Introduction to reminders

Available for

  • Pro
  • Business

The secret to effortlessly remembering everything? Have Todoist remind you.

Whether it’s the deadline for an important report or a friend’s birthday, just set a Todoist reminder and move on with your day. When it’s time, Todoist will send you a push notification or email about the task so you never miss a thing.

Quick tip

Looking for information about notifications? Please check this article.

Setting up automatic reminders

When you set a due time for a task, Todoist automatically sets a reminder for you. For example, when you create a task for tomorrow at 4 PM, Todoist will automatically send you a reminder 30 minutes beforehand.

You can change your default reminder settings to choose how much time beforehand you want to receive the automatic reminder and whether you want it sent by push notification, desktop notification, or email:

  1. Click your avatar in the top-right corner of Todoist and select Settings.
  2. Click Reminders.
  3. Move the toggle to on next to the type of notification you’d like to receive:
    • Desktop notification to get notifications via your operating system.
    • Mobile notification to get notifications on your mobile device.
    • Email to receive a reminder email on the address that you’ve added via Settings → Account.
  4. Select a relative time under the Automatic reminders drop-down.

Setting up custom reminders

Set up custom reminders for any task, whether it has a due date and time or not:

Quick tip

You can even have a reminder triggered at a specific location, like when you’re walking by the grocery store. You can learn more about location reminders here
  1. When adding or editing a task, click the Reminders icon
  2. If your task has no due time, or if you want to set a reminder for a specific date and time, select the Date and time option and add due time for your reminder.
  3. If your time has due time, you’ll see an option — Before task — to set a reminder for a certain amount of time before your task is due.
  4. Depending on the option you chose in step 2, set the trigger for your reminder type in the specific date and time, or select the relative time before the task is due.
  5. (Optional) In shared projects, you can add a reminder for a specific collaborator. To do this, click your avatar icon next to the reminder's due time and select an assignee.  
  6. Click Add reminder
  7. Click Add Task (when creating a new task) or Save (when editing an existing task).

Quick tip

You can create multiple custom reminders for the same task.

Use shortcuts to create reminders

To make adding reminders even quicker, you can use the “!” shortcut while adding or editing a task. Simply type “!” in the task name field, directly followed by the desired time for the reminder (or just select one of the useful suggestions that appear).

You can set a reminder for a specific time (like “!3pm”), for after a certain amount of time has passed (e.g. “!2h”), or to make sure you get notified an X amount of time before your task is due (e.g. “!30mb” or "!30min before"). Todoist will even understand when you add a reminder for “!later” (i.e. 4 hours later) or “!tomorrow” (i.e. the next day at 9:00 AM).

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Here is the list of supported reminders: 

ShortcutExampleWhat it does

!30m

Work meeting today 10.30 !30m

Reminder set for 30 minutes from current time (time when added to task)

!2h30m

Call the hotel to confirm reservation !2h30m

Reminder set for 2hours 30 minutes from current time (time when added to task)

!0mb or !0min before

Lunch at restaurant 1pm !0mbReminder set at due time (0 minutes before)

!later

Clear the trash !laterReminder set for around 4 hours later from current time (rounded down to the closest hour)

!1hb or !1h before

Prepare meeting agenda 11am !1h beforeReminder set 1 hour before due time
Note: When added to tasks without a due time, this will create a reminder set 1 hour from the current time.

!11am !1hb !2db

Dentist appointment Thu 2pm !11am !1hb !2dbMultiple reminders set for: the next instance of 11 AM, 1 hour before the due time, and 2 days before the due date at 9 AM

!6pm

Get groceries after work !6pmReminder set for the next instance of 6 PM

!30mb or !30m before

Take vitamins every day at 9am !30mbFor each instance of the task, reminder is set for 30 minutes before 9 AM

!tmr 3pm

Hand in report before EOD !tmr 3pmReminder set for tomorrow at 3 PM

!Mon 9am

Check schedule for the week !mon 9amReminder set for Monday at 9 AM

!every 5pm

End of day review every day !every 5pmReminder set for every day at 5 PM

!every sat 9am

Water plants every weekend !every sat 9amReminder set to every Saturday at 9 AM

FAQ

Any of the due dates and times that can be used to schedule your tasks also work for reminders.

Absolutely! Simply use any of the recurring due dates and times.

No, simply because the default reminders are relative to the due time of a task.

Location-based reminders are only available for iOS or Android devices. You can learn more about location reminders here

Yes, but you can only snooze the reminders you receive on Android or iOS.

  • On Android, simply tap Snooze on the reminder.
  • On iOS, long press the reminder, then tap Snooze, and pick either Snooze for X minutes (Default), Snooze for 3 hours, or Snooze until 9 AM.

The default time for snoozing reminders on Android is 30 minutes, and on iOS it is 5 minutes. However, you can change this in your setting:

  1. Open Todoist on your Android or iOS device.
  2. Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner on iOS. On Android, swipe up the bottom app bar, and tap gear icon.
  3. Select Reminders.
  4. Tap When snoozed... to set a new default time for snoozing reminders.

Unfortunately, it's a known limitation, completing a task on one of the devices won't clear the notifications on another device. We're working on solving this in the future.

All Todoist reminders, whether they are time or location based, are considered Time Sensitive notifications, so you should still receive these, even if you have Focus enabled on your iOS device.

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