2Do Rebuilt: Why I’m Back to My Favorite Task Manager

Editor’s note: A version of this article by 广陵止息 appears on September 30, 2026 on SSPAI with the title “经典任务管理软件的现代重构：新版 2Do 详解”. Translated and published by agreement.

2Do released an all-new version this August. It hasn’t abandoned the freedom that defined earlier versions—if anything, it gives you even more. Alongside a thoroughly modern interface, it adds a range of useful features that bring it up to date.

After more than a month of intensive use, I’d like to take a closer look at the rebuilt 2Do. I’ll focus on the macOS version, with a few stops along the way for features specific to iOS and iPadOS. Hopefully, this will give you a sense of why I consider it the best task manager around.

More than a facelift: new ways to work with 2Do

As a native Mac productivity app with more than a decade behind it, the old 2Do still bore the unmistakable marks of skeuomorphism and the early days of flat design. It was already rich in features, but its crowded controls, muted gray palette, and cramped spacing made it look particularly dated on recent versions of macOS.

The biggest change is the generous use of whitespace and clearer separation between sections, which finally gives 2Do a modern feel. The basic structure remains a familiar three-pane layout: lists and Smart Filters on the left, the main task list in the middle, and tags and location information on the right.

More control over what you see

The refreshed interface comes with plenty of adjustable view options.

The left sidebar can now be collapsed. When I’m working in Today or a particular list, I can tuck it away to keep visual distractions to a minimum.

You can set separate themes for light and dark modes, and fine-tune details such as font size, row spacing, and content density. My favorite options from the old version are still here, too, including friendly relative dates and red highlighting for overdue tasks. You can adjust them to suit your preferences.

If you plan your time with a calendar, the new Busy Days feature is particularly useful. It displays a heat map in the date picker, mini calendar, and calendar pane to show how crowded your schedule already is. When assigning a date to a task, I can gauge how much capacity I’ll have that day and avoid scheduling conflicts before they happen.

If you prefer a minimal interface, you can turn off the setting that keeps tags visible at all times. Tags in the task list then collapse into a small icon. Whenever you need to check them, just hold down Option to temporarily reveal all the hidden tags.

Multiple windows: a desktop essential

One of my biggest frustrations with Apple Reminders was that ordinary lists could open in separate windows, while Smart Lists couldn’t. Filtering tasks for different contexts meant constantly switching back and forth between views. The old Mac version of 2Do had the same single-window limitation.

The rebuild brings native support for multiple windows.

With Control-Option-Command-N, I can quickly open a separate window from the current view. This makes it easier to compare tasks across projects and lists while editing. I can also keep Today in one window, a different Smart Filter view in another, and use a third to break a project down into subtasks, moving through the later stages of my Getting Things Done (GTD) workflow more quickly.

Multiple windows also bring drag-and-drop interaction. I can now drag tasks between windows to manage them in batches more directly.

For example, I can drag tasks onto the calendar pane to change their due dates in bulk. I can also drag them onto the relevant toolbar buttons to defer, duplicate, share, or delete them. The whole experience feels almost exactly like Finder in classic OS X.

On mobile: familiar gestures, modern features

On mobile, 2Do retains its signature three-pane swipe navigation alongside the refreshed interface. A simple swipe left or right moves between the full lists pane, a partial lists pane alongside tasks, a task-only view, and a utility drawer for global tags, location filters, and the calendar. It feels intuitive, and moving between views doesn’t require repeated tapping.

The pinch gesture for adjusting view density—another old favorite of mine—is still here. Pinching in or out switches between compact, standard, and detailed views, immediately changing how much task information appears: the number of title lines, tags, note previews, and the list each task belongs to.

The rebuilt mobile apps also support most of the features you’d expect on modern iOS and iPadOS, including Lock Screen widgets, Control Center shortcuts, and interactive Home Screen widgets in multiple sizes. That makes the experience outside the app more complete, too.

A flexible, dependable way to manage tasks

2Do has always been known for its freedom of organization and unusually detailed task metadata. It never forces you into a particular workflow. Whether you use standard GTD, time blocking, or the simplest of checklists, you can build a task system that works for you.

Its sheer scope and flexibility make it difficult to cover everything, even after this comprehensive rebuild. Instead, I’ll follow the outline of a classic GTD workflow to highlight the new features I find most noteworthy.

More natural capture

In GTD, everything starts with capturing tasks without friction.

2Do has long offered a wealth of task properties, but stopping to choose a list, date, and tags every time you create a task is still a chore. It’s also easy to lose a fleeting thought while setting those properties.

