Todoist for ADHD: A Simple 20-Minute Setup

You chose Todoist. Then you watched a 40-minute setup tour, created eleven projects and a colour scheme, and invented a priority system. A week later the app holds 63 overdue tasks and you've stopped opening it.

The trouble is the size of the build. The more you build, the more you have to maintain, and keeping a system going is exactly where many ADHD brains struggle.

This guide is the opposite of a setup tour: three projects, four labels, three filters you can copy and paste, and two short routines. Every feature and limit was checked on Todoist's own help pages in November 2026. Still choosing an app? Read our Notion vs Todoist vs Obsidian comparison first. This post is for getting Todoist working by tonight.

What the free plan gives you

As of November 2026, Todoist's free Beginner plan allows 5 active personal projects and 3 custom filters, and includes labels, recurring dates and automatic reminders for tasks with a time, according to its plans and pricing page. Custom and location reminders, deadlines and the calendar layout need Pro ($7 a month, or $60 a year). Everything below fits the free plan.

Why a smaller setup works better with ADHD

The National Institute of Mental Health describes inattention in ADHD as including "difficulty paying attention, keeping on task, or staying organized". The research points to a different problem: not designing a system, but sticking with it.

In a 2020 PeerJ study of 774 adults, 303 of whom reported an ADHD diagnosis, Durand and colleagues concluded that people with ADHD "can efficiently develop strategies, but may have difficulties using those strategies in a continuous manner". Designing a clever system is the easy part. Using it in week three is the hard part.

A 2013 PLoS ONE study by Fuermaier and colleagues found that difficulties remembering to carry out future tasks "mainly emerged from deficient planning abilities in adults with ADHD", with only negligible to small effects for recalling the plan.

That gives your Todoist two design rules:

Make it cheap to keep going. Fewer projects, fewer labels, fewer decisions per task.
Let the app do the planning arithmetic. Dates, repeats and filters decide what you see, so you're not rebuilding the plan in your head every morning.

The 20-minute setup

Set a timer for 20 minutes. When it rings, stop.

Step 1: Put Todoist where you'll trip over it

Install it on your phone and computer. Put the app or widget on your phone's first home screen, and pin Todoist as a browser tab if you work at a desk. An app you have to remember to open is one more thing to forget.

Step 2: Create three projects, then stop

Keep the Inbox as the landing spot for everything new. Then create:

Work (or Church, Study, Business: your main daytime responsibility)
Home (household, family, money, health admin)
Someday (ideas you want to keep but won't touch this month)

No project per client, room or goal. If something big comes along, such as a house move, give it a section inside Home. Todoist's Quick Add guide shows sections added with a slash after the project, as in "#Work /Admin".

Step 3: Learn one line of Quick Add

Nearly every task will come in through Quick Add, so learn its shorthand. The Quick Add guide (last updated 1 September 2026) lists:

A date in plain English, such as "tomorrow at 4pm"
# for a project, as in "#Work"
% for a label, as in "%email"
p1, p2 or p3 for priority
Q to open Quick Add on the web, macOS and Windows

So one typed line does the whole job:

Call the dentist tomorrow at 4pm #Home %quick

If you've used Todoist before, note the change: labels used to start with @. Todoist's Quick Add and labels pages now use %, and say @ "is planned to be retired by the end of 2026". Older videos still show @, so swap the symbol if you copy one.

Don't date everything. A date is a promise to look at the task that day. "Sort out the garage" with a random Saturday date is overdue clutter by Sunday. Date a task only when there's a real deadline or you genuinely plan to do it that day.

Step 4: Add four labels

Projects say where a task belongs. Labels say how it can be done:

%quick: under ten minutes, for gaps between meetings.
%easy: low effort, for tired days.
%waiting: you've done your part and someone else has the ball.
%errand: needs you out of the house.

Todoist's labels article says "you can add as many labels as needed". That's the trap: every extra label is one more decision per task. If you haven't used a label in a month, delete it.

Step 5: Build three filters

Filters are saved searches, and they're how a long list becomes a short one. The free plan allows 3, which is exactly what you need. To add one on the web or desktop, open Filters & Labels in the sidebar, click the add icon next to Filters, then name the filter and paste the query. Todoist's introduction to filters has the full syntax. In that syntax, | means OR, & means AND, ! means NOT, # is a project and % is a label.

Filter 1: Now

(today | overdue) & !%waiting

Everything due today or overdue, minus tasks stuck with someone else. This is your working list. It follows the structure of Todoist's own example, (today | overdue) & %work.

Filter 2: Low battery

%easy & !#Someday

Every low-effort task outside Someday, dated or not. Open it on bad days.

Filter 3: Loose ends

no date & !#Someday

Every undated task outside Someday, Inbox included. This is your weekly review list: date only what has a real deadline, move what can wait to Someday, and delete what's dead.

For your waiting list, you don't need a filter: select the %waiting label under Filters & Labels.

Step 6: Add three repeating anchors

Recurring dates are free. Todoist's recurring dates guide (last updated 1 November 2026) gives patterns such as "every weekday", "every fri at noon" and "every mon at 8pm". Add:

Morning check-in every weekday
Weekly reset every sun at 7pm
One household job you always forget, such as "Put the bins out every mon at 8pm"

Plain "every" repeats from the scheduled date. "every!" repeats from the day you complete the task, so "Book a haircut every! 2 months" counts from your last haircut. Use it for maintenance jobs where the gap matters more than the date.

Step 7: Tame the reminders

On the free plan, a task with a date and a time gets an automatic reminder. Todoist's reminders article explains you can change how far ahead it fires under Settings, Reminders. Custom reminders, including the "!" shortcut, need Pro or Business.

