Todoist

What is Todoist

Todoist is a leading task management and to-do list application designed to help individuals and teams organize their work and personal lives. Its core purpose is to provide a simple, yet powerful platform for capturing tasks, setting deadlines, and tracking progress. Founded by Amir Salihefendić, Todoist is the flagship product of the remote-first company Doist. The application is known for its clean interface, cross-platform availability, and robust features that allow users to manage everything from simple daily errands to complex multi-stage projects. It operates on a freemium model, making it accessible to a wide range of users globally.

Todoist Features

Todoist offers a comprehensive set of features to enhance productivity.

• Quick Add: Capture tasks instantly using natural language. For example, typing "Team meeting every Tuesday at 10am" automatically creates a recurring task with the correct date and time.
• Projects, Sections, and Sub-tasks: Organize your tasks by creating projects. Within each project, you can use sections to group related tasks and sub-tasks to break down larger goals into smaller, manageable steps.
• Due Dates and Recurring Deadlines: Assign due dates to tasks to stay on schedule. Set up recurring deadlines for tasks that repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or on custom schedules.
• Priority Levels: Mark your most important tasks with four different priority levels, helping you focus on what matters most each day.
• Labels and Filters: Use labels to categorize tasks across different projects (e.g., @email, @urgent). Create custom filters to view tasks based on due date, project, label, or priority.
• Team Collaboration: Share projects with colleagues, family, or friends. Assign tasks to others and discuss details in the comments section for each task.
• Calendar Views: Visualize your projects and tasks in a calendar layout to get a clear overview of your schedule and workload.
• Todoist Assist: An AI-powered feature that helps you create actionable tasks, break down projects, and offer suggestions to make your to-do lists more effective.
• Productivity Visualizations: Track your progress with personalized productivity trends and earn Karma points for completing tasks, helping you stay motivated.

Todoist Pricing Plans

Todoist provides several pricing plans to suit different needs.

• Beginner Plan: This is a free plan designed for individuals just starting with task management. It includes a limited number of active projects and basic features for personal organization.
• Pro Plan: Aimed at power users and professionals who need more advanced features. This plan unlocks a higher project limit, reminders, calendar views, productivity trends, and more detailed filtering options.
• Business Plan: Built for teams and organizations. It includes all the features of the Pro plan, plus team-specific functionalities like a shared team inbox, admin and member roles, centralized billing, and priority support.

Todoist Free Plan

Todoist offers a robust free plan, called the Beginner plan. It is a great option for individuals to manage their personal tasks. The free plan includes up to 5 active projects, collaboration with up to 5 people per project, and a 5 MB file upload limit. While it provides core functionalities like task creation, sub-tasks, and priority levels, it has limitations. Features like reminders, calendar layout, and advanced filters are reserved for the paid plans.

How to use Todoist

Getting started with Todoist is a straightforward process.

1. Sign Up: Create an account on the Todoist website or by downloading the app on your preferred device (iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, or web).
2. Create a Project: Start by creating a project for a specific goal, like "Work Deadlines" or "Home Renovation."
3. Add Tasks: Click the '+' button to add tasks to your project. Use the Quick Add feature with natural language to set due dates and priorities quickly. For example, type "Finish report by Friday p1" to create a task due Friday with the highest priority.
4. Organize Your Tasks: Break down complex tasks into smaller sub-tasks. Use sections to group related tasks within a project. Add labels to categorize tasks.
5. Plan Your Day: Use the "Today" and "Upcoming" views to focus on your immediate and future tasks. Drag and drop tasks to reschedule them as needed.
6. Collaborate: To work with others, invite them to a shared project. You can then assign tasks and communicate using comments.

Pros and Cons of Todoist

Pros

• Simple and Intuitive Interface: The design is clean and user-friendly, making it easy to get started.
• Excellent Cross-Platform Sync: Todoist is available on virtually every platform, and tasks sync seamlessly across all devices.
• Powerful Natural Language Input: The Quick Add feature is very efficient for capturing tasks quickly.
• Flexible Organization: The combination of projects, sections, sub-tasks, labels, and filters allows for highly personalized workflows.
• Generous Free Plan: The free version is sufficient for many individual users' needs.

Cons

• Key Features are Paid: Important features like reminders and the full calendar view are not available in the free plan.
• Limited Collaboration Features: While good for small teams, it lacks the advanced project management features of tools like Asana or Trello, such as Kanban boards or Gantt charts.
• No Built-in Time Tracking: Users need to integrate with third-party apps to track time spent on tasks.

Todoist integrations

Todoist integrates with a wide range of applications to connect your tasks with your workflow.

• Google Calendar integration: Sync your tasks with Google Calendar for a unified view of your schedule.
• Outlook and Gmail integration: Turn emails into tasks directly from your inbox.
• Slack integration: Create and manage Todoist tasks from within your Slack channels.
• Zapier and IFTTT integration: Connect Todoist to hundreds of other apps to automate repetitive tasks.
• Dropbox and Google Drive integration: Attach files from your cloud storage directly to tasks.
• Alexa and Google Assistant integration: Add tasks using voice commands.

Todoist Alternatives

• Microsoft To Do: A completely free alternative that integrates deeply with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. It is simpler than Todoist but very effective for personal task management.
• Things 3: Known for its beautiful design and user experience, but it is exclusive to Apple devices (macOS, iOS) and requires a one-time purchase for each platform.
• TickTick: A close competitor with a similar feature set. It includes a built-in calendar view and a Pomodoro timer even in its free version, which might appeal to some users.
• Asana: A more powerful project management tool designed for team collaboration. It offers multiple views like lists, boards, and timelines, making it better for complex projects but potentially overkill for personal tasks.
• Any.do: Another popular to-do list app with a clean interface and a unique "Plan my day" feature that encourages daily planning.

Todoist API

Yes, Todoist provides a powerful and well-documented REST API and a Sync API for developers. This allows you to build custom integrations and applications that interact with Todoist data. You can obtain a free API token by logging into your Todoist account, going to Settings > Integrations > Developer, and finding your API token there.

Here is a basic example of how to create a new task using the REST API with curl:

curl "https://api.todoist.com/rest/v2/tasks" \
    -X POST \
    --data '{"content": "Buy milk", "due_string": "tomorrow at 10am", "due_lang": "en", "priority": 4}' \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"

Todoist Affiliate program

Todoist offers an affiliate program that allows you to earn a commission by referring new users. Affiliates earn a commission on every new Pro or Business plan subscription that comes through their unique referral link. The program is managed through the PartnerStack platform. To join, you need to apply through the Todoist Affiliate Program page on their website. Once approved, you get access to a dashboard with your referral links, marketing materials, and performance analytics. Payouts are typically handled through PartnerStack via PayPal or Stripe.