By: Vivian Zhi
The to-do list isn’t the same as it used to be decades ago. Thanks to technology, there are a plethora of apps out there, and that doesn’t count all the other ways you can scribble down your tasks, like bullet journals or agendas. At first, I was content with using my school agenda, but a few months into every school year, it would fall apart. By the end of the year, I would literally be missing pages from my agenda because things tend to fall apart when placed in my backpack. As I began transitioning from taking handwritten notes to digital notes, I figured an online to-do list might be useful as well.
Enter Todoist, recommended to me by a friend who found it disgusting that I used the Reminders app to write jot down story ideas I wanted to write. She claimed that the formatting was “hideous” and said to use the clearly superior Todoist. At first, I was skeptical, like “Pfffff how much better can be? Every to-do list app is the same anyway”. But after using it for a few weeks, I began to appreciate it even more and I thought, “Maybe I’ll show it some love and write an article about it”. So for all you skeptics and curious readers out there, here is my honest, in-depth review of Todoist.
Quick disclaimer: we are not being sponsored by Todoist to write this article, though if you were to ever sponsor us…...
The first thing you typically notice is its clean format. There’s something comforting about seeing a simple format done right. Apps obviously don’t have a scent, but if they did, Todoist would smell like fresh laundry and lemons because of its clean aesthetic. Starting from the top, there’s the inbox, where you can quickly jot down what you need to do if you're in a rush. Tasks stay in your inbox until you sort them into projects, which we’ll get to later. You can see which tasks are assigned by viewing “Today”, or you can see further ahead with “Upcoming”. As you see now, we’re on the Upcoming page. I usually keep it on Upcoming because I like being able to see what I have to do immediately as well as in the immediate future. The bubbles are color coded by importance or urgency of the task. From most to least important, or “Priority 1 to Priority 4”, it’s red, orange, blue, and white. For each task, you can assign the tasks due dates and reschedule it if needed, and use the search bar to locate a task by using a keyword.
Next up, projects. I divide my tasks into “School” and “Personal Projects”, and within those projects, I can divide it into smaller sections. So under School, I have my four subjects for this semester. Each task can be divided into subtasks, and those subtasks can be divided into sub-sub tasks, and so on. Another cool feature is that you can share projects with up to five people with a free account, so it would be useful in group projects.
While labels are a Premium feature, there are still filters, which help organize tasks by importance. There are also filters to show all the tasks and those with no due date as well so tasks don’t get
forgotten.
To gamify productivity, Todoist has “Karma Goals”, in which you try to complete a certain amount of tasks per day to keep the streak going. I set mine at three, which seems like a reasonable amount of tasks to complete in a day - depending on the size, of course. That Monday I completed 11 tasks were mostly small subtasks. I’m not that great
at being consistent because I tend to be extremely productive on Monday, then fizzle out by the rest of the week. I’ve been challenging myself to be more consistent and beat my streak of nine days. Wish me luck!
And of course, there’s a Premium feature. They offer a free 30-day trial without having to actually sign up for a plan and cancel it later like most subscriptions, which made me feel #blessed because it meant I didn’t have to remember to cancel it. I didn’t take advantage of Premium when I was using it, mostly since I didn’t feel like I needed them. No doubt, some of the features are useful. You can add reminders, sync it with your calendar, add custom labels, comments, and files and emails as tasks, and track your productivity. But would I say that students need Premium? No, though if you wanted to get it, I wouldn’t stop you.
Todoist hasn’t changed my life in the sense that I’m now some productivity goddess, but it certainly has made my life easier. And although I can’t see every task I’ve done (that’s another Premium feature), just seeing the words “Daily goal completed: 3/3 tasks. Nice work, Vivian!” makes me feel accomplished and puts my day into perspective whenever I feel like I’ve done absolutely nothing the whole day. And on the days I have done absolutely nothing, it’s a gentle reminder to make use of the time that I’ve got. Whether you decide to use Todoist is up to you, but when it comes to getting things done, listen to the wise words of Shia La Beouf, who once said “DO IT! JUST DO IT!”
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