As 2020 has officially come to the end, some may have already engaged themselves in re-evaluation on things completed and changes made throughout the year. Looking back to last year’s resolution and seeing what has been ticked off is always a good way to do that, so is listing what you did well and what you didn’t. To help you do that, 2020 TickTick Memory is ready! You’re not only able to quickly generate your TickTick 2020 year-in-review but can also write down your 2021 new year's resolutions at the same time in the list we create for you! 

Your 2020 TickTick Memory

Generally, there are 3 parts in the review, regarding Task completion, Focus, and Habit tracking data respectively. Some of the most curious questions will be covered, such as:

• How many tasks have I completed this year?
• How long have I been focused on my tasks?
• What time in a day is my most productive hour?
• What is the habit that I insisted on for the longest time?

More surprisingly, apart from the review itself, another handy feature we’ve added in the review is a 2021 resolution list! You can write down your 2021 new year's resolutions immediately after reading the review and this list will then automatically be added and kept in your TickTick.

Ideas and tips for your 2021 new year's resolutions 

Based on your 2020 Memory TickTick has generated for you, it becomes much easier to nail out your 2021 goals because you're now in the know of your productivity flow and task completion capacity. Here in the following are 8 common resolution ideas we’ve prepared for you, together with some tips on how to reach them.

1. Beat procrastination

Procrastination is perhaps one of the biggest struggles of people living in this modern society, either at study or the workplace. It is not just a bad habit, but a psychological syndrome concerning people’s inner fear, expectations, doubts, and pressures. Procrastination usually comes in the form of feeling unmotivated to start doing any tasks despite knowing there’s a deadline or putting things off and off again till the last minute. We all know this is unhealthy because of the mental suffering it causes. Therefore, finding the roots of why we procrastinate and ways to tackle it is an important goal that should be on the resolution! This article will prepare you with everything you need to know about procrastination. 

2. Increase focus and productivity

Being focused is a way to become more productive, and being productive speeds one’s way of reaching their goals. Therefore, this should be a fundamental skill required for achieving other resolutions. It is also something that can be practiced through time. You might have been familiar with some tricks already, but here I’d like to mention the 3 most essential things that you should at least know:

• Pomodoro technique -- Best way to help you stay focused.
• White Noises -- Soothing your mind and avoiding distractions.
• A Flow state -- Being “in the zone” with full immersion.

3. Manage your time well

24-hour a day remains the same for everyone, but the meaning of life relies on how we spend our time. However, the truth is most people still lack the awareness and skills of managing their time well and getting things done. Complying to GTD methodology, TickTick is such a tool that intends to help you gain more control over your time and life in many different ways, and one of the many is “Time Blocking”. By cutting your day into different blocks and putting your tasks and events into these blocks with a built-in Calendar in TickTick, your time is boxed and everything could be well planned out.

“Eat That Frog” is another useful method to help manage time. “Frog” means the most important task, and “Eat That Frog” means doing that task first thing at the start of your workday. Successfully eating that frog will carry you into the momentum for the rest of your day, which will not only make sure you’ve spent your most focused hours on the high-value task, but also increase the efficiency when working on those less-important ones.

4. Be more mindful of life

Being mindful simply means living in the present. It focuses your attention on what's happening now, instead of looking backward to the past or anticipating too much about the future. It is a way to soothe yourself and achieve greater happiness as you get more and more aware of the moment. To practice mindfulness, one can simply start from mindfulness meditation. Learn more or create a meditation habit from today in your TickTick!

5. Keep things minimal

Minimalism is another concept that we’ve heard often over these recent years. It is a less-is-more mindset and lifestyle, by trimming all unnecessary things out of our lives, whether they are personal belongings, mental burdens or digital clutters. The golden principle embedded is to live to the minimum and keep things dead simple. Having that mindset can help us in many ways, and on top of that, it reduces mental pressures, especially when living in such a commercial and highly competitive world. Although starting a minimal life is not a must but at least it is something beneficial. Learn more about minimalism.

6. Eat a healthy diet

“Eating healthy” is commonly seen in most people’s resolutions. Indeed, it seems so easy to be said but not that easy to be executed. What drags us back is usually our inertness and lack of plans. To counter that, the skills of sticking to a habit and tools to help us keep track of the habit are quite essential. The “21/90” principle is such a method that tells about how to form a new habit -- 21 days to establish a new habit and 90 days to make it stick. Yet, a complete habit-forming process requires more than that. Learn more:

• 3 key stages of making a new habit stick
• How to use TickTick to build a complete habit-tracking system

7. Develop a side hustle

If it was last year, I might not even mention “developing a side business” as a new year’s resolution, but things have changed unprecedentedly due to the COVID-19 crisis. Remote working has become the next normal and a lot of physical opportunities have vapored. It then becomes important to have a simple side hustle/project to enhance your financial stability and get you through any difficult times. Learn more about the benefits and methods of having a slash career.

