Use Todoist to visualize and sequence activities, especially for information workers. Here is a summary of Todoist's main features which might serve as a benchmark when you evaluate your task management tools.
## The Characteristics of a Task Manager
In GTD, a task manager must be part of [[The Trusted System in Getting Things Done]] in which activities are available for review on all platforms, at any time. But most of all, it is a system that you can trust.
During the day we might consult the tool in a “formal” way. But we can consult our task planner in free time, at lunch, in front of the TV, on the train, in short, we can think about, reorganize, fine-tune and adjust our plans at any time.
This should help to arrive at a plan which stands up to scrutiny, is realistic, and it is this regular review that allows us to evaluate our planning more fully. We should be wary of the separation between work and private life, but this makes “off” time productive, and allows us to be free to concentrate on planned tasks during work time.
## Todoist as a task manager
![[todoist-long.png]]
Todoist is very fast, available on all platforms, and provides an easy way to schedule work on the calendar, organize projects, input comments to brainstorm a task.
Todoist is part of [[The Trusted System in Getting Things Done]] because once you put an item in, you can be sure that you will review it, because the system is reliable.
[Todoist](http://todoist.com/) is not unique in being available on all platforms, but synchronization is instantaneous.
![[Todoist as a task manager.png]]
Todoist is anchored in the doing, but with the ability to build tasks into objectives. Items that initially might seem to be unconnected can easily be brought under the same objective.
### Days are Never Linear
**Days are never linear for information workers**. Even with the best intentions, your work may jump from one theme to another without necessarily spending two straight hours on the same activity.
Even if we plan for continuous stretches of work, potential interruptions abound - the phone might ring, or you might receive an email at any time. (Although you should be structuring your time only to look at emails at certain intervals, some can require immediate attention.)
**Plan your day, plan priorities**. A task manager can put all the things to do in the visible horizon and associate a priority, but also establish a sequence, an order in which to execute them that makes sense. This planning process is a logical activity that you can do at any time to reassess immediate and future tasks.
### Flexible Sequencing
Todoist allows you to be very flexible within projects, tasks and subtasks. You can list and group items easily, which allows you to step back and think.
This process of experimenting with different configurations, placing, moving and reorganizing items is a way to appropriate your tasks and thus leads to better schedules and better results.
### Text Dumping in Todoist
Text dumping is a valuable use of comments. It’s like another way of mind mapping.
This is an example mind dump in the context of buying a house. What do we want?
![[todoist-text-mind-dump.png]]
We did a mind dump in text, and I could have converted this to a mind map. Ideas came linearly, to sort later.
### In Your Head or Written Down
It is important to formulate as clearly as possible what you need to do. This translation into written word is important, since until you formulate the task in words, it has little meaning in reality. When written down, the task begins to take shape. Words are important, how you express the task is important and needs to be precise.
**Different ways of expressing a task**
1. ‘I need a shelf’ is the expression of a requirement.
2. ‘I would like to have a shelf’ is a wish
3. ‘build a shelf’ is a goal
But 'go to the store to buy a plank of wood' is doable in reality. This real-world activity allows us to notice that before buying the wood we first need to measure it and that we have neither screws nor tape measure! When the expression of the task is concrete and real, it takes shape.
The [[Getting Things Done management framework]] method invites us to focus on the things which you can actually do in the real world.
Any planning system must help us to be realistic, to plan the required steps, to visualize them and to organize them in a feasible sequence. It is less costly to plan than to start and later find out that you need to replan and redo.
Planning increases the likelihood that tasks will be feasible, confirms that we want to do them, and that we can do them.
This flexibility, this ability to move items around, is a way of brainstorming, of playing with items until you are satisfied that they are in a realistic configuration to engage.
### Tasks in context
The level of detail that you add to tasks and comments is important because often tasks are really just about the little but important things.
In a GTD review, I might spend a lot of time reviewing the indicators, but I might also include in the review small tasks like ‘improve the graph’ or ‘calculate the average’. These small modifications should be noted nicely in context, rather than just somewhere random.
## Useful functions in Todoist
![[todoist-useful-functions.png]]
### The Inbox in Todoist
Todoist includes the inbox function recommended by GTD, allowing you to brainstorm new tasks, file them in the right place, and so increase the probability that you will see them at the right time. From the inbox, you can easily drag an item into the desired project.
![[todoist-inbox.png]]
Todoist Inbox
### Sections in Todoist
Sections are a good thing. They are like the sections in [Ayoa](https://ayoa.com/) which are circles and subsets in the canvas. But now Todoist has sections.
