Tasks are one of the core objects in Routine. They represent actions you need to complete at some point.

There are two types of tasks in Routine: regular and recurrent tasks. In both cases, tasks are composed of a title (or name) and an optional description (in the form of a note).

Every task belongs to a parent, be it another task, a page, an event, a person, etc. In some cases, however, a task does not belong to another object. We refer to those as root tasks. For more information on that topic, please refer to .

Regular and recurrent tasks can be created through the

Console

, either by opening the

Dashboard

or in the app itself.

Also, when creating a regular or recurrent task through the console, you can specify the parent object in which the task will be stored. Please read

Console

for more information.

🔀 Regular Tasks

To create a regular task, type the name of the task in the console and press ↵ to validate. The new task will be created and saved in your Inbox.

💡

When the task gets created, time can also be blocked, or the task can be scheduled for a specific date. For more information, refer to the

Console

You can perform a number of operations on regular tasks, among them:

Rename: press ↵ to edit the name of a task in a list (e.g., Inbox); a task's name can also be edited when the task is open
Open: double click the task in a list or use the open button when provided (e.g., in notes); alternatively, you can always use the ⌘/^ ↵ keyboard shortcut to open a task.
Describe: when a task is open, and there is no description, just press ↵ or select a template to add a description.
Complete: tick the checkbox or use ⌘/^ E or ⌘/^ . to mark a task as complete
Ignore: click Ignore in the ... submenu or use the ⌘/^ ⇧ I keyboard shortcut
Schedule: click the calendar icon or use the ⌘/^ L keyboard shortcut to schedule/reschedule or allocate time for a task (see
Schedule tasks
for more information)
Postpone: click the postpone icon or use the ⌘/^ P keyboard shortcut to postpone a task to a later week (see
Postpone tasks
for more information)
Delete: open a task and use the Delete action in the ... submenu or through the ⌘/^ ⌫/␡ keyboard shortcut

💡

As opposed to completed tasks, a task that has been ignored will not be accounted for as work done.

Tasks can also be created in the form of checkboxes, being in a task description, an event's private notes, a page, or a person's profile. For more information, please refer to

Write & edit notes

💡

Regular tasks can also interact with your calendar, for instance, by allocating time for you to make sure those tasks will be attended to. For more information, please refer to

Block time for important tasks

On mobile, the process of creating tasks is very similar:

Tap the + button
Enter the name of a task to create or something to remember
Tap Save

🔄 Recurrent Tasks

Recurrent tasks get created through the use of the every keyword. Unlike regular tasks that get saved in the Inbox for you to reconsider later, recurring tasks inherently have a notion of time, the recurring frequency.

Recurrent tasks can be specified a starting and ending date through the use of the starting and until keywords.

💡

For more information about the syntax to use to create recurring tasks, please refer to the

Console

The recurring task being created can be considered as the origin object. Whenever the frequency is reached (e.g., daily, every Friday, etc.), a regular task gets automatically created based on the recurring task.

💡

For more information regarding recurrences in general, please refer to

Recur tasks

As a result, if you create a daily recurring task with a description that contains, say, an image; every one of the recurring instances (which are regular tasks) will have a copy of the image in their own description.

The operations that you can perform as recurring tasks are slightly different from regular tasks:

Rename: press ↵ to edit the name of a task in a list (e.g., Inbox); a task's name can also be edited when the task is open
Open: double click the task in a list or use the open button when provided (e.g., in notes); alternatively, you can always use the ⌘/^ ↵ keyboard shortcut to open a task.
Describe: when a recurrent task is open, and there is no description, just press ↵ or select a template to add a description.

⚠️

Editing a recurring task's description will impact the future recurring occurrences but not the past ones.

Edit: to change the frequency of a recurrent task, click on the frequency (e.g., Daily) to change it
Stop: to stop a recurrence, click on the Stop button; in effect, no more occurrences will be created leading to the recurrence to automatically complete at the end of the cycle.
Restart: if a recurrence has been stopped, you can restart it and new occurrences will be created in the future following the recurrence's frequency.
Delete: use the Delete action in the ... submenu or through the ⌘/^ ⌫/␡ keyboard shortcut

📱

Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to create recurrent tasks on mobile.

✋

Something missing? Send us a message by email, chat (see

Contact

) or through the app.

Create & manage tasks

🔀 Regular Tasks

🔄 Recurrent Tasks