8. Spend more time with family

Family time is always what needs to be cherished. The company and emotional support from family cannot be compared with other feelings and is always what gets us through tough times. Spending more time with family, even if it’s just a simple Sunday meal or a small gift sharing. Being grateful and expressing love as much as possible is perhaps the biggest resolution that I should suggest to everyone for 2021. 

Well, since you’ve got there – a bunch of ideas, tips, and resources to help you review the past year and see your New Year’s resolution through. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Don’t forget to check back on 2020 TickTick Memory in the app ! We’ll see you there:)

Approaching the end of 2020, we can’t wait to walk you through a complete TickTick feature review: what features have been newly added, what major improvements have been made, as well as what integrations and projects were introduced. Read through the full review of features coming to TickTick this year, and pick up things you’ve missed along the way! 

Section 1: New features

Break down a complex task with Task Nesting

One of the biggest new features introduced in TickTick this year is Task Nesting (Subtask). Beforehand, there were only Check Items within the task, which could be checked off and set reminders to. Yet, it couldn't perform other functions like a complete task. We brought the whole Task Nesting into your to-do lists! (Please note Check Items are still available in the task description for basic listing).

Task Nesting (Subtask) allows you to cut a huge task into smaller chunk and chucks into slices if you’d like (5 levels supported for subtasks). Each subtask is empowered with the functionality that a task has: setting due dates, priority or tags, or assigning to others.

Breaking down a task into more manageable and actionable ones is a great way to help beat procrastination, because the easier the task is, the less fear of difficulty one would feel. Subtasks also make managing a complex project easier, because it usually takes steps over steps to reach a big goal. Learn more about Task Nesting here.

Sort out your lists with Sections 

With Task Nesting, you’re maybe familiar with the task “breaking” process, but what’s also important is the “grouping” process. Here comes the “Section”, which can be added to your lists to help you sort out and group tasks, instead of letting them sparsely scattered. 

Sections are like subtitles in the list, which give you a clear clue of what underneath tasks are about. They function as a subelement in the list, to help reduce visual clutter and keep tasks in order. Select “...” in the list > “Add/Manage Sections” and you’ll be able to create Sections. You can also choose to fold any Sections to save more space in the list. It’s also handy if you switch your list to Kanban View because Sections will automatically become Columns under Kanban!

Simplify note-taking with Note

A brand-new Note feature has been introduced in TickTick for mainly two purposes: 

To provide a separate room for simple note-keeping at TickTick, where you can record any random thoughts and ideas, without the need of switching to other apps. 

To function additionally for the task management. For example, if you’d like to include some context information (background info, learning resources, references) regarding a task in your lists, Note can serve this purpose well. 

To enable the Note feature, please first create a Note List (select the type when adding a new list). You can then either take notes in the Note List you just created, or go back to any of your task lists, and convert any tasks to notes! Learn more about how to use Note.

Widgets for iOS14 & macOS Big Sur 

Since Apple introduced iOS14 and macOS Big Sur this year, we also brought you all-new TickTick widgets that work perfectly on the new systems. Three types of widgets were redesigned respectively for Tasks, Calendar, and Habits. Check everything from your Home Screen and never miss an important thing! Varying from different sizes and themes, you’re free to customize TickTick widgets to go with your devices however you like!

Check out widgets for iOS14 and widgets for macOS Big Sur.

Section 2: Major improvements

Pomo evolved to Focus

Pomo was renamed as “Focus”, to include another new timer -- “Stopwatch”, which could count up your focused hours, in contrast to Pomo Timer. 

White Noises within Focus were also enriched and replaced by better-quality ones, to be more ear-pleasant and helpful for focus experience. 

What has also been improved was Focus Statistics. From different perspectives, those stats include how much time you’ve spent on which task, and a timeline chronologically demonstrating your time-spending. 

With such updates, you will have more additional resources to track your focused time, and also enjoy a smoother Focus experience. Learn more about Focus.

A more customizable Habit

We also made the Habit feature in TickTick  more flexible and personalized, with a lot more customizable choices, such as Habit Icon DIY, individual switches for Habit Log, emoticons within habit logs, and customizable habit frequencies. All these made building and tracking habits a more fun and enjoyable thing to do in TickTick! Learn more about Habit.

Kanban went on mobile

Kanban is not an unfamiliar feature in TickTick already because it’s within the top 3 features picked by our users. But a very important update on Kanban is it can now be accessed and managed on mobile devices too! This means you could simply track the progress of your project, collaborate with team members, and manage your workflow anytime on the go! Learn more about Kanban.

Section 3: New integrations

Stay connected with TickTick + IFTTT

IFTTT (If This Then That) empowers your apps and devices to work together in a new way by establishing connections (“applets”). The integration with IFTTT brings a more automated task management experience in TickTick because, through IFTTT, you can either make TickTick a “Trigger” or “Action” to other of your daily tools. For example, if you’d like to write in a designated note in Evernote every time you complete a task, you can make “Completing a task” as a Trigger, and it will be automatically fired to Evernote. Just like that, everything could simply be connected. Learn how to set it up.

