Let's get so much more out of using checklists within Google Keep. Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
Convert Notes to Checklists
And I know for many of you, using Google Keep is one of your preferred tools because it is so simple. It's quick and easy to get those ideas out of your head and put them in a place where you can review and you can organize them for later.
Well, in today's video, I want to show you how to get the most out of checklists here within Google Keep. And we're gonna start things off by taking a first note or an initial note, where maybe you're just writing down a bunch of things at a time, right. You're just a stream of consciousness. You're writing down a few ideas, just a few bullet points here and there.
And at some point you may be saying to yourself, you know what, I'd actually prefer if I could check these things off. Or if I could create a checklist. Uh oh, do I have to go back again? Do I have to close this one out or delete this note and start a new one by selecting new list?
No, no you certainly do not. Let's open up this initial one right here, and if we come down here, to the more options, the little three dots here, you can see that there's an option that says show check boxes. If I select this, it's going to instantly convert the notes that I have here into a checklist.
And so now I can start checking things off as I go down this list. I can revert them, I can bring them back. I can instantly change any text-based note into a checklist format.
Now if I change my mind, no worry, I simply go back here again down to the more, and I say hide check boxes. And now I'm just back to my regular text-based list. But if you're just quickly writing down a number of things and you want to quickly convert them into a checklist, don't forget, you can always do that. You can select show check boxes, and convert anything into a checkable list.
Start a New List
Now, the next thing I want to show you here is how to quickly start a new list.
Now I know it's already pretty quick if you just select new list here. It's gonna open up a new list for you to start with.
But let's say you're playing around, you're opening up this thing, you're opening up that thing, and suddenly it dawns on you, you know, I need a new list.
Well, there's actually a shortcut key on your computer, and that is L for list.
And if you select L on your keyboard, it's immediately going to open up a new note and the list mode is going to be enabled.
So let's say in this case, I want to start a shopping list.
I'm going to say I need to get some bread. I need to get some buns here. I need some fruit so I'm going to get some apples. And I'm going to get some bananas as well.
So I've got this list here but then it dawns on me, you know what, there's actually a few other things I need to get as well. Fish, let's get some fish and let's get some chicken.
You know what, I'd like to break these out into subcategories. You know it's something that a lot of us are needing or requesting that we can have sub-tasks within our task list or in our note-taking tool.
Well, Google Keep has you covered there as well.
In fact, it's even given you a helpful reminder here to indent, drag the items on your list, or use the shortcut control plus.
I'm just going to say got it to hide that for a second.
So in this case, I've got some things from a bakery, right?
So let me put in something, let's say bakery here. Let's say under this one, I'm going to put produce. Let's not forget the P.
And let's say down here I'm going to say meat.
So those are the different areas that I want to go in. But I still have just a single list.
Well, all I have to do is select this option here to the left of the checkbox and drag it over.
And not, oops I don't want to check it off, hit the checkbox there, I want to drag it over.
Now I've got a nice sub-list under bread.
I'm going to do the same thing for my fruit here, under produce. I'm going to put my fish and chicken, I'm going to nest it underneath meat.
So now you can have true sub-tasks or an indented checklist here within your Google Keep note.
And the great thing is that it will always keep it together.
Let's say that produce is first in my grocery store so I want to put it ahead of bread.
All I need to do is drag produce up to the top and it's going to keep everything that's nested within it together, right?
So it's not going to break things up. I can move meat here in front of bread. It's going to keep everything nice and together here.
Now, the way that the checkmark function works in this mode, if I check chicken, you can see chicken goes off, fish goes off, but if I check both of them it's still not going to check off the parent or the high-level checklist there.
This is only going to go away if I check this one off completely. However, I'm going to uncheck those for a second.
Let's say I have gotten these two items. All I need to do is select the top level and it's going to check everything off. Here you see that both fish and chicken were checked off.
So it does make it convenient in that respect as well so, play around with indenting your checklists here within Google Keep.
Don't forget the L shortcut on your keyboard if you want to start a brand new note, and of course, you can also convert your notes back and forth from a checklisted item, even if you want to go back to just a text-based item you can do so as well.
Well, I'd love to hear from you next.
What other tips or tricks would you like me to share here on the Simpletivity channel?
Be sure to let me know down in the comments.
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Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
