How to Use Todoist: The Beginner’s Guide (First Task, Natural-Language Dates, Projects, and the Free-vs-Pro Line)

CodexFuse Team · 2026-10-29T07:02:20.615Z · 14 min read min read

New to Todoist? This beginner guide walks you through sign-up, your first task, natural-language dates, projects, priorities, recurring tasks, Karma, and the free-vs-Pro line.

Todoist is a task manager built around one idea: you should be able to type a task the way you'd say it, and have the app figure out the details. Learning how to use Todoist comes down to one working method — capture everything in one Inbox, give each task a home in a project, and type dates in plain English instead of opening a calendar. This guide walks through that whole first-week system: sign-up, your first task, natural-language dates, projects and sections, priorities, recurring tasks, Karma, and the free-vs-Pro line.

If you run a team instead of just your own list, our Asana beginner guide covers the team-project side of task management.

How Do You Use Todoist for the First Time?

To use Todoist for the first time, follow this seven-step sequence: sign up, dump everything into your Inbox, create one project, add your first real tasks with natural-language dates, split the biggest one into sub-tasks, set priorities on today's three must-dos, and check your Today view tomorrow morning.

1. Sign up at todoist.com with Google, your Apple ID, or an email address, and install the app on the phone or computer you check most often.
2. Brain-dump 10–15 tasks into your Inbox — every open loop, from "pay the electric bill" to "email Sara the proposal." Don't organize yet; capture first.
3. Create one project (for example, "Work" or "Home") by clicking the plus sign next to My Projects, giving it a name, and picking a color.
4. Add your first task with a natural-language date, such as "Submit report Friday at 3pm" — Todoist parses "Friday at 3pm" into a due date automatically.
5. Split your biggest task into sub-tasks by selecting it and choosing Add sub-task, so a scary project becomes three small check-offs.
6. Flag your three must-dos for today with the red Priority 1 flag, which pushes them to the top of your Today view.
7. Open your Today view tomorrow morning and work the top of it first — that single screen is your whole plan for the day.

That's the entire method. Everything below is the detail that makes each step work well.

What Is Todoist?

Todoist is a cross-platform to-do list and task management app from Doist that runs on web, desktop, iOS, Android, and smartwatches, syncing everything across your devices. It sits in the personal-task lane of productivity software: unlike team project tools, it is designed around one person's list, one Inbox, and one Today view.

Its signature feature is natural-language input. When you type a task, Todoist reads the words for scheduling information — "tomorrow," "every Friday," "Sept 15 at 2pm" — and turns them into real due dates and recurrences. There is no calendar to open and no date picker to fumble with for the common cases.

How Do You Sign Up and Set Up Todoist?

You sign up at todoist.com or in the mobile/desktop app using a Google account, an Apple ID, or an email address — it takes about a minute. When you're new, the task field shows example tasks like "Fix bike tire this weekend" or "Read history chapter 5 in 10 days" to demonstrate how the natural-language parsing works; Todoist stops showing these examples after you've completed 15 tasks.

Pick one primary device for capture — usually your phone — and install Todoist there first, then on your computer. The point of the app is that a task captured on your phone at the grocery store is already on your desktop when you sit down to plan. After sign-up, ignore every setting screen and do the brain dump: the setup that matters is the Inbox, not the preferences.

What Should You Put in Your Inbox First?

Your Inbox is the home for tasks that don't have a project yet — it sits at the top of the navigation menu, and any task you create without choosing a project lands there by default. Its job is to be a trusted capture bucket so open loops stop living in your head.

Start with 10–15 real tasks: bills to pay, emails to send, calls to make, groceries to buy, that dentist appointment you've been postponing. Write each as a clear action, not a topic — "call the dentist to book a cleaning" beats "dentist." Todoist's own advice is that the most achievable tasks are super specific, clearly actionable, and take less than an hour. Once a task has a project and a date, move it out of the Inbox; the Inbox itself should end each day empty or nearly so.

How Do You Create a Project and Add Your First Task?

You create a project by clicking the plus symbol next to My Projects in the navigation menu, giving it a name, picking a color, and choosing how you want to see it: as a list, a board, or a calendar. On the free Beginner plan you get 5 personal projects and list plus board layouts; the calendar layout needs a Pro plan.

