Projects and lists

Todowl has exactly two levels of structure: a project and, inside it, a list. There are no folders above projects and no sub-lists below lists, and that limit is deliberate. Two levels is enough to find anything and shallow enough that you never have to think about where something belongs.

Creating a project

Use the plus button next to Projects in the sidebar, type a name and press Enter. The project appears immediately with a default colour.

Right click a project, or open its menu, for the rest:

• Rename
• Change colour, from the palette or a custom value
• Change icon
• Archive
• Delete

Colours are worth spending a minute on, because they are how the calendar tells one project’s work from another’s at a glance.

Lists inside a project

A list is a lane within a project. On the kanban view each list is a column; on the list view they are the groupings you can file a task into.

Add one with Add list at the end of the columns, or from the project’s own screen. Each list can carry a name, an icon and its own accent colour.

A task can sit in a project without belonging to any list, which is the right state for something you have captured but not yet sorted.

What the free plan allows

The free plan keeps:

• 3 projects
• 3 lists inside each project
• the standard project colours, with custom colours and icons on Pro

Hitting a limit shows a message explaining it rather than silently refusing. See Free and Pro.

Three projects is genuinely workable if you split by area of life rather than by task type. Personal, work and one active side thing covers most people.

Project tabs

Opening a project gives you tabs across the top:

• Overview
• Tasks
• Notes
• Finance
• Settings

So a project is not only a bucket for tasks. Notes filed to the project appear under its notes tab, which is useful when a project is a real piece of work rather than a category.

Archiving instead of deleting

A project you have finished with should be archived, not deleted. Archiving takes it out of the sidebar and keeps everything inside it intact, with no expiry. You can restore it whenever you want.

Deleting sends the project and everything in it to the trash, where it stays for 30 days. See Trash and archive.

A structure that survives contact with reality

The failure mode is building a beautiful hierarchy on day one and never using it. A shape that works:

1. One project per area you would describe out loud as separate.
2. Lists only when a project has real stages, for example “to do”, “in progress” and “waiting on someone”.
3. Everything else stays a flat list of tasks with dates.