Got an email from Todoist warning that the $29/year price for Todoist Premium was going to be raised on December 1st to $36/year, but that anyone who signs up before then can lock in the $29/year "for as long as you remain a Todoist customer." (FYI they've long offered a 50% student/educator discount.)

I've never had the Premium version, but I've been looking for a task manager, and I really liked the immediate 2-way sync with Google Calendar in the free version, so I think I'm going to sign up for a year and see if I can get past my general 'meh' feelings about the app.

It is a good app, I must say, especially if you use subtasks for notes!

MadaboutDana wrote:
It is a good app, I must say, especially if you use subtasks for notes!

Thanks! This didn't occur to me. I was aware of how to convert tasks into section headers but didn't make the mental leap to actual to make a note outline under a task. I'll have to test that out since the actual task note 'feature' is the single worst thing about todoist. I really miss making normal notes like almost every other task platform does.

I'm the guy who changes task managers as often as he changes socks. I am currently on ToDoist, and I always return to ToDoist. To encourage me to stop switching, I deleted Things and Omnifocus from my computer. I also deleted Pagico and am only using DropTask on the web.

MadaboutDana wrote:

It is a good app, I must say, especially if you use subtasks for notes!

I'm trying it again, with the 30-day free Premium trial. If I can get it to work I'll sign up for a year and lock in the current rate.

But I'm still trying to figure out a few things, like how to create a task and from within it start checklisting subtasks. In OmniOutliner you can start a new subtask with Shift-Command-close_bracket (what they call 'Add Inside'), and after hitting Enter you jump to a new sister subtask. And indenting an item to make it a subtask is just Tab, and outdenting is Shift-Tab

Todoist seems to have nothing similar (that I've found yet, at any rate) - you can add tasks but then you have to manually grab and move them to the right, either with mouse/trackpad or once selected by using Command-Option-RightArrow (which does not work for me in Chrome or Safari but does in the Todoist Mac app).

So, how do I create subtasks to a current task, and once in the beginning of a subtask checklist how do I create new sister-subtasks?

Am I doing something wrong?

MadaboutDana wrote:

It is a good app, I must say, especially if you use subtasks for notes!

I am curious as to how you're using subtasks for notes. Would you care to elaborate?

To provide some context to my question, I always feel that task managers don't help me as much as I'd like to manage "notes" related to tasks. Those notes typically includes links, say to the relevant threads in Gmail, reference material online, but can also include an outline my analysis for the problem at hand, and more. In general, they take the form of a nested bullet points (aka outline). And once a project is complete, I'd often like to keep the notes around for longer, as I often refer to them, say when I encounter a similar problem, or some part of the thinking I did could be reused.

Of course, longer notes could be stored in a separate app, like Bear or WorkFlowy [1], but not having them directly accessible and visible creates what seems like unnecessary friction. Hence I'm looking for an app that is as good possible with notes, or in which I'm able to reuse some existing "data structure" for notes, even if it wasn't originally intended for that purpose.

-Alex

[1] As a side note, I love WorkFlowy, but linking to a note in WorkFlowy from another app doesn't work well on mobile as it opens WorkFlowy in the browser, instead of in the app, which is slow and doesn't work if you happen to be offline.

I know what you mean. "Universal links" or URLs (in case of online notes) should help to link from tasks to corresponding external notes. I personally liked the Nozbe - Evernote integration https://nozbe.com/blog/evernote/ in this regard, though I've since abandoned Nozbe for a kanban approach.

Alessandro Vernet wrote:

Of course, longer notes could be stored in a separate app, like Bear or
WorkFlowy [1], but not having them directly accessible and visible
creates what seems like unnecessary friction. Hence I'm looking for an
app that is as good possible with notes, or in which I'm able to reuse
some existing "data structure" for notes, even if it wasn't originally
intended for that purpose.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

I know what you mean. "Universal links" or URLs (in case of online
notes) should help to link from tasks to corresponding external notes. I
personally liked the Nozbe - Evernote integration
https://nozbe.com/blog/evernote/ in this regard, though I've since
abandoned Nozbe for a kanban approach.

As an aside, I stumbled upon a Nozbe's oddball podcast featuring the company's CEO, and it's a bit of a head-scratcher. The podcast barely discusses the app, but spends an inordinate amount of time on discussing 'the nomadic lifestyle', expensive ultra-minimalist packs, travel, and occasionally Legos. So weird.

This post may answer a few questions about subtasks and notes: https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/8424 .

--Ken

Ha. Thanks Ken for reminding me of the links I posted. But those links do not provide keyboard commands for simple things like creating sister-tasks or a new subtask (or checklist) for a task/line I'm currently on.

Supposedly by pressing enter when entering an item Todoist creates a sister item below (like any outliner would) but instead it merely acts as if I'd hit the Save button. (And even that command doesn't work in Chrome or Safari, for some reason.)

satis wrote:

Ha. Thanks Ken for reminding me of the links I posted. But those links
do not provide keyboard commands for simple things like creating
sister-tasks or a new subtask (or checklist) for a task/line I'm
currently on.

Supposedly by pressing enter when entering an item Todoist creates a
sister item below (like any outliner would) but instead it merely acts
as if I'd hit the Save button. (And even that command doesn't work in
Chrome or Safari, for some reason.)

I was primarily posting the link in response to Alessandro's questions about notes. I am assuming that you have looked at their shortcuts page - https://get.todoist.help/hc/en-us/articles/205063212 . FWIW, it drives me crazy when program use multi-key commands or unexpected keys for common commands. In MLO, you need to use the INS command to create a new item. I know the concept makes sense, but who uses that key in normal work?

--Ken

Thanks, you've helped a lot. I missed the shortcuts page somehow. And I'd been given incorrect advice on another forum to press enter to finish a topic and create a sister topic - the shortcut page led me to the right answer: shift-Enter!

It seems that there's no equivalent to OmniOutliner's 'Add Inside' (Shift-CMD-closebracket) which I use a million times a week, it seems. (My old outliner Opal uses the metaphor or sisters/daughters/aunts so starting a subtask/checklist is CMD-D for 'New Daughter'.)

I'm often in a thought or task and I want to create substasks/checklists for the item I'm thinking about - it's the way I think and work. The outliners I've always used always had a keyboard command to do that. (I even added it as a toolbar icon on OmniOutliner.) It just seems so strange that Todoist doesn't think people want to quickly make lists inside items, but instead seems to make you create a Shift-Enter into sister-task and _then_ indent it to make it a subtask. Just an added bit of friction that (1) maybe I'd get used to, or (2) might end up being a deal-killer considering how much I create checklists and subsubtasks for ideas.

Ken wrote:

This post may answer a few questions about subtasks and notes:
https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/8424 .

Thank you for the reference, Ken. I didn't know about the star trick. Definitely useful for those of us how like to mix lots of notes with their todos and projects.

-Alex

Happy to pass along the information!

--Ken

Some positive feedback about this company and paid subscriptions

I rather foolishly forgot to cancel my yearly subscription as i had not used it for 6 months and was not planning on using it in the foreseeable future

I received an sms from my bank that the money had been paid to Todoist and I got on line to see if I could get a refund
There was an item in the help section and I wrote a brief note and submitted it requesting a refund

Within a very short period if time I received a positive reply, no problem, they were sad to see me go but a refund would appear in the next few days

Based on this experience I can definitely trust this company in the future