How Todoist Runs a Distributed Company With Async Communication and Deliberate Meetings

Snapshot

Todoist’s current About Us page dates its remote and async working model to 2011, and its company history places the first hire in that year. The history records a transition from Doist to Todoist in July 2026. The current footprint is 108 team members in 38 countries. (About Us, company history)

The company behind Todoist and Twist remains the subject of this profile under its existing Doist URL. Its current privacy policy identifies Todoist Inc. as registered in Delaware, United States; the policy does not establish a legal name-change date. (Privacy policy)

The operating model combines written communication with planned support meetings and a public handbook. The earlier Doist sources below remain useful evidence of how that model developed; dated practices are not automatically current mandates.

Core Philosophy

Doist’s founder Amir Salihefendić designed the company explicitly around deep work. The operating principle: coordination should not interrupt creation.

Research relevant to the model:

• Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index 2021, a survey of more than 13,000 knowledge workers across seven countries, reported 60% of time on “work about work.” This is a historical survey estimate, not a current statistic for all knowledge workers or Todoist employees. (Asana summary)
• Time spent in meetings per Microsoft Teams user rose roughly 252% between February 2020 and February 2022. (Source: Microsoft, 2022 Work Trend Index — Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work)
• Interrupted tasks can be completed faster while increasing stress, frustration, time pressure, and effort. (Source: Mark, Gudith and Klocke — The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress, CHI 2008)

Salihefendić discusses the costs of coordination and interruptions when explaining Doist’s focus on uninterrupted work. (Source)

The response emphasizes writing and fewer interruptions. Recurring meetings still have a place, as the onboarding and accountability practices below demonstrate.

Doist treats headcount as a “vanity number” — they hire slowly and deliberately, prioritizing culture fit over speed. (Source)

Communication Model

Current account: Todoist Comms. An October 2026 product update, marked last updated October 30, says the team has been running on Comms since May. The current onboarding guide also names Comms for welcome threads, social channels and questions. This is a reported internal-use example, not a measured adoption rate or proof that every older Twist workflow migrated unchanged. (October update, onboarding)

Earlier accounts describe the move from Slack to Twist. The company attributed that move to interruptions and pressure to remain online, and described topic-based discussions and sharing the outcomes of calls in writing. Preserve this as the development of the operating model rather than present-day proof that Twist remains the primary tool. (Earlier account)

Meetings remain deliberate. The current guide schedules weekly mentor and team-head onboarding check-ins. Its communication guidance says immediate replies are rarely needed; the earlier retention article described a general 24-hour response window. The older window is a dated company example, not a newly verified service guarantee. (Onboarding, earlier response-window account)

Planning and Cadence

Doist has published a DO (Doist Objectives) planning system; its details have evolved over time.

[Inference — application guidance.] Make maintenance responsibility explicit alongside project work. Evaluate how project work and maintenance share capacity rather than assuming one arrangement eliminates interruptions.

• DO squads connect objectives to execution. A September 2022 company article described 1–5-person squads, DO cycles lasting one to six months, monthly reflection and end-project async retrospectives. The current onboarding guide still references DOs, squads and cycle planning; the exact current cadence is not established by the publicly readable pages. (Accountability, onboarding)
• Bootstrapped = long-term thinking. No investor pressure for quarterly results. Doist consistently prioritizes sustainable pace over growth sprints. (Source)

Decision-Making Model

Todoist’s earlier operating account describes a squad leader who coordinates a DO, sets timelines and tracks work in a shared project. The current onboarding guide directs newcomers to DRIs as owners of areas or projects and as a way to find the right person to ask. These sources do not establish that all strategic decisions are made by the founder or that asynchronous discussion prevents rushed decisions. (Earlier account, onboarding)

Historical hiring example: the earlier article describes rejecting applications without cover letters and using test tasks and multiple interviews. The current public handbook routes applicants through open roles. Treat the earlier screening procedure as a published example unless a current role or hiring policy confirms it. (Earlier hiring account, public handbook)

Org Structure

• The About page displayed 108 team members in 38 countries when checked November 1, 2026; it is an undated page observation, not an independently verified census. (About Us)
• Earlier accounts describe a bootstrapped business, conservative hiring and shared communication values. They explicitly distinguish those values from hiring identical perspectives. (Operating account)
• The current onboarding guide names mentors, team heads, squad leaders and DRIs. It does not supply a complete current organization chart. (Onboarding)

