Todoist

What Is Todoist?

Todoist is a comprehensive task management and productivity platform designed to help individuals and teams organize their work and personal lives efficiently. Founded in 2007 by Amir Salihefendić, Todoist has evolved from a simple to-do list app into a sophisticated productivity ecosystem that serves over 47 million users worldwide.

The platform operates on the principle of capturing everything in one place while providing flexible organization tools that adapt to different workflows and productivity methodologies. Whether you're managing personal tasks, coordinating team projects, or implementing systems like Getting Things Done (GTD), Todoist provides the structure and features needed to stay organized and productive.

Todoist's core philosophy centers around making task management as frictionless as possible through intelligent features like natural language processing, smart scheduling, and AI-powered assistance, while maintaining the simplicity that makes it accessible to users of all technical levels.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Exceptional Cross-Platform Support: Available on virtually every device and platform with seamless synchronization
• Powerful Natural Language Processing: Add tasks with complex scheduling using plain English like "every Tuesday at 3pm starting next month"
• AI-Powered Features: Todoist Assist helps break down tasks, provide tips, and generate actionable sub-tasks
• Flexible Organization: Multiple project views, unlimited labels, and powerful filtering system adapt to any workflow
• Robust Free Plan: Generous free tier with core functionality that serves many users' needs
• Strong Integration Ecosystem: Connects with 90+ tools including calendar apps, email, and productivity platforms
• Excellent Collaboration Tools: Real-time teamwork features with task assignment, comments, and project sharing

Cons:

• Premium Features Require Subscription: Calendar view, unlimited filters, and AI assistant limited to paid plans
• Learning Curve for Advanced Features: Complex filtering and advanced project organization may overwhelm new users
• Limited Offline Functionality: Some features require internet connectivity for full operation
• Mobile App Limitations: Advanced features like complex filter creation work better on desktop
• Template Editing Restrictions: Templates cannot be edited directly and must be recreated for modifications

Who It's For

Todoist is ideally suited for individuals and teams who need a balance of simplicity and power in their task management solution. The platform particularly benefits:

• Productivity enthusiasts who want advanced organization features while maintaining ease of use
• Remote teams and distributed workers requiring real-time collaboration and project coordination
• Busy professionals managing multiple projects across work and personal life
• Students and academics organizing coursework, research projects, and academic deadlines
• Small to medium businesses needing team coordination without enterprise complexity
• Anyone seeking to implement productivity methodologies like GTD, time-blocking, or Kanban workflows

However, Todoist may not be suitable for:

• Users needing only basic task lists who might find the feature set overwhelming
• Large enterprises requiring advanced compliance, security controls, or complex project management
• Budget-conscious users who need advanced features but cannot justify subscription costs
• Teams requiring extensive project management with Gantt charts, resource allocation, or detailed reporting

Smart Quick Add with Natural Language Processing

Smart Quick Add represents one of Todoist's most powerful and beloved features, allowing users to create complex tasks with natural language commands. This functionality transforms simple text input into fully structured tasks with dates, times, projects, labels, and priorities.

Key capabilities include:

• Date and time recognition: "Submit report tomorrow at 3pm" automatically sets the due date and time
• Recurring task creation: "Team meeting every Tuesday at 10am" creates properly scheduled recurring tasks
• Project assignment: "#Work presentation for client meeting" assigns the task to the Work project
• Label application: "@urgent call John about the proposal" adds the urgent label
• Priority setting: "p1 finish quarterly budget" sets the task to Priority 1

Advanced natural language features support complex scheduling like "every other Wednesday starting in two weeks" or "last Friday of every month at 2pm." The system recognizes context and can parse multiple elements from a single input, dramatically reducing the time spent on task entry.

Global Quick Add extends this functionality system-wide, allowing users to capture tasks from any application using keyboard shortcuts without opening Todoist, ensuring ideas are never lost regardless of current workflow context.

AI Assistant (Todoist Assist)

Todoist Assist is the platform's AI-powered suite designed to enhance productivity through intelligent automation and assistance. Powered by carefully selected large language models through secure providers, the AI integrates seamlessly into existing workflows while maintaining strong privacy protections.

Core AI capabilities include:

• Task breakdown: Automatically suggest sub-tasks to break complex projects into manageable steps
• Completion tips: Provide actionable advice for progressing on specific tasks
• Smart suggestions: Generate project ideas and task recommendations based on existing patterns
• Template enhancement: AI-powered descriptions and improvements for custom templates

Advanced AI features (available on Pro and Business plans) offer more sophisticated automation including intelligent task categorization, priority suggestions based on deadlines and context, and integration with email summarization for Outlook users.

Privacy and security remain paramount, with AI processing conducted through secure infrastructure that ensures customer data stays protected and is never used to train external AI models.