To add a task, open the project, click Add task, and type the task name. Include the date right in the sentence — "Renew car insurance next Tuesday," "Water the plants every Saturday" — and Todoist parses it. Keep the first week to three or four projects at most: Work, Personal, and maybe one for a specific goal. The classic beginner mistake is creating fifteen projects on day one and then maintaining the system instead of doing the tasks.

How Do Natural-Language Dates Work in Todoist?

Natural-language dates work because Todoist's parser reads date words inside the task name itself — typing the date is the date picker, so you rarely need to open one. Todoist documents the parser understanding phrasings like these:

The parser handles single dates, times, and recurring patterns in one pass — "every Friday" sets a weekly recurrence, and "every 3rd Tues for 6 months starting in April" sets a bounded one. If a phrase ever parses oddly, you can still set the date with the calendar picker in the task's date field; natural language is the fast path, not the only path. For keeping appointments in sync with the rest of your life, our Google Calendar beginner guide covers the calendar side.

What Is the Difference Between a Date, a Deadline, and a Reminder?

A date is when you plan to work on a task; a deadline is a fixed, external point you can't miss; a reminder is the nudge that makes sure you don't forget either. Mixing these three up is the most common Todoist confusion, so it's worth getting straight.

Set a date for when you intend to start — for example, give yourself a date next Monday to begin drafting a report. Set a deadline for when it must be done — the report is due next Friday, and the client won't wait. Todoist's own rule of thumb is exactly this: dates schedule your plan, deadlines mark the immovable line. Deadlines are a Pro and Business feature, and the fastest way to add one is typing it in curly brackets while creating the task — {next Friday} sets the deadline for next Friday. Reminders are the alerts: the free plan includes basic task reminders, while Pro adds custom reminders you can tune per task.

How Do Projects, Sections, Sub-Tasks, and Labels Fit Together?

Projects, sections, sub-tasks, and labels answer four different questions, and keeping their jobs separate is what keeps a Todoist setup from turning into soup. Use this decision table when you're unsure where something goes:

Create a sub-task by selecting any task and choosing Add sub-task, then use the arrow next to the parent task to collapse or expand its steps — collapse for calm, expand when you're working. Sections are the stage dividers inside a project: hover below your task list and click the Add section line, then split the project however you plan — by stage (To Do, Doing, Done), by week, or by day. Labels cut across projects: tag every phone call @calls and you can pull up every call across all projects in one view.

If you prefer a kanban-style board for a project, Todoist supports board layout too — but for a deeper board-first workflow, see our Trello beginner guide.

How Do Priorities and Filters Work?

Priorities work through a color-coded flag on each task: red is Priority 1 (most urgent), orange is Priority 2, blue is Priority 3, and white is Priority 4 (no priority). Set one by selecting a task and using the flag icon in the task view. Your highest-priority tasks float to the top of your Today and Upcoming views, so you always know what deserves attention first.

The discipline that makes priorities work: pick only a few must-do tasks each day, do the hardest one first, and reschedule anything you don't check off instead of letting it rot. Filters are the power tool on top of all this — saved searches that show exactly the slice you want, like "all Priority 1 tasks due today" or "everything tagged @waiting." The free Beginner plan includes 3 filter views; Pro raises that to 150, which matters once your system grows past a few dozen tasks.

How Do Recurring Tasks Work in Todoist?

Recurring tasks work through the same natural-language parser — type "every Friday" or "every 3rd Tues for 6 months" when creating the task and Todoist schedules it to repeat. This covers the two most common cases: chores and routines ("water the plants every Saturday," "submit the timesheet every other Friday") and bounded commitments ("take vitamins every day for 30 days").

Two rules keep recurring tasks useful. First, use a recurring date for anything that repeats, not a deadline — deadlines are for one-time fixed points, and they live on paid plans anyway. Second, keep recurring tasks honest: a recurring task you reschedule every week without doing it isn't a schedule, it's guilt on autopilot. Either shrink it into something you'll actually do or delete it.

Is Todoist Free? The Beginner vs Pro vs Business Line

Yes, Todoist is free on its Beginner plan — but the current line between free and paid moved, so here's what each plan actually includes, verified on Todoist's pricing page on October 29, 2026:

The honest read: the free Beginner plan is a complete personal task system — 5 projects, smart quick-add, reminders, labels, sub-tasks, and priorities are all included. You hit the paid line when you need more than 5 projects, want the calendar layout, want real deadlines instead of dates, or need more than 3 filters. Business only matters when a team shares the workspace. Start free; pay when a specific wall stops you, not before.

