Image: Elnur/Shutterstock

I do like a good kanban board. With the ability to lay out tasks in such a way, those tasks become easier to visualize and manage. Now, what if you could couple a kanban board with Google Tasks? Wouldn’t that be outstanding? And given that Google has yet to release an official kanban solution (why this has escaped them boggles the mind), you might be wondering if it’s even possible to merge those two things.

It is. And it’s fantastic.

The solution is called TasksBoard and it turns your Google Tasks into a kanban-like UI, which makes them so much easier to manage and work with.

SEE: iCloud vs. OneDrive: Which is best for Mac, iPad and iPhone users? (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

TasksBoard turns your Google Tasks into lists and then adds your tasks to those lists as cards. Out of the box, TasksBoard converted my current tasks into lists titled My Tasks, Default List, TR, Linux.com, Shopping, Cover Design, Ask Jack, Books and Article Tops. Some of those lists were derived from outdated tasks, but I was pretty impressed with the default set. And those that are no longer needed can be deleted or renamed.

TasksBoard includes features like lists, cards, collaboration (requires premium plan), export to Google Sheets, unlimited lists and cards, priority labels and highlights (requires premium plan), custom backgrounds (requires premium plan), multiple boards (requires premium plan) and 24/7 support (requires premium plan). The service can be used for free, or you can purchase one of three premium licenses:

  • Monthly — $5.99/month
  • Yearly — $39.99/year
  • Enterprise — $99.99/year for 5 users and adds priority support

It took me no time to delete the unwanted lists, rename the imported lists, and create new lists to have a kanban solution that is perfectly suited for my workflow.

SEE: 5 kanban services ready to take your productivity to the next level (TechRepublic)

How to get started with TasksBoard

It’s incredibly simple to start working with TasksBoard. To do so, open your default web browser, make sure you’re signed in to your Google account and go to https://tasksboard.com. You will be asked to sign in with Google. Make sure to select the correct Google account (if you have more than one) and then give TasksBoard permission to access Google Tasks.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll find yourself on the main TasksBoard window (after TasksBoard has generated a list from your current tasks). You can easily rename any of those generated lists by clicking the associated menu button and selecting Rename List (Figure A).

Figure A

Renaming one of the lists TasksBoard generated from my existing tasks

After getting all of your lists in order, you can start adding cards (tasks) to them by clicking Add A Task (Figure B) in the list you want to work with.

Figure B

Adding a new task to a list is very simple.

At this point, TasksBoard is incredibly intuitive — so much so that anyone can be up to speed on its use in seconds.

How to “install” the desktop app

TasksBoard claims to also have a desktop application. It doesn’t … not really. If you use either the Chrome or Edge web browser you can create an app window for TasksBoard by clicking the menu button and then clicking Install TasksBoard (Chrome) or Apps | Install Tasks Board (Edge — Figure C).

Figure C

Installing the TasksBoard “app” with the Edge browser

Once you’ve installed the TasksBoard app, it’ll open in a Chrome (or Edge) app window. You should also then be able to locate the TasksBoard app in your desktop menu.

There’s really not much more to say about TasksBoard, other than it’s a far better way to work with Google Tasks than what Google offers. If you like kanban boards, and you use Google Tasks, this is the perfect marriage of the two.

Give TasksBoard a try and see if it doesn’t wind up your go-to method of working with Google Tasks.

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This is your go-to resource for the latest news and tips on the following topics and more, XaaS, AWS, Microsoft Azure, DevOps, virtualization, the hybrid cloud, and cloud security. Delivered Mondays and Wednesdays