Streamline workflow with TickTick + Zapier

Similar to what you can do with TickTick + IFTTT, Zaiper is also a wonderful tool to help you connect everything and automate your workflow. It moves info between your web apps automatically, so you can focus on your most important work. Via creating “Zaps” in Zapier, you can link your TickTick with other apps you use daily. Learn how to set it up.

Stay hands-free with TickTick + Alexa 

As a popular voice assistant loved by many, Alexa has been offering us a revolutionary hands-free experience in life. Now, you can do more with TickTick + Alexa integration! Call TickTick by the name of “Tick Tick” as the invocation name at Alexa, and it will further be able to “Add Task With Reminder”, “Read Your Today’s To-Dos”, “Read Your Tasks From Any Lists”, “Add Task to a Specific List” and “Read Your Next Task”. Find out more!

Stay on top of your Inbox with TickTick + Gmail

Checking emails might be a daily task for most of us. Now, with the powerful TickTick + Gmail integration, you can easily stay Inbox zero and streamline your workflow, because turning emails into tasks in TickTick is one-click away. Simply follow the path: Add TickTick for Gmail from your G Suite Marketplace > Open the desired email in Gmail > Click TickTick on the panel to the right > Edit some details and set due dates and priorities if needed > Click “Add Task”.

Stay control of your emails with TickTick + Spark

TickTick has also been integrated with another widely-used email app – Spark. With Spark, you can stay on top of your inbox by intelligently prioritizing your emails, and keep your inbox distraction-free. And from Spark to TickTick, you can simply streamline your workflow from email inbox to task management tools! Please note this feature is currently iOS-only. Help me get connected!

Section 4: New Projects

TickTick Blog has a new home

Long been on other blog platforms, TickTick Blog finally has its official site on our website! In TickTick Blog, you can find articles about features and updates in TickTick, contents regarding productivity, time management methods, self-growth, and positive lifestyle, as well as stories shared by our users! Click here to have a small cruise, or simply find “Blog” via the bottom menu on our website, or through the About page in the App!

TickTick Educational Offer 

To help people most in need to get through a tough time during Covid-19, TickTick developed the educational plan, offering discounts (25% off) for all students and educators! That special offer would be a long-standing policy, to help more people manage their time well and be more productive while studying from home. Click here to apply!

TickTick Ambassador Program

As an all-in-one productivity app loved by tens of millions, we sincerely would like to invite those who are also passionate about spreading the power of productivity around to be part of TickTick! That’s why we brought up the Ambassador Program and are calling for people worldwide to join the TickTick family and contribute to the larger community! Check out there.

TickTick Gift Card is available 

As Christmas and new year are approaching, we introduced TickTick digital gift cards officially! Either to have one for yourself/your team, or send one to friends or family, it would be your best choice when selecting a practical and worthwhile gift! Time is the most precious gift. TickTick Gift cards help people save time and get things done. Can’t wait to Send Love!

Final Words

Reading TickTick feature review in 2020, I believe you have got a general idea of what's new and picked up things missed. We can’t wait to bring you an even better TickTick in the year of 2021!

We wish you all a wonderful new year ahead! Don't forget to check out the video of 2020 Top 5 features in TickTick!

Many of us enjoy making plans, such as spending hours creating a never-ending to-do list. Similar to registering for a gym membership but never visit since then, the common reaction to a redundant list or a big commitment is usually:

• Procrastinate on it till the last minute;
• Start from small and low-value tasks to feel they are still progressing.

Maybe everyone procrastinates, and for the most of time, procrastination indeed damages our productivity and success. However, not every procrastination is deadly harmful. High performers differ from low performers by choosing the right tasks to procrastinate on. They intentionally put off those not-so-important tasks and devote themselves first to dealing with the task with the highest priority. This refers to a productivity approach called "Eat That Frog".

What does “Eat That Frog” mean?

Don’t be scared away if you first heard of this strange term, because it’s not asking you to eat a real frog. Metaphorically, “Frog” here stands for the hardest and most important task that you’re most likely to leave to the last minute. “Eat That Frog” symbolizes doing that task first thing in the morning, right on the top of your schedule. Beginning the workday from it and then persisting until the task is completed before you go on to do something else. 

The origin of “Eat that Frog” is said to be attributed to a quote from Mark Twain: “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” Brian Tracey further described and developed it as a productivity method in his best-known book: Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. In his book, he has introduced 21 practical ways of how to eat that frog, bringing together other productivity practices like Time Blocking, and the Pareto principle into the discussion as well.

Advantages and limits

"Eat That Frog" seems quite understandable for its namesake, but would it be effective in the implementation? Why?

