Todoist Cheat Sheet

Overview

Todoist is a widely-used task management application that helps individuals and teams organize tasks, set priorities, and track productivity. It features natural language processing for quick task creation, flexible organization through projects, sections, labels, and filters, and syncs seamlessly across all major platforms.

Todoist supports recurring tasks, task delegation, comments, file attachments, and integrations with over 70 apps. Available on web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Apple Watch, and as browser extensions.

Installation

# macOS via Homebrew
brew install --cask todoist

# Linux via Snap
sudo snap install todoist

# Linux via Flatpak
flatpak install flathub com.todoist.Todoist

# Windows via winget
winget install Doist.Todoist

Quick Add (Natural Language)

Date Examples

Input	Interpretation
today	Today’s date
tomorrow	Tomorrow
next monday	Coming Monday
jan 15	January 15th
every day	Recurring daily
every weekday	Mon-Fri recurring
every 2 weeks	Biweekly recurring
every month on the 1st	Monthly on the 1st
3pm	Today at 3:00 PM
tomorrow at 9am	Tomorrow at 9:00 AM
in 3 days	3 days from now

Quick Add Syntax

Syntax	Purpose	Example
#	Set project	Buy groceries #Shopping
@	Add label	Call dentist @phone
p1-p4	Set priority	Fix bug p1
/	Set section	Design mockup /In Progress
+	Assign to person	Review PR +John

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Q	Quick Add task
Ctrl+K	Quick Find (search)
A	Add task at bottom
Shift+A	Add task at top
E	Edit task name
T	Set/change due date
P	Cycle through priorities
L	Add/change label
H	Move to project
J / K	Move down / up
X	Select task
Ctrl+Right	Indent (make subtask)
Ctrl+Left	Unindent
G then T	Go to Today
G then U	Go to Upcoming
G then I	Go to Inbox

Task Organization

Projects

Personal
├── Health & Fitness
├── Home Maintenance
└── Learning

Work
├── Q4 Campaign
│   ├── Section: Planning
│   ├── Section: Execution
│   └── Section: Review
└── Product Roadmap

Labels

Example Labels	Use Case
@email	Tasks requiring email
@phone	Phone call tasks
@computer	Desktop work
@errand	Out-of-house tasks
@waiting	Blocked/waiting on someone
@quick	Under 5 minutes
@deep-work	Focus-intensive tasks

Priorities

Priority	Color	Shorthand
Priority 1	Red	p1
Priority 2	Orange	p2
Priority 3	Blue	p3
Priority 4	None (default)	p4

Filters

Filter Syntax

Filter	Description
today	Due today
overdue	Past due date
no date	No due date set
7 days	Due in next 7 days
p1	Priority 1 tasks
#Project	Tasks in specific project
@label	Tasks with specific label
assigned to: me	Tasks assigned to you

Combining Filters

Operator	Description	Example
&	AND	today & p1
|	OR	p1 | p2
!	NOT	!#Inbox
()	Grouping	(today | overdue) & p1

Useful Filter Examples

# High priority due soon
(today | overdue) & (p1 | p2)

# Work tasks for this week
7 days & #Work

# Quick tasks I can do now
@quick & !@waiting

# Overdue in any project except Inbox
overdue & !#Inbox

Recurring Tasks

Pattern	Example
every day	Daily recurrence
every weekday	Monday through Friday
every 2 weeks	Biweekly
every month	Monthly on same date
every! day	Strict: recurs from due date
after 3 days	3 days after completion

Integrations

Integration	Features
Google Calendar	Two-way sync
Slack	Create tasks from messages
Gmail	Add emails as tasks
IFTTT	Automated workflows
Zapier	Connect to 5,000+ apps
Alexa / Google Home	Voice task creation

API

# Get all projects
curl https://api.todoist.com/rest/v2/projects \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"

# Create a task
curl -X POST https://api.todoist.com/rest/v2/tasks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "content": "Buy groceries",
    "due_string": "tomorrow at 5pm",
    "priority": 2,
    "project_id": "PROJECT_ID"
  }'

# Complete a task
curl -X POST https://api.todoist.com/rest/v2/tasks/TASK_ID/close \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Task not syncing	Pull to refresh; force sync in settings
Recurring task wrong date	Use every! for strict recurrence
Filter not working	Check syntax; use & for AND, | for OR
Natural language parsing wrong	Be explicit with dates
Labels not appearing	Check the @ prefix
Calendar sync delayed	Allow 15 minutes; re-authorize integration
Notifications not arriving	Check OS notification permissions
Completed tasks missing	View completed via project menu