Skip to main content

Alarms and Nagging

A task is only useful if you remember to look at it. 2Do supports multiple alerts per task, with full control over when each alert fires and whether it plays a sound.

Alarms are delivered by the 2Do Alarm Helper

The 2Do Alarm Helper background app registers and shows all of 2Do's alarms, and powers Quick Entry too. Keep Launch 2Do Alarm Helper on System Startup enabled under 2Do > Settings > General — without it, alarms won't fire. If alarms stop working, see Alarms Not Working? below.

Adding an Alarm​

In the task editor, click the Alerts field, or choose Task > Edit Alerts (⌘') with a task selected. Each alert row has two choices:

  • Alert style — Message or Message with Sound (choose None to remove the row).
  • When it fires — relative to the task's date: the same day, the day before, the day after, a number of days before / days after, or exact time. Choosing exact time swaps the row for a date-and-time picker, so the alert is pinned to a moment of its own instead of following the task's dates.

A Presets row at the top of the popup adds a common alert in one click — 0 minutes, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 1 day, with the shortcuts ⌥1 through ⌥6. Each preset adds a Message with Sound alert at that offset.

Alerts take effect as soon as you set them, and a task can carry up to 10 alerts.

A 2Do alarm alert for a task

Relative vs. Absolute Alarms​

  • Relative — 15 minutes before due, 1 hour before due, 1 day before due. The alarm fires relative to the task's due date, due time, or start date. Most useful for tasks where the deadline or start date is what matters.
  • Absolute — pick exact time in the row's timing popup and the alert fires at a date and time of your choosing, independent of the task's dates. Useful for "remind me on Friday at 9am, even if this isn't due yet." A single task can mix relative and absolute alarms freely.

Repeating Sound Alerts​

Some tasks must not slip. In 2Do > Settings > Alerts > General, under 2Do Notifications, the Sound alerts repeat until dismissed picker controls how often a sounding alarm replays until you deal with it:

  • Never — play the sound once.
  • Every 2 mins — the default.
  • Every 5 mins
  • Every 10 mins
note

Repeating sound alerts are part of 2Do's own alarm method. The picker is disabled unless Notifications method is set to 2Do, since macOS Notification Center manages its own notification sounds.

Automatic Alerts​

2Do can create alerts automatically every time you set a due date for a task. Two kinds are available, configured under 2Do > Settings > Alerts in the Default Reminders section — Remind me of tasks with a due time and Remind me of tasks with a due date:

Alerts on Due Time​

When a task has a Due Time set, Remind me can fire an alarm at that exact moment. The dropdown lets you offset the alarm — 5 minutes before, 10 minutes before, 1 hour before, etc. — so you get the nudge before, not at, the deadline.

Alerts on Due Date​

For tasks that have a Due Date but no Due Time, Remind me can fire an alert on the due date or a chosen offset before it. Useful if you don't habitually set due times but still want a day-of nudge.

How "Due Date Only" Is Interpreted​

A due date with no due time has no specific clock time attached. If you use automatic due-date alerts, 2Do treats the beginning of the due day as the reference point for that alert. To give new dated tasks a preferred time automatically, set a Default Due Time under 2Do > Settings > Tasks.

Default Automatic Alerts​

If most of your dated tasks deserve the same reminder, set the automatic due-time and due-date reminders in 2Do > Settings > Alerts. You can still edit or remove alerts on individual tasks at any time.

Silencing Alerts for Specific Lists​

Some lists deserve alarms; others just make noise — a low-priority someday list, or a busy list shared with you whose alerts belong to someone else's schedule. Open 2Do > Settings > Alerts and switch to the Exclusions tab: under List Alerts, every list appears with a switch, grouped the way your sidebar is. Alerts are enabled for all lists by default — turn a list off to silence alerts from its tasks.

  • Turning a list off silences its alerts immediately — pending ones and ones you've already snoozed. Turning it back on re-registers them.
  • The tasks themselves are untouched — they still sync, still show due dates and overdue states; only their alarms go quiet.
  • The choice is local to this Mac and doesn't sync, so you can mute a list here while your other devices keep alerting.
  • Smart Lists and Focus Lists aren't listed — they're views over your tasks, and alerts belong to the real list a task lives in.

Overdue Notifications​

When a task passes its due date without being completed, it becomes overdue and shows up in overdue sections and counts. If you want a reminder on the due date itself, use an automatic due-date alert or add a task-specific alert.

tip

If overdue tasks are making a list count feel too busy, open 2Do > Settings > Today & Lists and review whether undone counts should include overdue tasks.

Notification Center vs the 2Do Alarm Window​

2Do offers two delivery methods and lets you pick between them with the Notifications method picker, under Notifications in 2Do > Settings > Alerts > General:

  • 2Do (default) — 2Do's own custom alarm cards, described below.
  • Notification Center — standard macOS notifications.

macOS Notification Center​

  • Alerts appear in Notification Center alongside notifications from other apps.
  • macOS controls notification style, sound, and visibility under System Settings > Notifications > 2Do.

Caveats:

  • Repeating sound alerts are not controlled by 2Do while using Notification Center.
  • Location and "nearby" alerts always use Notification Center banners, regardless of which method you choose.

The 2Do Alarm Window​

With the 2Do method, alarms appear as a single floating stack of notification-style cards in the top-trailing corner of whichever display your pointer is on. New cards stack on top and expand downward.

  • Drag the stack anywhere you like — it stays put while alarms are showing.
  • Position is automatic — 2Do places the stack for you and follows the display you're working on. There's no setting to pin it to a fixed corner.
  • Alarms are delivered by the 2Do Alarm Helper, so they fire even when 2Do itself isn't running. Keep Launch 2Do Alarm Helper on System Startup enabled in 2Do > Settings > General.

