Your journey to clarity and achieving your goals starts with your first task. Add a task for just about anything by using simple, natural language. No matter how quick the task (Call Mom today) or how large the workload (Write thesis introduction at 2PM for 3 hours), Todoist lets you quickly offload that growing mental checklist.
Add a task
Let's start by creating your first task:
Click Add task either on the sidebar or at the bottom of any list to add a task. Give your task a name and a date using natural language. Then, click Add task to confirm.
Stacey · Customer Experience Specialist
If you prefer using keyboard shortcuts, press the Q shortcut to open Quick Add. If you’re using another app, use your global Quick Add shortcut.
Edit a task
You may need to add more context to your task, especially if you’re working with others. Here’s how to edit a task and provide more details:
Click the task itself to open the task view. You can change the task name or add a description. Click Save to confirm.
In the task view, you can reschedule the date or add additional information, like priority, labels, or reminders. This lets you organize tasks according to its urgency or category.
Duplicate a task
If you need to create copies of a task, you can save time and effort by duplicating the task and any of its active sub-tasks. The copies will appear right below it in the task list. They, however, won’t include comments, custom reminders, and completed sub-tasks of the original task. If there's information to retain, add it to the task description before duplicating it.
Duplicate a single task
Click the three dots icon to the right of the task name. If you’re in the task view, click the three dots icon at the top-right. Then, select Duplicate. A copy of the task will appear in your list.
Duplicate two or more tasks
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Press and hold the ⇧ Shift key as you click the first and last task you want to duplicate. This selects all the tasks in the task list.
To select tasks that aren’t next to each other on the list, press and hold ⌘ Command (macOS) or CTRL (Windows) as you click each individual task.
- Click the three dots icon in the menu that appears at the top of your Todoist.
- Select Duplicate.
A copy of the tasks and any of their active sub-tasks will be created below each of the original.
Move a task
After adding several tasks to your projects, you realized that a task has to move down the task list, or to a different project. Here’s how to move a task in Todoist:
Move a task within the project
If you're using the list layout:
- Hover your cursor over the left side of the task.
- Click the drag handle icon to the left of the task.
- Drag the task to its new position in the task list.
If you’re using the board layout, press and hold a task. Then, drag it to its new position in the task list.
Move a task to a different project
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Click the three dots icon next to the task name.
If you’re moving two or more tasks, press and hold ⌘ Command (macOS) or CTRL (Windows) to select these tasks.
- Select Move to… and enter either the project name or the section name.
Complete a task
Each task in Todoist has a circle icon next to it. Click or tap this circle icon whenever you complete a task. The task disappears from the list, it’s recorded in your Activity Log, and counted as a point to your Karma.
If you're using an Apple or Android device, you can customize swipe actions in Todoist to complete tasks. Tap Settings → General → Swipe actions and choose the Complete action.
Galina · Customer Experience Lead
When working with tasks in sections, completed tasks remain in the sections they’re completed in. To move a completed task to a different section, uncomplete it first. Then, move the task to a different section.
Turn on the task complete tone
The task complete tone gives you that motivational oomph to get things done. If this is right up your alley, here’s how to turn it on in Todoist:
- Click your avatar at the top-left.
- Select Settings.
- Open the General tab.
- Scroll down to the Sound & appearance section.
- Turn on the task complete tone for either the desktop and web apps, or the mobile app.
You’ll hear a sound when you complete tasks in Todoist.
Uncomplete a task
If you complete a task you didn't mean to, or need to bring a completed task back, you can uncomplete it.
- Open the project from the sidebar.
- Click the three dots icon at the top-right.
- Turn on Completed tasks.
- Find the completed task and click the circle icon.
Note
If you're working with sub-tasks, and you decide to un-complete them, this will un-complete their parent tasks automatically.
Un-complete a task with a recurring date
When you complete a task with a recurring date, an Undo pop-up will appear at the bottom-left of Todoist. This pop-up lasts for just a few seconds.
Once the popup disappears, you won’t be able to un-complete the task. Instead, either create a new task or reschedule the existing task to a recurring date that starts at your previous instance.
Unlike tasks with absolute dates, there’s no option to un-complete or undo any previous occurrences of a task. If you’ve a task called “Buy fruits everyday” and you’ve completed several occurrences in the past, you’ll only be able to undo changes to today’s occurrence.
Delete a task
Clean up your projects by deleting tasks created by mistake or that are no longer relevant. Once the task is deleted, it can’t be restored to your project.
- Click the project or view.
- Click the three dots icon to the right of the task. If you’re using the task view, click the three dots icon at the top-right of the window.
- Select Delete.
- Click Delete again to confirm.
Note
Careful! There's no option to delete a completed task, or undo the deletion of a task. However, if you're a Pro or Business customer, you can restore it by import a copy of the task using a backup.
Best practices for tasks
Tasks are the building blocks of your project, so we’ve listed several best practices we find helpful when adding and working with tasks.
Start your task name with an action word
When writing a task name, start with a verb or an action word to give yourself a clear direction over what needs to be done. If you need to buy apples tomorrow at 10:00, add a task called “Buy apples tomorrow at 10:00” instead of “Apples tom 10:00”.
Break large tasks into sub-tasks
Overcome the overwhelm of completing a large task by breaking it down into sub-tasks. This is helpful for any task that needs two or more steps to complete, or it’ll take more than 24 hours to get done.
Assign all the relevant task details
In the task view, you can add details like a date, time, label, or priority, so it’s easy to organize tasks according to when you’ll start working on them, their category, or their priority. If you’re on the paid plan, you can add deadlines and custom reminders as well.
Provide context in the task description
If you’re working with one or more people to complete a task, the task description gives you plenty of space to format and share details about the work, including links, quotes, bullet points, and more.
Attach relevant images or files to the task
Whether you’re collaborating across departments, or you need to give Mom a photo of the flowers to buy at the shop, you can attach images or files to tasks, so that every piece of information can be found and referenced in one central location.
Get in touch
If you’re having trouble adding tasks to your projects, making changes to an existing task, or managing tasks with other people, get in touch with us. We— Galina, Diane, Rikke, and any of our other teammates—are happy to work through these issues and keep you on track.
