- Templates Kickstart your next project with Todoist templates for every occasion. Getting Started Guide Everything you need to know to get your Todoist up and running in minutes. Productivity Methods + Quiz Learn the most popular productivity methods and discover which one fits you best.
- Some of my methods were based on this ToDoist article on GTD. This article helped me with some of my contexts and filters (note that ToDoist does not let you use labels with the ToDoist and GTD. Here is one more GTD and ToDoist Method.
Todoist gives you the confidence that everything’s organized and accounted for, so you can make progress on the things that are important to you.
This post is also available in: Français (French)
Use Todoist as a task manager to visualize and sequence activities, especially for information workers. Here is a summary of the main features when evaluating your task management tools.
Why Todoist as a task manager?
Days are never linear for information workers. Even with the best intentions, your work may jump from one theme to another without necessarily spending two straight hours on the same activity. Anyway, even if we plan to for continuous stretches of work, there is always the phone and email to interrupt us. (see email management)
Plan your day, plan priorities: A task manager can put all the things to do in the visible horizon and associate a priority, but also establish a sequence, an order that makes sense in which to execute them. This planning process is a mental, logical activity that may be done in ‘off time or during the day to reassess immediate and future activities.
The characteristics of a task manager
To use GTD terminology, a task manager must first be the Trusted System. The system in which all activities are deposited to be planned, and available on all platforms, at any time. But most of all the system that you trust. But how is that an advantage?
During the day we might consult the tool in a “formal” way, but at lunch, in front of the TV, on the train, in short at any free time we can consult our task planner, to think about it, to reorganize, in short, to fine-tune and adjust. This mix of different types of planning should help to arrive at something realistic. The goal is to ‘feel’ whether the plan stands up to scrutiny (is realistic) and it is this often and regular review that allows us to evaluate and reassess it.
N.B. we are often more warned not to be into work too much, but this “off” time becomes productive and allows you to be free to concentrate on planned work during work time.
Why Todoist?
Todoist is not unique in being available on all platforms, but synchronization is instantaneous, which allows you to go for a coffee, check your phone or tablet and by the time the coffee break is over everything is already up to date.
Flexible sequencing
The application allows you to be very flexible project within projects, tasks and subtasks. You can list items and group them easily, which allows you to step back and think.
If you pour out the detail in brainstorming mode, you can also easily group items into a header task that is easier to remember, to identify with.
It is important to identify with the tasks and to take possession of them. This ‘gaming’ process of experimenting with different configurations, placing, moving and reorganizing items is a way to appropriate your tasks and thus leads to better schedules and better results.
Labels: Labels can be freely associated with tasks
It is possible to use keywords by subject, by domain, or to create statuses like current, next, blocked – to being line with the GTD model.
I advocate this second scheme and use a clear project subject.
In your head or written down
In any case it is important to formulate, to write down what needs to be done and what has been done. This translation into written word is very important. Until you formulate the task in words it has very little reality. Or conversely, when it is written, the task begins to take shape. Words are important, how you express the task is important and needs to be precise.
Example of different ways of expressing a task
- ‘I need a shelf’ is the expression of a requirement.
- ‘I would like to have a shelf’ is a wish
- ‘build a shelf’ is a goal
But going to the store to buy a plank of wood is something that can be done in reality. This real-world activity allows us to notice that before buying the wood we first need to measure it and that we have neither screws nor tape measure! When the expression of the task is concrete and real, it takes shape.
The GTD (Getting Things Done) method invites us to focus on the things that can be done, concretely, in reality, in the physical world.
Any planning system must help us to be realistic, to virtually plan the required steps, to visualize them and to organize them in a feasible sequence. All of this planning increases the likelihood that tasks planned will be feasible, that we want to do them, and that we can actually do them.
I also advocate a section either by using project tasks or labels called ‘objectives’ which allows us to observe whether what you are planning are indeed tasks or objectives.
This flexibility, this ability to play, to change, to move is a way of brainstorming, of playing with items until you are satisfied that they are realistic.
Comparison with other tools
Toodledo:
I was a very big fan of Toodledo for a long time and still am in a certain way. First, because it beautifully implements GTD terminology. But Toodledo works by filter, by sorting. That is, each item is associated with a priority, a delivery date, a deadline, and the interface sorts items by priority or by the due date.
But unfortunately, in reality, tasks may not necessarily be carried out in linear order, nor by priority or due date. It is important to attribute a priority or due date to an item, but also to establish a real execution sequence, that is, the order in which you will execute tasks. This is one more factor that allows you to evaluate whether the sequence is feasible.
Toodledo, therefore, presents things in order of priority but does not allow you to establish a real action plan, an order of execution.
