In the activity log (Pro and Business only) In your activity log you’ll be able to view your completed tasks (including recurring tasks) from all projects. Click your avatar in the top-right corner of Todoist and select Activity log. While viewing the activity log, click on All actions. Next, select Completed tasks. We don't offer any free trials for the Pro plan, but you can upgrade for as little as $3/month to test Pro features such as reminders, Pro themes and higher usage limits. It’s possible to request a refund within 30 days of subscribing if you're unhappy with your purchase. You can try the Todoist Business plan free for 30 days.

I've been using Todoist almost daily for the last 4 years. I've learned a lot of tips and tricks along the way, which I'd like to share with you. The official guide describes the basics to get started, but I want to cover some more advanced or lesser-known features in this post.

Update: Todoist also published a Hidden Features post, covering even more tips & tricks.

Customize your start page

By default, Todoist uses the 'Next 7 days' view. But it's also possible to define any project, filter or custom query as home page. Go to Settings → General and select Custom query as your Start page.

That's the query I'm using: overdue, 3 days, @next, p:Inbox. This will show the following sections by default:

• overdue
• next 3 days
• tasks marked with @next label
• the inbox (depends on your language, e.g. it's p:Eingang in German)

Recurring tasks based on completion date

Todoist offers many ways to create recurring tasks using the every keyword. One overlooked feature is adding ! to every. Here's the difference:

• every month creates tasks based on the task's original date. This is useful for tasks with exact due dates, e.g. paying your rent.
• every! month creates tasks based on the task's last completion date. This is more appropriate for tasks that must be completed at regular intervals, e.g. working out.

Let's say we create a recurring task on January 10 and complete it on January 15. When every is used, the next occurrence is February 10, while every! leads to February 15:

Postponing recurring tasks

In a perfect world we would always complete our scheduled tasks on time. But sometimes you can't or don't want to finish a task today. There are various ways to deal with this:

• Leave the task as overdue and finish it later. This may not be the best solution for passionate procrastinators, though. This also reduces your Karma points if you leave a task overdue for more than 4 days.
• Mark the task as completed. However, this will distort your Karma points (as you check off a task that you did not actually complete).
• By editing the date field or using smart date recognition you are able to re-define the task's schedule. This is not the preferred way to reschedule tasks, but it's possible using the starting keyword, e.g. every day starting tomorrow
• Much more convenient is the built-in postponing mechanism. Open the task's menu and click on the circle arrow to reschedule the task to its next due date. This will not alter your task's original date query.

Structure subtasks

Subtasks are handy to structure your tasks within a project. Let's improve the hierarchy visually by connecting the following features:

• A task starting with * (followed by a space) will hide its checkbox. This makes it perfect for subheadings.
• Todoist supports basic Markdown formatting, so surround a text with **Text** to make it appear bold.

When combined, we are able to create a 'Scheduled' project with * **Monthly**, * **Weekly** and * **Daily** sections:

This makes it easier to distinguish parent projects from subprojects.

Archive subtasks

Completed tasks are archived automatically. However, this does not apply to subtasks by default. Instead, checking off a subtask marks it as completed without removing it from the view:

This may make sense for some people, but I don't like seeing completed tasks on my todo list. You can select the task's menu and click Archive, but there is an easier way to achieve it: Hold down Shift on your keyboard while checking off a subtask to automatically archive it.

Expand / Collapse all tasks

Subtasks are not only useful to structure your tasks. They also allow you to hide/collapse all children tasks by clicking the black arrow.

It would be great to collapse/fold or expand all subtasks at once, especially when dealing with many tasks. Unfortunately, Todoist does not offer such a feature, but it's possible with Bookmarklets, small scripts stored as browser bookmarks.

Drag and drop these links onto your bookmark bar and click them while your Todoist web app is open:

Projects comments (premium)

You might have been using task comments already: hover over a task and click the speech bubble that appears next to the task name.

But did you know that you may also attach comments to projects? It's quite useful for generic notes or discussions.

Backup your data

I manage most of my tasks in Todoist, and I'd really hate losing any of them. If you're a Premium user, Todoist already creates automatic backups for all your active tasks. You can also try my Export tool for Todoist — an app I have written several years ago. It's free, open source and doesn't require a premium account. It also allows you to download all your data, including account information and archived tasks (JSON only).

Conclusion

Todoist is a simple yet powerful task manager. I hope my post helps you to get even more out of this app. If you're looking for more tips, visit the (unofficial) Todoist subreddit, where people are sharing a lot of useful knowledge.

If you know more useful tips and tricks, feel free to leave a comment below.

Todoist Monthly View Calendar

Do you want to try out premium features? Use my referral link and get two free months of Todoist Premium!

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Dates in Todoist can sometimes be a bit confusing. Here you will find a complete overview of the date formats and the ways of using dates in Todoist.

Note: I recommend to bookmark this post so that you can easily find it when you are struggling with dates in Todoist.

How to set dates in Todoist

You can set dates in Todoist using the calendar/date selector, or by using natural language.

Todoist will automatically recognize and add due dates as you type them into a task name. This feature is called Smart date recognition. You can turn this feature on or off by going to Settings / General / Smart date recognition.

Disabling Smart date recognition for a single task

Sometimes, Todoist’s Smart date recognition can be a source of irritation. Let’s say the task is “Finish monthly expense report” By the time you type “Finish mon” Todoist will have interpreted this as a task named “Finish” that is due on Monday. To avoid this, press backspace or delete on your keyboard, or tap the highlighted word on your phone or tablet.

Natural language formats

Relative dates

Specific dates

Specific days

Recurring due dates in Todoist

The only way to set recurring due dates in Todoist is by using natural language. I’m tempted to say that your imagination is the limit but to make it easy to get started, I have made some tables below.

Relative numbers

The use of ! (exclamation mark)

Thanks to the tip from Keith in the comment section, I can list a very useful function that was unknown to me: The format Every! will calculate the next occurrence from when you complete the task. Meaning that if you complete the task later than on the first due date, the next occurrence will be calculated from when you completed the previous task.

Specific dates and days

Setting start dates for non-recurring tasks in Todoist

Start dates for non-recurring tasks are actually not supported in Todoist. The dates above are all due dates. You have three options to get around this:

1. Register the start date as the due date. When the task shows up, use the every day until <due date> to make the task repeat until the desired due date.
2. Register the task with due date every day from <start date> to <due date> .
3. Register the task with a due date and set a reminder for the start date.

Start and end dates for recurring tasks in Todoist

Set due dates in Todoist with Smart Schedule

The Smart Schedule function in Todoist is an AI-based function that helps you schedule or re-schedule your tasks. It learns over time, making better and better predictions. To learn more about the Todoist Smart Schedule function, visit this help article from Todoist.

Dates in Todoist filters

For a complete overview of how to make filters in Todoist, please visit the below blog post.

The ultimate guide to Todoist filters

Date formats

• Given date: 15.01.2017
• Given date US format: 01/15/2017, Jan 15th
• Given date and time: 15.01.2017 16:00
• Given date and time US format: 01/15/2017 4 pm, Jan 15th 4 pm
• Relative date: yesterday, today, tomorrow
• Due Date: 2 days (due in the next two days), -2 days, (due in the past two days)
• Days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Creation dates

• created:
• created before:
• created after:

Due dates

• due:
• due before:
• due after:
• next X days
• overdue
• recurring
• no date

Filtering on Creation dates

Todoist Monthly View Planner

Filtering on Due dates

Todoist Monthly Views