How Does Karma Work in Todoist?

Karma is Todoist's gamified scoring system: you earn points for completing tasks and build streaks for consistent days, and the app visualizes your productivity trends over time. It is a motivation mechanic, not a productivity verdict — a high Karma score means you check off a lot of tasks, not that you checked off the right ones.

Use Karma for what it's good at: noticing when your streak breaks and asking why. If a week of high scores still leaves the important project untouched, the problem is your priorities, not your effort. Pair the streak habit with a real routine — a habit tracker works well for the daily non-negotiables — and let Karma be the nudge, not the judge.

How Do You Start the Capture Habit That Makes Todoist Work?

The capture habit is the whole game: whenever something you need to do crosses your mind, it goes into Todoist within seconds, so your head stops being a to-do list. Here's a first-week system that makes it stick:

1. Days 1–2: dump only. Put everything into the Inbox. Don't organize, don't prioritize — just capture. Aim for 20+ tasks.
2. Day 3: sort once. Create your 2–4 projects and drag every Inbox task into one, adding a natural-language date as you go.
3. Day 4: set your three daily must-dos. Flag them Priority 1 each morning and check the Today view before opening email.
4. Day 5: add one recurring task for something you always forget — "take out the trash every Tuesday" is the classic.
5. Day 6: review. Open Upcoming, reschedule anything overdue without guilt, and delete tasks you keep dodging.
6. Day 7: protect the Inbox. New tasks still land in the Inbox first, then get sorted — capture stays separate from organizing, forever.

A daily planner pairs well with this system: use Todoist to hold the tasks and the planner to map them onto your actual day.

Todoist vs Asana: Which One Should You Use?

Choose Todoist if the list is mostly yours — personal tasks, family logistics, freelance work — and choose Asana when a team shares projects with owners, timelines, and dependencies. Todoist wins on speed of capture and simplicity; Asana wins on team coordination, where tasks get assigned to people and tracked against project milestones.

They're not really rivals for most beginners: many people run Todoist for their personal day and Asana (or a similar tool) for work projects. If your work life is the team side, read our Asana beginner guide; if your personal system wants a visual board instead of lists, the Trello beginner guide covers that lane.

Sources

• Todoist Help Center, "Get started with Todoist" (todoist.com/help) — project creation, first task, natural-language date examples, sub-tasks, sections, Inbox, Today/Upcoming views, priority levels, deadlines, recurring dates. Fetched October 29, 2026.
• Todoist pricing page (todoist.com/pricing) — Beginner/Pro/Business tiers, project and filter limits, file upload sizes, activity history. Checked October 29, 2026.
• ComputerCity, "Todoist Guide 2026: How to Master Your Tasks and Projects" — setup-to-first-task walkthrough, natural-language scheduling, projects/sections/subtasks, board and calendar views.
• Cloudwards, "Todoist Review 2026" — setup walkthrough: workspace, profile, tasks and subtasks, routines, progress tracking, desktop apps.
• OreateAI, "Mastering Todoist: Your Ultimate Guide to Productivity" — capture habit, natural-language scheduling, recurring dates, projects and subtasks, board/calendar views.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Todoist really free?

Yes. The free Beginner plan includes 5 personal projects, natural-language dates, sub-tasks, labels, priorities, list and board layouts, task reminders, and 3 filter views. You only need the $5/month Pro plan for more projects, the calendar layout, real deadlines, custom reminders, and 150 filters.

How do I add a task with a date in Todoist?

Type the date inside the task name — "Submit report Friday at 3pm" or "Pay rent every month on the 1st." Todoist's parser turns those words into a due date or recurring schedule automatically. If a phrase parses oddly, use the calendar picker in the task's date field instead.

What is the difference between a date and a deadline in Todoist?

A date is when you plan to work on a task; a deadline is the fixed, external point it must be done by. Use dates for your own schedule and deadlines for immovable commitments like tax day. Deadlines need a Pro or Business plan, and you can type them in curly brackets, like {next Friday}.

Can I use Todoist on multiple devices?

Yes — Todoist runs on web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and smartwatches, and everything syncs across devices. A task you add on your phone appears on your desktop immediately.

Should I use Todoist or Asana?

Use Todoist for your personal task list — fast capture, one Inbox, one Today view. Use Asana when a team shares projects with assigned owners and timelines. Many people use both: Todoist for the day, Asana for the team.