I ditched Google Tasks for this app, and I actually feel organized now

Between the chaos of working nearly 40-hour weeks and being a full-time student, even thinking I can rely on my memory to keep track of everything I need to do is just wishful thinking. So, I heavily rely on creating to-do lists for quite literally every aspect of my life — personal life, college, assignments due, work deadlines, and more.

I began with classic sticky note to-do lists, then moved to using note-taking apps like Goodnotes 6 and Notability to keep track of everything I needed to do when I got an iPad and Apple Pencil. When I realized that didn't work for me, I switched to Google Tasks and stayed loyal to it for years. It has an easy-to-use interface, is minimalist, and works seamlessly with other Google apps like Google Calendar and Gmail.

Though my experience using Tasks has been great so far, and I love its minimalist interface, I've started noticing where it falls short. Naturally, I began experimenting with every to-do list app I could come across, and I finally settled on Todoist. Though Todoist isn't exactly new, and it's been around for years, I never gave it a real shot until recently. But once I did, I realized just how much I'd been missing out on.

Todoist lets you sort tasks by priority

Trust me, it make a massive difference

In Google Tasks, I divided all the aspects of my life into separate lists and dropped all the tasks I needed to do under each one. For instance, work deadlines went onto the work list, college tasks went onto another list, personal errands on another, and so on. Though it helped keep things somewhat organized, the issue would come in when the lists started piling up.

Once that happened, it became harder to see what tasks needed my attention first and which tasks I could let sit for a bit. Google Tasks lets you sort tasks by Date, Starred recently, Title, and the order in which you added them. I typically would sort my tasks by Date, but that didn't always reflect what I actually needed to wrap up first. Some tasks on my to-do list weren't due for ages but were more important. At the same time, other tasks were due soon but weren't urgent. What I really needed was a proper way to rank tasks by priority, so I wouldn't end up wasting time on less important tasks just because they happened to be higher on the list.

Thankfully, Todoist lets you do exactly that and allows you to select the priority of a task when you're adding it to your to-do list. You can choose from four priority levels: Priority 1 (most important and marked as red), Priority 2, Priority 3, and Priority 4 (least important and marked with no color). It works exactly as you'd imagine: the highest priority tasks will appear near the top of your daily to-do list. Similar to how I had separate lists for different aspects of my life on Google Tasks, I have the same system on Todoist. The difference here is that I can sort my Todoist lists by priority, which is a game-changer.

What I really like is how simple Todoist makes adding priority levels to a task. Instead of needing to open dropdown menus (though you can), a simpler way is to just type p1, p2, or p3 into the task's name. Todoist will automatically assign the priority level once the task is created. Similarly, if you're viewing your to-do list in a project or any other view and want to sort it by priority on Todoist's website or desktop app, you can simply hit the P key on your keyboard, and it'll instantly sort your tasks based on importance.

Todoist’s reminders are smarter and more flexible

Because a reminder after the deadline is just salt in the wound

Here's the thing: I have the memory of a goldfish. Though I check my to-do list and calendar multiple times a day to see what needs to get done, I always appreciate a nudge when it's actually time to do something, just to make sure it doesn't slip through the cracks. A lot of times, I'll either completely forget about it or remember it hours later, usually when it's way too late. That's why reliable reminders matter so much to me, and it's one of the first things I look for in a productivity app.

The flexibility Todoist gives you when setting reminders for tasks on your to-do list is simply unmatched. By default, you'll be reminded on the date and time you've scheduled the task. But what I'm a fan of is the ability to set custom reminders. You can nudge Todoist to remind you of a certain task based on a specific date and time, or even a set amount of time before the task is due. I find this much better than receiving a reminder the moment the task is due since, by that point, it’s already too late to prepare or make time for it. So, what good is a reminder if it only shows up when it's already too late?

With Todoist, I can tell the app to remind me 10 minutes before the task is due, hours before, or even a week in advance. There are some tasks where I'd prefer to get a nudge at a specific date and time that isn’t the actual due date. Todoist lets you do that too, and can remind you of a task exactly when you choose. You can also set recurring reminders for tasks that repeat regularly just by typing something like "every Monday at 6 PM."

For instance, I have a recurring reminder set for every day at 10 AM to remind me to take my morning medication, and one at 10 PM to take my night medication. Since I'm a full-time student, there are a lot of tasks I need to do once I get to campus. Though I often open up my to-do list to check what needs to be done, Todoist’s location-based reminders make this even easier. Instead of relying on myself to remember to check the list, I can just set a reminder that triggers automatically when I arrive at a certain location, like my university.

For example, the moment I step on campus, Todoist pings me with a reminder to talk to a professor about an upcoming assignment or head to the finance office to discuss something. It's a small touch, but it helps me stay on top of things without having to constantly stay alert.

Todist's advanced filters are a game-changer

Finding the right task shouldn’t feel like a task

My to-do list is always overflowing. I tend to add every little thing I need to do just to make sure I don’t forget it, so the fact that it’s rarely ever empty isn’t a surprise. Most of the time, I’m checking my list in a hurry or when I’m on the go, and scrolling through a never-ending list of tasks to find what actually matters right now can get frustrating. Google Tasks has no solid way to filter tasks in your to-do list.

Todoist has incredibly powerful filters, and narrowing down exactly the task I have in mind is as simple as it gets once you find your way around it. With this tool, you essentially need to pre-create a filter by setting specific conditions, unless you'd like to use one of the three default filters: Assigned to me, Priority 1, and View all. Though they're all pretty self-explanatory, using the Assigned to me filter shows all tasks assigned to you, Priority 1 shows the highest priority tasks, and View all shows all active tasks.

The true power lies in creating your own filters. You can use symbols like | (OR), & (AND), ! (NOT), and more to build custom filter queries that pull in exactly what you want to see. For instance, I have a filter set up to show me all tasks that are overdue and tagged with "university," and another that surfaces any task due today or tomorrow with a high priority. You can also filter tasks based on keywords (like search: XDA to see all tasks that contain the word "XDA"). Similarly, you can filter by deadline, which makes it simple to see overdue tasks or upcoming tasks. For example, to check out assignments I haven't completed yet and are either due today or overdue, I’ve created a filter with the syntax: (today | overdue) & #College.

If you aren’t well-versed with the filter system and would much rather find the tasks you want using natural language, Todoist’s Filter Assist helps. You can simply type something like “all work tasks due tomorrow” and it'll convert it into a query like tomorrow & #Work, and voila! Once your filters are created, you can use them with a single click to surface all tasks that meet the parameters you’ve set.

I didn’t expect to love Todoist this much

Frankly, I had my doubts when I first tried Todoist. I think somewhere deep down, I thought, "No one needs a to-do app this feature-packed, it'll just make things more complicated." Fast forward to today, and my only regret is not giving Todoist a proper try sooner.