Todoist For Gtd

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Part of Todoist’s success is due to its flexibility. The downside of this flexibility is that you have to figure out how to set up Todoist as a GTD tool. I don’t think that my Todoist GTD setup is the one and only way to do this. It all boils down to how you have implemented GTD in your life. The gold standard for GTD tools is OmniFocus. Since they operate in the Apple universe only, they are out of the picture. The competition for really good GTD tools on the Android and PC platform is rather thin. Facilethings is the closest. Todoist GTD Tips to Boost Your Productivity Regardless of whether you are a seasoned Finding Things Finished GTD qualified, or you’re just commencing to learn about the GTD process, Todoist is by far the most effective to-do record application to aid your GTD workflow.

  1. Templates Kickstart your next project with Todoist templates for every occasion. Getting Started Guide Everything you need to know to get your Todoist up and running in minutes. Productivity Methods + Quiz Learn the most popular productivity methods and discover which one fits you best.
  2. Doist: The remote company behind Todoist & Twist.

Having a good digital tool to help you organize your Getting Things Done system is essential. In this post, I’m showing you my Todoist GTD setup.

This is part one of a two-part series describing my Todoist GTD setup. You may find the next part here: My Todoist GTD setup – Part 2: Weekly Review and Focus Horizons.

I know that it is possible to do GTD on paper, but in my mind, having a good digital tool to help you organize your Getting Things Done system is essential. With today’s fast pacing and constantly changing priorities, I seriously do not see how people can manage this on paper. I find that 70% of my action items come from, or at least involves email. Going for a paper-based system would be a nightmare.

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My GTD tool: Todoist

I think it is safe to say that I have tried most of the GTD tools on the market (as of summer 2016) I have ended up with Todoist Pro. This tool is not perfect, but with some tweaking, it works really well. My final reasons for choosing Todoist was the following:

  • Flexibility: Todoist runs on every major platform. Windows, Windows 10 Mobile, Android, Android Wear, OS X, iOS, and web.
  • Integration: Outlook Gmail, Chrome, Firefox, IFTTT, to name a few. See full list here: https://support.todoist.com/hc/en-us/articles/205143181-Integrations
  • Todoist Karma. (It really works!)
  • Trust: With more than 5 million users and a good customer service, I feel that this is a service I can literally build my life around.

Want to sign up for Todoist Premium?
In that case, I would appreciate if you use the below link. If you do that, I get two months Todoist Premium added to my account – with no extra cost for you. Thanks!
Sign up for Todoist Premium here

My Todoist GTD setup

Part of Todoist’s success is due to its flexibility. The downside of this flexibility is that you have to figure out how to set up Todoist as a GTD tool. I don’t think that my Todoist GTD setup is the one and only way to do this. It all boils down to how you have implemented GTD in your life. What I do know is that I’m in some way or another using most aspects of the Getting Things Done method, so I think that there will be something to learn for most GTD practitioners by reading this Todoist GTD setup guide.

[bctt tweet=”Remember this about GTD: The app comes second, the approach comes first.”]

Projects

According to Davin Allen, a project is anything that takes more than one step to complete. For all practical purposes, a project can be as defined by David Allen or used as a parking place for action items related to the same issue, project or type of work. Personally, I tend to use both types of projects.

In part two of this post, I will show how to use Todoist projects for managing Weekly Review and Focus Horizons.

Contexts (Labels)

(Please be aware that in order to use Labels, you must have a Todoist premium account.)
Contexts are maybe one of the most useful features in Getting Things Done. Used correctly they can multiply your productivity and turbocharge the way you work.

I define contexts as something both physical and mental. It can be the physical place you need to be. Some types of work can only be done at the office or at home. Some things can only be decided at the next department meeting or the next time you have sit-down time with your boss or customer. Because contexts have to be tailored to both the way you function as a person and the nature of your work, this is maybe the area where you will have to adjust your Todoist GTD setup the most.

It can also be useful to define important tools like computer or internet as a context. In periods when I travel a lot, I will have flight or offline as a context. This enables me to sort out the type of work I can do when flying with no access to WIFI.

A context can also be a mental state or role. I use a context called Work for everything work-related, independently of where I decide to work.

My contexts

Be aware that since Todoist does not have Next Action or energy levels defined as separate items in the software, you will have use Labels for this.

  • Work
    Anything work related that does not involve having to meet with other people. This is both a mindset context and a physical context.
  • Private
    Anything private that can be done anywhere.
  • Home
    Anything that I need to be physically at home to get done.
  • Cabin
    Anything that I need to be physically at the cabin to get done.
  • Next Action
    Just that. All of my next actions viewed in one place.
  • Phone
    This context can be very handy in between two meetings or when driving a car.
  • Work.Ag.Mngr
    Anything I need to discuss with my manager when we have time together.
  • Work.Ag.Team
    Anything I need to discuss or inform about the next time we are all in the same room.
  • Follow-up
    Any emails or delegated actions that are critical enough to warrant my time ensuring that it has been answered or done.
  • Low Energy
    Things that I can do Friday afternoon or on a lazy Sunday morning.

