Why not just use Microsoft To Do?

It is the first question anyone asks about Jot, and it is a fair one. Microsoft To Do is free, it is on Windows, Android, iPhone and the web, its reminders are reliable, and it is built into Outlook and Teams through Planner’s “assigned to me” views. If you already use it happily, you may not need anything else.

Here is my honest answer about where it fits and where it leaves a gap.

What To Do does very well

• Everywhere. Your tasks follow your Microsoft account to every device.
• Reminders that reach your phone. For anything you need to be told about away from the PC, that matters.
• My Day. A clean daily planning view.
• Free and maintained by Microsoft.
• Integration: flagged Outlook emails can appear as tasks, and tasks assigned in Planner show up in one place.

The gap: getting things in

To Do’s weakness is the first five seconds. On Windows, there is no global shortcut that opens a To Do box over the app you are in. Adding a task means finding or launching the window, choosing a list, typing, and setting a date through the picker. That is fine at a planning moment. It is too slow in the middle of a call, a document or a game, which is exactly when most tasks appear.

That gap is the whole reason Jot exists. Ctrl + Shift + J, one line with the date in it, Ctrl + Enter, and focus goes back where it was. The longer argument is in quick capture on Windows.

The other differences

• Notes as well as todos. Jot’s box takes both. To Do is tasks only, with a notes field per task.
• No account. Jot’s capture, reminders and search work with no sign-in. Everything is in a local file.
• Parsing in the line. Jot reads dates, #tags, >lists and a ! importance flag out of what you type. To Do’s natural-language support has historically been limited compared with tools like Todoist.

Where To Do is the better choice

• You need reminders on your phone.
• You share lists with family or colleagues.
• You plan your day across several devices.

Using them together

The ideal for many people is both: a fast capture box on the PC, and To Do as the place tasks live across devices. Getting captures from Jot into To Do automatically is the job of task sync, which is on the roadmap and not shipped yet. I would rather say that plainly than imply otherwise. Until then, the honest workflow is to capture in Jot during the day and move anything that needs your phone into To Do during a short daily review.

The short version

Use To Do if getting tasks in is not your problem. Use a capture tool if it is. Microsoft’s own guide to getting started with To Do is a good place to start if you have not set it up. And see getting more out of Microsoft To Do for features people miss.

Jot is on the Microsoft Store.

Jot is a quick-capture app for Windows: one hotkey, one line, back to what you were doing. What it is, or what is still unproven.