2Do for Apple Watch
Use 2Do on Apple Watch to check what’s next, complete tasks, and add reminders without reaching for your iPhone.
Installing
The Watch app installs alongside 2Do for iPhone. If it does not appear, open the Watch app on your iPhone, go to My Watch, scroll to 2Do, and turn on Show App on Apple Watch.
The Watch app receives its tasks from your iPhone. Until the first update arrives, it shows Waiting for your tasks, with a note to open 2Do on your iPhone.
Passcode Protection
To use the Watch app and its task complications while 2Do is locked on your iPhone, enable Allow Widget & Watch access when protected in Settings > Security > Protection on the iPhone. This lets you view and update tasks from the Watch while Lock everything is on.
With this setting off, Lock everything hides task content on the Watch and its task complications. Unlocking 2Do on the iPhone does not grant Watch access while these settings remain in place.
Tasks from individually password-protected lists stay hidden on the Watch regardless of this setting, even after you unlock those lists on the iPhone. See Password Protection.
Up Next
The first page is Up Next. At the top sits the one task you should look at first, as a card with its title, its date, and its priority or star. Tap it to open the task.
Beneath the card are the places worth going today, each with a count:
- Today, everything left on your Today list.
- Overdue, shown when something is late.
- Tomorrow, shown when tomorrow has anything on it.
When there is nothing left, the page simply says You're clear for the day.
Swipe to the second page for your full list of lists, and open any of them to see its tasks.
Acting on a Task
Open a task and three actions sit under its details:
- Complete marks it done.
- Defer moves its date.
- Delete removes it, after asking you to confirm.
You can also add a task. Inside the app, New Task opens a form with a title, an optional list, a date, and a star. Tap Title to dictate, type, or use Scribble, then tap Save.
Actions taken on the watch are queued and applied by 2Do on your iPhone, so they do not need the phone to be within reach at that moment. From the iPhone they reach your other devices on the next sync. The watch shows the change straight away and updates again when the phone sends its next snapshot.
Deferring
Defer offers Today, Tomorrow, Day After Tomorrow, Next Week, and No Date, plus Pick a Date… for anything else. The sheet names the date it is moving, so you always know which one you are changing.
Most tasks defer their due date. A task that only ever had a start date defers that start date instead, because moving a start date is what "start this later" means for such a task. Inventing a deadline it never had would be the wrong answer.
Complications
2Do offers four complications:
- Current & Up Next shows the task you're on now and the one coming up next. It is available as a rectangular, circular, corner, or inline complication.
- Today shows what's left today and anything overdue, in the same four shapes.
- Day & Date shows today's day and date, as a circular complication.
- New Task opens the task form from your watch face, as a circular complication. Tap Title to enter text, then tap Save to add the task.
To add one:
- Touch and hold your watch face, then tap Edit.
- Swipe to the complications screen and tap a slot.
- Scroll to 2Do and pick the complication you want.
- Press the Digital Crown to save.
Tapping Current & Up Next opens 2Do on the watch at your Today list. New Task opens the same form as the app's + button. The other two open 2Do where it normally opens.
Adding a Task from Your Watch Face
- Add the circular New Task complication using the steps above.
- Tap it to open the New Task form, then tap Title.
- Dictate, type, or use Scribble to enter a title. If you want to dictate and another input method appears, use the input-method button to choose the microphone. Confirm the text to return to the form.
- Choose a list, date, or star if needed, then tap Save. With the default choices, 2Do saves the task to the Inbox in GTD mode, or to your default list otherwise, with no date or star.
watchOS controls which input method appears after you tap Title. Dictation and Scribble depend on your language, and the onscreen keyboard depends on your watch model and language.
If you cancel text input, the task form stays open. You can enter a title, choose a list or date, and tap Save, or tap Cancel to close it. If saving fails, the form keeps your title and shows the reason so you can try again.
The task form is available after the watch has received its tasks and 2Do's passcode settings allow access. If you leave the app while a request to open the form is waiting for setup or access, that request is cancelled.
Put Current & Up Next on a rectangular slot of your main face. It is the one complication that answers what to do next without any tapping at all.
Put New Task on a watch face you use during the day to add a task without opening the app's lists first.
Good to Know
- Tasks held by a paused tag are left out of everything the watch shows, the same way they are on your iPhone. See Tags.
- Notes are shown as far as the watch screen allows, and longer notes end with a line saying they continue in 2Do.
- Complications and pages refresh when your iPhone sends a new snapshot, so a change made on another device appears once your iPhone has synced it.