Having a good digital tool to help you organize your Getting Things Done system is essential. In this post, I’m showing you my Todoist GTD setup.

This is part one of a two-part series describing my Todoist GTD setup. You may find the next part here: My Todoist GTD setup – Part 2: Weekly Review and Focus Horizons.

I know that it is possible to do GTD on paper, but in my mind, having a good digital tool to help you organize your Getting Things Done system is essential. With today’s fast pacing and constantly changing priorities, I seriously do not see how people can manage this on paper. I find that 70% of my action items come from, or at least involves email. Going for a paper-based system would be a nightmare.

When you set both a due date and a time for a task, Todoist automatically sets a reminder for you. For example, when you create a task for tomorrow at 4pm, Todoist will automatically send you a reminder 30 minutes beforehand.

Getting Things Done (GTD) – What is it?

• Microsoft To Do. To Do gives you focus, from work to play.
• Todoist runs on (at least) Windows, Outlook, Webbrowser, Android, iOS and synchronizes perfectly.
• TodoTxtMac is a minimalist, keyboard-driven to-do manager for Mac OS X (10.8 Mountain Lion and higher), by mjdescy. Todour is an application for handling todo.txt files on the Mac and Windows, by Sverrir Valgeirsson. DoStuff 'A todo.txt client for humans' on Ubuntu, by ximilian.

My GTD tool: Todoist

I think it is safe to say that I have tried most of the GTD tools on the market (as of summer 2016) I have ended up with Todoist Pro. This tool is not perfect, but with some tweaking, it works really well. My final reasons for choosing Todoist was the following:

• Flexibility: Todoist runs on every major platform. Windows, Windows 10 Mobile, Android, Android Wear, OS X, iOS, and web.
• Integration: Outlook Gmail, Chrome, Firefox, IFTTT, to name a few. See full list here: https://support.todoist.com/hc/en-us/articles/205143181-Integrations
• Todoist Karma. (It really works!)
• Trust: With more than 5 million users and a good customer service, I feel that this is a service I can literally build my life around.

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

My Todoist GTD setup

Part of Todoist’s success is due to its flexibility. The downside of this flexibility is that you have to figure out how to set up Todoist as a GTD tool. I don’t think that my Todoist GTD setup is the one and only way to do this. It all boils down to how you have implemented GTD in your life. What I do know is that I’m in some way or another using most aspects of the Getting Things Done method, so I think that there will be something to learn for most GTD practitioners by reading this Todoist GTD setup guide.

[bctt tweet=”Remember this about GTD: The app comes second, the approach comes first.”]

Projects

According to Davin Allen, a project is anything that takes more than one step to complete. For all practical purposes, a project can be as defined by David Allen or used as a parking place for action items related to the same issue, project or type of work. Personally, I tend to use both types of projects.

In part two of this post, I will show how to use Todoist projects for managing Weekly Review and Focus Horizons.

Contexts (Labels)

(Please be aware that in order to use Labels, you must have a Todoist premium account.)
Contexts are maybe one of the most useful features in Getting Things Done. Used correctly they can multiply your productivity and turbocharge the way you work.

I define contexts as something both physical and mental. It can be the physical place you need to be. Some types of work can only be done at the office or at home. Some things can only be decided at the next department meeting or the next time you have sit-down time with your boss or customer. Because contexts have to be tailored to both the way you function as a person and the nature of your work, this is maybe the area where you will have to adjust your Todoist GTD setup the most.

It can also be useful to define important tools like computer or internet as a context. In periods when I travel a lot, I will have flight or offline as a context. This enables me to sort out the type of work I can do when flying with no access to WIFI.

A context can also be a mental state or role. I use a context called Work for everything work-related, independently of where I decide to work.

My contexts

Be aware that since Todoist does not have Next Action or energy levels defined as separate items in the software, you will have use Labels for this.

• Work
  Anything work related that does not involve having to meet with other people. This is both a mindset context and a physical context.
• Private
  Anything private that can be done anywhere.
• Home
  Anything that I need to be physically at home to get done.
• Cabin
  Anything that I need to be physically at the cabin to get done.
• Next Action
  Just that. All of my next actions viewed in one place.
• Phone
  This context can be very handy in between two meetings or when driving a car.
• Work.Ag.Mngr
  Anything I need to discuss with my manager when we have time together.
• Work.Ag.Team
  Anything I need to discuss or inform about the next time we are all in the same room.
• Follow-up
  Any emails or delegated actions that are critical enough to warrant my time ensuring that it has been answered or done.
• Low Energy
  Things that I can do Friday afternoon or on a lazy Sunday morning.

Filters

This is probably the feature that I use the least.