Project Organization with Sub-Projects

Todoist's hierarchical project system allows users to create sophisticated organizational structures that mirror real-world workflows and responsibilities. The platform supports unlimited project nesting, enabling everything from simple categorization to complex multi-level project hierarchies.

Project features include:

• Unlimited sub-projects: Create as many levels of organization as needed
• Project templates: Save and reuse project structures for recurring workflows
• Color coding and icons: Visual organization tools for quick identification
• Project sharing: Collaborate with up to 5 people on personal projects or 250 on team projects
• Folder organization: Group related projects for better navigation (Business plan feature)

Practical applications range from simple categorization like "Home" and "Work" to complex structures like "Company → Marketing → Q4 Campaign → Social Media → Instagram Content." This flexibility accommodates both simple users who prefer minimal organization and power users who need detailed project hierarchies.

Multiple Project Views

Todoist provides three distinct viewing modes that cater to different working styles and project management methodologies, allowing users to visualize their work in the format that best suits their needs.

List View serves as the traditional task list format, displaying tasks chronologically or by priority with full detail visibility. This view works best for sequential work and detailed task management.

Board View transforms projects into Kanban-style boards with customizable columns representing different workflow stages. Users can drag tasks between columns like "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done," making it ideal for visual project management and team coordination.

Calendar View (Pro and Business plans) displays tasks in a time-based calendar format, perfect for deadline management and schedule visualization. This view integrates seamlessly with external calendars and supports time-blocking workflows.

View flexibility allows users to switch between formats instantly without data loss, accommodating different phases of project work and various team member preferences within the same project.

Calendar Integration and Sync

Todoist's comprehensive calendar integration connects seamlessly with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar to provide unified schedule management. This two-way synchronization ensures tasks and calendar events appear together for complete time awareness.

Integration features include:

• Bi-directional sync: Changes in either Todoist or calendar apps reflect immediately in both
• Task-to-event conversion: Time-blocked tasks automatically appear as calendar events
• Event visibility: Calendar appointments display in Todoist's Today and Upcoming views
• All-day task support: Tasks with dates but no times can sync as all-day events
• Multiple calendar support: Connect and display multiple calendar accounts simultaneously

Advanced calendar features support complex scheduling scenarios including recurring task patterns, time zone management for global teams, and conflict detection to prevent double-booking. The integration respects privacy by only displaying event titles and times without exposing sensitive calendar content.

Task Duration and Time-Blocking

Task duration functionality (Pro and Business plans) enables users to allocate specific time periods for task completion, supporting time-blocking productivity methodologies. This feature transforms abstract task lists into concrete time commitments.

Duration capabilities include:

• Visual time allocation: See how much time tasks will require in calendar views
• Schedule visualization: Identify overcommitted days when more work is scheduled than time available
• Time-blocking support: Drag tasks onto calendar slots to create focused work sessions
• Mobile duration editing: Adjust task start and end times directly on iOS and Android apps

Calendar integration with durations provides powerful schedule management, automatically creating appropriately sized calendar events that block time for important work while preventing meeting conflicts during focused work periods.

Labels and Filters

Todoist's labeling and filtering system provides sophisticated task organization that goes beyond simple project categories. Labels serve as flexible tags that can represent contexts, priorities, energy levels, or any other categorization scheme users find helpful.

Label features include:

• Unlimited personal labels: Create as many labels as needed for comprehensive categorization
• Visual organization: Color-coded labels for quick identification and scanning
• Multiple labels per task: Apply several labels to represent different attributes
• Label hierarchies: Create parent-child label relationships for advanced organization

Advanced filtering (3 filters free, 150 on Pro) enables complex task queries using natural language searches, Boolean operators, and wildcard matching. Users can create saved filters like "(@work | @home) & today & !p4" to show work or home tasks due today that aren't low priority.

Filter applications include GTD-style context lists, energy-based task selection, deadline tracking, and custom productivity workflows that adapt to individual working patterns.

Templates

Todoist's template system accelerates project setup through reusable project structures that capture best practices and recurring workflows. The platform offers both community templates and custom template creation for personalized productivity systems.

Template features include:

• Extensive template library: Hundreds of pre-made templates for common scenarios
• Custom template creation: Save any project as a reusable template with full structure preservation
• Template application: Apply templates to new projects or add template tasks to existing projects
• AI-powered descriptions: Generate template descriptions automatically for better organization

Template categories span personal productivity (habit tracking, goal setting), professional workflows (project management, meeting agendas), and life organization (travel planning, event coordination). This variety ensures users can find starting points for virtually any type of organized effort.

Real-Time Collaboration

Todoist supports comprehensive collaboration features designed for both casual coordination and professional teamwork. The platform enables seamless sharing, task assignment, and team communication without requiring complex permission management.

