Carl Pullein

View Original

How I use Filters in Todoist

One of the issues I have had with Todoist is the Today view. I moved to Todoist from Omnifocus and one of the things I liked about Omnifocus was how I could use start dates to 'hide' routine tasks that I could only do at the end of the day. I would start my end of day routines at 6pm so as I was winding down the day my final routines of the day would show and off I'd go. 

Unfortunately, in Todoist's Today view all my tasks for the day show up first thing in the morning and are left in limbo until I can begin those tasks at the end of the day. 

Over the weekend I came up with a neat solution to this problem using Priorities and Filters in Todoist. [NB You will need a premium account to do this] 

Firstly, I allocate a Priority 2 to day tasks and a Priority 3 to evening tasks. I use the Priority 1 for flagged items - tasks I must complete today. 

Then I set up the following filters: 
Today day = "today & (@focus | p1 | p2)"
Today Evening = "today & (@focus | p1 | p2 | p3)"


Notice that I keep priority 1 tasks in both views. This is because I might not be able to finish a priority 1 task during the day and need the evening to complete it. Likewise, I also keep "p2" in my evening filter just in case I haven't managed to complete all my day tasks. If I manage to complete the priority 1 task in the morning, then it gets ticked off and won't show in the evening tasks anyway. 

I also use a "focus" label for projects I am focußsasing on at the particular moment. These change weekly or monthly, but it is a handy label to use to keep your focus on the important projects.

So there you have it. A simple way to introduce a day and night view in Todoist.