SOURCE-BASED ANALYSIS · NO HANDS-ON RATING
Use duration for a bounded work block
Todoist task duration requires both a date and time. The documented maximum is 24 hours. Todoist does not support start dates that hide work until a later time, and duration cannot span several days. A duration is therefore a planning block, not a project phase or availability guarantee.
Create a calendar fixture
Use four fictional tasks: a 45-minute review, a two-hour workshop, an all-day item and a three-day deliverable. Predict how each should appear before adding a duration.
| Fixture | Model | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| 45-minute review | Date, time and duration | Single time block |
| Two-hour workshop | Calendar block | End time checked |
| All-day item | Date without false precision | No invented duration |
| Three-day deliverable | Milestone plus subtasks | No multi-day duration |
Check calendar integration separately
Todoist documents that Google Calendar events longer than 24 hours can sync without becoming a Todoist duration. Moving an all-day task into a calendar time slot may assign a default 30-minute duration. Record whether a value was typed, dragged or synchronized so reviewers can explain the result.
- Define the work outcome before estimating its block.
- Add a date and due time to short bounded work.
- Set and inspect the duration.
- Keep all-day outcomes free of false time precision.
- Split multi-day work into milestones and subtasks.
- Test one synchronized calendar event.
- Compare the calendar view with the task details.
Accept honest scheduling
Accept the plan when durations represent work the team can actually block, long work is decomposed and no one interprets the due time as a separate hidden start date. Current calendar-layout availability must be checked against the user's plan.
Sources and verification
Official documentation checked on 2026-10-29. Worked examples are hypothetical planning exercises, not measured product benchmarks.