Motion vs Todoist for Task Management: AI Scheduling vs Manual Control in 2026?

Motion launched in 2020 with a bold pitch: AI that schedules your entire workday. You tell it what tasks you have, when they're due, how long they'll take - the AI figures out when to do them. It auto-blocks time on your calendar, reschedules things when meetings pop up, and theoretically keeps you from overcommitting.

It's ambitious and expensive ($34/month). When it works, it feels like having a personal assistant managing your time.

Todoist has been around since 2007 doing one thing really well: helping you capture and organize tasks fast. The natural language input is the best in the business. Type 'Call mom every Sunday at 2pm' and it just works.

No AI making decisions for you, no automatic scheduling - just a clean list of what needs doing and when. The philosophy is opposite Motion: give you tools to organize tasks, but you decide what to work on and when.

Motion's AI looks at your calendar, sees the gaps between meetings, and schedules your tasks there. Set a deadline and priority, it figures out when you should work on it. Tasks that'll take 3 hours get split across multiple days if needed. When a meeting runs long, Motion automatically reschedules affected tasks.

This is genuinely helpful when you're juggling lots of priorities. The catch? You're trusting an algorithm to decide your day. Sometimes it schedules deep work at 4pm when you're brain-dead, and you can't always override it easily.

Todoist doesn't try to schedule your day. It shows you what's due today, what's coming up, and you decide what to work on. Some people love this freedom - you're the one making the calls based on energy, focus, and context.

Others find it overwhelming - staring at 30 tasks with no guidance on where to start. The calendar integration shows tasks with due dates, but it's not time-blocking. If you want someone (or something) to build your daily plan, Todoist won't do it.

Adding tasks in Motion requires more info upfront. What's the task, when's it due, how long will it take, what priority? The AI needs this to schedule properly. You can add quick tasks, but you'll come back to fill in details later.

The extra friction makes sense - scheduling AI needs data - but it slows down brain dumps. If you're in a meeting and need to capture 15 things fast, Motion feels heavy.

This is where Todoist absolutely destroys Motion. Hit the quick-add shortcut, type your task in natural language, hit enter. Done. 'Presentation slides by Friday 5pm' turns into a task due Friday at 5pm automatically. The speed is addictive.

When your brain is dumping tasks, Todoist keeps up. You can organize them later with projects, labels, filters. The focus is on capturing fast, not on forcing you to plan everything upfront.

Motion is a calendar-first tool. Tasks and meetings live in the same view, which honestly makes sense - you plan your day around both. The AI blocks time for tasks on your calendar automatically. See a gap between meetings? Motion schedules a task there.

This integrated view helps you see if you're overcommitted. The calendar sync with Google/Outlook is solid. It's the core feature, not an add-on.

Todoist's calendar view is pretty basic. Shows tasks with due dates/times on a calendar, that's about it. It syncs with Google Calendar so tasks appear there, but it's not real time-blocking.

If you want to see tasks alongside meetings and manually plan your day, you're probably using Google Calendar or Fantastical with Todoist synced in. The integration works, it's just not as seamless as Motion's built-in approach.

Motion has legit project management features. Task dependencies (this task blocks that one), project timelines, workload views for teams. You can see if team members are overloaded, redistribute work, track project progress.

It's trying to be Asana-lite with AI scheduling on top. For small teams managing projects with deadlines, these features are useful. More than a task manager, less than full project management software.

Todoist keeps it simple. Projects are basically lists of tasks. You can nest projects, add sections, filter by labels and priorities. That's it.

No dependencies, no Gantt charts, no resource management. This is fine if your 'projects' are really just categories for organizing tasks. Not enough if you're managing multi-person projects with complex dependencies. Different tools for different needs.

Motion's team features are more developed. See everyone's schedule, balance workload, assign tasks with automatic scheduling. The AI tries to find time for team members to work on assigned tasks.

Meeting booking shows when your whole team is free. It's built for small teams (5-15 people) managing projects together. Pricing is $20/user/month for teams, which adds up but includes the project management features.

Todoist can share projects and assign tasks to team members. Comments on tasks, activity history, that's about it. The collaboration is basic - more like sharing a list than managing a team.

For small teams just coordinating work, it's enough. For actual project management with resource allocation and dependencies, you'd need something more robust. Todoist knows what it is - a task manager, not a PM tool.