10 tips for getting the most out of Todoist

Todoist is a powerful tool if you take the time to learn all of the features in the different apps, add-ins, and other integrations. Here is a list of my ten most useful tips to get the most out of your Todoist account.

1. Get the Chrome add-in

Besides showing you the number of open tasks in your browser and giving you a shortcut to add new tasks easily, this add-in has another extremely handy function. You know when you find a website that you really need to check out, but you do not have the time there and then? No problem! Whit this add-in you can easily add the web page as a task.

2. Use IFTTT

IFTTT is short for “If that, then this” It is a site that lets you automate what is to happen given a specific event. You can connect your phone, weather forecast, Todoist, Gmail, Twitter and Facebook account, plus hundreds of other “channels.”
My favorite recipe is the one that creates a task in the Todoist inbox if I have an unanswered phone call or when I get an SMS message.

3. Get the Outlook add-in

The Todoist Outlook add-in is a real booster, both in terms of productivity and control. It allows you to create new tasks from emails. Later, when you click on this task, the corresponding email will open. You can also easily add emails as attachments in an existing task.

4. For email on the move, choose Newton email

Newton, formerly known as Cloud Magic, is the email app with the best integration to Todoist. From your smartphone or tab, you convert an email to a task. Unfortunately, there is no link between the task and the email. I really hope that we will see that in the future.

 Newton has been shut down. Here is what to do now:

5. Set up a Tomorrow filter

Filters are a powerful feature in Todoist. Setting up custom filters is relatively easy. My most used custom filter is “Tomorrow” It simply shows my tasks for the next day. The format is “due tomorrow”.

6. Set up recurring tasks

What do you do with tasks that take more than a day or that will be repeating at certain intervals? The answer is recurring tasks. While it is easy to set up tasks occurring every Wednesday, it is not straightforward to set up end dates.

Let’s start with the easy part:
Todoist uses natural language. This means that “every Wednesday” will be exactly that. This task will occur on every Wednesday. “every other Wednesday” will occur every other Wednesday starting next Wednesday.

End dates can be a bit more tricky:
Again Todoist uses natural language: “until 20 July”, “ending 24 August”, “for 3 weeks”, “for 5 days”.

For a full overview on how to use dates in Todoist, see the link in #7.

7. Learn the date formats

The great thing with dates in Todoist is that you can use both date formats and natural language.
Todoist supports the US date format “01/18/2017” = 18th Jan. 2017. “18/1” = 18th Jan.
Natural language like “Today”, “Tomorrow at 16:00”, “Next Wednesday” or “end of month” works perfectly.

8. Use Smart Schedule

Smart Schedule is a brand new feature in Todoist. With the help of predictive modeling, it helps you re-schedule your overdue tasks. Smart Schedule will learn your habits and will try to balance your task load. I have been using it for some time, and it does a decent job of recommending new dates when I have to reschedule a task.

9. Go premium

With Todoist Premium you get labels, this is a must for doing GTD. You get location-based notifications. With the Premium plan, you can add tasks from emails. You can add comments and files to a task.

Want to sign up for Todoist Premium?
In that case, I would appreciate if you use the below link. If you do that, I get two months Todoist Premium added to my account – with no extra cost for you. Thanks!

Sign up for Todoist Premium here

10. Get the Windows 10 app

If you are running Windows 10, the app is worth installing. It is lightweight and has a nice interface. The multi-select function is better than on the other interfaces. The headline image in this post is the Windows 10 app with its three-fold view.

Bonus tip: Teach yourself the powerful combination of Todoist and Getting Things Done (GTD)

See my introduction to GTD and my two posts on how to set up Todoist for GTD.