Todoist Keyboard Shortcuts
Todoist's shortcut philosophy centers on getting a task out of your head and into the system as fast as possible, since the app's whole value proposition rests on quick capture — its natural-language date parser (typing 'tomorrow at 3pm' directly into a task title) pairs with these shortcuts to make adding a fully-detailed task nearly as fast as adding a bare one, a genuinely different emphasis than Things 3's calendar-integrated, more deliberately curated daily planning workflow or OmniFocus's deeper Getting Things Done-style review and context system (both covered separately on this site). Navigation shortcuts matter less here than in heavier project-management tools, since Todoist deliberately keeps its structure flatter and simpler than something like Jira or Asana, and even flatter than TickTick, which layers a built-in calendar, habit tracker, and Pomodoro timer directly into the same app. Filters, Todoist's saved custom views built from its own query syntax (like a search combining a specific project with a due-date range), let power users build persistent smart lists beyond the built-in Today and Upcoming views, similar in spirit to a saved search in an email client. Because Todoist syncs across web, desktop, and mobile with the same underlying data, a task captured via a quick-add shortcut on desktop appears instantly on mobile, which matters in practice for the app's core promise of never losing a captured thought regardless of which device you happen to be using when it occurs to you. The three natural groupings covered here — quick task capture, day-to-day task actions, and navigation — reflect Todoist's own priorities directly, with capture and action shortcuts considerably more developed than the comparatively thin navigation layer, a genuine reflection of where the app spends its design effort.
Task Capture
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick Add a task (global) | Ctrl+Alt+A (system-wide) or Q within app | Cmd+Option+A (system-wide) or Q within app | Opens a floating task-entry box from anywhere on your system, even outside the Todoist app itself, on desktop installations with the global shortcut enabled — letting you capture a thought without switching windows away from whatever you're currently doing. |
| Open scheduling for focused task | T (with task focused) | T | Opens the date picker for the focused task, which also accepts typed natural-language input like 'next monday' rather than requiring calendar clicks. |
| Set priority on focused task | 1-4 (within priority picker) or typed !p1 syntax in task text | 1-4 or !p1 syntax | Assigns one of four priority levels; typing the priority directly into the task text using Todoist's shorthand syntax (like !p1) while creating the task achieves the same result without a separate step afterward. |
| Add a label to a task | @ (while typing task text) | @ | Typing @ followed by a label name while creating or editing a task applies that label directly from the task-entry field, without needing a separate label-assignment step afterward. |
| Assign a project while typing a task | # (while typing task text) | # | Typing # followed by a project name while creating a task routes it directly into that project from the task-entry field itself, skipping the separate project picker that would otherwise be needed afterward. |
| Add a subtask | Tab (with task focused, or indent icon) | Tab | Indents a new or existing task to become a subtask of the one above it, letting you break a larger task into smaller trackable steps within the same project. |
Task Actions
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complete focused task | Click checkbox or Tab+Enter (varies) | Click checkbox or Tab+Enter | Marks the currently focused task complete, removing it from the active view and logging it to your completed history. |
| Archive/delete focused task | Delete (with confirmation) | Delete (with confirmation) | Removes the focused task entirely, distinct from completing it — deletion removes it from history too, while completion preserves a record in your completed tasks log. |
| Move task to a different project | V (with task focused) | V | Opens a project picker for relocating the focused task into a different project entirely, useful when a task was captured quickly into a default location and needs sorting into its actual proper project afterward. |
| Duplicate focused task | Ctrl+Shift+C (varies) | Cmd+Shift+C | Creates a copy of the focused task including its labels and priority, a useful starting point for a recurring-in-spirit but not truly repeating task that would otherwise need to be typed out again from scratch. |
| Edit the focused task's title | E (with task focused) | E | Puts the focused task's title directly into an editable state, letting you correct a typo or rewrite the task without opening its full detail view. |
| Reschedule all overdue tasks | Today view banner > Reschedule (no default single key) | — | Shows a one-click option in the Today view to move every currently overdue task forward to today (or another chosen date) in a single action, rather than rescheduling each overdue task individually one at a time. |
Navigation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open search | / or Ctrl+F | Cmd+F | Opens a search field scoped across all your tasks and projects by keyword. |
| Go to Today view | G then T | G then T | Jumps to the Today view showing everything due today, the view most people open Todoist to check first thing. |
| Go to Upcoming view | G then U | G then U | Jumps to a calendar-style view of upcoming tasks across the next several days or weeks, useful for planning ahead rather than just checking today's list. |
| Create a custom filter | Filters section > Add filter | — | Builds a saved custom view using Todoist's own filter query syntax, combining criteria like project, label, and due date into a persistent smart list beyond the built-in Today and Upcoming views. |
| Toggle the sidebar | Ctrl+\ (varies by version) | Cmd+\ | Shows or hides the left sidebar listing your projects, labels, and filters, useful for reclaiming screen width on a smaller display while focused on a single task list. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why doesn't the global Quick Add shortcut work outside the Todoist app?
The system-wide Quick Add shortcut requires the Todoist desktop app to be installed and running in the background, with the global shortcut feature explicitly enabled in its settings — it's not available at all through the web-only version of Todoist, since browsers can't register truly global, app-independent keyboard shortcuts the way a native desktop app can.
What's the difference between typing a date and clicking the calendar picker?
Both ultimately set the same due date field, but Todoist's natural-language parser (typing things like 'every monday' or 'tomorrow 9am' directly into the task title) is generally faster for anyone comfortable with the syntax, since it avoids navigating a calendar UI entirely. The T-shortcut calendar picker is the more discoverable, point-and-click option for dates that are easier to visually select than type out precisely.
Is there a way to undo a task deletion?
Yes, immediately after deleting, Todoist generally shows a brief undo notification — but unlike completing a task (which keeps a permanent record in your completed-tasks history), a genuinely deleted task that you miss the undo window for is not recoverable through the app's normal interface.
What's the difference between a project, a label, and a filter in Todoist?
A project is where a task actually lives structurally (its primary container), a label is an optional additional tag that can apply across multiple projects (like @waiting-on or @urgent), and a filter is a saved search combining any criteria — project, label, due date — into a persistent custom view, letting you see a cross-project slice of your tasks without moving anything.
Does a captured task sync instantly across devices, or is there a delay?
Sync is generally near-instantaneous across devices signed into the same account with an active connection, which is central to Todoist's core promise that a task captured via quick-add on one device is immediately available everywhere else, though a brief delay can occur on a poor connection until sync completes.
How does Todoist's quick-capture approach compare to Things 3 or OmniFocus?
Todoist optimizes hardest for speed of capture — natural-language dates and inline @ and # syntax let you fully detail a task in the same typing motion as writing its title. Things 3 leans toward a more deliberately curated daily planning ritual with tighter calendar integration and a more opinionated, Apple-only design. OmniFocus goes deeper still into a structured Getting Things Done workflow with contexts, perspectives, and a genuinely more involved weekly review process — the right choice among the three depends on whether you value raw capture speed, calendar-centric daily planning, or a more rigorous GTD-style review system most.
Can subtasks have their own due dates and priorities independent of the parent task?
Yes, each subtask functions as its own task with independent due dates, priorities, and labels, nested visually under its parent for organization, so completing or scheduling a subtask doesn't automatically affect the parent task's own separate settings.