• Next Action Work
  All of my next actions for work-related projects.
  This is what I choose from when I have done everything work-related on my Today list.
• Work projects
  All of my work-related projects in one place.
• Home
  The two contexts Home and Personal.
• Cabin
  The two contexts Cabin and Personal.
• Next Actions @Home
  This is what I choose from if I’m at home and have done all the private stuff on my Today list.
• Next Actions @Cabin
  This is what I choose from if I’m at the cabin and have done all the private stuff on my Today list.
• Overdue
  I better not find anything here.
• Priority 1
  What is most important in my life right now.
• No due date and No context
  I use these to do a “quality check” in my Weekly Review.
• Next 30 days
  What is in the way for my vacation or when doing long-term planning.
• Compleated today
  -No longer supported.

The ultimate guide to Todoist filters

Capturing tools

As a part of my Todoist GTD setup, I use the following tools and methods to capture information into Todoist.

Automated:

• Using IFTTT, I get action items for unanswered calls and SMS messages on my cell phone directly into my Todoist inbox.
• Using IFTTT and the local weather forecast, I get an action with priority 1 in the morning if it will rain or snow during the day.

On the move:

• Todoist shortcut on my Samsung Galaxy Note8
• Newton email integrates email with Todoist on my phone and tablet
• Braintoss captures pictures, notes and audiosnippet and sends in direcly to my Todoist inbox.
• Livescribe 3 smart-pen + App. Send notes to Todoist
• Mont Blanc ballpoint pen and a small Moleskine notebook

In the office and at home:

• Todoist Outlook add-in
• Square bank paper notes

Do not miss my next blog post: My Todoist GTD setup – Part 2: Weekly Review and Focus Horizons.

Todoist is my tool of choice for efficiently managing my daily tasks and ideas. I consider myself as a Todoist power user. I have tried most of the modern productivity methods and systems and used them with Todoist. This has helped me to find the most suitable Todoist set up for myself.

My setup might not be the best one for you, so I have collected most of my daily Todoist hacks to this guide. You can try these out to see which ones work for your productivity and task management workflow.

Use keyboard shortcuts

Todoist has a great set of keyboard shortcuts available. Using keyboard shortcuts will make you a productivity guru. I highly recommend that you use them in all your apps and software.

Just think about it. If you spend 3 seconds to do something that can be automated using an easy and fast keyboard shortcut and do that activity 100 times a day, you will save 5 minutes of your valuable time every day. That might not sound like a lot but multiply that with all the other keyboard shortcuts you are using and 365 days per year. It will add up.

Sims 4 dine out free mac. You can find all the available Todoist shortcuts here: https://get.todoist.help/hc/en-us/articles/205063212-Keyboard-shortcuts

Todoist Ios

My personal favorites

• Use @ to add a label to tasks. Todoist will suggest tags that are already created.
• Pick the right project for the task using the # sign
• If you are browsing some project and want to jump to your start page, use “h.”
• Use “q” to add tasks quickly
• You might have noticed that you cannot activate the Todoist search function with OS based commands (Command + F in Mac OS X or Control + F in Windows). Just press “f” to activate search in Todoist.
• Sort project tasks using d = date, p = priority, n = name, or r = assignee

Make your weekly review as repeating task

The weekly review is the most important component of any productivity system. It makes sure that you clean up and order your task management system weekly.

Most users do their weekly review on Sunday evening.

I personally like to do it first thing on Monday morning, but it all depends on your preference. I found it hard to keep up with the weekly habit when I tried to do my Sunday review. Usually, I just forgot to do it due to other things that were more important at the time.

Because the weekly review is integral to a well-functioning productivity system, I recommend that you make it a repeating task to your Todoist. Just create new tasks as “Weekly review @every Sunday at 7 pm,” for example.

Use subtasks inside the main weekly review task to remind you about all the steps in the workflow.

Customise your mobile start page

Did you know that you can have a different start page for a mobile app?

Go to Settings, and you should see the Start page option. There you can define what is your start page when you open up Todoist.

Below is an option for the “Sync Start Page.” By unchecking this option, you can have different start pages for different devices.

I like to use a different filter for my Start page on desktop vs. mobile. Usually, I am working in a different context when I am on my desktop. This way, I can increase my productivity because I have quicker access to relevant tasks.

Access Todoist everywhere

One of the best features of Todoist is the universal platform support. You can access the app from any browser, download a native app for Mac OS X or Windows, or use a mobile app.

Download Todoist to all of the devices that you use.

Personally, I’m not particularly eager to use Todoist on my iPad. Still, I have the app installed on it anyway: Sometimes, when I read my Kindle on iPad, I come up with some idea or todo. Using the iPad app, I can quickly add a new task to Todoist instead of grabbing my mobile phone to do it.

Build a custom dashboard with filters

The default setting of Todoist shows your tasks for today.