Excel:
Microsoft Excel allows you to establish a task schedule, the first column lists the tasks to do, columns represent a time element: either day, week or month. This presentation can be very useful as a [strategic] planning tool but is not suitable for daily task management. It is not sufficiently available on all platforms or flexible.
Kanban(Odoo):
Kanban is an excellent planning tool, it is flexible, you can establish sequences, columns as stages or projects and deadlines. But the tool is not available off-line without an enterprise subscription and therefore planning is limited to the desktop, possibly on the tablet, but not on the phone, not on the train, not offline.
Othertools: There are of course plenty of other planning tools, the market is perhaps saturated, but Todoist remains by far the most flexible, the most available, the easiest to use and the most reliable.
Any Todo (Gneo): was very promising, bringing together Evernote and Eisenhower, but unfortunately, its execution was unreliable. Perfect, but the synchronisation was unreliable and there was no simple efficient fast, work area like Todoist.
Droptask:
The last word is for Ayoa, which also was, is, very promising, but in reality is still in development.
Its interface is very good, with a strong synchronisation to Evernote, a visually pleasing interface that allows you to easily promote content to the work area by tagging in Evernote.
Fast and interesting for modelling, but unfortunately the list mode is not effective and above all, is not available in the mobile application.
Conclusion
Of course, all this is just advice, but from an experienced user, who has tried just about every tool. It’s up to you to feel the benefits of the tool and to appropriate it. The market is certainly still expanding, the tools will evolve, again and again, so stay vigilant and open to the sensible principles of GTD and others.
The ultimate test is to assess whether you succeed in “get things done” to perform tasks, in greater numbers in an efficient and low-friction manner. The tasks you perform make a real contribution to getting closer to your goals.
A future chapter will be devoted to examining and measuring the distance between the current position and where you want to be, that is, to strive towards and achieve your goals. The tool is the right one if you feel that it allows you to get closer to your goals and that your goals are evolving constructively.
For many years, I have been using David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity app. It is simple and easy to follow. All along, I tried nearly every to do list possible - Outlook, Notepad, Wanderlist, Onenote, Excel. They all felt clunky and against the beauty and simplicity of GTD. When I finally found ToDoist, I was in ecstasy.
ToDoist is everything I could want in a time management app and productivity management tool - simple, elegant and quick. It gets out of your way. It has just the right amount of customization without being everything to everyone.
If you haven't used David Allen's Getting Things Done, review this quick reference chart as I walk through my process. Here are my top 10 tips on how to Get Things Done with ToDoist!
1. COLLECT EVERYWHERE USING TODOISTS MANY INPUT METHODS
One of the main reasons I love ToDoist is that you can put it everywhere. Install all the clients. Keep it open on your desktop. Have it in your mail client. Have a quick email to your main projects. Here are the ways that I input my tasks using ToDoist:
I enter most of my tasks using the PC client with Ctrl-Alt-A (which is the quick add shortcut on PC - I am sure it is similar on Mac)
I add tasks on my mobile and iPad when I am on them (usually when out or doing the reading) using the great iOS application.
I add tasks to my favorite projects with add task via email.
I add tasks in Gmail with the great ToDoist Gmail plugin. Got an email with a task? Just hit the ToDoist button.
I add tasks while browsing for a web page I need to remember via the chrome and firefox plugins.
2. SET YOUR TODOIST PROJECTS TO BE THE MAIN CATEGORIES IN YOUR LIFE
Don't go too deep on your ToDoist Projects. I like two levels. This is because you can still group related tasks into subtasks to do grouping inside of a ToDoist Project. I have three main projects: Work, Home, and Shared (for shared projects). Under Work, I have Sales, Marketing, and Operations. Under Personal, I have Career/Coaching, Chores, and Shopping.
3. REVIEW TASK LIST EVERY DAY / EVERY WEEK USING THE IPAD APP
I love the iPad app the most for reviewing my ToDolist. I have to confess that I do this before I get out bed every day. I have found doing my review in the morning avoids the end-of-day decision fatigue (this is a real thing!) When I am reviewing, I am trying to do a few things. Reprioritize my list, move things out of my inbox to correct projects and get items that are old to the right dates. The iPad application works best for me because not only is it small and great for my pre-morning blanket wrapped to do a review, but swipe left is the quick method for moving to a new date with an awesome interface to move something to today, tomorrow, next week, next month or custom. On Sundays, I usually try to look at the whole list, not just the stuff that has fallen into today 'pile'.