Each card shows everything you need to act without opening the task:

  • The task title.
  • How long ago the alarm fired ("now", "5m ago", "1h 20m ago").
  • The list name and color.
  • A status line — completed, time remaining, overdue, due soon, due, or start.
  • A one-line notes teaser.
  • Its action shortcut for the task's built-in action (call, message, email, visit, browse, or web search).
  • The task's tags and priority.

A card set to nag keeps nudging — a looping prompt with a shaking bell — until you hover over it or act on it.

When several alarms are waiting, the cards collapse into a single tidy stack with the most recent card in front — no matter how many alarms are inside, a collapsed stack shows at most three layered cards. Above them sits a count chip with a bell icon and a chevron, reading 3 alarms and so on; the chip is the toggle. Click it (or the front card) to fan the stack open and deal with each alarm individually, and click the chip again to collapse it.

note

There is no fixed alarm-window position setting. The stack positions itself automatically (top-trailing of the active display) and you can drag it wherever you want for the current session.

Snoozing and Acting on an Alarm​

Every card in the 2Do alarm window has the same three controls:

  • Complete (✓) — mark the task done.
  • Snooze (zzz) — open the snooze menu (below).
  • Close (✕) — hide just that card.

The card body handles the rest. Click the action shortcut to call, message, mail, visit, browse, or search straight from the alarm. Click anywhere else on the card and 2Do opens the task in the main window — on a collapsed stack, though, the first click fans the stack open, so click the card again once you can see it.

Cards also clean up after themselves: a card disappears automatically when its task is completed, deleted, re-dated, or no longer has a current alarm.

Snooze Options​

The Snooze menu offers:

  • 5 minutes
  • 15 minutes
  • 1 hour
  • This evening
  • Tomorrow morning

The two date-based rows show the time they'll land on, so the menu reads This evening (7:00 PM) and Tomorrow morning (9:00 AM) — no mental arithmetic needed.

Picking any option dismisses both the menu and the card.

note

This evening snoozes to 7:00 PM today (it's hidden when that time is already within 30 minutes or in the past), and Tomorrow morning snoozes to 9:00 AM (or the hour from your Default Due Time, when that's set to a morning hour).

Silencing Alarms During Focus​

When you're in a meeting or heads-down, you can have macOS automatically hide and mute 2Do's alarm cards while a Focus is active, then reveal them (with one catch-up sound) when the Focus ends. This works only with the 2Do notification method.

There are two ways to get there. Add 2Do's Focus Filter to the specific Focus modes you want quiet — see macOS Focus Filters (Do Not Disturb) for setup. Or, to cover every Focus without setting up a filter at all, turn on Silence custom alarms during any Focus under 2Do > Settings > Alerts > General, in the 2Do Notifications section. It's off by default.

Alarms or Quick Entry Not Working?​

The 2Do Alarm Helper is the background app that registers and shows your alarms and powers the system-wide Quick Entry shortcut; macOS is responsible for launching it and keeping it connected to the main app. Work through the steps below, in order, if:

  • Alarms aren't firing, or arrive late.
  • 2Do warns you that "2Do Alarm Helper isn't running".
  • The global Quick Entry shortcut does nothing when pressed.

(The last step normally resolves it when all else fails.)

1. Check the Background Permission​

macOS asks for this permission when 2Do first launches. If "Disallow" was clicked by accident — or a macOS update reset it — the 2Do Alarm Helper can't start and alarms won't fire.

  1. Open System Settings and go to General > Login Items & Extensions.
  2. Scroll to the App Background Activity section.
  3. Find 2Do (the helper's login item may appear as 2Do Quick Entry & Alarms) and make sure its toggle is on. Try toggling it off and back on.
  4. If 2Do isn't listed at all, move 2Do.app to the Trash from Applications and re-install it — this forces macOS to refresh the list.

Then quit and relaunch 2Do, confirm Launch 2Do Alarm Helper on System Startup is on under 2Do > Settings > General, and test with an alarm set a couple of minutes out.

2. Force-Restart the 2Do Alarm Helper​

  1. Open Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities).
  2. Search for "Alarms" — the helper is listed as 2Do Quick Entry & Alarms (bundle com.guidedways.TodoMac.Helper), and you should see exactly one instance.
  3. Select it and click the Quit (X) button; macOS relaunches it automatically.
  4. Relaunch 2Do and test an alarm.

3. Remove Duplicate Copies of 2Do​

  1. Use Spotlight (⌘Space) to search for "2Do.app".
  2. Make sure only one copy exists, in /Applications/.
  3. Delete any extras (Downloads, external drives, old backups) — macOS can mistakenly launch the 2Do Alarm Helper from an outdated copy, even one inside a Time Machine archive.

4. Restart Your Mac​

A reboot often clears stale pairings between an app and its background helper.

5. Reset macOS Background Tasks (Last Resort)​

If nothing above helps, reset macOS's background task management. This affects all installed apps — you'll see their Allow/Disallow prompts again — but it is often the one fix that works when the 2Do Alarm Helper simply refuses to start.

  1. Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities).
  2. Run:
sfltool resetbtm
  1. Restart your Mac, allow the 2Do Alarm Helper when prompted, and test with an alarm set a couple of minutes out.

Tips​

tip

Stack a 15 minutes before and a 1 hour before alarm on important meetings. The early warning gives you prep time; the late one gets you out the door.

tip

For deadlines that absolutely must not slip (filing a tax return, sending a contract), use the 2Do notification method and set Sound alerts repeat until dismissed to a short interval so the alarm keeps sounding until you act.

Last updated on