It reduces mental sufferings caused by procrastination

As mentioned earlier, choosing the right tasks to procrastinate on and invest in the top-priority task first is a pattern for high achievers and always brings about the positive side from notorious procrastination. Completing what is most important can reduce mental sufferings usually caused by reverse action.

More specifically, the guilt of not starting earlier, anxiety about the very limited time left for completing the task, fear of potential consequences, all these negative feelings come to us when a big and important task has been put off. On the contrary, if what we do is tackling that biggest difficulty from the very beginning and leaving other tasks behind, we will not be very likely to suffer from those psychological pressures. Besides, endorphins and dopamine stimulated from the achievement of a big task can also make us happier at work.

It helps enhance the focus for the whole day

By eating the frog first thing in the morning, your focus level can be enhanced for the rest of your day. This is because if you leave the most difficult task to the last, your day will be filled with worry and stress about that task, even if you’re doing something else. Carrying such bad feelings won’t allow you to focus on the task at hand. Therefore, the completion of top-priority tasks from the very start helps increase the focus level when performing other tasks.

It can boost productivity from many perspectives

Your productivity can also be boosted to a large extent from different aspects if you eat the frog in the morning. The first booster is the focus level as mentioned above. Another is the energy level. Usually, we are most energetic in the morning, when it’s the best time to perform the most skill-required tasks. Eating the frog is following this flow; thus we're more likely to perform better. Furthermore, the sense of achievement and confidence developed from successfully “eating that frog” can also keep us in momentum and good vibes that carry us into the rest of the day, which is beneficial to productivity.

It propels goal-reaching in the long run

The “frog” in another sense is the task that is closest to our final goals. According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of the actions determine 80% of the end results. That 20% is exactly the key task that can move us big steps towards our goals. Therefore, to complete it first helps us get closer to the goal. When added up, this would make the goal much easier to reach. Putting off things that are not helping with goal-reaching is a practical technique to avoid time-wasting.

Limitation

Although it sounds flawless, the problem with this method is that it might not be so flexible when it comes to the change of “frog”. In the real-life scenario, a new priority would pop up anytime and interfere with your original “frog”. Therefore, it may be beyond the capacity to eat two or more frogs at the same time and the completion of either will be influenced too. A possible solution is only keeping one frog at one time, and if there are two, one should always be of more importance. 

How to eat your frog

Although "Eat That Frog" seems easy-to-execute on paper, the implementation of it needs to combine with other productivity methods such as Time Blocking and the Eisenhower matrix, to make it a digest of productivity. 

Find the frog

The very first step is to find your frog. This simply means to identify which task is of the best value and needs most of your mental investment. According to the Eisenhower matrix, there are four types of tasks based on urgency and importance: urgent and important, urgent but not important, important but not urgent, neither important nor urgent. Those urgent and important tasks are the “frogs” that need to be marked as “high priority”. Be careful not to set too many high priorities, and keep the rule simple and strict, because if there are too many priorities, there is no priority.

Tip: In TickTick, when adding/editing tasks in your to-do lists, there are four Priority types you can set to a task: High, Medium, Low, and None. Find your frogs and use High Priority to pin them on the top!

Make Plans

Finding the next-day frog at the end of today’s work is always what’s suggested to do. I do that by shutting off all the windows on my browser and only leaving the one related to tomorrow’s "frog" open. This then would be the first thing I see the next morning when I come to the office and open my computer.

Another piece of advice is to always time block your tasks. As Brain Tracey said in his book, “Organize your days around large blocks of time where you can concentrate on extended periods on your most important tasks.” Arranging your tasks on TickTick Calendar and scheduling them into different time slots allows you to plan out your day well and to always stay aware of all your commitments. Make sure your "frogs" are right on the top of your daily calendar, coded by a bright color if needed.

If it’s a big frog and not possibly completed in one sitting, then it’s perhaps better to divide it first to make it several frogs for different days. To do that, the Subtask feature in TickTick can be useful, because you can break a complex task into more manageable ones, with multiple layers and priorities on them.

Time to execute on it!

When everything gets ready, there's no better time than now to jump into the start of frog-eating. Take this guide and start with your Thursday frog!

Tips: To add some spices to help you digest your "frog", you can also try:

• Pomodoro technique with White Noises
• Mindfulness practices to achieve a Flow state

What is white noise?

Some may have found themselves working more productively sitting in a crowded café instead of at home or in an open-plan office, and others may have had the experience that they fell asleep more easily especially when it is a rainy night. 

I believe you can somehow feel the relatability. Why would there be such situations, if it’s not just out of randomness? 

This is because “White Noise” like these, raindrops and people chatting in the café, can help us in terms of focus, productivity, and relaxation. Researchers at the University of Illinois found that participants who listened to 70 dB of noise performed better at work than the other two groups (exposed to 50 and 85 dB noise levels respectively). Just for your information, noise at 70 dB level is similar to the sound of a moving car 10 meters away. Noise at this level was reported to be just soothing enough to calm our minds and keep ambient sounds away, with itself not being too overwhelming to distract us from our tasks. This is called “White Noise”.