Collaboration capabilities include:

• Project sharing: Invite collaborators to personal projects (up to 5 people) or team projects (up to 250 people)
• Task assignment: Delegate specific tasks to team members with deadline and priority information
• Comments and mentions: Contextual discussions on specific tasks with @mention notifications
• File sharing: Attach documents, images, and other files directly to tasks for team access
• Activity tracking: Complete visibility into team actions, changes, and progress

Team workspaces (Business plan) provide centralized collaboration environments with shared templates, unified billing, and administrative controls for larger organizations requiring structured team management.

File Attachments

File attachment functionality allows users to associate documents, images, and other files directly with specific tasks, keeping all project resources organized and accessible. This feature supports various file types and integrates with cloud storage services.

Attachment features include:

• Drag-and-drop upload: Simple file attachment through browser or desktop app
• Multiple file types: Support for documents, images, videos, and other common formats
• File size limits: 5MB on free plans, 100MB on Pro/Business plans
• Cloud storage links: Alternative to uploading files by linking to cloud-stored documents
• Mobile sharing: Upload files directly from mobile devices using share functionality

Integration with workflows includes attaching reference materials to tasks, sharing deliverables with team members, and maintaining project documentation within the task management system rather than scattered across multiple platforms.

Reminders and Notifications

Todoist's notification system ensures users stay informed about deadlines, team activities, and important task updates across all devices. The platform provides flexible notification preferences that can be customized based on work patterns and personal preferences.

Reminder types include:

• Automatic reminders: Default notifications for tasks with scheduled times
• Custom reminders: Specific notification times set independently of task due dates
• Recurring reminders: Regular notifications for ongoing tasks or habits
• Location reminders: Geo-based alerts when arriving at specific locations (Pro/Business)

Notification channels encompass push notifications on mobile devices, desktop notifications, and email alerts, with granular control over which activities trigger notifications and through which channels users want to receive them.

Activity History and Analytics

Activity tracking provides comprehensive logs of all task-related actions, enabling users to review productivity patterns, track team progress, and maintain accountability. This feature serves both individual reflection and team coordination needs.

Activity features include:

• Complete action logs: Track task creation, completion, modification, and deletion
• Project-level activity: See all changes within specific projects
• Team activity monitoring: Observe collaborative progress and team member contributions
• Historical data access: 1 week on free plans, unlimited on paid plans

Productivity insights include completion streaks, task completion patterns, and productivity trends that help users understand their working habits and optimize their daily routines for better efficiency.

Pricing

Todoist offers three pricing tiers designed to accommodate different user needs and usage patterns:

Beginner (Free):

• 5 personal projects
• Up to 5 collaborators per project
• 3 filter views
• List and board layouts
• 1 week activity history
• File uploads up to 5MB
• Basic reminders
• All integrations

Pro ($4/month annually, $5/month monthly):

• 300 personal projects
• Calendar layout view
• Task duration and time-blocking
• 150 filter views
• Unlimited activity history
• AI Assistant (Todoist Assist)
• Custom reminders
• File uploads up to 100MB
• Automatic backups
• Advanced productivity features

Business ($6/month annually, $8/month monthly):

• Everything in Pro for every team member
• Shared team workspace
• Up to 500 team projects
• Team roles and permissions
• 1,000 team members and guests
• Centralized team billing
• Team activity logs
• Shared templates
• Enhanced file upload limits

All plans include core task management features, cross-platform sync, collaboration tools, and integration access, ensuring the free tier provides substantial value while paid plans unlock advanced productivity and team features.

Verdict

Todoist succeeds in delivering a sophisticated yet accessible task management platform that strikes an excellent balance between simplicity and power. The platform's strength lies in its intuitive interface, powerful natural language processing, and comprehensive feature set that grows with user needs.

Todoist excels for users who:

• Need flexible task organization that adapts to various productivity methodologies
• Value cross-platform accessibility with reliable synchronization
• Want AI-powered assistance without sacrificing control over their task management
• Require team collaboration features without enterprise complexity
• Appreciate the balance between powerful features and ease of use

However, potential limitations include:

• Advanced features require paid subscriptions, which may not suit all budgets
• The extensive feature set can feel overwhelming for users seeking simple task lists
• Some power-user features work better on desktop than mobile platforms
• Template editing limitations require workarounds for modifications

Todoist represents an excellent choice for individuals and teams seeking a comprehensive productivity solution that can scale from simple task tracking to sophisticated project management. The platform's continuous development, strong user community, and commitment to both simplicity and power make it a standout option in the crowded task management space.

For users willing to invest time in learning the platform's capabilities, Todoist provides exceptional value through its combination of intelligent features, reliable performance, and flexible organization tools that adapt to virtually any productivity workflow.