How to Use Todoist for Tasks and Productivity

A to-do list is only as useful as the trust you put in it — and most people don’t trust their task management system because it’s incomplete, inconsistently maintained, or too complex to update in the moment. Todoist solves this through simplicity of capture, consistency across every device, and just enough structure to organise without overwhelming. For the bigger picture, our Complete Guide to Software and Apps pulls everything together.

This guide covers the complete Todoist workflow from first task to recurring patterns, filters, and integrations that make it a genuinely trusted system.

Tasks, projects, and the Inbox — the foundation

The Inbox is the universal capture point — the default location for every new task entered without a specific project assignment. The most important habit: capture everything to the Inbox the moment it is known, then process it regularly (daily or weekly) by moving each task to the appropriate project, adding a due date, and assigning a priority level. The Inbox is a processing queue, not a permanent home — tasks left there indefinitely reduce the system’s reliability because they accumulate without being organised into the context where they’ll be acted on.

Fast task creation is essential. Slow entry means tasks don’t get captured in the moment. The global shortcut (Q or the + button anywhere in the app) opens the task creation dialog from any view. Todoist’s natural language date parsing makes scheduling instant:

• “tomorrow” → next day
• “next Monday” → next Monday
• “every Friday” → weekly recurring on Fridays
• “every weekday” → Monday–Friday recurring
• “every last day of month” → end of each month
• “in 3 days” or “Jan 15” → specific date

Type the task name with the date included → Enter → captured in under five seconds.

Projects organise tasks into logical groups. Create one: “+” next to “My Projects” in the left sidebar → name → colour → create. Projects can be nested — “Marketing” can contain sub-projects for “Email Campaigns,” “Social Media,” and “SEO.” Keep the top level to five or fewer major areas (Work, Personal, Health, Home, Finances) with sub-projects for specific initiatives within each. This keeps the sidebar uncluttered while allowing the depth needed for complex work.

Priority levels, labels, and filters

Priority levels: every task can be assigned one of four levels — P1 (red, critical), P2 (orange, important), P3 (blue, normal), P4 (no colour, low/someday). Set by pressing P1/P2/P3/P4 in the task creation dialog, or click the flag icon on any existing task. In the Today view, P1 tasks appear at the top, P2 below — priority automatically sorts the list without manual reordering.

Labels are cross-cutting keywords applied to any task regardless of project. Common label systems:

• By energy level: @deep-work, @quick-task, @low-energy
• By context: @computer, @phone, @offline, @errands
• By person: @waiting-for-alex, @for-meeting
• By type: @admin, @creative, @research

Apply labels in the task creation dialog by typing @ followed by the label name. Create labels: Settings → Labels → Add label.

Filters are saved views showing tasks matching specific conditions across all projects and the Inbox. Filters section in the sidebar → “+” → name → write the filter query. Key filter syntax:

• today — tasks due today
• overdue — tasks past their due date
• p1 — all priority 1 tasks
• p1 | p2 — all P1 or P2 tasks
• @label — all tasks with a specific label
• (today | overdue) & @deep-work & (p1 | p2) — today’s/overdue high-priority deep-work tasks — the exact set to focus on during a focused work session

Create a small set of regularly-used filters (Today’s Focus, Waiting For, @errands, This Week) that provide the views needed for daily decision-making and weekly planning without navigating the full project hierarchy.

Integrations, AI, and productivity workflows

Gmail and Outlook integration: adds a “Create task from email” option to any email — clicking it captures the email as a Todoist task with a link back to the email. The task provides context without copying content.

Google Calendar two-way sync: Settings → Integrations → Google Calendar. Tasks with due dates appear in Google Calendar alongside meetings, and calendar events appear as tasks in Todoist. The combined view shows the full picture of the day — committed tasks and scheduled meetings in one place — rather than switching between two tools to understand what’s ahead.

AI Assist (Pro plan): in the task creation dialog, type a rough description of a complex task and select “Break into subtasks” — Todoist generates a list of logical sub-tasks. “Plan product launch” becomes a structured list of specific preparatory actions. Refine the generated list rather than generating from scratch. The AI can also suggest a due date, priority level, and appropriate project based on the task description.

Plan comparison

The reminders row is the most significant free-to-Pro upgrade. Without reminders, due dates are visible in the app but push no notifications — a task due today is only acted on if you happen to check Todoist. With Pro reminders, any task with a due date sends a push notification at the configured time. For time-sensitive tasks — a bill to pay, a call to make, a deadline — reminders transform Todoist from a list to check into an active notification system. The five-project limit is the other constraint the free tier hits quickly; most users with professional and personal work need more than five within weeks.

The weekly review — the habit that makes the system work

The productivity methodology best suited to Todoist as a daily work system is the Weekly Review — a dedicated session (Sunday evening or Monday morning) that processes the previous week and plans the current one:

1. Review completed tasks from the past week to confirm all action items were resolved
2. Process the Inbox to zero — assign each task a project and due date
3. Review every project to ensure each has at least one next action with a due date
4. Check the Waiting For filter for items needing follow-up
5. Set P1 priorities for this week’s most important tasks

This weekly reset ensures the system remains reliable — which is the prerequisite for trusting it enough to stop holding things in memory. Our guide on using Google Calendar covers the calendar integration that makes Todoist tasks visible alongside meetings, and our guide on using Zapier covers automating Todoist task creation from other app events.

The Karma system and the mobile widget

Karma is Todoist’s gamification layer — points earned by completing tasks and maintaining streaks, lost by consistently carrying tasks past their due date. The streak component is the most practically motivating aspect: a 30-day streak of completing at least one task per day creates a loss-aversion psychology around missing a day. Set a realistic daily completion target (3–5 tasks is a reasonable start) and track streak performance over a month — this builds the consistent engagement habit that makes any task system actually work.

The iOS and Android home screen widget shows the Today view directly on the home screen. Tapping any task checks it off without opening the app. Adding a task through the widget’s + button opens the quick-add dialog without the full app loading. For phone-primary users, the widget transforms Todoist from an app to open into an always-visible commitment list — reducing the friction of checking and updating to the lowest possible level.

Todoist vs other task managers

• Choose Todoist if: cross-platform consistency across Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android is important; quick capture and natural language date entry are the priority; a clean, focused task manager (not a project management platform) is what’s needed; the GTD methodology maps to how you work
• Choose Notion if: tasks, notes, databases, and project documentation need to be in one connected workspace; structured project wikis alongside task tracking matter more than dedicated task management speed
• Choose Asana or Monday.com if: team project management with dependencies, timelines, and portfolio visibility is the primary need; individual task management is secondary to team coordination
• Choose Things 3 (Apple only) if: you’re exclusively in the Apple ecosystem and want the most polished design with deep macOS and iOS integration; cross-platform support isn’t needed

Todoist’s strength is its universality and speed. It’s the only premium task manager that provides a genuinely consistent experience across every major platform — Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and the web — with the same features and data everywhere. For individuals who work across multiple devices and operating systems, or who need to capture tasks while mobile and act on them at a desktop, that cross-platform consistency is the feature that makes it irreplaceable. The learning curve is minimal; the ongoing maintenance cost is low. The value compounds as the system grows more trusted — fewer things fall through the cracks, fewer mental cycles are spent tracking what needs to happen, and more actual work gets done.