Tools and Stack

(Current onboarding, October Comms account, earlier Twist account)

Rituals

Two organization gatherings per year. Todoist’s current About Us page says the organization meets twice yearly. This describes the company cadence, not a guarantee of individual attendance. (About Us)

Doist’s historical 20/30/50 retreat rule:

• 20% work sessions
• 30% planned social and entertainment activities
• 50% rest, relaxation, and free time

This published agenda emphasizes relationships and downtime. It is a historical design example; the current About Us page does not establish it as a mandatory agenda. (Historical source, current gathering statement)

AI

DoistOS is a company-wide shared workspace. On April 10, 2026, Chase Warrington, who led the squad that took it from prototype to launch, described DoistOS as a shared AI workspace that connects internal tools and is available in plain language to anyone at the company. The same day, Dominique Jost said it had been rolled out to every Doister. The stated purpose is shared context across tools, so people who are not building personal agents can work from the same company context. (Warrington, Jost)

Warrington reports employees using it for quarterly squad summaries, stale-handbook audits, and updating an onboarding checklist across Drive, the handbook and Todoist. These are employee-reported examples, not a measured workforce-wide use rate, output-quality evaluation or time-saving study. (Warrington)

Hiring allows AI if the candidate says so. The hiring FAQ says candidates may use AI to organize their thinking, asks them to disclose it, and says Todoist interviews humans rather than an LLM. Screening calls are with a person. New-hire onboarding includes an item to explore AI at Doist. (Hiring FAQ, onboarding)

What They Do Well

• Named onboarding support. The guide combines written tasks with recurring mentor and head meetings. [Inference — this gives newcomers routes for questions alongside independent reading.] (Onboarding)
• A communication-tool history tied to a stated problem. Earlier accounts explain the Slack-to-Twist move; the October update now reports Comms use. [Inference — the useful case is the explicit link between communication needs and tooling, rather than proof that one tool always performs better.] (Earlier account, Comms)
• A concrete historical retreat agenda. The 20/30/50 split is a specific design to evaluate, not an established optimum or current mandate. (Historical example)

Tradeoffs and Weaknesses

Delayed replies can slow coordination. Inference: decisions spanning time zones may take longer without a live discussion. This is a design tradeoff, not a measured Todoist decision-time statistic or evidence that its model excludes calls.

Culture requires explicit maintenance. Inference: a geographically dispersed team benefits from deliberate relationship-building. Todoist’s twice-yearly organization gatherings supply one mechanism. (Source)

Not everyone thrives in this environment. Doist is explicit that their model requires specific personal qualities — the ability to structure your own day, high written communication skill, tolerance for delayed feedback, comfort with ambiguity. These are not universal. (Source)

A public handbook now documents the operating system. Todoist publishes onboarding, compensation, career development, feedback, performance-review and retreat material. Some linked internal pages remain unavailable publicly. (Public handbook)

What Founders Can Copy

[Inference — application guidance from the cited company examples; these are design options, not measured prescriptions or headcount thresholds.]

1. Make the writing requirement explicit in hiring. The historical cover-letter screen is one example. Assess the communication the role needs rather than assume a cover letter proves async ability. (Earlier account)
2. Name planning and maintenance responsibilities. Document the objective, owner and how unplanned work enters the plan. The DO examples do not establish a universal sprint duration. (Earlier account)
3. Design onboarding support alongside the checklist. Todoist’s guide pairs written tasks with recurring mentor and head contact. (Onboarding)
4. Budget gatherings against a purpose. Compare the historical 20/30/50 agenda with the current statement of two organization gatherings annually. Choose the agenda and attendance arrangements for the people involved; neither proves most retreat time must always be social. (Historical agenda, current cadence)

Where This Model Breaks

[Inference — risks to assess, not observed Todoist failure rates.]

• Urgent work without escalation. A written default needs a way to switch to a call when delay is costly.
• Unclear commitments. Delayed replies make ownership, response expectations and follow-through important.
• Coordination costs that outweigh the benefit. Tune the amount of documentation to the work and team; these sources do not establish a lower headcount at which writing becomes wasteful.
• Customer-facing availability. Define coverage for roles that require live contact. The evidence here does not show that Todoist minimizes those functions or that all support work must be synchronous.