The new 2Do finally supports natural language input. In theory, you can type a complete sentence as you normally would, and 2Do will highlight and parse the key information in the title field as you type. In practice, a few markers still help it understand what you mean. The examples below reflect my Chinese-language setup:

• Times and dates: Relative dates such as “today,” “next Friday,” and “in three days” are supported, as are specific times such as 15:30 and date ranges such as October 20 to 22. For recurring tasks, entering “every week” or “every two weeks” automatically sets up repetition.
• Estimated duration: Put a duration in square brackets, such as [2h] or [30m], to set the estimated time required.
• Alerts: Enter alert 30m to set an advance reminder, though the Chinese version of 2Do doesn’t seem to recognize this properly.
• Priority and stars: Enter !, !!, or !!! to set priority. I personally use this to indicate how much energy a task will take. Enter * to star it.
• Lists, tags, and locations: Use /Work to specify the Work list, #Writing to add the Writing tag, and @Office to set the location to Office.

If you actually need one of these keywords in the task title, enclose it in double quotation marks. For example, entering read a book called “Tomorrow” prevents 2Do from interpreting “tomorrow” as a date.

2Do has also refined the capture of tasks as they occur to you. One improvement is rapid, consecutive entry. On iOS, press and hold the “+” button in the lower-right corner to enter Quick Add. On macOS, open Quick Entry with shift-cmd-2; once you’ve filled in a task, press the shortcut again to save it immediately and clear the fields for the next one. This is ideal for recording a batch of tasks after a meeting or brainstorming session.

Another improvement is a complete rewrite of email capture. The old method relied on the local app receiving email and turning it into tasks. The new Mail to 2Do service handles this in the cloud. Once enabled, it assigns each app installation its own private email address for forwarding messages.

That lets you capture information from a device that doesn’t support 2Do: forward an email to that address, and 2Do automatically creates a task in the background.

The subject becomes the task title, and the body becomes its detailed notes. You can also set properties directly in the subject with syntax such as due(tomorrow) and list(Work), or use a numbered list in the body to generate a checklist of subtasks.

Better filtering and task organization

To me, 2Do’s most distinctive strength is how it organizes metadata. The rebuild expands its filtering and search logic, giving you more freedom to select and display complex sets of tasks.

Previously, OR worked only within a single type of property—for example, tags: Phone or Computer, or locations: Home or Office. Across different properties, you could only use AND to find the intersection. That considerably limited the possibilities for advanced Smart Lists.

The new version finally supports nested parentheses and OR across different properties. You can now write an advanced rule such as:

lists: Work AND (type: overdue OR type: starred OR type: hiprio)

This pulls together everything in the Work list that is overdue, starred, or high priority, giving urgent or important work its own filtered view.

2Do also adds syntax for restricting searches to particular lists and tag groups. Previously, you could search either one selected list or every list. Now you can combine several specified lists—for example, lists: (Work, Personal), covering Work and Personal Projects. This is especially useful when working across projects or reviewing a particular phase of work.

You can also turn Search Inheritance on or off as needed. With it disabled, a matching subtask still brings up its parent project by default. Combined with 2Do’s longstanding tag pausing feature, which temporarily hides nonurgent tags associated with particular contexts, this lets you change views according to your current energy, location, or stage of a project.

The task notes editor has received substantial improvements, too, including full Markdown formatting. When a task arrives with complicated background information or scattered reference material, I can save the context, information, and lists together in its notes, then break it down later.

The editor also supports bidirectional links between tasks through the @{a task} syntax, where the text inside the braces is the task’s name. When organizing recipes or household chores, for example, I can link a missing supply directly to its purchase item in my shopping list, making the context clear. I’m not entirely sure why 2Do chose this over the more familiar wiki-style syntax [[another task]], though. Typing @{…} still goes against my muscle memory.

When notes contain lots of reference material, web links, or URL schemes pointing to other local apps such as DEVONthink or Obsidian, 2Do automatically collects the external links in a side panel. They’re easy to scan and open with a click, saving you from hunting through long notes.

There are a few new features for getting around faster, too. First is Quick Open: press Shift-Cmd-O, or tap the current list’s name at the top of the task list on iOS, to bring up a Spotlight-like panel. By default, it shows recently modified tasks and recently accessed lists. Start typing to search for tasks and lists, then select a result to jump to it.

On macOS, pressing J opens the List Jump Bar, a search field at the bottom of the lists pane. Rather than opening a separate window, typing a list name highlights matches directly in the sidebar. Collapsed list groups temporarily expand, and you can move through results with the up and down arrow keys, then press Return to switch. The List Jump Bar matches not only lists and Smart Lists, but also projects and checklists expanded beneath them.

Finally, on macOS and iPadOS, Cmd-0~5 lets you quickly switch between built-in lists such as Inbox, All, Today, Starred, and Done.

A completely rebuilt sync engine

2Do continues to take an open approach to its sync backend, letting you choose the method that suits you best.

What the old 2Do called iCloud sync was actually based on the older iCloud CalDAV protocol. Not only did you have to generate an app-specific password manually in your Apple Account settings, but the protocol’s structure also prevented core metadata—Smart Lists, list groups, tag groups, and task attachments—from syncing. Back then, Dropbox was the only option for existing users who wanted the full set of features to sync.

