Thinking Outside the Box with Todoist

I’m a big fan of the to-do list app, Todoist. It checks off all of the right boxes in a task management application.

It offers projects, sub-projects, sections to organize projects and sub-projects. You also can use labels with your tasks, giving you more flexibility with your to-do list. Then there’s the date area where you can schedule tasks, use priority flags, and enter information using natural language and a smart date entry system. There are reminders — both time-based and location-based. You can even create filters to help isolate tasks in a variety of ways.

Todoist is simple to use, customizable, and durable — it can handle pretty much anything you throw at it.

In fact, its framework is so flexible that I got curious about how much I could challenge its functionality.

For example, you can add plenty of labels to a task, but you can have only one task ‘live’ in one project.

In some instances, that could be limiting. Labels are generally used for things like contexts (hat tip to the Getting Things Done methodology) or, in the methodology I created called TimeCrafting, modes. And projects can be, well… projects.

But just because they are named that way doesn’t mean they need to be used that way.

What if you used Todoist in a way that made the labels filled the role of projects and the projects filled the role of labels? What would that look like?

Would it diminish the power of Todoist? Not that I can see.

Would it allow you to have tasks live in multiple projects? It sure would.

So why not give it a try?

The answer is pretty simple. It’s because the product has told us that projects are projects and labels are labels. Trying to get past those definitions is challenging, especially for someone who is not adept at using an app like Todoist.

It’s similar to using a one-and-a-half size kitchen sink and washing the dishes in the half-sink instead of the full one. That’s generally not how it’s done or designed to be done. Bucking that trend involves taking a bit of a leap. I’d suggest that swapping what projects and labels were designed and defined as by the team at Todoist would be a leap as well.

Maybe too big a leap for some.

This is one reason why investing time in a process or tool is so valuable. Once you’ve reached a level of proficiency with it, you can start to manipulate it more to your liking.

Once you’ve done that… you’re getting into mastery territory. And that’s a powerful place to be.