Related Practices

• Async Communication — written defaults with deliberate synchronous support
• Retreats — the 20/30/50 framework is directly Doist-derived
• Written-First Culture — Doist is the model case for communication-by-writing

Related Frameworks

• Sync vs Async Decision Matrix — choosing written discussion or a deliberate meeting

Sources

Todoist — October 2026 product update (last updated October 30, 2026; reports internal Comms use since May): https://www.todoist.com/help/todoist/product-updates/october-2026-capture-tasks-wherever-they-find-you-reUlb5uSI

Todoist — How Doist Works Remote (earlier operating account, migrated canonical URL): https://www.todoist.com/inspiration/how-doist-works-remote

Todoist — Remote teams retention (earlier operating account, migrated canonical URL): https://www.todoist.com/inspiration/remote-teams-retention

1. How Doist Works Remote: https://doist.com/how-we-work/how-doist-works-remote
2. The 20/30/50 rule for remote team retreats (historical agenda): https://www.todoist.com/inspiration/20-30-50-rule-remote-team-retreats
3. How Remote Teams Win With Retention: https://doist.com/how-we-work/remote-teams-retention
4. Doist Careers — company-wide and team retreats: https://doist.com/careers
5. How Amir Salihefendić Scaled Doist with Async Work (Business of Software, 2025): https://businessofsoftware.org/2025/08/how-amir-salihefendic-scaled-doist-with-asynchronous-work
6. Asana, Anatomy of Work Index (primary source for the ~60% “work about work” figure): https://asana.com/resources/anatomy-of-work-index
7. Microsoft, 2022 Work Trend Index — Great Expectations (primary source for the 252% meeting-volume figure): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/great-expectations-making-hybrid-work-work
8. Mark, Gudith and Klocke — The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress, CHI 2008 (interruption effects on speed and stress; does not establish a 23-minute recovery estimate): https://ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf
9. Replace Meetings with Twist (Doist blog): https://blog.doist.com/replace-meetings-twist/
10. Todoist, About Us (live, checked September 12, 2026): https://www.todoist.com/about-us
11. Todoist, Public Handbook (live, checked September 12, 2026): https://www.todoist.com/handbook
12. Todoist, Privacy Policy (current entity clause; displayed effective date is not a name-change date): https://www.todoist.com/privacy
13. Todoist handbook, Our History (includes July 2026 transition): https://handbook.todoist.net/s/a772e0a3-2196-4568-b08d-c5b939653b7c/doc/our-history-5X74kRZbMT
14. Todoist handbook, Your First 90 Days (live): https://handbook.todoist.net/s/6ca6f66e-2d02-4e05-b629-b1c772f5ff23
15. Becky Kane, 3 time-tested systems for creating accountability on a remote team (September 21, 2022): https://async.twist.com/accountability-remote-workers/
16. Chase Warrington, DoistOS launch (April 10, 2026): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/chase-warrington_introducing-duist-os-an-ai-powered-workspace-activity-7448354236540612608-JSGz
17. Dominique Jost, DoistOS rollout (April 10, 2026): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dominiquejost_introducing-duist-os-an-ai-powered-workspace-activity-7448401315896033280-hnWr
18. Hiring FAQ (living page; AI-use answer accessed October 5, 2026): https://handbook.doist.com/s/e4006490-4bd7-40dd-9209-f17903efb6f9/doc/hiring-frequently-asked-questions-dmZBKLmwD3

Inferences

• The historical Slack-to-Twist account and current Comms report show the company continuing to connect tooling and communication needs. They do not establish one primary motive or a comparison with most other employers.
• The historical retreat agenda offers an example of relationship investment. Twice-yearly gatherings complement deliberate recurring calls rather than replacing all synchronous support.
• Written hiring exercises may reveal role-relevant communication, but a cover letter does not prove how a person will write under time pressure.
• DoistOS may help colleagues share connected context; launch posts and reported examples do not measure workforce-wide adoption or resulting quality.

Work with Alex

If you are trying to reduce meeting load and shift your company toward more focused async work, Alex helps leadership teams redesign their communication infrastructure and cadence.