Getting started with Super Productivity

For a comprehensive guide to boosting your output, check out The Super Productivity Handbook.

Super Productivity is an advanced open source To-Do list app with integrated Timeboxing and time tracking capabilities. While the app won’t magically solve all your productivity, time management and procrastination issues, the combination of planning ahead and quickly re-planning whenever necessary, breaking tasks down into smaller bits and doing a bit of timeboxing can be a surprisingly powerful combination – see our Time Boxing guide for patterns to start with.

The following article will introduce the basic features of the app. Since quickest way to do things in Super Productivity is to use keyboard shortcuts, I will be focusing on using the most important ones in this tutorial.

Plan your tasks and break them down

Adding new tasks

First thing you want to do when starting the app is to create a task. When there are no tasks the app should greet you with an input box to do so. If you already created some you can use the ”+” button in the top right or the keyboard shortcut Shift+A to do so. You can close the add task overlay by pressing escape.

Below the input where you enter the task title you can see a little info text which introduces the short syntax. Using the short syntax you can quickly add and edit the time estimated and spent for a task (and also the project and tags assigned to it).

In addition to those you can expand the section and add additional information. Most interestingly for starting out there are the option to quickly add sub-tasks or a note. Sub-tasks don’t support all the features main tasks have (they can’t have their own sub-tasks, for instance) and they are usually intended to break down bigger tasks into smaller bites or to provide the detailed steps of their parent task.

A simple example

As an example we want to add the task “Write article about Super Productivity” with the estimate that it will take 45 minutes. To do so we enter the following:

Write article about Super Productivity 45m

Confirm the task creation by pressing enter.

After that the task is created and you will see it in your task list. You can expand the task by clicking on it to see more details and to add sub-tasks or notes.

Using sub-tasks effectively

Let’s add some sub-tasks to break down our article writing task:

1. Click on the task to expand it
2. Find the “Add Sub Task” button or press Shift+Alt+A
3. Add sub-tasks like:
   • “Research key features to highlight”
   • “Write introduction”
   • “Create screenshots”
   • “Proofread and edit”

Sub-tasks help you track progress on larger tasks and make complex projects feel more manageable.

Time tracking and Pomodoro

Starting time tracking

To start tracking time for a task, simply click the play button next to it or select the task and press Shift+X. The timer will start running and you’ll see the time accumulating in real-time.

Using the Pomodoro technique

Super Productivity has built-in support for the Pomodoro technique:

1. Go to Settings → Pomodoro
2. Enable the Pomodoro timer
3. Configure your work and break intervals
4. When you start a task, it will automatically start a Pomodoro session

The app will notify you when it’s time to take a break and when to resume work.

Organize with projects and tags

Creating projects

Projects allow you to group related tasks together:

1. Click the menu icon (three lines) in the top left
2. Select “Projects”
3. Click “Create Project”
4. Give your project a name and optionally a color

You can then assign tasks to projects using the short syntax:

Task title +ProjectName

Using tags

Tags provide another way to categorize tasks:

Task title #important #urgent

Tags are great for cross-project categorization like priority levels, contexts (work, home, errands), or task types.

Daily planning and time boxing

The daily summary

At the start of each day (or when you configure it), Super Productivity will show you a daily summary. This helps you:

• Review what you accomplished yesterday
• Plan what you want to achieve today
• Estimate how much time you have available

Time boxing your day

Time boxing is one of Super Productivity’s most powerful features:

1. Add time estimates to all your tasks
2. The app will calculate if you have enough time in your day
3. If you’re overbooked, it will warn you
4. You can then adjust estimates or move tasks to another day

Keyboard shortcuts

Here are the most important keyboard shortcuts to master:

• Shift+A - Add new task
• Shift+X - Start/stop time tracking for selected task
• D - Mark task as done
• Backspace - Delete selected task
• E - Edit selected task
• Shift+Alt+A - Add sub-task
• Space - Expand/collapse task details

Tips for success

1. Start small: Don’t try to use every feature at once. Start with basic task creation and time tracking.

2. Be realistic with estimates: It’s better to overestimate at first. You’ll get better at estimating with practice.

3. Review regularly: Use the daily summary to reflect on your progress and adjust your approach.

4. Break down big tasks: If a task feels overwhelming, it probably needs to be broken down into sub-tasks.

5. Use the short syntax: It’s much faster than clicking through menus once you get used to it.

Next steps

This guide covers the basics, but Super Productivity has many more features to explore:

• Jira, GitHub, and GitLab integration
• Repeating tasks
• Advanced time tracking reports
• Custom themes
• Data sync across devices

Check out the documentation for more advanced features and tips! For more productivity techniques, visit our Deep Work Guide.