting that wipes storage on exit, and any extension that clears site storage automatically. Private or incognito windows also discard storage when the session ends. If the list matters beyond today, copy important items somewhere durable.

The upside is privacy. Nothing you type is transmitted, so the tool is safe for personal or sensitive reminders. The trade-off is that there is no history, no undo and no recycle bin: deleting a task, or clearing completed, removes it immediately with no way to recover it. Tick items you might want to review later rather than deleting them, and clear completed only when you are sure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, provided you return in the same browser on the same device and have not cleared your browsing data. The list is written to local storage after every change and reloaded when you open the page, so no manual saving is needed.
No. Local storage is specific to one browser on one device, and there is no account or sync. Opening the tool on another device gives you a fresh, empty list. Tasks added on your laptop will not appear on your phone.
It permanently deletes every task currently ticked as done, not just hides them. The All and Done counts drop accordingly. There is no undo, so if you want a record of finished work, leave items ticked and use the Done filter to review them instead.
No. Tasks can be ticked, unticked or deleted, but the text itself is fixed once added. To change the wording, delete the task and add a corrected version. New tasks always appear at the top of the list with today's date.
No. The list lives entirely in your browser's local storage and is never transmitted or associated with an account. That makes it suitable for personal reminders, but it also means nobody can recover the list for you if the storage is cleared.