5 To-Do List Improvements That Make Studying Easier
Managing workload on a phone shouldn’t require three apps and a mental spreadsheet. For millions of students, the Canvas mobile To-Do list is the first place they check to understand their day. In fact, it’s the most-visited screen in the entire app, opened almost 200 million times in the last 30 days alone.
Because students depend on it so heavily, we redesigned the To-Do experience to make the list more complete, more accurate, and far more useful than before.
A More Meaningful To-Do List
The To-Do list now reflects a richer, more complete picture of your academic life. Items are grouped by date for quick scanning, and the app displays month labels only when they change to keep the list clean.
You’ll now see as a learner:
- Discussion checkpoints related activities separately
- Custom calendar events and personal to-dos that used to live only in the Calendar
- Institutional events that weren’t visible in the mobile To-Do list before
- Tasks that clear automatically when you submit work
- Tasks marked as “Done” you can review and restore anytime
- Badge of the To-do will always show what you really need to do
The list updates itself as soon as something is submitted or completed. And when you’re close to finishing your workload, a small panda makes an appearance to celebrate your progress before the classic hammock panda arrives when everything is done.
Screenshot of the new Panda
These changes are reflecting the requests we hear in the community e.g. show institutional calendars, display personal to-do items, handle discussion checkpoint due dates.
1. All Your Things To Be Done in One Place
Your To-Do list now includes assignments, events, reminders, and personal tasks in a single, unified view. This helps you keep track of your full workload without jumping between apps.
The To-Do list now brings together everything with a date attached:
- Assignments
- Course and Institutional events
- Personal events
- Custom tasks
- Discussion checkpoints
- Instructor-created reminders
- External-tool tasks
- Group events
You no longer have to piece your week together from multiple places.
Screenshot showing a mixed list—assignment, event, personal task
(This work relates to filter request mentioned in the community)
2. A Smarter Default View
The new To-Do list opens with a useful default range: the last four weeks plus this week. Only items with real dates appear, so your list immediately reflects what matters—today, tomorrow, and the assignments that are still relevant.
Screenshot of the new default To-Do list filter
3. Faster Ways to Mark Things Done
Work you submitted is automatically set as “Done,” but now you can manually clear tasks in two quick ways:
- Tap the checkbox
- Swipe the item to mark it done
If you finish something outside of Canvas, simply mark it done yourself. If you clear something too soon, you can bring it back in one tap.
This gives you full control over your workload.
Screenshot of the new Undo option
4. Filters That Fit Your Study Style
The to-do list is highly customizable to your preferences. You can adjust the date ranges, choose to show or hide completed items, filter for your favorite courses, or even include personal tasks. Your preferred settings will be saved on your device, ensuring the list always displays exactly as you want it.
Screenshot of the filter panel with toggles
Moving forward, the to-do widget on your device will mirror this personalized list, giving you complete control over the tasks and information you see.
5. Better for Real Life: Dark Mode, and a Reliable Widget
Whether you're switching between light and dark mode, the To-Do list stays readable and reliable. The widget now matches the full list, so you see trustworthy information wherever you check it.
Side-by-side of To-Do list in light vs. dark mode
Where To Next
When a feature is opened two hundred million times a month, even small moments of friction matter. These improvements turn the To-Do list into a dependable, personalized space where all of your deadlines live together.
We want to thank you for the insights that led to this improvement; it is your long-standing feedback that guides our roadmap and helps us build a better experience for everyone.
We are working on integrating this feature into our widget-based dashboard. Stay tuned!
