We haven’t come up with a way to add tasks telepathically (yet), but Todoist’s smart Quick Add is the next best thing. Quick Add is the fastest way to:
- Add a new task
- Set a due date and time for a task
- Attach a label to a task
- Set the priority level for a task
- Add a task to a project
- Add a task to a section
- Assign a task to a collaborator
- Add a reminder to a task
Just type (or dictate) all the details into a single line. The smart Quick Add will automatically recognize and highlight each piece of information and add it to your task accordingly. Particularly handy when adding tasks on your mobile device.
Note
How it works
Tap or click the + symbol on any Todoist platform — web, desktop, or mobile — to open Quick Add. Type in your task name and:
Type the date and time into the task field using natural language like “tomorrow at 4pm” or “every other Tuesday starting March 3”. The Quick Add will automatically recognize the due date and add it when you save your task. Here’s a list of example date formats you can use.
Type @ followed by the label name. For example, @email. You’ll be able to choose from a list of existing labels, or create an entirely new one.
Type p1, p2, or p3 to indicate the priority level of the task.
Type “!” in the task name field, directly followed by the desired time for the reminder.
You can set a reminder for a specific time (like “!3pm”), for after a certain amount of time has passed (e.g. “!2h”), or to make sure you get notified an X amount of time before your task is due (e.g. “!30mb” or "!30min before"). Todoist will even understand when you add a reminder for “!later” (i.e. 4 hours later), “!tomorrow” (i.e. the next day at 9:00 AM), or "!ev sat 9am" (i.e. every Saturday at 9 AM). Find the full list of supported reminder shortcuts in this article.
Type in the symbol # immediately followed by the project name. For example, “#Work”. You’ll be able to choose from a list of existing projects, or create an entirely new one.
Once you've assigned your task to a project, you can also specify which section the task should go under. You just have to type in the symbol / immediately followed by the section name. For example, if you want your task to go under the section Admin in your Work project, you can type “#Work /Admin”.
Type in the symbol + immediately followed by the person’s name. For example, “+Lucile”. You’ll be able to choose from a list of current project collaborators.
This is only possible in shared projects so you’ll need to specify a shared project (using the # symbol) first and then add an assignee.
Quick tip