Why this app’s upcoming feature is so awesome


One of my favorite to-do apps will be getting a huge update.

It’s getting a new feature that will make it much easier to plan your days and to get your tasks done on time.

Even if you don’t use this particular app, read on, because understanding the concept behind this feature can help you meet your deadlines.

The huge update I’m talking about is coming to Todoist.

So, what is it?

Todoist is getting separate “do” and “due” dates:

Here’s what this means.

Most to-do apps only let you set one date for a to-do.

Let’s say you need to send client X an offer sheet by Friday. When you add the to-do to your task manager, what do you set the date to?

Your instinct might say, “Friday”. But if you do that, the app won’t remind you to prepare the offer sheet until the day you need to send it. That’s sub-optimal, to say the least.

Let’s say it would be ideal to start preparing the offer sheet on Wednesday. You could then set the to-do’s date to Wednesday—but you’d have to manually remember what the true deadline is. That’s not so bad for one task, but if you have dozens of tasks with deadlines, chances are some things will slip through the cracks.

To solve this, some to-do apps—like Things 3—let you set two dates on any given to-do. The first is a “do” date. It’s also known as the “start” date. And in Things 3, it’s called the “when” date, because it represents when you’re planning to do this task. The second date is the “due” date or the (hard) deadline. It’s the date by which you absolutely must finish this task, or there will be serious negative consequences.

I highly recommend that you use a to-do app that makes this distinction. Todoist has long been an amazing app, but its lack of support for do vs. due dates has required some workarounds. Soon, that will change!

Todoist has been developing very fast in the past few years and, as we’re seeing here, it will get even better in the future. That makes this a particularly good time to organize your life with Todoist.

(I will, of course, update my Todoist course whenever new features go live.)

Watch: Apple Intelligence hands-on preview

Apple Intelligence promises a Star Trek-like future of computing. And it will get there. Eventually. For now though… well, just watch my Apple Intelligence hands-on preview:

Peter Akkies

Hi, I’m Peter from Amsterdam. I’ll help you get organized and be more productive. Every Sunday, I send a productivity-themed newsletter to 10,000 people. Join us!

Read more from Peter Akkies

In the comments on my latest YouTube video, someone asked: Do you have videos on prioritisation? I have an awesome system I’ve set up in Apple Reminders, but I just can never seem to prioritise the list perfectly and always feel behind. This person is already doing a great job, having all of their to-dos captured to Apple Reminders and organized into lists. But it’s a good question: How do you actually decide what to work on first? Is there a formula? I’ll get back to that in a second. But...

One of my favorite things to do is to say, “no”. No, I won’t embark on that new project right now. (I have too many unfinished projects already.) No, I’d rather not help out with that volunteer initiative you’ve started. (I’ve overcommitted myself and don’t want to make it worse.) No, this week is not great for meeting for lunch. (I need as much focus time as I can get to ship this new product.) That last one can be tricky. Because people like to feel special. When you say, “this week isn’t...

I’m in Bali right now, coworking with a good friend of mine. About two years ago, he and I were also both here on the island. In fact, that’s when we met. I remember our first conversation well. He was extolling the virtues of cryptocurrency and I was, to put it mildly, skeptical. To me, crypto felt like a hype—nothing more. In the months after, we often talked about a different hype: AI tools, and in particular ChatGPT. I was initially quite skeptical about those, too. I thought most AI...