In a world of poor freemium productivity apps, Todoist really stands out by offering a rich palate of features even with the free version. The premium though unlocks a garden variety of options that will make this productivity app feel like a personal assistant instead. This Todoist review goes over what you get with both the free and paid variety.
Adopting a new productivity app – especially when you have lots of things going – can easily become an exercise in frustration. So abandoning the old but otherwise familiar tools gets usually postponed. And this is of course the case when poor fermium apps are dotting the map. Nobody wants to commit to a paid variety without checking it out first, and free versions hardly reveal anything.
Todoist, luckily, offers a garden variety of features even within the free version, and scales exceptionally well on the premium.
Todoist offers a lot of flexibility
To begin with, the multi-platform and multi-device sync fundamentally answers what a productivity app should be all about- convenience and flexibility. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Though I’m apparently wed with Apple products, it’s is a convenient feature nonetheless. Especially when on the go.
The division of tasks, especially when it’s visualized, helps a lot when focusing on a certain project. And Todoist looks rather personalized in this department. Projects come in color, as well as tasks and sub-tasks. The interface is neat and elegant, but you’d say that’s expected and pretty much a given within this category.
Assigning labels and priority levels on the other hand, allows you to easily browse your tasks. And as an additional shiny ribbon on top, you get to use natural language when setting each one. Writing “each Friday” gets naturally translated into a recurring task, and Todoist will behave accordingly.
Then you have custom filters, which easily bypass other productivity app limitations.
It’s quite versatile
What I appreciate immensely about Todoist, and this is something that OmniFocus still fails to address, is team task management. Sure, Asana does that elegantly, but when you are using a personal productivity app, you’d want to be able to drag-and-drop certain tasks to your VA and your partner. Controlling everything from within the same app and the interface feels liberating.
Built for multi-platform use in mind, you’d not be surprised to see how well it integrates within Gmail and Outlook by using plugins, which makes it even better for team task management.
The paid version offers some really advanced features
While the free version is impressive, it still has its limitations.
Filtering, for example, gets way more advanced when you upgrade to the premium. Customization too. With ten colorful themes to choose from, Todoist can become incredibly personalized. It’s a productivity app, I know, but adding a personal touch makes you feel like you are using something of your own as opposed to a generically designed tool.
Productivity is an intimate business, and Todoist seems to understand that perfectly well.
The premium version will cost you 29$ for the year, and that comes down to less than 2.5$ per month. Much less when compared to market alternatives.
But even if they took the price up twofold, it would have still been easily justified.
Push notifications based on due date and especially physical location outrank other features nine ways to Sunday. It feels like you have your own personal assistant sending you e-mails or SMS exactly when you need them.
If you ask me, this is easily their most important value proposition, and they do a dismal job communicating it through.
Getting notified about your upcoming presentation at 8 AM is not the same as getting notified about it just as you step into the office. A game changer if you ask me.
Task review reports are slightly different
Todoist has a cool feature named Karma. And though this is slightly different from weekly reviews, it offers a nice visual representation on how well you are progressing with your priorities.
Let’s say you have completed two tasks per day from your less important red personal project, but only one from your blue work project that is due by the end of the week. Karma will help you visualize this on weekly basis, or to put it in other words, discourage work for work’s sake. It might help with discovering patterns in your procrastination, and give you an in depth understanding of your weekly productive output.
The more you use Todoist, the more comfortable you will become in setting and reviewing tasks. Using natural language when setting up tasks will soon make other apps feel like a nuisance, and using Karma to help you visualize your progress will be a powerful hook if you are anything like me at all.
Why do you need Todoist
For those of you who are unsure whether or not you actually need a tool like this, Todoist feels like the obvious choice. Its free version is feature-rich, and the premium scales exponentially and exceptionally well, by adding even more diverse options, with advanced functionalities.
The multi-platform and multi-device use will come rather handy when unexpected and urgent tasks appear out of nowhere, and you will appreciate it even more when trying to communicate important projects with your partner or VA. Drag and drop team task management is much appreciated when it comes in tandem with a personal productivity app. But you will discover on your own how liberating this can be.
Todoist does a great job in answering productivity improvement fundamentals. It is convenient and flexible. You get to reshape task management on your own, making it more personalized than ever.
Not only it will allow you to seamlessly communicate across devices and platforms, but it will allow you to drag and drop tasks to others as well. This is so important, that I feel I have to highlight it twice.
Adding a shiny ribbon on top, it transforms into a personal assistant app, sending push-notifications based on due date, personal filters, and physical location as well.
Combined with natural language processing when setting up tasks this will make Todoist feel more like a personal assistant app than a productivity one.
Exactly how productivity apps should feel like in the first place. Don’t hesitate, but go ahead and install the free version. You will soon start to appreciate the app.