Similar to the definition of “White Light”, a mixture of all spectrums. “White Noise” is a mixture of all frequencies of sounds, including high, low, and mid-range. Most often heard in nature, the sounds of waves, rain, and forest are normally white noises. Other examples can also be found in everyday life such as TV statics, the sound of woods burning in the stove, and the boiling of water. 

Here is an example of what white noise sounds like. Put on your headphones and listen to this fries sound for at least 5 minutes and see how you feel. 

*Note: “Fries” sound is the most popular white noise in TickTick Focus.

Why does white noise work?

The main reason why noises like that can help us get more productive, focused, and relaxed is that it can block out other disturbing sounds in the surroundings and thus keep us in a non-distracted zone. Imagine you’re staying in a quiet café, where there are only several people talking while the coffee machine is running. You might be able to hear clearly each of the conversations from others around you. But if the café gets crowded as more and more people come in, conversations will start to fade away and become part of the background sounds. You won’t get so attentive as your mind skips from interpreting and processing information from these sounds. As a result, more attention will be allocated to what you’re doing at hand. This is why white noises can work in terms of attention and productivity.

When to use white noise?

The workplace is perhaps the place where we need to be focused most, especially because of increasingly various distractions nowadays: whips of your phone, a pop-up reminder from whatever devices, sounds of printers and coffee machines, loud talks from co-workers, annoying phone calls on the hallway, etc. The popularity of open-plan offices makes it even harder to stay away from these noises. White noises in this sense can be helpful, to help avoid disturbance for one thing, and to reduce your anxiety level for another. 

Studying is another case that needs a high level of focus and productivity. Dead silence in the library can make us particularly alert to ambient sounds, and sometimes even a drop of a pen is no different from an earthquake. But if you put on your earphones and listen to your favorite forest sound, you wouldn’t even be able to notice that because it can immerse you into what you’re reading or writing. 

People who suffer from sleeping problems, such as sleep deprivation, may also benefit from listening to white noises. Soothing and relaxing as the sound is, the anxiety level is way lower compared with sleeping in silence. Therefore, people may fall asleep more easily and are more likely to have a sounder sleep than usual. With a good-quality sleep, chances for a productive next-day are also higher.

One more situation that white noise can come into play is meditation. We’ve introduced how to do a mindful meditation before, and with the help of white noises, one can get more focused at the present moment and thus feel more calm and free during mediations.

Will the white noise itself be distracting?

Some may have sought help from white noises before but failed to see a fit, and others may wonder what if the white noise itself is distracting. Truth is that there’s no one-fits-all solution, and therefore sounds enjoyed by some may be noises to others’ ears. But one golden rule is the white noise that doesn’t incorporate too many high-pitched sounds or sharp breaks is the one liked by most people. Therefore, you found it is no use maybe because you haven’t met the right one yet. Being picky about white noises is the first step, and it may take some time to finally have one pleasant to your ears.

Give it a go!

Now that you’ve read it through, you may have got a better understanding of what white noise is, how it works, and when to use it. Fortunately, instead of looking around for other white noise apps or resources on media, you can simply find some great white noises in TickTick! We have recently replaced all of the original white noises with better-quality ones.

In TickTick, White Noise is supposed to be used with the combination of a Pomo Timer or Stopwatch in the Focus. The Pomo Timer (adopted from the Pomodoro Technique) is a good way to help you enhance concentration and productively get things done. You can choose a task you'd like to do and simply start the Pomo Timer in TickTick. Then if you feel you need a little more spice up, you can further choose a white noise as the background sound of your Timer. I believe it is hard to not be focused with the doubled help of the Pomodoro technique and white noises!

Quickstart tutorial: Select a task > Start Focus > Choose a white noise you like! Take me to try it! 

You may have already been a TickTick premium user for a while, or you are just new to TickTick, wondering what you can achieve with a pro account. To help you make better-informed decisions on whether TickTick is worth trying, this article will walk you through all the premium features in TickTick, with a clear comparison with the free plan!

Section 1: Unlock more advanced features

Full Calendar functionality

• Access more Calendar views. 

In TickTick Calendar, there are five view options: List, Month, Day, 3-Day, Week. This means you can check all your tasks, events, and habits with different timelines in your TickTick Calendar. Free users only have the access to the list view, while premium can enjoy them all!

With access to different Calendar views, what you can get is not only a clear visualization of your workflow and to-dos in life, but it also allows you to time block your tasks. TickTick offers an “Arrange Tasks” feature within these Calendar views. Simply via drag n’ drop, any tasks can be quickly arranged into any time chunks.

* Please note that List View and 3-Day View in Calendar are mobile-only.

• Set both start and end dates to tasks. 

Premium users can set a duration (both start and end time) to a task, while a free account only has access to the due date. This becomes handy especially when it comes to day scheduling and time blocking.