You can also build a custom view that shows a wider variety of different tasks depending on your needs.
For example, you can build a filter that shows tasks labeled as Priority 1; they are due today and labeled as Work tasks.

To do this, you need first to define the filter and then set it as a start page for your device.

Examples of filters:
Query: (overdue | today) & ##work
Result: show all the tasks that are overdue OR due today and are in project Work or its subprojects.
Query: due: 9 days & !recurring
Results: All tasks due in the next nine days that are not recurring

As you can see, Todoist filters are really versatile and handy to define different views for your tasks. You can create different filters for different devices. This way, you have context-based filters for different use cases. For example, on mobile, you can see all the urgent tasks for today and desktop tasks related to work.

Tag your tasks according to your energy levels

This is one of my major uses for Todoist tags. It really helps in cases where you have over 10 tasks for individual days. It can feel overwhelming to look at a list of 18 tasks and decide where you should start.

By grouping tasks according to their level of energy requirements will help you to manage your tasks efficiently.

So what does this mean in practice?

I divide my tasks into three distinct categories according to their focus and intensity: 10min, 30min, and 60min. There doesn’t represent the actual time that is required but rather acts as a categorization. You could just as well use easy, medium, and hard labels.

10min tasks are those that can be done quickly and easily. They don’t require a deep focused state and concentration. These are tasks like: “answer email,” “talk with X about Y,” “take out the trash,” etc. I usually do these tasks later in the day, when my energy levels have depleted.

You can also further group similar tasks together. For example, you might have tasks tagged with @email and @10min. These are quick emails that you can send while you are on your computers answering emails.
60min tasks require deep focus and concentration. I usually like to do them in the morning when I am still refreshed and full of energy.

I recommend that you shouldn’t have more than 1-2 60min tasks per day, because they are quite exhausting. For example, writing a report or building a presentation might fall into this category.

By filtering your Today view by different energy requirements, you can control how stressed you feel. When you need to focus, you can clean all the irrelevant tasks from your view by selecting the 60min tag.

Use a closing task for the day

I have repeating tasks each workday, which makes me check that I have accomplished everything for the day. It is just a quick review to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.

On some days, there is an immediate crisis that makes me reorder my whole day, and I might miss important tasks. By reviewing my day in the afternoon, I can make sure that I can still foster those important tasks.

You can also check out handy evening ritual guide that I wrote: https://www.urgentandimportant.com/guide-on-how-to-create-an-evening-ritual/

Add email as tasks from Gmail

I use this feature almost daily.

Many of the emails that I receive relate to a project in Todoist. You can install a browser plugin that allows you to send emails as tasks to Todoist. The task will include a link to the email for quick reference.

Add read later website using OS X Share extension

Sometimes I stumble upon an interesting website that I want to check later. I used to use different Read Later apps, but the problem with them was that I always forgot to check the app and read the articles.

A couple of years ago, I started to send interesting articles to Todoist as tasks. I usually schedule them for tomorrow. This way, I will actually read the article.

You can use the built-in share extension to send any item from most of Mac OS X or iOS to Todoist. Just select “File” and then “Share” from the main menu.

Use vacation mode

Karma streak is a really great motivator to get things done daily. You can set your daily goals in Todoist settings. Just navigate yourself to Karma, and in the middle of the page, you should see the Goal section.

Sometimes you have managed to do a long Karma streak, and you have your vacation coming.

What now? You don’t want to lose your precious goal streak, but you need to take some time off work.

You can activate the so-called Vacation mode when turned on, your streaks and Karma will remain intact even if you don’t achieve your goals. This way you can really have your cake and eat it too.

Connect your calendar

This is not a hack but rather a must-do thing if you are a heavy Todoist user.

I teach about managing your notes, tasks, and calendar as a holy trinity of a productivity system. You need a place for your thoughts (notes), your tasks and projects (Todoist), and you need to manage your days (calendar).

Todoist has the somewhat unique feature of two-way calendar sync.

It means that the tasks you create in Todoist will show up in your calendar. But it also works the other way around: if you create a new calendar entry in your Todoist calendar, it will pop up in the app too!

This two-way sync allows you to reschedule your tasks in your calendar too. You can move around your scheduled tasks, and they will update their associated date accordingly.

Leverage location-based notifications

This is a feature that I personally use only once in a while.

Todoist has a task level feature where you can have a reminder about the task at a certain time or place. The time-based reminder is easier to manage in your calendar. Still, the location-based reminder allows Todoist to remind you to do a task in a certain area or location. This feature requires that you have allowed the Todoist app to use your location.

You can use it to remind you about some specific shopping item you need to get when you are in the vicinity of a shopping center or give your friend a call when visiting a certain town.

Before you use this handy feature, I recommend that you test it out. I initially had some problems getting it working, but it started to operate reliably after a couple of reboots.

