Todoist: A beginner's guide

I love trying out new apps and tools, so I'm constantly trying out new things.  But the number of todo list apps I have tried is probably greater than every other kind of app - put together.  There are hundreds of options out there and I have tried them all - at least it feels like it.  


Todoist is the tool that finally met my needs.  Todoist is the epicenter of my productivity.  Almost everything I do goes through Todoist.  I use Todoist to get anything I need to do out of my head and in a place where I won't forget to do them, and I'm in good company.  Forbes agrees with me.  So does Mike Vardy the Productivityist.
So in this beginner guide I want to show you how to get started.  To do that all you need to do is download Todoist, set up projects, and start adding tasks.  

First, Todoist is everywhere

One of the biggest selling points of Todoist for me is that it has applications for every platform under the sun. I use the iPhone app, the Mac app, the Outlook plugin, the Chrome extension and the website.  Todoist is GREAT at real-time sync - add a task in one place and it is everywhere else instantly.  You can find the full list and links to download here.  Download Todoist for all of the platforms where you do your work.

Projects are Places

Once you get into Todoist, you are going to want to set up Projects.  While Projects are important, don't go crazy.  You are going to spend most of your time working from Projects so you don't want little tiny micro projects.  More on this later.  By default, Todoist is going to give you five projects including Personal, Work, and other random projects.  Don't feel any pressure to use these projects.


Instead, when you are deciding what your projects should be, I recommend that you start with the places you will be working.  Another way to look at this is thinking of modes - school mode, work mode, home mode, etc.  For example, if you are in school you would probably be better to have a School project rather than a project for every class or class project.  This allows you to work on work stuff when you are at work, or home stuff when you are home.  There are other reasons for this too, but for now, just take my word for it.

When you are getting started you can use sub-projects (a project within a project).  So, in the example above, you could have each class as a sub-project.  There are some disadvantages to this approach.  I prefer to use labels instead but that is a premium feature so to begin you can certainly use these sub-projects.  You may find that works perfectly for how you do things.

Adding Tasks

Once you have projects you can start adding tasks.  This is generally the easy part.  We have no shortage of things to do.  Adding tasks for iOS varies slightly from computer based platforms, but in general they are similar.  As you are adding tasks keep in mind a couple of shortcuts.

• Priority- !!1, !!2, !!3, !!4.  Todoist allows you 4 priority levels to distinguish between tasks.  Use these shortcuts to set the priority level quickly.

• Dates- If you are using iOS (and other platforms in the near future) then you can add the date just by typing it in "natural" language (i.e. tomorrow, Monday, every Friday at 3pm, etc.).  You can also set up smart recurring dates (very important feature for me) like every weekday, or every 2nd Tuesday.  In other platforms, you can use the same language, but you'll do it in the date field.

• Labels- (Premium only) In the premium version you are allowed to add labels.  Make sure you love Todoist first, but I have to say that this is one of the more important features for me in Todoist.  This is how I break down Projects to the classes/projects/etc. .  You can also add these quickly as you are adding the task by using the @ symbol.

Now that you've downloaded the apps, set up projects based on places or modes, and started adding your first task, you are ready to find out why I love Todoist.  In short it does everything I want it to and not much that I don't need.  And it looks great.  (I'm a sucker for a good looking app.)  If you have questions as you are getting started, comment below and I'd love to help you out.