5.1 Basic TODO functionality

Any headline can become a TODO item by starting it with the word TODO, for example:

     *** TODO Write letter to Sam Fortune

The most important commands to work with TODO entries are:

C-c C-t

Rotate the TODO state of the current item between

          ,-> (unmarked) -> TODO -> DONE --.
          '--------------------------------'
     

The same rotation can also be done “remotely” from the timeline and agenda buffers with the t command key (see Agenda commands).

S-<right>

S-<left>

Select the following/preceding TODO state, similar to cycling. Mostly useful if more than two TODO states are possible (see TODO extensions).

C-c C-v

View TODO items in a sparse tree (see Sparse trees). Folds the entire buffer, but shows all TODO items and the headings hierarchy above them. With prefix arg, show also the DONE entries. With numerical prefix N, show the tree for the Nth keyword in the variable org-todo-keywords.

C-c a t

Show the global TODO list. This collects the TODO items from all agenda files (see Agenda views) into a single buffer. The buffer is in agenda-mode, so there are commands to examine and manipulate the TODO entries directly from that buffer (see Agenda commands). See Global TODO list, for more information.