• Subscribe to third-party calendars.

TickTick made importing from local calendars an access-to-all option. But we understand your need of synchronizing events from other calendar tools you've been using as well, such as Google Calendar or Outlook. Pro accounts can enjoy more freedom of subscribing to third-party calendars.

• Set up your Calendar widgets.

Calendar widgets are another advantage that premium users can have. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just check schedules from your home screen?

P.S. Calendar widgets for iOS14 are coming soon!

Advanced List & Task features

• Customize Smart Lists

The "Custom Smart List" feature will allow you to be as flexible as you need with all the Lists! 100% tailored to your own needs, you can create Smart Lists with multiple filters. For example, if you’d like to see only the high-priority tasks at work, then a Smart List could be created with the filters “Tasks from work list” + “High priority”. Easy peasy!

• Check List Activities (desktop-only)

On desktop versions, premium users can check List Activities, to stay tuned with any changes made in the list. This includes when and who made the changes to tasks in the list, as well as what changes to which tasks. This is quite helpful especially when you’re collaborating with others on a shared list, since you’ll be able to check the status anytime and would not miss anything important in collaboration. 

• Check Task Activities 

Similarly, when tapping into a task detail page, you’ll also be able to check the Task Activities, regarding the details (when/how/who) the task has been dealt with.

• Set reminders to Check Item

Another useful feature is regarding the Check Items in tasks. A pro user can not only let TickTick remind you of incoming tasks but can also set reminders to the Check Items within the tasks!

* Please note that Check Item is different from the Subtask. Learn more HERE.

Smoother Focus experience 

• Set Estimation to tasks

If you’re used to using Focus in TickTick, you may have seen the “Estimation” feature. After starting Focus, there’s an Estimation option, within which premium users can set either an estimated Pomo number or an estimated duration that they would spend on the task. This helps a lot if you’d like to reflect on and compare the estimated hours and actual time spending on certain tasks.

• Premium White Noises

There are also more White Noises for premium users to use within the Focus, such as Chirp and Biscuit. Try and let it better help you stay focused

• Check Weekly Focus Statistics

All users can access Focus statistics, but if you’d like more in-depth data, you can check changes of Weekly Focus Statistics in your Focus history, with a pro account.

Section 2: Enjoy fewer limitations

Section 3: Have more theme options

With TickTick Premium, you can also enjoy more flexibility when choosing a theme and icon to decorate your TickTick!

Time to get on board!

Approaching the mid of 2020, TickTick has walked a long way to keep making itself a better tool for you, our lovely users! In the recent months, there were also some great improvements. This review is to give you more insights of what has been upgraded and what yet to come.

What has been improved recently?

A brand-new “Focus” evolved from “Pomo”

A new Stopwatch mode to count up your Focus time

Stopwatch has been added to “Focus” to enable you to easily track the time spent on the task that you were not sure for how long it would take. It also provides another option for those who do not wish to be interrupted by a Pomo timer while conducting work. This new Stopwatch, together with Pomo, has made the way to count and track your focused hours at TickTick becomes even easier and more well-rounded.

Pomo timer can support pause

A more personalized Pomo timer is the one that can let you pause and resume according to your own pace at work. However, only three chances to pause because we still wish you to stay focused.

Enriched White Noise for background sounds

In addition, TickTick also enriches the background sounds, so that you can have more White Noises choices to help you stay focused. Last time in the blog I suggested you to try the Biscuit sound, tell me whether you like it or not

More informed and in-depth Statistics for Focus

An enhanced Focus Statistics provides you with a more clear and comprehensive visual demonstration, intending to help you understand better how much time and effort you’ve devoted into different tasks and what’s the trend of your focused hours.

A more customizable “Habit” tracker

Enriched and Categorized Habit Gallery

Categorized by Life, Health, Sports and Mindset, more than 50 kinds of habits are well sorted and presented in the Gallery. There is also a Suggested section in case you haven’t got any habit-building plan.

Customizable Habit Icon

Not only to customize your own habits, but also to make your own habit icons! Name a new habit pick a background color type texts or emoji in. Ta-da! Here comes your own unique icon!

A new “Unachieved” status

Say NO to the situation that habits can only be checked as achieved. Now, it becomes possible to see what you’ve missed at what time and also for what reason, simply by checking your habit as “Unachieved”. This is helpful for you to reflect on your habit building process at a later point. I know some of you may only wish to see what you’ve achieved and may also be a little afraid of seeing the failures. However, what TickTick Habit promotes is always a healthy lifestyle, never a burned-out one. We wish you to know that it’s totally OK to fail sometimes, and reflecting on it is what keeps you moving forward.

A more helpful Habit Log

To help you understand your habit-building process, the Habit Log has been improved by including an individual switch for each Habit, and also mood trackers! In this way, you are free to decide whether to write something about a habit or not, and also to track your feelings when doing certain habits.