Filters

This is probably the feature that I use the least.

  • Next Action Work
    All of my next actions for work-related projects.
    This is what I choose from when I have done everything work-related on my Today list.
  • Work projects
    All of my work-related projects in one place.
  • Home
    The two contexts Home and Personal.
  • Cabin
    The two contexts Cabin and Personal.
  • Next Actions @Home
    This is what I choose from if I’m at home and have done all the private stuff on my Today list.
  • Next Actions @Cabin
    This is what I choose from if I’m at the cabin and have done all the private stuff on my Today list.
  • Overdue
    I better not find anything here.
  • Priority 1
    What is most important in my life right now.
  • No due date and No context
    I use these to do a “quality check” in my Weekly Review.
  • Next 30 days
    What is in the way for my vacation or when doing long-term planning.
  • Compleated today
    -No longer supported.

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Capturing tools

As a part of my Todoist GTD setup, I use the following tools and methods to capture information into Todoist.

Automated:

  • Using IFTTT, I get action items for unanswered calls and SMS messages on my cell phone directly into my Todoist inbox.
  • Using IFTTT and the local weather forecast, I get an action with priority 1 in the morning if it will rain or snow during the day.

On the move:

  • Todoist shortcut on my Samsung Galaxy Note8
  • Newton email integrates email with Todoist on my phone and tablet
  • Braintoss captures pictures, notes and audiosnippet and sends in direcly to my Todoist inbox.
  • Livescribe 3 smart-pen + App. Send notes to Todoist
  • Mont Blanc ballpoint pen and a small Moleskine notebook

In the office and at home:

  • Todoist Outlook add-in
  • Square bank paper notes

Do not miss my next blog post: My Todoist GTD setup – Part 2: Weekly Review and Focus Horizons.

Related

In this article I’m going to discuss how I moved from Omnifocus to OneNote for implementing the Getting Things Done methodology.

OneNote is a great cross platform general purpose digital notebook application from Microsoft. The cross platform nature of OneNote suits me really well since I have an Android, Mac and iPad and am constantly switching between each.

This doesn’t represent the only way to implement GTD. Customize it to suit your particular way of working (and share what you did in the comments!).

OneNote organizes content in Notebooks, Sections and Pages.

My basic setup consists of the following.

  • A single Notebook labeled GTD
  • Multiple Sections as follows
    • Collection
    • Project List
    • Next Actions
    • Someday or Maybe
    • Checklists

Each of those has one or more pages within each section. I’ll talk about each of these in turn.

A note about OneNote. Hyperlinks are your friend. I link individual project pages to my Project list. I also link out to Dropbox folders for things I have stored digitally. It saves a few seconds every time I need those items.

Collection

The Collection section consists of a single page labeled Inbox. When I’m in a flow state and an idea pops in my head I can quickly get it into my Inbox using a number of methods.

Getting Stuff into the Inbox

I wanted a way to get things into a single inbox in no matter where I am or what I’m doing. What I settled on is building out some workflows using the service Zapier and the OneNote API.

Zapier connects applications to each other via their application programming interfaces (APIs). With Zapier and the OneNote API I could easily append items on a page.

It’s the glue that makes my collection process easy. I’ll show you each of the workflows I’m using below.

Email

Getting stuff into my inbox via Email is handled using the “New inbound Email” trigger and the “One Note” action within Zapier. It’s setup as follows.

  1. Create a new Zap
  2. Set the Trigger to “New inbound Email”

This will create a unique email address that you can use to send content into Zapier.

Now, connect it to OneNote

  1. Add a OneNote action to Zapier
  2. Select the “Append Note” action, it might be listed under “less common options”
  3. Give Zapier permission to access your OneNote account
  4. Setup the template that maps the email content to OneNote
    1. Set the note book to the name of your GTD notebook
    2. Set the Section to “Collection”
    3. Set the Page/Note to “Inbox”
    4. Set the Content Type to Text
    5. Set the Content to the email subject line. I actually append the text “Handle email” before the subject so it shows up in the Inbox in a nicer form.

I then add the Zapier email address to my address book so it’s available everywhere. When I receive an email that I need to take action on I just forward it to my inbox. I can then process it during my review.

Google Assistant

Using

I want to be able to use the “Take a note” function on my Android to append a note to my inbox. Unfortunately, while OneNote supports “Take a note” it can only create a new page. This isn’t exactly what I want to do.

Instead, I rely on using Trello as an intermediary with Zapier.

I have a Zap setup that will Append a Trello card to my Inbox whenever a new card is created on a board. It’s pretty hacky but it works. You can follow a process similar to the one above but replace the New Inbound Email trigger with a New Card in Trello trigger.

Alfred

Todoist Gtd Workflow

Alfred is a killer productivity app that lets you work more efficiently by giving you the ability to control actions on your Mac with the keyboard. One great feature is the ability to trigger automated workflows. This feature allows me to quickly capture ideas into my trusted system without interrupting my flow.

To get this to work, I use the Zapier for Alfred workflow developed by the gang at Zapier. You can follow the instructions on that link to learn how to get it running.

