Introduction to due dates and due times


Due dates! So important, yet so easy to forget.

In Todoist, you can make sure you never miss a thing by adding due dates and/or times to your tasks. You can even create recurring or repeating due dates like “Send Mom a birthday card every July 19” and “Take out the recycling every other Wednesday”.

Note

We currently don’t support writing due dates in Czech and Turkish. Let us know if you'd like us to add support for these languages in the future.

Add a due date

The easiest way to add a due date on any platform – desktop, mobile, or web – is to type it into the task field along with your task name.

The smart Quick Add will automatically recognize the date, highlight it, and add it when you save the task.

due-dates-web-help-center.png

You can describe almost any kind of date using natural language –from a simple tomorrow at 4 pm to a super specific repeating due date like every 3rd Tuesday starting Aug 29 ending in 6 months.

Quick tip

Sometimes a date is 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 on the word to unhighlight it. You can also turn off automatic date recognition entirely.

Set a due date using the scheduler

You can also open the full task scheduler by clicking or tapping on the date field or calendar icon when adding or editing a task on any platform. From there, you’ll be able to manually pick a date from the calendar, or use any of our handy date shortcuts (for example, you could pick Tomorrow, Later this week or This weekend).

due-dates-scheduler-web-help-center.png

To set a due time, click + Add Time in the bottom left.

Quick tip

Sometimes, it’s good to know whether a date is already packed with tasks before you schedule a task. To see this, when rescheduling a task using the scheduler, simply type your new due date or select it from the calendar. You’ll see a preview of how many tasks are already booked on that date.

Some examples of date formats you can use

These are just a few of the dates and recurring due dates you can add. If you’re unsure if a particular date format will work, just type it into your task name using natural language to describe it. Chances are, Todoist will 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:
todayToday (tod also works)
tomorrowTomorrow (tom also works)
next weekThe next Monday by default (this can be changed in your Settings)
next monthOn the same date, one month later
jan 27Jan 27 (27 jan, 27/1 also work)
01/27/2023January 27, 2023 (27/01/2023, 2023/01/27, 2023-01-27 also work)
27th27th day of the current month
mid JanuaryJanuary 15th
end of monthLast day of the current month
today at 10Today at 10am
tomorrow at 16:00Tomorrow at 4pm
Fri @ 7pmFriday at 7pm (Friday @ 7pm, Fri at 7pm, Fri at 1900, Fri at 19:00 also work)
6pmToday at 6pm (unless 6pm has passed, in which case tomorrow)
in 5 days5 days from today (+5 days also works)
in 3 weeks3 weeks from today
in 2 hours2 hours from now
in the morningAt 9am
in the afternoonAt 12pm
in the eveningAt 7pm
somedayTwo months later
no dateUseful 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 weekAssigns a day later in the week. Changes dependent upon what day of the week it is upon the time of entry.
FridayThe next Friday to occur
next FridayThe second Friday to occur
next weekendThe second-next Saturday to occur
this weekendThe upcoming Saturday
next yearJan 1 of next year
27/1Jan 27
3rd friday janConverts to the respective date of the third Friday in next January
tom morningTomorrow at 9am (tommorning also works)
tom afternoonTomorrow at 12pm (tomafternoon also works)
tom eveningTomorrow at 7pm (tomevening also works)
tom nightTomorrow at 10pm (tomnight also works)
50 days before new year's eve11 November (this is particularly useful for setting Reminders)
6 weeks before 21 Jul9 June
28 days after 21 July18 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.

Special thanks to our Todoist ambassador Leighton Price for providing some examples for this article.

FAQ

Yes. If you type no date or no due date, the due date will be removed when you add or update a task.

Yes, you can do this in your account settings:

  1. Click your avatar in the top-left.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Open the General tab.
  4. Scroll down to the Date & time section.

Please check if the Smart Date recognition feature is ON, by opening your Settings and going to the General tab.

When suggesting new dates for a task, the scheduler changes its suggestions based on factors such as the current day's date. For example, the option This weekend will only show up on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, whereas the option Next weekend will only show up on weekend days.

The due dates appear in the following colors: 

  • Red: overdue tasks 
  • Green: tasks due today
  • Brown: tasks due tomorrow
  • Purple: tasks due in the next 2-7 days
  • No color: tasks due in 8 days and onwards