My adventure with Todoist

26 February 2018

Two weeks ago I was inspired to give the task-management app Todoist a try. I’d heard of it before, but when I read the e-book The Paperless Home: How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Life by Donnie and Abby Lawson and learned how Donnie uses Todoist in concert with Evernote, I thought I’d check it out.

I love Evernote for keeping track of all my lists and ideas and I’d been using it for task management as well. But I recognized that the way I was using it, which was to create a daily list, I was still relying on my memory. And my memory isn’t what it used to be. So I was intrigued by Todoist.

Todoist has basic, free version, which I downloaded and started messing around with. (I used this great guide to getting started with Todoist.) I think that very same day I decided to pony up the $29 for the premium version, which allows me to add reminders, notes and files to a task, as well as view my tasks in my calendar when I want. I have no reservation in saying that it’s worth the money! (Note: Since I have the premium version and virtually no experience with the free version, some of the capabilities I mention below may not be available with the free version.)

Here’s a look at my Todoist screen about 5 pm today. I still have lots to do!

Today's task list in Todoist

Todoist, which I use primarily on my computer but can also use on my phone or iPad (it syncs automatically), has a simple elegance about it. It allows me to enter tasks and subtasks and assign them projects, effortlessly set deadlines and reminders, and attach notes to the tasks. I can forward emails to Todoist to create tasks with the email attached. I can also easily make a task recurring, using natural language. For example, when I type, “Blog POMO on Mondays and Thursdays,” that task automatically comes up every Monday and Thursday. If I type, “Call Client X tomorrow at 3 pm” it will appear on my list tomorrow morning with 3 pm attached to it.

If I don’t finish a task in the day it was scheduled, it comes up the next day as Overdue. I’ve managed to avoid that all days but one, by taking the time at the end of the day to reschedule anything that wasn’t completed as scheduled. And, of course, rescheduling is easy.

Todoist allows me to prioritize tasks. That way my most important tasks they stay right at the top of my list in the Today view. In Todoist I can organize tasks by project and I can also label tasks, so I can see similar or related tasks together, even if they’re in different projects. There are also filters that allow me to, among other things, see any tasks without deadlines, so they don’t fall through the cracks. I’ve set a recurring daily task to check for undated tasks.

Todoist is more flexible and easier to use than any task management app I’ve ever used. It’s simultaneously robust and simple. I love it. I should mention that I have a long history of a blissful honeymoon with new task-management systems, so take my enthusiasm with a grain of salt. If I stick with it, I’ll write a more detailed post about how I use it, in case that’s helpful to others. I know that I found it very helpful when I read other people’s blog posts about using Todoist.

Stay tuned!

Tagged with: task management, time management, todoist