Use Waiting tag for delegated tasks

There are occasions where you have personally done a certain task, but you have to wait for someone else to review it or do some next step in the process. You could do separate sub-tasks and handle them using them. I’m not particularly eager to use sub-tasks very often because it doesn’t show its parent task very clearly in the Today view.

I use a specific “Waiting” tag to handle tasks that I have delegated to others.

I usually also add a date to those tasks, so I remember to review if the person has done the task or if I need to remind them about it.

If the tasks contain a specific person I have delegated the task to, I also add that person’s individual name tag. This way, Todoist reminds me about that delegated task when I filter all the tasks related to that person.

Use voice commands to create new tasks

I usually get a lot of new ideas and things to do when I am driving.

If you do too, I highly recommend that you don’t try to drive and type simultaneously. I see this in the traffic all the time. Drivers are checking their social media or typing a message while they are driving on the highway!

Todoist Extension

Todoist supports iOS voice commands. You can make Siri add new Todoist tasks. Just make sure that you have enabled Siri-support in iOS Todoist settings.

I had some problems to get this feature working, so you should test it out before using it while driving. You really don’t want to go through a different setting while you drive.

Use custom swipe gestures

Have you noticed that you can swipe individual tasks in Todoist?

The default settings are to Complete a task for the right swipe and Schedule a task for the left swipe. You can change these in iOS Todoist apps settings. Navigate yourself to General settings, and you can find the swipe settings at the bottom of the page.

Activate dark mode

Todoist App For Osx

I hope that you have automated your dark mode setting in iOS. This helps you to turn dark mode on all the apps that support it. It is a critical feature to make you sleep better.

White/blueish screens will distract your sleep because it will make your brain think that it is morning. You can help this with the iOS inbuilt Night Shift feature. It starts to gradually change the tint of your screen to more yellowish in the evening.

But the dark mode is an even more convenient feature because it inverts the colors on the screen. The white background becomes black and text white. This will also help with your eye strain if you stare at your screen for extended periods.

Todoist also supports dark mode, and you can actually use it all day long if you find it more suitable to use. You can activate it in Settings / Theme. There is a separate Dark theme you can use (Premium feature), or you can use the automatic Dark mode that syncs with your device settings.

Use emojis and color-coding to categorize projects and tasks

If you are like me, you have hundreds of tasks and projects.

Sometimes it takes some extra time to find the right projects in the list view. Color coding and embodies can help you with this.

I have personally color-coded projects for different areas of my life. This is a compelling feature because I can quickly see what context the task relates to and when I use the scheduling feature, Todoist shows a small bar that indicates how many tasks of each area I have allocated to that day.

I use emojis to separate different projects.

Important projects have their own emoji so that I can find them fast. Todoist doesn’t have some emoji support in the project’s name, as Notion has, but you can add new emojis just like any character in the project’s name.

Use Every! Command in repeating tasks

Todoist Excel

You are probably already using repeating tasks.

Sometimes you might run into an issue where you have a repeating task maybe once a month and postpone it for a couple of weeks. When you finish that task, the next repeating task will show up in two weeks because Todoist is repeating that task each month on a certain date. It really doesn’t care when you have accomplished that task.

That is ok for tasks that you really have to do on certain dates, such as filing reports, etc. But sometimes, you have to do a task every three months, and the timer for the next action should be set when you finish the previous task. You can use Todoist great language detection to add this kind of task.

Use an exclamation mark with the Every word, and Todoist will start the timer for the next repeating action only after you have finished the previous one.

For example, if you want to call your mom once a month, you can type “Call mom Every! Month”. You can see how Todoist detects your scheduled date and adds it as a repeating task. When you mark this task as done, Todoist will remind you to call your mom after 30 days have passed.

Use templates for repeating projects

Some projects are repeating themselves, and you have to create all the relevant tasks each time. You can shortcut this process by using the Todoist template-option.

Todoist For Mac Os X

Create your project with the tasks that you want to be included in the template. Then use the three dots menu on the upper right corner of the project and select “Export as a template.” There are two options for exporting: as a file or as a sharable link. Keep the “Use relative dates” selection checked, so Todoist will automatically use correct dates when importing the template.

Todoist Examples

If you export the template as a shareable URL, you’ll have to save that link somewhere.

Using that link, you are creating a new project for Todoist using tasks defined in the template. If you export the template as a file, you can use the Import from template option in the Project menu to create new tasks from the template.

Summary

Todoist Export

As you can see, Todoist is a really versatile and useful task manager.

One of the best aspects of Todoist is that it has kept itself loyal to the original use case, which is task management. Most applications start to add features, and they end up being bloated apps that cannot deliver the original benefit of the app.

So, you can use Todoist in many different ways, and you can most certainly tailor it to fit your productivity workflows and process. I would like to know what your best tricks and tips for using Todoist are?