Freelancer Productivity Tool Review: Todoist

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I have always been a list maker, especially to-do lists. For a long time, I looked for a tool that could help me tame my to-do lists. There are lots of available options, but my favorite to date is Todoist. Its easy-to-use, intuitive interface makes keeping all my tasks in order a breeze.

I started out on the free version, but once I realized how much I liked Todoist, I quickly moved to the Pro version. There is also a Business version, and there are many features that make it an excellent tool for teams.

In this article, I’ll focus on the features of using Todoist as a single user.

Viewing Your Tasks

Todoist has some views you can use to quickly see your tasks.

Inbox

The Inbox view is where you can store your uncategorized tasks. This is the default project when you use the Quick Add Task feature to create a new task.

I use the Inbox to capture ideas for which I don’t have a project or deadline in mind. I usually try to keep my Inbox clean, but, as you can see from the image above, I currently have 41 tasks in my Inbox.

Today

This view will, appropriately, show you all the tasks that are scheduled to be completed today. There is a number to the right of the folder that indicates how many items are in the view, so you know immediately how many tasks you have outstanding for the day.

Upcoming

This Upcoming view shows you tasks that are coming up. They are sectioned off by the date they are due. Repeated tasks will only be displayed under the next due date.

You can scroll through the dates to see tasks that are in the future. You can click on the “Today” link to get back to the current date. You can click on the current Month and Year dropdown to see a calendar from which you can select a specific date to jump to. You can also get to another date by clicking the day number above your tasks, and you can use the left and right arrows to navigate back and forth between weeks.

Favorites

The Favorites section contains links to Projects, Labels, or Filters that you’ve designated as a Favorite, giving you easy access to those items. To add an item to your Favorites, just click the ellipsis (…) to the right of the item and choose “Add to Favorites”. To remove an item from your Favorites, click the ellipsis to the right of it and choose “Remove from Favorites”.

Projects

Use Projects to organize your tasks into related groups. You can have projects within projects up to four levels deep. This allows you to create a hierarchy for your tasks.

For each project, you can choose:

• The name of the project.
• A color to represent tasks in the project.
• Whether or not to add the project to your Favorites.
• The view to use for the project (board view or list view).

To create a new Project, click the plus sign to the right of the “Projects” heading.

To edit a Project, click the ellipsis to the right of the project name and select “Edit Project”.

A helpful feature for Projects is the “Duplicate Project” feature. This will make a copy of an existing project and will include any of that project’s tasks. The duplicate will not contain any projects within the duplicated project, just the top-level project.

The duplication feature can come in handy if you have a group of tasks that you often do for different clients. You could create a template and then make a copy each time you need to do the project for a new client.

You can quickly move projects around by dragging with your mouse over the six dots that appear to the left of a project name. Drag up or down to change the order of your projects. Drag right or left to change the level of the project.

Project Views

There are two ways to view your tasks within a project: List View and Board View.

List View

With List view, you will see a straight list of all the sections, tasks, and sub-tasks within a project.

Board View

With Board view, you will see the project sections across the page and the tasks that belong to each section under the respective section header.

Sections

You can create sections within a project for different types of tasks within the project. In the image above, General Outreach, Quick Start, One-On-One, and YouTube are sections.

Tasks

Tasks are specific things to get done. They are placed within a project.

Tasks can have the following attributes:

• Name of the task.
• Schedule (date, days, times) of when to complete the task.
• Project the task belongs to.
• A label for the task.
• Prioritization flag for the task.
• Reminder to prompt you to complete the task.
• Comments about the task.

One of my favorite features of tasks is the flexibility of scheduling them. You can simply schedule the task to be completed on a specific date. You can get more specific by using a time as well as the date. But you can get really specific, especially with repeating tasks, by scheduling a task to be completed on certain days of the week, days of the month, days of the year, etc. You can also specify a starting and/or ending /date.

There are tons of ways to schedule Todoist tasks. For more information, check out the Todist article about setting due dates and times on tasks.

Sub-Tasks

Within a task, you can have sub-tasks. This makes it easy to break larger projects into major milestone tasks and subordinate tasks within those milestones. Sub-tasks can go down five levels.

Labels

Labels are used to categorize types of tasks. They make it easy to quickly find related tasks. Multiple labels can be applied to a single task.

You can click a label in the Todoist menu to see all the tasks categorized under that label.

Filters

With filters, you have many ways of finding tasks that meet a specific criterion. Todoist contains some default filters to help you find tasks that meet that criterion. You can also create your own filters.

Creating filters can get very complicated. Check out the Todist help document on filters to get more information on the topic.

Karma

Todoist has a fun feature called Karma. To me, it’s a gamification tactic, but it’s fun to watch your Karma increase as you use the program. In a nutshell, you get Karma points as you do different things within the application. Karma levels go from Beginner (0-499 karma points) to Enlightened (over 50,000 karma points).

Conclusion

You can do a lot more things with Todist, and the application is constantly being updated. You can run Todoist from your computer or mobile device.

For me, the best thing about Todoist is that I have a place where I can dump all the thoughts and ideas swimming around in my head. Getting them organized and documented clears my mind to do what I need to do when I need to do them.

Do you use Todoist or some other task management tool? If so, what features do you like best about the tool? Are there other productivity tools you can’t live without? Comment below so we can all check out your favorite tool.

For more tips and tricks to boost your productivity, check out the following articles:

12 Books Every Freelancer Must Read Immediately

The Whys Behind My Life As A Freelance Virtual Assistant

5 Excel Shortcuts to Drastically Speed Up Data Entry

3 Ways Excel Can Help You Track Your Freelance Income and Expenses

Top Excel Features Every Freelancer Needs To Know

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Brenda Keller is a software coach who helps people feel comfortable with and learn how to use software. She has been an Excel user since it was first introduced in 1985 and has taught the program in various settings. Her new Microsoft Excel: Quick Start course was designed to help those new to Excel or those wanting a refresher to get a handle on Excel’s key features quickly. Check out her course on Udemy here or view her YouTube channel here to get more help with Excel. To learn more about Brenda Keller, check out her official website here.