 Learn more about the Habit updates.

The new Integration with Gmail

Achieve inbox zero with TickTick for Gmail. Never miss out anything important by turning your emails into tasks and setting due dates and priorities.

• Add TickTick for Gmail from your G Suite Marketplace
• Open the desired email in Gmail
• Click TickTick on the panel to the right
• Edit some details and set due dates and priorities if needed
• Click “Add Task”

Now, you can easily see and manage this in TickTick.

Available both on and

What to come in TickTick?

Kanban View for mobile - Manage projects on the go

Win Badges - Track every step of your achievement

With all these exciting upgrades above, we hope you’ve enjoyed TickTick even more. Tell us how you feel or what you are also expecting

An unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global rollout of working from home for a long time and some may be for now too, whether it’s out of personal choices or out of no choices.

Although this may be no different for those who’ve already been used to remote work, like some freelancers. However, for those newcomers to this, like myself, it could be a complete disaster. Not just the change of workplace, it’s the change of everything: work schedules, collaborative methods, work environment, and more importantly, the state of mind. Staying at home naturally makes me feel like doing nothing but binge-watching Netflix. 

I know some of you might experience the same as me. Some others may likewise be struggling with the smell of bread floating up from the kitchen, or unexpected shouts from their kids/parents, while at work. 

To prevent such things from sabotaging our productivity of working from home, here in the following is what I did in this long combat. These 5 tips so far have made my working-from-home days more productive, organized, and enjoyable! 

Create an undisturbed work-only space

This space does not have to be large or fancy. Instead, it could be a kitchen corner less traveled by people you live with, a table behind your bedroom door, or a cleaned-up space in storage/garage. Of course, it could be better if it’s by the window, because who doesn’t like a sunbath while working at home? 

Why a separate area for work essential?

• Physically, a relatively quiet place helps prevent distractions from others.
• Mentally, it reminds you that when walking into this area, what you do is only work-related. 

Dress up in your usual smart look

I know some would say this is unnecessary, but for someone like me who can never work efficiently in pajamas or oversize T-shirts, then dressing yourself up in the usual way before starting work in the morning will be a good way to quickly get you ready for the shift to a work mode. But make sure it’s not too much, otherwise, your mum may think you’re going on the T-stage live stream (or it’s just my mum). 

Make a simple to-do list

This might be the most efficient way for me to plan my work and batch different tasks. These lists may be about a recent project, a customer list, a self-learning plan, or anything.

Try breaking down a long-run goal in your list into more doable small tasks and link them together if necessary. This is to mitigate the difficulty of execution and better activate your motivation. Find more about how to use Subtask to break down a complex task in TickTick!

• Create different folders to collect the lists and remember to mark tasks as completed. 

It’s a huge satisfaction and encouragement being able to see how much progress I’ve made daily or periodically. Yes, even though this encouragement is not from a real person, still, it makes life sweeter.

• Share your lists/tasks with colleagues If necessary.

In this way, they can co-work, edit and comment on your tasks, when it comes to team collaboration. 

• At the same time, don’t forget to create lists for family.

By separating tasks at work from life, housework or your kids’ homework can also be carefully dealt with.

Schedule your day properly

I always make my daily and weekly schedules according to the priority and set up reminders on what’s important in case I forgot. That not only tells me what to do at what time but also helps me review and reflect on what has been done for further improvement. 

But also remember: not just including work tasks in schedules, regular breaks deserve a place. For example, even just a 10-minute coffee break or a 30-minute nap, can clear your mind for a while and help you recharge and bounce back to work more efficiently. 

Stay focused, focused, and focused

To stay focused is probably the biggest challenge for me when working from home, first because I’m not an easy-to-stay-concentrated person, and then is all the temptations at home: Phone/iPad/Switch, and also the largest one, my dog. Can hardly say no to his fluffy face begging for playing toss n’ fetch.

Here are the methods I‘ve tried:

• Putting all electronic gadgets 300,000… meters away.
• Drinking coffee nonstop.
• Harshly refusing my dog’s game-playing invitation.

However, none of these seem to work well. Now, what’s instead? 

• The Pomodoro Technique ( what is Pomo? )

Working for 25 minutes and then resting for 5 minutes. The cycle of Pomodoro enable me to arrange my time wisely: Making the best use of limited focused hours of a day by striking a good balance between work and relaxation. Quick-start with Pomo Timer in TickTick!

• White Noises 

White noises in another way simply ease my nerves and clear other sounds around, putting me in a mood to only pay attention to what I do (Tried ASMR tho, just not my thing, but maybe yours).

• A delayed gratification strategy 

A delayed gratification strategy here in general is work first, enjoy later. Work harder to get a bigger reward. For example, refusing my dog’s request for now, but if I finish a task on time, then go to play with him for 15 minutes. If less than the scheduled time, then 20 minutes. Likewise, treating myself with one-hour fun time for playing Animal Cross if I’ve completed more than 90% of my scheduled work for today. 2 hours if over-completed. When the rewards are delayed, you would be more willing to invest in getting the rewards.