![[todoist-add-section.png]]
Add section names in Todoist
![[todoist-move-a-section.png]]
Sections might open the way to procrastination because you could effectively hide items in a section. However, it can be useful to comment on a section, to provide a statement of objectives for that part of the project.
### Headers in Todoist
If you brainstorm the detail into Todoist, you can also easily group items into a header task that is easier to remember. It is important to identify with and take possession of your tasks.
You can make a header by adding a colon to a task name.
![[todoist-add-a-heading.png]]
Add a colon to a Todoist task to make it a heading
### Todoist Sync is Fast
Todoist syncs with the calendar almost instantaneously and that makes a big difference. You might often have to change platform from the PC or tablet to using the phone when you go out. There is no lag between putting an item into one platform and finding it on another.
### Labels
![[Todoist labels.png]]
Associate labels with tasks
You can use labels to associate keywords to tasks by subject, by domain, or to create statuses like current, next, blocked, or contexts such as 'on PC' to be in line with the GTD model.
Ensure that the descriptions of your projects and tasks are clear, so that when you are reviewing, you can focus on priorities rather than understanding the tasks to be done. If you find yourself dwelling on, or not understanding, a project title; it is time to clarify that item.
### Easy setting of priorities
It’s easy to set priorities in Todoist:
![[todoist-item-card.png]]
### Links in Todoist
You can copy and paste a link into Todoist. In this case, a link to an Evernote.
![[todoist-evernote-copy-internal-link.png]]
And you can give a clear name to the long link using brackets.
Below: a link to Evernote copied into Todoist.
![[todoist-evernote-link-to-a-note.png]]
### Voice Comments in Todoist
Voice recording helps because you can record audio freely, transcribe to text and categorize later.
![[todoist-record-audio-desktop.png|250]]
Above: the ability to record audio in Todoist
![[todoist-record-audio-android.png]]
Above: record audio in Todoist android
It provides the ability to think freely. And, like the mind mapping process, free think now and dispatch later on analysis. Voice dumping may include feelings and thoughts and a jumble of things as they come.
### Kanban for Todoist
[Kanbanist](https://kanban.ist/) can provide a valuable kanban overview of to-do list by tag.
![[todoist-kanbanist-overview.png]]
Above: kanbanist overview of todoist
Todoist now natively includes a kanban view, which provides a whole new perspective on your task organization.
![[todoist kanban view.PNG]]
## Todoist compared with other task managers
**[Toodledo](http://toodledo.com/)**
![[toodledo.PNG]]
Toodledo beautifully implements GTD terminology. But Toodledo works by filter, by sorting. That is, associate each item with a priority, a delivery date, a deadline, and the interface sorts items by priority or by the due date.
But unfortunately, in reality, you might not necessarily do tasks in a logical order. It is important to attribute a priority or due date to an item, but also to establish a real execution sequence. That is, the order in which you will execute tasks, allowing you to evaluate whether the sequence is feasible.
**A simple task grid in Excel**
![[excel task grid.png]]
[Microsoft Excel](https://www.microsoft.com/fr-fr/store/b/excel-2016?invsrc=search&OCID=AID620866_SEM_WoXh3wAAAL6FHG5R:20180222135442:s&s_kwcid=AL!4249!3!214111281973!b!!g!!download%20microsoft%20%2Bexcel&ef_id=WoXh3wAAAL6FHG5R:20180222135442:s) allows you to establish a task schedule, the first column lists the tasks to do, columns represent a time element: either day, week or month. This presentation can be very useful as a \[strategic\] planning tool but is not suitable for daily task management. It is not sufficiently available on all platforms or flexible.
We have also reviewed Workflowy, and done a [[Comparison of Evernote Notion and Nimbus]]
## Conclusion
It’s up to you to feel the benefits of the tool and to appropriate it. The market is still expanding, the tools will evolve, again and again, so stay vigilant and open to sensible principles of GTD and others.
The ultimate test is to assess whether you succeed in getting tasks done, in greater numbers, in an efficient and low-friction manner. The tasks you perform make a real contribution to getting closer to your goals.
A future chapter will be devoted to examining and measuring the distance between the current position and where you want to be, that is, to strive towards and achieve your goals.
![[measuring-your-trajectory.png]]
The tool is the right one if you feel that it allows you to get closer to your goals and that your goals are evolving constructively.
#task-management #Todoist