Todoist Alternative: Why Task Managers Fail at Goal Setting

Todoist is an excellent task manager. It is quick to add things to, it understands dates typed in plain language, and it keeps your list in sync everywhere. For remembering to buy groceries or follow up on an email, it is hard to improve on. Big personal goals are a different problem, though, and a task list is not always the right shape for them. This post covers where Todoist is the better tool, where a goal tracker like GoalTracker Online helps, and how to use them together.

The short answer

• Choose Todoist for errands, reminders, recurring chores and anything with a due date.
• Choose GoalTracker for a few multi-week goals where you want to see progress and a daily streak.
• Use both: Todoist for daily logistics, GoalTracker for the goals behind them.

Tasks vs. goals

A task is a single action you can finish in one sitting: "buy milk", "email Sam". A goal is an outcome that needs sustained effort over weeks or months: "run a marathon", "learn conversational Spanish".

When you put a goal into a task manager, one of two things tends to happen. You tick it off early because a sub-step felt like progress, or it sits at the bottom of the list for months and makes you feel guilty every time you see it. The list shows what to do next. It does not show how far along you are.

Feature comparison

Where Todoist is the better choice

• Capture speed. Typing "call dentist tomorrow 3pm" and having the date filled in is a real time saver. GoalTracker has a date picker and nothing more.
• Recurring tasks. "Every Monday" or "every 3 months" work out of the box. GoalTracker has no recurring tasks.
• Reminders and notifications. Todoist can nudge you. GoalTracker cannot.
• Everywhere you are. Todoist syncs across phone, desktop and browser and connects to many other apps. GoalTracker works in one browser.
• Organising lots of tasks. Labels, filters and priorities help when you have hundreds of items. GoalTracker is designed for a handful of goals.

Check Todoist's pricing page for which of these are on the free plan.

Where GoalTracker is the better choice

• Seeing progress on a goal. Each goal has its own progress bar, so "learn Spanish" shows how far along it is instead of sitting as one unticked task.
• Linking steps to the reason for them. Every subgoal belongs to a goal, and bigger subgoals can be split into microgoals. See how to break a big goal into subgoals.
• A simple consistency signal. The streak counts days in a row where you completed at least one subgoal. Todoist's Karma measures overall task activity; GoalTracker's streak is about your goals only. More on that in how to build a daily streak.
• Notes where you need them. Each subgoal has a markdown description for plans, links and lessons learned.
• No account. Your goals stay in your browser, with JSON export for backups.

Honest limits of GoalTracker

GoalTracker is not a task manager, and it is not trying to be one. It has no reminders, no recurring tasks, no labels, no mobile app and no sync between devices. If you clear your browser data without exporting first, your goals are gone.

How to use them together

1. Pick two or three goals for this quarter and add them to GoalTracker. The free goal planner can help you word them.
2. Break each goal into subgoals with due dates.
3. When a subgoal needs lots of small, dated actions, put those actions in Todoist.
4. Tick the subgoal in GoalTracker when it is done, and review both tools once a week with the weekly review.

If you are comparing other simple task tools, see GoalTracker vs Google Tasks.

The verdict

Keep Todoist for tasks. It is very good at them. If your big goals keep getting lost in the list, give them their own home in GoalTracker Online. It is free and you can start without signing up.