Reasons Why Google Tasks is Better than Microsoft To Do

With so many deadlines hanging over your head at any given time, it can be hard to survive without a to-do list. While Google Tasks has been a favorite to-do app for years, many people decide to try switching to Microsoft To Do . Then they realize there are many reasons why Google Tasks is better than Microsoft To Do.

Microsoft To Do's interface has too much going on.

When it comes to apps that are used multiple times a day, like task managers, people often prefer apps with ridiculously simple user interfaces. No one wants to navigate through multiple menus just to add a new task or mark an existing one as completed.

To be honest, Microsoft To Do's interface is more complicated than it needs to be. But even after using Microsoft To Do to manage my to-do list for a week, many people still can't get used to its interface.

For example, even something as simple as organizing a task is relatively more complicated in To Do than in Google Tasks. After you create a To Do task, you can organize it by creating a category. But there's a catch: You can only create categories in the Outlook app . Why would you need to switch to another app just to create a simple category to better organize your tasks?

To Do has multiple tabs in the left panel, including My Day , Important , Planned , Assigned to me , Flagged email , Tasks , and then your lists.

In contrast, Google Tasks' interface is as simple and clean as can be. It only has the All tasks and Starred options in the sidebar, with all your lists listed below.

To create a task in To Do, you need to click My Day , Important , Planned , Tasks or one of the lists, then add your task.

In Google Tasks, just hit the + Create button .

These little things add up to make the whole experience slow and unnecessarily overwhelming.

To Do makes list management more difficult than it needs to be

Google Tasks and Microsoft To-Do both let you organize your tasks into separate lists. Somehow, Microsoft has overcomplicated something that should be incredibly simple.

For example, in To Do, tasks in your individual lists don't appear in the Tasks section , where you'd expect all your tasks to show up. You also can't move a task from one list to another once you've added it, which is frustrating because it means having to create a completely new task from scratch. With Google Tasks, you can just drag and drop tasks from one list to another.

In Google Tasks, all your lists appear in the left sidebar. You can toggle which lists you want to display as separate cards in the main view.

This makes it easy to quickly see what's going on across different areas, unlike Microsoft To Do, where you need to click on each individual list to see what's inside.

If you juggle tasks across multiple aspects of your life, like work, education, and personal commitments, not having the option to see tasks from different lists side by side is a bummer. In Google Tasks, you can quickly scan through pending tasks across all your lists at a glance.

You can't even set due dates for subtasks

In an ideal world, just creating a task would be enough to get you started. But as someone who procrastinates on something as simple as sending an email, adding a task like 'write an article' will sit on your to-do list for a long time.

That's why it's a good idea to get into the habit of breaking down seemingly "big" tasks into smaller sub-tasks to make complex tasks less overwhelming.

For example, if you're preparing for an upcoming physics midterm, break it down into sub-tasks like completing individual chapters, doing practice problems, and reviewing old practice questions.

Just like you need to add due dates to tasks, you also need to add due dates to subtasks to keep them on track. You can spread each of those subtasks out over each day.

Unfortunately, To Do doesn't let you set due dates for subtasks, so when you need to do that, you have to create separate tasks, which makes your to-do list messy and overwhelming. That alone is enough to convince many people to immediately switch back to Google Backs.

You don't need that much structure in a To-Do app.

Organizing tasks into lists is the kind of structure you want in a to-do app. That's exactly why many people stick with Google Tasks for the long haul. Microsoft To Do, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Google Tasks in this regard.

As mentioned above, one way to organize your tasks beyond lists is to create categories (from Outlook) and then group your tasks into those categories. Honestly, many people can't even tell the difference between lists and categories. The last thing you should be doing when using a basic to-do list app is Googling how to use the app's basic features.

To Do has My Day , which, as the name suggests, is a section for specific tasks for the current day.

The concept of this feature is great and you can imagine it helping people stay focused without having to think about all the other tasks they need to complete. Many people prefer a weekly plan over a daily schedule and while you may like to see what tasks you need to complete for the day, you don't need a separate My Day section for that.

Likewise, To Do's Important and Planned sections are unnecessary for some use cases. It's more structured than you'd need in a to-do list app. All you need to do is create a to-do list, set due dates and reminders if needed, and then move on with the rest of your day. No less, no more. Sure, To Do offers powerful features, but they're overkill for the average user.

Google Tasks is better suited to workflows

Some people are stuck in the Microsoft 365 world, while others are stuck in the Google Workspace world. Since Google Tasks is a Google app, it integrates with basically every other Google collaboration tool.

When you set a due date for a task in Google Tasks, it's automatically added to your Google Calendar. When you add a task to your Google Calendar for a specific day, it automatically shows up in your to-do list. You can even create tasks directly from Gmail !

Honestly, to-do apps are made to make things easier, not more complicated.

Samuel Daniel

Update 26 May 2025