Give a time only to things that truly happen at a time: appointments, calls, pick-ups. Aim for three timed tasks a day at most, because when everything pings, you learn to swipe everything away. Appointments often sit better in your calendar; see our Google Calendar for ADHD setup.

The daily routine: five minutes

Attach this to something you already do each morning, like your first coffee.

Open Now and read it once, top to bottom.
Choose three. Mark the three tasks that would make today good as p1. Todoist's Today view guide recommends the same. In Now, set the view to sort by priority so your three stay on top. If everything looks urgent, our guide to prioritising tasks with ADHD helps.
Push the rest. Move anything you won't touch today to another day now, rather than letting it go overdue tonight.
Shrink the first task. Rename a vague p1 to its first physical step: "Budget" becomes "Open last month's bank statement". Our guide to breaking down tasks shows how.

During the day, send anything new to the Inbox with Quick Add and don't sort it. Sorting is the weekly job.

The weekly routine: fifteen minutes

When "Weekly reset" comes up:

Empty the Inbox. Give every task a project, or delete it.
Open Loose ends. Give a date only to tasks with a real deadline. Move anything that can wait a month to Someday, and delete the rest.
Scan Upcoming. Todoist's Upcoming view shows "every task scheduled for the next 7 days (and beyond) across all your projects", and on the web or desktop you can drag tasks to new dates. Even out overloaded days.
Check %waiting. Chase anything that's been waiting more than a week.
Skim Someday. Promote one thing at most.

This slots into the "look ahead" step of our 20-minute Sunday reset.

How to stop Todoist becoming a guilt list

Overdue tasks are where most ADHD Todoist setups die. The red number grows, opening the app feels bad, so you open it less, and the number grows faster. To break the loop:

Reschedule in bulk. Todoist's dates article says that on the web or desktop you "Click Reschedule to the right of the Overdue section"; on mobile, tap Reschedule at the top right. Move the lot to tomorrow and choose three in the morning. Rescheduling is just updating the plan.

Remove fake dates. If a task has been pushed three times and has no real deadline, the date is just a nag. Type "no date" in the date field, as the same article explains, and let it live in Loose ends.

Let recurring tasks forgive you. According to the recurring dates guide, completing an overdue daily task moves it to tomorrow. Missed three days of "Take vitamins"? Tick it once and it's back on track, with no backlog.

End the day clear, not finished. The Today view guide suggests postponing what's left to tomorrow or later in the week so you end the day at "Todoist Zero".

Hard reset after a bad week. Go through Overdue once. Reschedule anything with a real deadline, then remove the dates from everything else and move it to Someday. Start Monday with a short Now list.

Common mistakes

Building before using. Colour-coding, nested projects and template packs feel productive. Templates are available on every plan, according to Todoist's templates article, but add them after two weeks of daily use, not on day one.
Six p1 tasks. If everything is p1, nothing is. Three a day.
Dating everything "today". Today becomes a wish list.
Keeping two task lists. If tasks also live in a notebook, on sticky notes and in your email, you'll stop trusting Todoist. Pick one home.
Quitting after one bad week. Do the hard reset above and carry on.

When to switch to paper

Todoist is good at remembering the future: bills, appointments, repeats. It's weaker at keeping today's focus in front of your eyes, because it lives behind a screen full of other apps.

Try paper alongside it, or instead, if you open Todoist and close it without doing anything, if your phone pulls you into other apps every time you check a task, or if you spend more time adjusting the system than using it.

A simple hybrid works for many people: Todoist holds every date, repeat and someday idea, and each evening you copy tomorrow's three p1 tasks onto an index card. Our index card system explains the method.

The tool is the easy part

Todoist remembers the tasks. The daily choice of three and the weekly reset are the parts it can't do for you, and building those habits is the subject of Book 1 of The ADHD Workshop Series by Thomas Whitcho, Your Brain Is a Workshop, Not a Warehouse.

An app is practical support, not treatment. The UK's NICE guideline on ADHD recommends discussing "the importance of environmental modifications to reduce the impact of ADHD symptoms", and a well-set-up task manager is one kind of environmental support. It doesn't replace assessment, medication or psychological treatment. If disorganisation is affecting your work, money, health or relationships, please talk to your doctor or a qualified health professional. This article is not medical advice.

Sources

All Todoist pages checked on 3 November 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is Todoist good for ADHD?

It can be: it captures tasks fast, reads dates from plain English and shows only what's due. The risk is over-building it. Keep to a few projects, a handful of labels and two short routines, and it's far more likely to last.

Is the free version of Todoist enough for ADHD?

For most people starting out, yes. As of November 2026 the free Beginner plan includes 5 active personal projects, 3 filters, labels, priorities, recurring dates and automatic reminders for tasks with a date and time. Pro adds custom and location reminders, the calendar layout and many more projects and filters.

How many projects should I have in Todoist?

Start with three (Work, Home and Someday) plus the Inbox. Use sections for anything bigger. Add a project only after two weeks of daily use, if you keep wishing for one.

What are the best Todoist filters for ADHD?

A "Now" filter, (today | overdue) & !%waiting, for your working list; a "Low battery" filter, %easy & !#Someday, for tired days; and a "Loose ends" filter, no date & !#Someday, for your weekly review. That uses all 3 free filters.

How do I deal with lots of overdue tasks in Todoist?

Use the Reschedule option beside the Overdue section to move them all to tomorrow, then choose three in the morning. Remove dates from tasks with no real deadline. After a really bad week, clear the dates, move everything to Someday and start fresh.

Should I use Todoist or Notion for ADHD?

If your main problem is forgetting tasks and appointments, Todoist is usually the simpler fit. Notion suits people who manage projects, documents or a team and enjoy building systems. Our Notion vs Todoist vs Obsidian comparison walks through the choice.