Todoist Task Capture Shortcuts
Capturing a task quickly, fully detailed with a due date, priority, label, and project, is Todoist's single most-repeated action and the one its shortcut set is most obviously optimized around — the natural-language date parser and the inline @ and # typed syntax exist specifically to let you add all of that detail in the same continuous typing motion as writing the task's title itself, rather than as separate steps afterward.
| 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. |
The global Quick Add shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+A on Windows, Cmd+Option+A on Mac, with the desktop app running in the background) opens a floating task-entry box from literally anywhere on your system, regardless of which application currently has focus — the single feature most responsible for Todoist's core promise of never losing a captured thought, since you don't need to switch windows, find the Todoist app, and navigate to the right project just to jot something down before it slips your mind. Within the app itself, Q opens the same quick-add interface without requiring the system-wide shortcut.
Scheduling a task (T, with it focused) opens the due-date picker, and it's worth understanding this accepts typed natural-language input directly rather than requiring you to click through a calendar — typing "tomorrow at 3pm," "next monday," or "every other friday" and letting Todoist's parser interpret it is generally faster than visually navigating a calendar grid, once you're comfortable with the phrasing patterns it recognizes.
Setting priority (the 1-4 number keys within the priority picker, or typing Todoist's own shorthand directly into the task text like !p1) assigns one of four priority levels, with 1 being highest. The inline typed syntax is worth highlighting specifically because it means priority-setting doesn't have to be a separate step at all — typing "Finish quarterly report !p1 tomorrow" as a task title sets both the priority and the due date in the exact same continuous typing motion used to write the task's actual name.
Adding a label (typing @ followed by a label name while composing or editing a task) works identically to the priority shorthand — no separate label-picker step required, since typing the @ symbol itself triggers an autocomplete suggesting your existing labels as you type, letting you tag a task with something like @waiting-on or @urgent inline as part of writing it.
Assigning a project inline (typing # followed by a project name) routes the task directly into that project the moment you create it, again from within the same task-entry field rather than requiring a separate project-picker step afterward — genuinely useful for anyone who maintains several active projects and wants newly captured tasks to land in the right one immediately rather than defaulting to a general inbox that needs manual sorting later.
Adding a subtask (Tab, with a task focused, or the dedicated indent icon) nests a task beneath another as its subtask, letting you break a larger task down into smaller trackable steps within the same project — each subtask remaining fully independent in terms of its own due date, priority, and labels, covered in more depth in this page's FAQ.
A complete fast-capture example worth walking through, since it demonstrates how all of these combine into one continuous motion: typing "Review contract draft #Legal @urgent !p1 tomorrow 5pm" into the quick-add box and pressing Enter creates a fully detailed task — routed to the Legal project, tagged urgent, set to highest priority, and due tomorrow at 5pm — in the time it takes to type one sentence, without a single separate picker or menu click anywhere in the process. This is genuinely the core skill worth building fluency in if speed of capture matters to your workflow, since it's what most directly distinguishes Todoist's approach from a tool that requires filling out several separate fields in a form-style task-creation dialog.