Final Words

Talking through above all my experience of staying productive while working from home, try these to see if they also work for you to go through this tough period of working remotely. Moreover, if working from home isn’t just for now and is going to become one of the main work patterns in the future, then isn’t it good to practice and adapt in advance to prepare yourself for another option?

TickTick has recently made a major improvement of the previous Pomo (renamed as “Focus”) feature. New features make our “Focus” function more accessible and customizable for you. Upgrade now to unlock your brand-new “Focus” experience! Let’s explore together what’s new about “Focus”.

Two timers to help you focus: Pomo & Stopwatch

What is Pomo？

The Pomodoro technique is a commonly used time management method. By using a timer to break down work into intervals (normally 25 minutes for each work period), with short breaks (normally 5 minutes each) in between, it helps people use their time wisely and concentrate better on tasks. Here, the 25-minute period is called a “Pomodoro”. 

Many people have benefited from using this method, especially to improve their work efficiency and time management. Some also believe a better work-life balance and even a more productive lifestyle starts with Pomo. Now, easily make it all happen at TickTick!

What have we improved on our previous Pomo feature?

Previously, in order to help you focus on tasks, the Pomo feature did not support a Pause action in a Pomo session. However, we understand sometimes something unexpected may pop up when you are trying to focus on your work with the Pomo timer on. Don’t worry! That will not be a problem anymore, because the newest Pomo can be paused anytime. BUT only three times at most to pause your Pomo timer, since we still wish you to stay in the Pomo mood! 

A brand-new Stopwatch mode to count up your Focus time

Stopwatch is a whole new feature we’ve developed this time. If the former Pomo offers an ideal solution to count down your focus intervals, then what Stopwatch does is to give you another option to ensure the continuity of your work time by counting the time up. It serves the best for some of you who do not wish to be interrupted while conducting work. With an easy tap at starting Stopwatch, you are switched to a simple recording mode of your focused hours. It can also be paused and resumed anytime at your own work pace. Also, like Pomo, it is easy to get into a full-screen mode if you just tap the blank space when the Stopwatch is on.

Switch between Pomo & Stopwatch 

Both Pomo and Stopwatch are designed to assist you with better concentration. After understanding the distinctions between these two features, some of you may start wondering, “Can I freely switch between Pomo and Stopwatch at any point? Is it easy to do so?” The answer is absolutely YES. Mode-switching can happen immediately because the two icons are right next to each other within the page of Focus. “Then will it change my choice of ongoing task or affect the counting of my total focused hours?” NO, your task remains no change even if mode is shifted, and your overall focused time will not be influenced by this.

Wider choices of White Noises are at Focus

White Noises normally mean those authentic sounds from nature or our daily life, like the sound of rain, wind, people talking at cafes, and etc. Scientific studies have shown that listening to these sounds can help clear our minds and thus enhance our concentration on tasks. To use it as a litter helper, we’ve updated this feature to provide you with more options of White Noises at “Focus”! Sounds, such as Storm and Lava, are new on the list. Try the Biscuit sound and you are gonna love the kink

Track your Focus trends with more informed stats

Besides enabling you to focus better with two different modes and more background sounds, what is also improved is our in-app support for your personal time-spending data analysis. In earlier versions, you may only be able to see your stats like Numbers of Daily/Weekly/Total Pomo Earned and Focused Hours, Most Focused Moments, and Completion Rate of Pomo Goals. But now, apart from these, we’ve made it a more comprehensive analysis to help you understand your personal stats better!

What’s the new powerful Statistics like?

• Separated slides instead of one page to show your time-spending stats (overview/daily/weekly)
• Day-on-day and week-on-week comparisons between Numbers of Pomo Earned and Focused Hours are available.
• Graphs to show percentages of your time spent on tasks sorted by Lists and Tags
• Pie charts that clearly reveal your Focus Goal Completion Rates
• A surprising integration with Apple Health! Data of your Focused Durations at TickTick now can be synced to Apple Health Mindfulness.

Now, with more flexible mode choices to help you stay focused, wider options of White Noises, and greater data support allowing you to look deeper into the stats of your time allocation, TickTick can’t wait to get on there right now to provide you a better “Focus” experience! 

Click here to get on board with us!

Meanwhile, both platforms all have some exciting improvements:

Support to tap on the task name to view details during a pomo.

Brand new design for 10-level badges, be ready to share them to your social media.

Support to display mix order for tasks, subtasks and calendar events based on date filter.

iOS: 

Support to postpone all kinds of tasks from the Quick Date bar.

Android:

Support to minimize pomo timer to the sidebar during a pomo. (This function for iOS is under development and will be brought out soon.)

Support to display two rows of title and one row of content if enabled “Show Details” at the task view.

Support to undo a deleted subtask.

TickTick Team