Introduction to dates and time

Dates! So important, yet so easy to forget. With Todoist, stay on top of what’s scheduled soon by adding dates or due time to your tasks. And if your schedule won’t let you complete them on time, learn how to reschedule or postpone tasks to a future date.

Quick tip

Create recurring dates for tasks that repeat on a regular basis, like “Send Mom a birthday card every July 19” and “Take out the recycling every other Wednesday”.

Add a date

The easiest way to add a date is to type the task name and the date into the task field. The smart Quick Add will automatically recognize the date, highlight it, and add it when you save the task.

Use natural language to describe almost any date—a simple tomorrow at 4 pm to a super specific recurring date like every 3rd Tuesday starting Aug 29 ending in 6 months. Dates can go up to 150 characters long.

Pierre · Customer Experience Specialist

Dates in Czech and Turkish aren't supported yet. Use this form to request support for these languages in Todoist.

When using smart date recognition, you'll find that a date can sometimes be part of a task name rather than a deadline. For example, for the task “Create monthly report”, “monthly” will automatically be highlighted as a date. Just click or tap the word to unhighlight it. You can also turn off automatic date recognition entirely.

Add a deadline

If you need to finish a task before a specific date, consider adding a deadline. For example, create a recurring date every 2 days at 12:00 and add a deadline {Feb 28}. As you work on this task, you will always see its deadline, while the recurring date will change. To learn more about deadlines, check this article.

Add a date using the scheduler

If you need to assign a date to an existing task, use the scheduler:

Select Platform:

Click a task. The task view will open with all the task details.
Click Date on the right-hand side. The scheduler will appear.
Use natural language to type the date in the date field at the top of the scheduler.
Press ↵ Return (macOS) or Enter (Windows) to schedule the date.

💡 Optional: Scroll through the calendar and select the date for the task.

Add a due time

Due time gives each task a specific time slot in your schedule. Add due time alongside the date (for example: Buy milk tomorrow 9am), or select the appropriate due time using the scheduler:

Select Platform:

Click a task. The task view will open with all the task details.
Click Date on the right-hand side. The scheduler will appear.
Click Time.
Enter the due time of the task.

💡 Optional: Select Duration to set how long a task will take to complete, or Time zone to set the task to either fixed time or floating time.
Click Save to confirm.

Break it down with colors

Todoist displays dates in a variety of colors depending on how soon a task is scheduled. Here’s a breakdown:

Color	Meaning
Red	Overdue tasks
Green	Tasks scheduled today but haven't gone past the due time
Brown	Tasks scheduled tomorrow
Purple	Tasks scheduled in the next 2-7 days
No color	Tasks scheduled in 8 days and onwards

Write dates in natural language

There are several date formats you can type with natural language in Todoist. This will schedule the task to the specified date.

If you’re unsure if a particular date format will work, go ahead and type it after the task name. Use natural language to describe it. Todoist will likely know what you mean.

One-time dates

Type these natural language terms when adding a task in Todoist to schedule the task to the specified date.

What you type:	What Todoist understands:
today	Today (tod also works)
tomorrow	Tomorrow (tom also works)
next week	The next Monday by default (this can be changed in your Settings)
next month	On the same date, one month later
jan 27	Jan 27 (27 jan, 27/1 also work)
01/27/2023	January 27, 2023 (27/01/2023, 2023/01/27, 2023-01-27 also work)
27th	27th day of the current month
mid January	January 15th
end of month	Last day of the current month
today at 10	Today at 10am
tomorrow at 16:00	Tomorrow at 4pm
Fri @ 7pm	Friday at 7pm (Friday @ 7pm, Fri at 7pm, Fri at 1900, Fri at 19:00 also work)
6pm	Today at 6pm (unless 6pm has passed, in which case tomorrow)
in 5 days	5 days from today (+5 days also works)
in 3 weeks	3 weeks from today
in 2 hours	2 hours from now
in the morning	At 9am
in the afternoon	At 12pm
in the evening	At 7pm
someday	Two months later
no date	Useful for adding a task when either the Today View or Upcoming View is active (both default to today's date), but you don't want to set a date. The query no due date also works.
later this week	Assigns a day later in the week. Changes dependent upon what day of the week it is upon the time of entry.
Friday	The next Friday to occur
next Friday	The second Friday to occur
next weekend	The second-next Saturday to occur
this weekend	The upcoming Saturday
next year	Jan 1 of next year
27/1	Jan 27
3rd friday jan	Converts to the respective date of the third Friday in next January
tom morning	Tomorrow at 9am (tommorning also works)
tom afternoon	Tomorrow at 12pm (tomafternoon also works)
tom evening	Tomorrow at 7pm (tomevening also works)
tom night	Tomorrow at 10pm (tomnight also works)
50 days before new year's eve	11 November (this is particularly useful for setting Reminders)
6 weeks before 21 Jul	9 June
28 days after 21 July	18 August

Recurring dates

When you need a task to repeat daily, weekly, monthly or on whatever schedule you'd like, you can set a recurring date. Click here to learn all about how to set recurring dates like daily, weekly or every 3 months.