Switch planner apps without losing anything: moving in 15 minutes

You have found the new planner app, the decision is made – and yet everything stays as it was. Not because the old app is so good, but because it holds hundreds of tasks: groceries, projects, three years of “someday” ideas. The good news: a move does not take hours but about a quarter of an hour – if you do it in the right order.

Why switches fail

The most common reason is not laziness but fear of loss: what if something disappears on the way? So both apps stay open side by side, neither is complete any more, and after two weeks the old habit wins. The trick is to treat the switch like a real move: one date, one box, one trip – and to decide beforehand what should not come along at all.

Step 1: Get everything out of the old app

Almost every to-do app can export – the feature just likes to hide:

• Todoist: open a project → menu (⋯) → “Export as CSV”. One file per project.
• TickTick: Settings → Account → “Backup” creates one CSV with all lists.
• Google Tasks: via Google Takeout, or quicker: select the open tasks and copy them as text.
• Apple Reminders / Notes: select the list, copy, paste as text – one line per task is enough.
• Paper and sticky notes: simply get typed out – which doubles as the first review.

Important: open the file briefly and check that the titles are readable. That is all it needs to do.

Step 2: Declutter – during the move, not before

Many put off the switch “until the list is tidied up”. Turn it around: the move is the tidying. Completed items stay behind – a good import leaves checked lines out by itself. And for everything older than a year, one honest question helps: would I still write this down today? If not, it stays in the old archive. Crossing out is not a defeat but a decision – more on that in the art of the short list.

Step 3: Bring it into the new app

Now the new app shows what it is worth. You can tell a good import by three things:

1. It takes what you have: CSV files from the big apps, but also a plain text list – one line, one task.
2. It shows a preview before creating anything: how many entries, how many with a date. No surprises.
3. It never overwrites and can be undone. An import that touches what is already there is not an import.

Tasks without a date do not belong on “today” after the import – otherwise your first day in the new app starts with thirty overdue items. Better is a dedicated “someday” shelf you pick from during your weekly planning.

And the appointments? Calendars move separately

Appointments usually live in the calendar, not the to-do app – and calendars have had their own moving format for decades: the .ics file. Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple Calendar all export it. The new app should both read and write .ics; that keeps your calendar portable for the next move too.

The most important question: can you get out again?

Before you move in anywhere, check the exit. An app that only lets your data in but not out again builds on convenience instead of trust. Look for a complete export (JSON or CSV), ideally at any time and without a subscription lock – and check that your own backup can be restored as well. Export without import is only half a promise: a backup file is worth little if nothing can read it when it matters.

In DayBlock the two directions belong together: under Settings → Data you find the export (JSON, CSV, Markdown, .ics) and right next to it the import – for your own backup, for CSV files from Todoist and TickTick, and for plain lists. Everything is read in your browser, none of it reaches the server in plain text, and every import can be undone with one click.

The first week after

Do not delete the old app right away – but take it off your home screen. One week of grace as an archive is enough; keep it longer and you are secretly maintaining two systems. Plan the first week deliberately small: three main things a day, the rest waits in “someday”. How the new app should feel so you open it even on sluggish days is covered in choosing a planner app.

The moving checklist

1. Find the export in the old app (CSV, or copy as text).
2. Open the file briefly: are the titles there?
3. Import into the new app – with a preview, without overwriting.
4. Leave completed and stale items behind.
5. Move calendars as .ics files.
6. Take the old app off the home screen, keep it as an archive for one week.

Fifteen minutes, and the box is unpacked. The rest is everyday life – written in the app you actually open.