Too little structure in your life causes stress. If you regularly forget a deadline, miss an important appointment, don’t show up to a parent meeting at school… you could be kicking yourself! A good to-do app might be the solution to this embarrassing problem. With Todoist you can plan better, you won’t forget tasks or appointments anymore and the app even keeps an eye on your productivity.
Create Todoist Account
Todoist is available for all devices and all platforms. Once installed it will sync data between the devices you are logged in to with the same account. The shopping list that you compiled yesterday on your Windows computer can therefore also be found on your phone the next day when you go to the supermarket.
There are three versions: free, premium ($3 per month) and business ($5 per person per month). The free version (which we describe here) will get you a long way. Register on www.todoist.com with a Google, Facebook or Apple account or via an email address. Then choose one of the four available themes (the premium version contains more themes).
Eventually you will arrive in the dashboard on the page Today where Todoist asks if you want to add your first task. There is no advertising and the layout is sober and fresh, without flashy buttons. After all, the emphasis is on your projects and tasks. In this distraction-free design, some features will not become visible until you hover your mouse pointer or finger over certain elements.
Create projects
On the left you see the group Projects where two projects are already waiting for you: Welcome and Try out boards†A project is a thematic list in which you keep track of your tasks. For example, you can create a project Work make for all professional tasks, a project Privately where you store personal lists and a project Movies where you hold recommendations that you want to watch in the near future.
You can create a new project by clicking the button Projects and then click the plus sign. In the window Add project give the project a name and a color. You can also use the switch Add to favorites to turn on. This will move the project up in the left pane for easy access. In the free version you can manage five active projects, while in the Premium edition there are no fewer than three hundred.
Because you want to be economical with the number of projects in the free version, you can archive the two existing projects. Archived projects do not count in the quota. Hover over the project name so that three dots appear. Click on it and choose Archiving†Archived projects can be retrieved by clicking in the left column on Archived projectsâ€
Tip 03: Tasks in the Inbox
The projects form the skeleton of your to-do system. You now want to add tasks to those projects. That can be done in different ways. Suppose you should not forget to order medicine for your dog tomorrow, then you can click in the left column on inbox and choose that Add task to elect. Or you press the Q key on your computer. Then type a title and a brief description of the task.
Then click the Schedule button and select a day from the drop-down menu. It is even possible to add a time. Then click again Add task†All tasks that are not yet linked to a project end up in the inboxâ€
Tasks in projects
A project is of little use if it does not contain the correct tasks or if it does not contain the right tasks. Therefore select in the inbox (or later in a project) the task moves the mouse pointer to the left of the dot. You will then see a kind of handle. This allows you to grab the task and drag it into a project.
It is even easier to press the button while entering the task inbox clicking, which opens a drop-down menu containing all projects. You can also open an already created task and click the Select a project use. That’s an icon with dots and dashes. Finally, you can of course also use the . button from a specific project Add task so that the task immediately appears in the correct project.
In the mobile app, quick action buttons appear when you swipe a task. These buttons allow you to change the task due today, tomorrow, next week, in a month, or any date.
When entering a task name, if you type a hashtag followed by the name of one of your projects, Todoist will immediately drop this task into the correct project. Within projects you can assign priorities to your tasks with a flag.
There are four priority levels. Tasks with a flag appear above the other tasks, so you can’t forget them. Furthermore, Todoist not only recognizes dates in text, but also priority. If you are behind the task name p3 type, the task will be given priority 3.
Completed tasks
If you have to perform multiple actions for one task, you can create subtasks. You do this in the same way as creating a new task. When you cross off a subtask, it will be crossed out. This is in contrast to tasks. Completed tasks disappear from view.
You can still find all completed tasks in the activity log. To do this, click on your avatar in the top right corner and select Activity log†At the top of the log, click All promotions, then you will see everything you have added and removed. Change your view to Completed tasksthen see only the history of what you have completed so far.
Every morning you will receive an e-mail with an overview of the tasks that are waiting for you today
Today and Upcoming
In the left menu you will find except inbox two more interesting sections: Today and Upcoming†In Today you can read all tasks that are scheduled for that day and all tasks whose deadline has passed in the meantime, but which you have not yet completed. Today’s tasks are in a specific order. At the top are the items that have been assigned a time and below that the tasks are arranged according to priority.
The category Upcoming shows a chronological overview of all tasks and subtasks coming your way in the next seven days, regardless of the projects they belong to. With filters you can create a view that only shows tasks that have to be done the next day, for example.
Do you often turn off push notifications because they are intrusive or over the top? With Todoist, you’d better leave them enabled as they are part of the time management system. The notifications ensure that you do not forget to perform your tasks. What else do you have this app for?
Todoist Settings
Via your avatar at the top right you come to the Institutions, you will find some interesting options there. Bee Account can you upload a picture of yourself. Bee Generalbelow Home page, you can indicate with which page the app should open. By default this is the page Today, but you can always be welcomed by one of your projects. Please note in the category General also on the institution Smart date recognitionwhich allows the app to automatically read dates in tasks.
The category is interesting Notifications, where you check which types of events you want to receive notifications about. This is how you can get a Daily overview request. As a result, you receive personalized productivity statistics every morning and an overview of the tasks that are waiting for you that day. Even if you are not allowed to install Todoist at the office, you can read what you have to do that day in an email in the morning.
Finally, you will find all the way at the bottom in the section Integrations buttons and links to connect Todoist to external services such as Google Calendar, Outlook and Apple Calendar.
When setting due dates, Todoist understands natural language input. The app recognizes date stamps in task names as in two weeks†Monday September 3†Today and so forth.
For example, if you want to indicate that you have to take the car to the garage on Friday, you type as task name Garage followed by a space and after that free. Todoist will automatically replace the word Friday and note this in the agenda as well.
Improve productivity
Karma is a Todoist feature that charts your productivity. You can ignore the radius feature, but some users find it a fun way to see their productivity. By using the app on frequent, you will earn Karma points and you can reach a certain level.
In the web app you have to go to the circle at the top left of the question mark. On the mobile app, this circle is located at the top left. You will then see an overview of your daily and weekly productivity. And on the tab Karma You can see how many points you have earned by completing tasks on time, by adding tasks and by using advanced features such as recurring reminders.
Streaks also earn points. You score a streak if you hit the goals several days in a row. When you neglect deadlines (four days late) you lose karma. You are between 0 and 499 points Beginner, and that’s how you climb up one level each time. The highest form is litbut then you have to put at least 50,000 Karma points behind your name.
Recurring Tasks
Of course there are tasks that repeat themselves regularly. Just think of a monthly report, the garbage you have to take out or flowers you buy every year for Mother’s Day. A recurring task is automatically set up for the next deadline, without you having to do anything.
Unlike many to-do managers, a recurring task is a single task that shifts every time the deadline is met. So if you indicate as a recurring task that you have a team meeting every Monday of the month, you can see the next meeting, but not those of the following months.
Again the automatic date recognition will do its job. For example, you type as a task Team meetingthen press the spacebar and give you a time reference, such as every day at 9 o’clock†every Friday of the month†every 3rd Friday of the month†every 27th January†every three days or every day from today until August 7thâ€
Share and Kanban
You can also share your projects with others. They must have or create a Todoist account themselves. Once someone has accepted your invitation, you can assign tasks to them and vice versa. You can also add files and comments to the tasks you share.
Meanwhile, the app has also added a board view. With this, Todoist supports the trend to use the famous Kanban method. Organize your tasks into boards. Move the tasks from the column To do nasty Introduction and finally come in Executed justifiably.
