Being a solopreneur and work-from-home consultant, I routinely evaluate tools and methodologies to stay productive and focused, while maintaining the work-life balance.

Recently, I have started to use Todoist, an online task management app and to-do list. Todoist offers integration with lots of apps including Gmail, Google Drive and Dropbox that enhances productivity and makes it easier to manage the digital life.

How Todoist works:

Todoist allows task management through Projects, Labels and Filters. In Todoist, tasks represent actions that could have fixed, or recurring, due dates. A project is a collection of related tasks. Labels are used to present the context of the task, while filters are used to create views based on projects and labels.

Todoist Productivity Tips:

In order to get the best out of Todoist, and use it to become more productive, I have found these tips and hacks very useful.

Utilize the Inbox project. Todoist comes with a default Inbox project. This project can be used as the starting point. During my work day, I dump every idea and action item in the Inbox. Once the day ends and I am in review mode, items from Inbox are moved to relevant projects.

Email to Inbox: Todoist has a plugin for Gmail that turn emails into tasks. These tasks link back to the original email. More details on the link below

Add tasks in a project via email. Emails can also be turned into tasks by forwarding them to projects. Each project has a unique email address. The subject line will become the task name, and the body of the email will be added as a comment. All attachments smaller than 25MB will also be attached.

Add links. Urls saved in Todoist tasks are clickable. This is a great feature to save links for later reference.

List to tasks. It is possible to quickly generate a set of tasks from a list. Just copy and paste the list to an open task and Todoist will convert it to multiple tasks, one task per list item. This is a great time saver.

How I use Todoist:

My Todoist set up looks like this:

Projects:

Inbox: The starting point and the dumping ground. I use this project to dump all ideas, daily collections, emails etc. At end of the day, everything in Inbox is either acted upon or moved to the relative project.

The starting point and the dumping ground. I use this project to dump all ideas, daily collections, emails etc. At end of the day, everything in Inbox is either acted upon or moved to the relative project. Goals: My goals for this year, one of which is to become more proficient in Python.

My goals for this year, one of which is to become more proficient in Python. Clients: Everything related to the clients go here.

Everything related to the clients go here. Personal: This is for personal stuff including tasks that involve family and home.

This is for personal stuff including tasks that involve family and home. Self Work: Contains the ever growing list of my solo projects.

Contains the ever growing list of my solo projects. Routine: This is divided into three sub projects, daily, weekly, and monthly. Routines are things that I have to do due to necessity. Routines include paying bills, buying groceries etc.

This is divided into three sub projects, daily, weekly, and monthly. Routines are things that I have to do due to necessity. Routines include paying bills, buying groceries etc. Someday / Maybe: Tasks without deadlines. This includes books to read, videos to watch, places to visit etc.

Labels:

Labels give context to tasks. A task can have multiple labels.

Home: Covers everything related to home and family.

Covers everything related to home and family. Morning: Morning is the time of day when my energy levels are high. This is why tasks that require high energy (client work, coding etc) are done @Morning. I follow the Eat that Frog principle, which teaches to do the most difficult task first. [ More about it here ]

Morning is the time of day when my energy levels are high. This is why tasks that require high energy (client work, coding etc) are done @Morning. I follow the Eat that Frog principle, which teaches to do the most difficult task first. [ ] Day: Tasks that require low energy (reading news, checking email, social media etc) are assigned @Day

Tasks that require low energy (reading news, checking email, social media etc) are assigned @Day Evening: Late evenings are for coding, planning and reading.

Late evenings are for coding, planning and reading. Errands: All chores and routine activities are marked as @Errands

All chores and routine activities are marked as @Errands Ideas: Every time I have an idea for a product feature, or anything at random, it is stored with @Ideas for future review.

Every time I have an idea for a product feature, or anything at random, it is stored with @Ideas for future review. Payments: All payable tasks are tagged @payments.

All payable tasks are tagged @payments. Waiting: Tasks that require input from others are marked @Waiting.

A word of caution: Use Todoist to manage your life, don’t live by it – meaning, you don’t have to check the app in every 5 minutes.

Do you Todoist? If yes, I would like to know about your setup.

Resources:

Eat that Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time [get from here]

Todoist blog is the first stop to learn more about the features and use cases. It has an excellent usage guide, a tutorial on labels and filters, and the email plugins.

The Reddit sub is another great place to learn about Todoist. [link here]

Carl Pullein’s Youtube channel is a good resource for Todoist, and productivity tips in general. Couple of videos that I recommend are, this and this.