Due dates! So important, yet so easy to forget. With Todoist, stay on top of what’s due soon by adding due 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 due date.
Quick tip
Create recurring due 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 due date
The easiest way to add a due 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 due date like every 3rd Tuesday starting Aug 29 ending in 6 months. Due dates can go up to 150 characters long.
Pierre · Customer Experience Specialist
If you’ve entered a due date, but it isn’t recognized or highlighted, check if you’ve turned smart date recognition on.
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 due date. Just click or tap the word to unhighlight it. You can also turn off automatic date recognition entirely.
Add a due date using the scheduler
If you need to assign a due date to an existing task, use the scheduler:
- Click a task. The task view will open with all the task details.
- Click Due date on the right-hand side. The scheduler will appear.
- Use natural language to type the date in the due date field at the top of the scheduler.
-
Press ↵ Return (macOS) or Enter (Windows) to schedule the due date.
💡 Optional: Scroll through the calendar and select the due 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 due date (for example: Buy milk tomorrow 9am), or select the appropriate due time using the scheduler:
- Click a task. The task view will open with all the task details.
- Click Due date on the right-hand side. The scheduler will appear.
- Click Time.
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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 due dates in a variety of colors depending on how soon a task is due. Here’s a breakdown:
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Overdue tasks |
| Green | Tasks due today but haven't gone past the due time |
| Brown | Tasks due tomorrow |
| Purple | Tasks due in the next 2-7 days |
| No color | Tasks due 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.
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 quick-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 due date (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 |
When you need a task to repeat daily, weekly, monthly or on whatever schedule you'd like, you can set a recurring due date. Click here to learn all about how to set recurring due dates like daily, weekly or every 3 months.
Huge thanks to our Todoist ambassador Leighton Price for providing some examples for this article.
Change Next week and Weekend settings
You can change the day Todoist interprets as next week or this weekend.
- Click your avatar in the top-left.
- Select Settings.
- Open the General tab.
- Scroll down to the Date & time section.
- Click the Next week or Weekend menus and select the days you want Todoist to interpret as next week or this weekend.
Remove a due date
- Click a task. The task view will open with all the task details.
- Click Due date on the right-hand side. The scheduler will appear.
- Select No Date to remove the due date.
Quick tip
Type no date or no due date in the due date field. Then, press ↵ Return (macOS) or Enter (Windows) to remove the due date from the task.
Get started
Set your projects up for success by adding due dates and due time to your tasks! If you’re having trouble scheduling due dates or due time, or using the scheduler, get in touch with us. We— Carol, Omar, Stacey, and any of our other teammates—are happy to lend a helping hand!
