Todoist

I have memory issues. And I need to keep track of a lot of things, as one usually does. The two don’t go well together.

A recent post on Todoist’s blog reminded me that this is one of the apps I use the most, one that gets a lot of credit for keeping my life together (along with theLovelyWife, obviously).

I already knew I was a heavy user, as I rely a lot on Todoist to keep track of everything, but it came as a surprise when I found out I was on their Top 2%. That’s what you get for trusting your life to an app.

I don’t feel I’m anything but average when it comes to workload, I do more than some people, and a lot less than others, I’m sure. But keeping track of the things I have to to for work, with it’s multiple projects at the same time, as well as helping me manage my personal life at home and everything that has to be done on the web is a monster task, one that Todoist excels at.

I could go on forever about the things that I love about the app, but filters, comments and files and keyboard shortcuts on the web version are three that I can no longer live without. Of course you can still use Todoist as a basic list of stuff you have to do and be done with it. But once you start using the more advanced features, you’ll find yourself in organisational heaven.

Filters are a god send. Stuff you have to do at work, on project X, overdue and today ? Easy. Overdue tasks I promised theLovelyWife I would do at home ? Done. What will I have to get done at work next week on project Y ? Here you go. Being able to save these and countless others, and access them with a click ? Priceless.

Comments and files are part of the Premium package at Todoist. I can definitely recommend going the Premium way. It’s not expensive and adds a ton of features to an already complete package.

How do I use comments and files ? I get an email regarding something I’ll have to deal in a month’s time. I’ll create a task, and add all relevant information as comments. URL, pdf files with portfolios, phone numbers, email contacts, whatever. I then forget about all of these. When the day comes I don’t have to look for that information in a thousand scattered places.

Or you’re doing a list of stuff you need to get from a store you’re visiting in real life. You can add a photo of the item, along with the URL of the item on the company’s site, on each item’s comments. Handy.

Files can be uploaded from your computer, or from Dropbox and Google Drive.

Keyboard shortcuts, coupled with Intelligent Date Input, are a recipe for painless input. Adding tasks and organising them is so quick and effortless you’ll soon fall into a groove and do it with muscle memory alone.

Another nice thing about Todoist is the fact that you can get to it everywhere. They have you covered no matter what your preferred ecosystem is. There are versions for Web, Android, iOS, OS X, Windows, Chrome and Firefox. You can even have it living inside Outlook for Windows and Gmail, if you use them. Everyone happy ?

I could go on and on, Todoist has changed the way I run my life. Maybe it can help you too. And it’s free to try.