Todoist Put to the Test: A Real Week with the AI Smart To-Do List

I’d been bouncing between a dozen sticky notes and a half-written Google Doc for my weekly tasks, and it was getting ridiculous. I needed something that actually forced clarity. So I finally sat down with Todoist, the app everyone recommends, and put it through a real work week. I also kept an eye on alternatives like taskly, because I wanted to see if a simpler daily planner could do the job without the bells and whistles.

Setting up a concrete week

I started with a single project: “Q2 Marketing Content.” Within Todoist, I added sections for Draft, Review, and Published. The interface is clean, but I immediately hit a small friction point — the default sorting isn’t great if you rely on due dates. Tasks with no due date get buried, and I had to manually set reminders for everything. That got old fast.

Natural language input is Todoist’s big hook. Typing “Send newsletter draft tomorrow at 10am” correctly parsed the date and time. It’s fast, but I noticed it sometimes misinterprets ambiguous phrases. “Next Friday” meant the next upcoming Friday, which was fine for me, but a colleague on the same test had the app skip over a Friday that was technically “this Friday.” If you rely on that feature for precise scheduling, double-check every entry. It’s a mild friction that breaks the flow.

Where the AI features actually helped

Todoist positions itself as an AI smart to do list app, and the smart suggestions are decent but not magical. When I added a task like “write intro paragraph,” it suggested related tasks like “add sources” and “check style guide” — useful if you’re managing a routine project. For something more creative or open-ended, the suggestions felt generic. Still, it cut down my manual typing by maybe 20% over the week. That’s worthwhile, but not the game-changer marketing might suggest.

The karma system (points for completing tasks) is fine as a light motivator. I found myself adding trivial tasks just to see the number tick up, which is a classic “gaming the system” trap. Easy to fall into, and not great for real productivity. I turned it off after day three. Your mileage may vary.

Tradeoffs worth considering

Todoist’s free tier is generous — 5 active projects, 300 MB file upload, and most core features. That makes it probably the best free AI to do list app 2026 among its competitors. But critical features like reminders, labels, and filters are locked behind a paid subscription. For a daily planner, reminders are almost essential. I found myself bumping into that paywall constantly. The free plan works for light use, but if you’re managing more than a handful of tasks, you’ll feel the squeeze.

In contrast, taskly offered a simpler approach — no labels, no karma, just a clean daily view for goals and to-dos. It felt less powerful but more focused. For someone who just wants to plan the day without overthinking structure, taskly might win. But Todoist scales better for teams and complex projects.

Is it the best AI task manager 2026?

That depends on your definition. The AI features are still maturing — natural language input is smooth, but the smart suggestions aren’t always relevant. The collaborative features for teams are well-designed. I shared a few tasks with a remote editor, and the real-time sync worked without issues. For that alone, it’s a strong candidate. But for a purely personal daily planner, I sometimes wished for the simplicity of something like taskly, where the day’s priorities aren’t buried under projects and sections.

If you need structure, collaboration, and a system that handles dozens of tasks across multiple areas, Todoist is a solid choice. Just be ready to pay for the features that make it truly useful. The free version will show you the ropes, but the full experience comes with a price.