Reclaim automatically syncs your Todoist items from Todoist to Reclaim to create them as Tasks and schedule them on your calendar. This document will cover the various fields and metadata you can use to sync your Todoist items to Reclaim Tasks.
Required fields for Todoist tasks
When creating new items in Todoist, Reclaim requires two details to get your tasks scheduled with the integration.
Todoist task requirements:
Todoist tasks must include a due date, unless you've specified otherwise as described below.
Tasks in shared projects must be assigned to you.
Note: Reclaim currently does not offer full support for recurring tasks, so if you've set up a recurring task in Todoist it won't sync over to Reclaim.
Without these required fields, Todoist tasks will not be synced via Reclaim, even if they match your sync rules.
Syntax for Todoist items
As shown below, there are some fields (e.g., due date and priority) that can be added via the Todoist UI by pointing and clicking. There are some fields that are native to Reclaim that Todoist doesn't have UI for, and in those cases you can use words in the title to indicate what those fields should be set to.
Below is an example of a Todoist item with the full syntax entered in, along with a reference for what each part of the syntax means:
Example and reference guide
Write the docs [30m] (due Friday not before Monday priority:critical upnext nosplit)
Syntax | Definition |
| Set the due date. See more details below. |
| Set the "earliest scheduling date" for the item. See more details below. |
| Set the priority of the item in Reclaim. See more details below. |
| |
| Sets the duration for the item in Reclaim. See more details below. |
| Sets the task to not split into multiple events & to schedule the entire duration as one event |
Setting duration for Todoist items
Once you have your Todoist integration set up, you can begin syncing Todoist items as smart Tasks right to your calendar via Reclaim.
By default, Reclaim will create Tasks for synced Todoist items based on your default Task duration settings in Reclaim (learn more about setting your Task defaults here).
Set task duration for synced Todoist items
You can easily set a custom duration for a Todoist item by adding it text in either the Todoist item title or description. Simply indicate the number of minutes, hours, or days enclosed in square brackets, such as:
[45m]= 45 minutes[2h]= 2 hours[4d]= 4 days
Note: The unit of time is case insensitive.
For example, if you need 2 hours to get board slides completed:
Get board slides done [2h]
If you are on a paid Todoist Plan, Reclaim can also schedule Tasks by the time specified in the Todoist Duration field (currently only available on Todoist's Pro and Business plans).
If that field is not filled out - or you are using the free Todoist plan - Reclaim will defer to your default Task settings, or reference the bracket notation below for how much time you need.
Update duration for a synced Todoist item
To adjust the duration after the Todoist item has been created, edit the duration text to reflect the new duration and re-save the Todoist item to update.
Setting "Earliest starting date" for Todoist items
You can delay when Reclaim should start scheduling your synced Todoist item by adding simple text to the title of a Todoist item.
To specify the 'Earliest start date and time' for a Todoist item to schedule, format the earliest start date in brackets in the item title field: (not before [date] [time]).
For example, to schedule time for catching up on emails from Todoist no earlier than next Friday:
Catch up on email (not before next Friday)
Use hard date for 'Earliest start' date
A hard date may also be used in the not before field.
For example, to tell Reclaim to not schedule 4 hours for an OKR review before March 31st 2022, write OKR review (not before 3/31/2022 11am) [4h] into the title field in Todoist.
Requirements for start delay on Todoist items:
If you specify an exact date, it must be written in MM/DD/YYYY format.
If the date gets highlighted by Todoist while you're typing it and then disappears when you save, that means Todoist "parsed" it locally and stripped it out as the due date. Click the highlighted text first to prevent Todoist from doing that. Learn more about disabling this feature via Todoist's settings here.
Setting due dates on Todoist items
Due dates are required unless you specify otherwise, as Reclaim will use it as the deadline for the scheduled Task in Reclaim.
In Todoist, a due date reflects the desire of "I want to do this task on this date."
In Reclaim, a due date means "I want to get this task done before this date."
Reclaim automatically pulls in due dates from Todoist to defend time on your calendar before the task is due. If you need to update a due date for a synced item in Todoist, updates to that due date can be made from both Reclaim or Todoist.
To set the due date on a Todoist item, you can use one of two methods: add it via the app's timepicker, or add it inline in the task title.
Setting due date via the due date timepicker
You can set the due date by clicking on the timepicker on any Todoist item:
Setting due date inline in the Todoist item title
You can set a due date for when Reclaim should schedule your synced Todoist item by via simple text in the title of a Todoist item.
To specify the due date for a Todoist item to schedule, format the date in brackets in the item title field: (due [date] [time]).
For example, to schedule time for doing the dishes from Todoist by next Friday:
Do the dishes (due next Friday)
A hard date may also be used in the due field.
For example, to tell Reclaim to schedule 4 hours for an OKR review by March 31st 2022 at 11am, write OKR review (due 3/31/2022 11am) [4h] into the title field in Todoist. If you specify an exact date, it must be written in MM/DD/YYYY format.
Making due dates optional for Todoist items
The Todoist integration allows you to sync tasks without due dates on a per-rule basis. That means that for some of your rules, you can opt to require due dates, and for others, you can make them optional.
If you check Include Tasks without due dates, then any task matching that rule will be synced to Reclaim whether it has a due date or not.
If you do not check Include Tasks without due dates, then a due date is required for any task synced from Todoist using that rule.
Setting priority on Todoist items
You can set a priority for your Todoist items that will automatically map and sync to Reclaim. To do this, simply modify the priority field on any Todoist item:
You can also set the priority for a Todoist item using simple language in the title of the task. For example, if you want to set an item called "Eat Bananas" to Priority 1 in Todoist, you'd write Eat bananas (priority:critical) or Eat bananas (priority:P1) in the title.
Below is a list of how priorities in Todoist map to priorities in Reclaim as well as the syntax you'd use in each case.
Priority syntax in Todoist | Priority level mapped in Reclaim |
(priority:critical) (priority:high) (priority:medium) (priority:low) | Critical (P1) High priority (P2) Medium priority (P3) Low priority (P4) |
(priority:P1) (priority:P2) (priority:P3) (priority:P4) | Critical (P1) High priority (P2) Medium priority (P3) Low priority (P4) |
For more information on using Priorities with Tasks, check out this doc.
Sending Todoist items to Up Next
You can automatically add a Todoist item to Up Next in Reclaim by using upnext in the title. For example, if you want to send an item called "Read books" to Up Next, you'd write Read books (upnext).