Projects and Checklists

Use projects and checklists to break work into smaller steps. Each step is a sub-task. Projects let you schedule the steps separately; checklists keep them on one schedule.

Tasks

A Task is the basic unit. It can carry notes, dates, alerts, tags, a location, and an action. A regular task cannot hold sub-tasks of its own: sub-tasks live inside projects and checklists. When you add a sub-task to a regular task, 2Do converts that task into a project first (see Adding Sub-Tasks). For small steps that only matter together, such as "Pack: passport, charger, headphones", use a checklist. When each step needs its own due date, alarm, or tag, use a project.

Projects

A Project is a parent that contains real tasks. Each child task carries its own properties, including its own due date, alarm, tag, and action, and shows up individually in your Focus Lists. Changing or removing the project's own dates reschedules it and sets completed children back to active; see Dates and Durations.

Use a project when:

• You have a goal made of multiple actions that don't need to happen in order.
• The individual actions deserve their own tags, dates, or alerts.
• You want each action to appear in Today on its own due date. Examples: Plan the conference talk, Hire a new designer, Refresh the kitchen.

Creating a Project

• File > New > New Project (⌥⌘N)
• The + button in the toolbar, using its dropdown to pick New Project.
• Select existing tasks → File > New > New Project from Selection (⌥⇧⌘N) to bundle them under a new project parent. The same command is on the task list's right-click menu under New.

Project View

When you're inside a project and want to focus only on the work inside that project, toggle Task > Toggle Project View (⌥⌘J). The rest of the list collapses out of the way and you're left with just the project's tasks.

When you open a project from a Smart List or while searching, Project View shows only the sub-tasks that match by default. If a project opens empty or with sub-tasks missing, see Inherit Search in Project View.

Sorting Inside a Project

A project or checklist keeps its own sort order, separate from the list that contains it. Select the project, checklist, or one of its sub-tasks, then right-click the selected task and open Sort Project or Sort Checklist. Choose a sort field and Ascending or Descending. Checklists do not offer To-do List, Start Date, or Due Date sorting because their items share the parent's list and schedule.

A list sorted by due date can still contain a project whose steps stay in the manual order you arranged. To choose the initial order for future projects and checklists, use Settings > Tasks > Default Sorting.

To arrange sub-tasks by dragging, choose Manually in Sort Project or Sort Checklist. Hold ⌘ (Command) during the drag to keep the drop between tasks. You can press Command before or after the drag starts. The project or checklist must be manually sorted; setting only the surrounding list to Manually is not enough. See Reordering Tasks.

Converting between a project and a checklist keeps its current sorting when the new type supports it. A project sorted by To-do List, Start Date, or Due Date switches to Status in Ascending order when converted to a checklist.

Collapsing Projects

Projects and checklists expand and collapse in place:

• C (Task > Collapse Project) folds the selected project.
• ⌥⌘↓ / ⌥⌘↑ expand or collapse every project in the list at once.

Collapsed or not, a list's projects and checklists are always reachable from the disclosure triangle in the Lists Panel.

Checklists

A Checklist is also a parent, but checklists hold items, not full tasks. A checklist item has a title, can be marked complete, and can carry its own tags, but it has no dates of its own. It inherits its scheduling from the checklist, so it can't have its own due or start dates, repeats, or date-based alerts. The whole checklist behaves like one task in your Focus Lists. Use a checklist when:

• You have a sequence of small steps that only matter together.
• You don't want each step to clutter Today on its own. Examples: Packing list, Pre-flight checklist, New-hire onboarding steps.

Creating a Checklist

• File > New > New Checklist (⌃⌘N)
• The + button in the toolbar, using its dropdown to pick New Checklist.
• Select existing tasks → File > New > New Checklist from Selection (⌃⇧⌘N).

tip

Checklists are perfect templates. Duplicate a checklist (⌘D) when you need a fresh copy for the next trip, the next launch, or the next onboarding.

Adding Sub-Tasks

• Select a task, project, or checklist, then use File > New > New Sub-Task (⌃⌥N). With a project or checklist selected, the new task is filed inside it. With a regular task selected, 2Do converts that task into a project first, then adds the sub-task inside it. With a sub-task selected, the new sub-task joins the same parent.
• Drag an existing task onto a project or checklist to file it inside. Dragging a task onto a regular task converts that task into a project, then files the dragged task inside it.
• While Project View is open, File > New > New Task (⌘N) adds inside the open project or checklist.

Projects and checklists cannot be filed inside another project or checklist. Dragging or moving one onto a project or checklist flattens it: the dragged project and everything inside it become ordinary sub-tasks of the destination.

If you want to change the order of tasks instead of filing them inside another task, use Command-drag with manual sorting.

Converting Between Types

You're never locked into your first choice. Task > Convert lets you switch:

• Task → Project or Task → Checklist: the task becomes an empty parent, ready for sub-tasks.
• Project → Task or Checklist → Task: the parent becomes a regular task, and each of its sub-tasks becomes a separate task at the top level of the same list.
• Project → Checklist: the sub-tasks stay inside, but they lose their own due and start dates, repeats, and date-based alerts. From then on they take their scheduling from the checklist.
• Checklist → Project: the items stay inside and become project sub-tasks. They have no dates of their own until you set them.
• Sub-Task → Project or Sub-Task → Checklist: the sub-task leaves its parent and becomes a parent at the top level of the same list.

tip

Start with a regular task. When it needs steps, add a sub-task and 2Do turns it into a project. Convert it to a checklist instead when the steps share one schedule and only matter together.

Projects in Sections

A list can be divided into named sections, and a project or checklist can sit in any of them. Its sub-tasks always stay with it in the same section. Sections divide a list, not a project: to arrange the steps inside a project, use its own sort order.

Behavior in Focus Lists

• Project sub-tasks appear individually in All, Today, Starred, etc., wherever their own dates and properties qualify them.
• Checklists appear as a single item in Focus Lists. Their items take their scheduling from the checklist, so they do not qualify for date-based lists on their own.