4. USE FLAGS AND DRAG TO ORDER TO PRIORITIZE IN TODOIST
Task Priority is one of the difficult things in any to-do list management system. How do you keep from having 20 top priority tasks? The red, orange and yellow flags will automatically default to the top of your list if you are using priority sort (which is the default). Thus, I use the colored flags to set my top priorities. I usually set one red flag for my main thing I want to get done that day, and it is usually customer related. I set 2-3 orange flags of important tasks that should get done that day. Finally, I have a few key habits that I leave yellow. My next priority is done via the drag and drop order. Inside a flag color (including no flag), you can just drag and drop to change the order.
5. SET CONTEXT AND TIME REQUIRED USING TODOIST LABELS
This may be one of my favorite things about ToDoist is the label/tagging system. This is where most people fall down on the GTD system. If you can set the context (where you are) and how much time you have (5 minutes or 60 minutes?), then you can always look at your to-do list in a 'gap' time and not have to think about what to do next. This is the key to productivity. Reduce your decisions. Know exactly what to do next. I have created color-coded labels for a few time frames from 5 to 60 minutes and a few contexts (PC, iPad, Home). You need to make your own, but as an example here is what my label bar looks like:
6. USE TODOIST'S LABEL AND RECURRENCE FEATURES FOR MANAGING HABITS
Todoist Excel Integration
It is so easy to setup the Habit tasks in ToDoist. I try and do certain things like exercise and meditate every day. I set up a recurrence on these items using ToDoist's recurrence feature. If you want a task each day, you can just type in the date field 'Every Day starting today' or for a shortcut 'Ev Day start Today'. In fact, ToDoist can recognize most English dates like 'Each Weekday' or 'Every third Tuesday starting' or 'The first of every month.' I also use a label for my habits that is in red (see above) which easily lets me see my habits at a glance. I created a filter that shows my habits still left to be done today as follows: @Habit & (today | overdue):
7. DEFINE A SYSTEM FOR THE 3-D'S - DO, DELEGATE, DEFER
One of the key points of GTD is to be able to continually parse the flow of your life. To me, this is mostly email. I try and read my email multiple times per day (I know this goes against the convention). I have found continually parsing to be easier and less stressful to me. I try not to be interrupt driven, but when I first sit down in a gap, I process. Emails are either done in real time (if less than a 2 minute action), delegated to someone else (I use ToDoists shared projects with some of my team to assign a task. Otherwise, I just fire off an email and star it to review later), or defer it (create an action for the future in your ToDoist). At this point, if it is trash, spam or FYI, I usually just leave it read in my email box for later searching (search to me is better than filing). I do set up a tag for a future task that 'NeedsProject' or 'Someday_Maybe', as you can see from above. These are both GTD categories on how to defer items that are not tasks, but instead are containers (projects) for several tasks and items that you may eventually get to respectively.
8. NOW USE YOUR PRIORITIES AND FILTERS TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO NEXT!
Now that you have tasks in and you are ready to sit down and start working, use your filters and priorities to decide what to do. Do you only have 5 minutes? Filter for just 5-minute tasks. Sitting at your computer, filter for your computer context. Stuck at the doctor's office with only your iPhone? Filter for just your tasks labeled phone. Are you ready to just do the next thing? Pull up your Today tab in ToDoist and do your next task. Try to finish your red and orange tasks every day. Go back and look at your completed tasks on Sunday and you will be amazed how much you are getting done.
9. HERE ARE SOME OTHER RESOURCES ON TODOIST AND GTD
No system is perfect. You have to find a system that works for you. Before I found my system, I had read many books and tried many different things. Here are some other links to resources about ToDoist and GTD:
Some of my methods were based on this ToDoist article on GTD.
This article helped me with some of my contexts and filters (note that ToDoist does not let you use labels with the < symbol anymore).
Here is a great blog post by Becky Kane (@19Kane91) about how she uses ToDoist and GTD.
Here is one more GTD and ToDoist Method.
10. BONUS TIP: USING A POMODORO TIMER
A Pomodoro timer is a method for driving flow - the ability to get lost in deep concentrative work where time seems to disappear, and you get tons of work done! Pomodoro is the best way I have found to get flow. The way it works is you set a timer for 25 minutes and work without breaking. Then you set another timer for 5 minutes and goof off on anything you want. You do this for four cycles and then take an extended break. Here is a quick and dirty Pomodoro Timer.
I hope your new year starts off great! But more importantly, I hope these tips will help you build a habit of organizing and attacking your tasks that will make 2016 your most productive year yet!
If you like this article, listen to Dialexa CEO, Scott Harper, on Custom Made talk to the business opportunity of custom development:
Todoist Export To Excel
Listen to all episodes of Custom Made for insights and perspectives from industry disruptors and technology leaders on iTunes or search 'Dialexa' on your favorite podcasting app.