Diurnal and Todoist
Todoist is a task manager that runs on everything: Mac, Windows, Linux, the web, iPhone and Android. Diurnal is a Mac overlay you summon with ⇧⌘A over whatever you are doing, write a line into, and dismiss.
Both now show your Google Calendar. The difference is what you can do with it. Todoist draws events read-only; Diurnal books and changes them from the overlay.
Side by side
| Diurnal | Todoist | |
|---|---|---|
| Shows your whole day in the overlay | ||
| Shares tasks with other people | ||
| Creates Google Calendar events | ||
| Organises work into projects and sub-projects | ||
| Built-in focus timer | ||
| Runs on anything but a Mac | ||
| Writes finished focus rounds into a log | ||
| Changes a calendar event from the app |
One key, one day
Press ⇧⌘A in a browser, an editor or a call, type “pay rent tomorrow 4pm #home”, and the same keystroke that opened it files the task. ⇧⌘L does it by voice. Nothing to switch to, nothing to come back from.
Your meetings draw on that timeline, and /cal books a new event without opening a browser. Rounds of 25 and 5 run in the menu bar, with a longer break every fourth, and finished rounds land in the Log.
What Todoist does that we do not
It is on every device you own, and Diurnal is on one Mac. It also works with other people: shared projects, assignees and comments. If your week ever leaves that Mac, that settles it.
Its structure runs deeper. Projects, sub-tasks, labels, filters and priorities give long work somewhere to live, and its typed input reads recurrence out of a sentence. Diurnal has none of that. Todoist Pro is $7 a month or $60 a year, as of December 2025.
Which one fits your week
Pick Todoist if you use more than one operating system, capture on your phone, share work with anyone, or run your week out of projects and filters.
Pick Diurnal if your day happens on a Mac, your meetings live in Google Calendar, and most of your capture happens in the seconds between a thought arriving and it being lost.
Questions
- What does Diurnal do that a task manager does not?
- It shows the day rather than a list. ⇧⌘A opens your tasks, your Google meetings and a timeline together, over whatever you were doing.
- Does Diurnal have a focus timer?
- Yes: 25 minutes of work, a 5 minute break, and a longer one every fourth round, counting down in the menu bar.
- Which platforms does Diurnal run on?
- Macs, today, on macOS 15 or later. If you need the same app on a phone or on Windows, Todoist covers that ground well.
Other comparisons
Facts about Todoist were checked in . Software changes; if something here has gone out of date, it is a mistake rather than a position.