The sync engine has now been rewritten from the ground up, bringing native iCloud sync and two-way Apple Reminders sync, with full WebDAV sync announced for the future.

For most people in the Apple ecosystem, native iCloud sync is easily the simplest option. It uses the Apple Account you’re already signed into through the operating system, eliminating the need to configure an app-specific password. It also syncs Smart Lists, tag groups, and attachments in full.

If you want to sync tasks to platforms where 2Do isn’t available, two-way Apple Reminders sync and the new Todoist sync option are also worth considering. They give you ways to access tasks on Windows, Android, or the web.

With Apple Reminders sync, for example, you can capture tasks using Siri on an iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod, or even CarPlay. Todoist lets you view and complete tasks on a wider range of platforms.

These third-party services don’t support data structures as complex as 2Do’s, however, so advanced metadata such as tag groups and attachments can’t simply carry over. 2Do handles this by writing some unsupported properties into the task’s notes as plain text, allowing the data to sync. What survives depends on the service, so you still need to choose with care.

The familiar Dropbox sync option remains available, and WebDAV support has been announced for a later release.

For small-scale collaboration with family or colleagues, you can even share particular lists directly over the local network with other people on the same Wi-Fi.

Features tailored to each platform

2Do also makes use of each platform’s capabilities. On the Mac, keyboard shortcuts let you open and adjust any task property directly, and shift-F5 lets you revisit selected tasks.

On iOS, the new version supports full-screen alerts on iOS 26.1 and later. Combined with location-based reminders, perhaps this means I’ll finally stop forgetting to pick up parcels when I get home?

And with AI everywhere these days, 2Do has made a Claude Cowork plugin for the Mac. It can also be used in other AI agent environments, such as ChatGPT (Codex) and Pi; if you’re unsure how to install it, you can ask a reasoning model for help. Through 2Do, AI can help analyze a complex project’s background and break it down into tasks, or use the context of your schedule to assess, defer, or archive tasks automatically.

A closer look at the pricing

The new 2Do uses a hybrid pricing model:

• iOS: A one-time purchase of US$9.99.
• iPadOS: A one-time purchase of US$19.99.
• macOS: US$49.99 for a perpetual license, including 18 months of major feature updates at no additional charge.

For the Mac version, the developer has adopted the perpetual-license model with a time-limited update period used by established professional apps such as Sketch and DEVONthink. After the 18 months end, you can keep using the version you own indefinitely, with routine bug fixes and operating system compatibility updates continuing at no charge. You only need to renew if you want new features released after your update period, at a discounted US$39.99 for another 18 months.

From a user’s perspective, this leaves the choice with us, unlike subscription-only apps that lock features or become read-only as soon as you stop paying. If the version you have already meets your needs, you can keep using it without spending another cent. When a later release adds something useful to you, you can decide whether to renew.

It also seems healthier from the developer’s perspective. Building and maintaining a GTD tool with such a large architecture, rich metadata, and deep integrations takes a great deal of work. Many longtime users, myself included, paid a substantial sum for an early version, then received more than a decade of maintenance across multiple major macOS releases. For an independent developer, continuing that maintenance at a loss plainly isn’t sustainable.

Under the new model, the developer doesn’t have to invent pointless features just to sell another major version, and can put more energy into rebuilding and maintaining the foundations. The Mac version also launched on Setapp. If you already subscribe, that’s another convenient way to get it.

A few final thoughts

When I learned that my favorite task manager, 2Do, had finally released a thoroughly rebuilt version, I felt an enormous sense of relief.

I’d been waiting a very long time for this overhaul. The developer first mentioned plans for it in early 2020, then announced toward the end of 2021 that 2Do’s underlying logic engine and interface would be rewritten in Swift. After that came a long silence. For the next several years, almost all we saw were minor fixes to the old version. For a long time, many veteran users in the community and I thought it was a promised overhaul we might never see.

Looking back at the task managers I’ve used over the past few years, I initially left 2Do because my experience with Intel Macs prompted a temporary move away from Apple to Windows and Android. With no Windows client at the time, 2Do naturally dropped out of my daily routine. Apple Silicon later brought me back to the Mac, and I hoped to return to 2Do, but its dated interface and lingering bugs put me off.

I then tried the new OmniFocus. Frequent, unexplained sign-outs across devices interrupted syncing; its Perspectives weren’t flexible enough for me; and its subscription was expensive. Eventually, I gave up and went back to Apple Reminders, which kept growing more capable.

After years of moving between apps, I’ve ended up back at 2Do. The reason hasn’t changed: I still haven’t found another Mac task manager that gives me this much freedom with both metadata and filtering.

That’s my tour of the new 2Do. I hope it gives you a fuller picture of what the app can do—and perhaps a reason to try it yourself.