Once it’s running you can add things into your system by tapping a key and typing

onenote This is an item for my inbox

It’s a game changer for me because it keeps me out of the rabbit hole I often fall into when I break flow and enter another application.

Project Lists

David Allen defines projects “as any desired result that can be accomplished within a year that requires more than one action step.” Those projects should go on a project list. Within OneNote I have a section labeled “Project List.” This section has a number of pages.

At the top, is a page titled Projects. This page lists all of the projects that have multiple next actions. Then, I have a series of pages for projects that contain my project support material. Each of those is hyperlinked into the main project list.

Not every project in my Projects List needs a project support page but for the more complicated projects it’s handy to have everything linked up in one place.

A Project Support page uses the following template:

Page Title is the Project Name, I use the same name that appears in the Project List

Then I have the following sections

  • Purpose / Principals
  • Outcome
  • Brainstorming – where I keep notes
  • Next Actions – where I keep a running list of next actions, this is helpful if I think of a bunch of tasks during brainstorming
  • Notes – a place to keep miscellaneous notes related to the project

Next Actions

This sections consists of a series of pages for each of the Categories or Contexts that I care about. Here’s my list but feel free to create your own.

  • Computer
  • Read
  • Email
  • Errands
  • Calls
  • Home
  • Waiting For
  • Thinking

Someday Maybes

I keep my Someday Maybe list in its own section. I do this in case I want to keep more than one page for Someday / Maybes.

Checklists

Finally, I have a set of checklists that I use to help keep me on task. I’ve always loved using checklists. If you haven’t read the Checklist Manifesto, I recommend checking it out.

Here’s my current set of checklists

  • Morning Review
  • Weekly Review
  • Monthly Review
  • Mental Sweep Checklist

Morning Review

I like to keep my system in check so every morning, I do the following:

  1. Process my email inbox
  2. Review my calendar
  3. Review my GTD inbox
  4. Review my Next Actions
  5. Review my Projects List
  6. Review my tickler file

Doing this everyday gets me ready for the day and makes my weekly review easier.

Weekly Review

My weekly review checklist is an expanded version of the Morning Review. I basically follow the process outlined in the book to get Clear, Current and Creative. The only variation is the things I check when I’m “getting clear.” I’ve described that below.

Todoist Gtd Reddit

Getting Clear

  • I’ll look around my office for any loose paper or things that don’t belong and stick them into my inbox.
  • I then follow the mental sweep list to get a bunch of things out of my head. I don’t like to do this at the computer because I tend to get distracted. Instead, I’ll grab my iPad and jot things using the Notes app.
  • I then go through my various inboxes and process them.
    • I’ll check my various email accounts, and process them.
    • I’ll check my physical inbox and clear that out
    • I’ll check my OneNote inbox and move things to projects and next actions
    • I’ll clean out my Mac Downloads folder
    • I’ll also clean out a special folder on Dropbox called 1Scans. This folder contains content I’ve scanned in but haven’t filed in my digital system yet.

I’ve mentioned that I use Zapier to get my stuff into my system. How do I deal with handling things while I’m on the go? I’m using a Google Pixel phone and the OneNote application. OneNote for Android lets me create shortcuts to specific pages right on my home screen.

I’ve created a link to my Errands page so I can easily check it whenever I’m out. There’s also a link to my Inbox which gives me another way to get things into my system.

Are you interested in using OneNote for implementing GTD? If so, you can download my GTD Template.

If you have your own tips for using OneNote for Getting Things Done I would love to hear them in the comments.

Posted in Productivity

2 Comments

Jasonon November 19, 2018 at 7:01 am

Hi Joe, Nice blog post. Saw your link on the GTD page on Reddit. I like the way you organize your project lists. It can be tough to get things done as a new engineer without some kind of good system. This was helpful for me. Can you share a little bit about what you review with your checklists? Thanks for sharing!

ReplyJoe Cotelleseon November 19, 2018 at 7:38 am

Thanks for the feedback Jason. I just updated the post with my Weekly Review Checklist. My 1Scans folder is probably a blog post on it’s own.

I actually started GTDing years ago when I was an engineer too. It definitely helped me get my head around things. It’s probably going to take you time to sort out how to deal with your own project lists plus things in your Issue tracking system.

One way you can deal with that is just add a “Check JIRA” task to your Morning Review checklist.

Reply

Please share your thoughts.

Todoist Gtd Forum

Joe CotelleseDoylestown,PA

My first professional job involved playing video games for 9 hours a day. After experiencing early signs of brain rot, I decided to teach myself how to write software.

My entire career is characterized by this “why not?” attitude.

Using Todoist For Gtd

I'm currently the co-founder of AppJawn, the software company behind the amazing recipe organizer app ClipDish.

I also help transform companies into product driven organizations as a fractional CPO.

Affiliate Disclosure

On blog posts where I discuss products I may include affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something then I get a teeny-tiny commission. As of this writing I think I make enough to buy a cup of coffee once every couple of months.

I don't get any paid compensation directly to write product reviews. I think that's pretty scammy.