Objects & actions

There are a few core objects that you can manipulate in Routine: tasks, notes, events, people, pages, etc.

☑️ Tasks

Tasks are representations of actionable information. As with most productivity tools, a task has a title or a name that can be extended with a description.

Unlike many products, however, a task on Routine can be extended with a description. This description is nothing more than a media-rich note (see below). As a result, tasks can contain subtasks in the form of checkboxes, which can be extended further to contain more subtasks, etc.

Every task can be manipulated through common actions, though some actions differ depending on the nature of the task: regular or recurrent.

To learn about how tasks get created, please refer to Create & manage tasks.

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 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
• Won’t do: click Won’t do 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

Recurrent 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.
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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
• Pause: to stop a recurrence, click on the Pause button; in effect, no more occurrences will be created leading to the recurrence to automatically complete at the end of the cycle.
• Resume: 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

📅 Events

Events are fundamental components of Routine since they represent things that you need to do that are so important that you have reserved some time for them.

It is commonly accepted that everything time-related lives in a calendar. At Routine, we believe calendars are extremely useful to overview your time over a long period e.g a week or a month. But when it comes to the day-to-day or even scheduling meetings, calendars could benefit from a more modern approach.

Events have a date, time, and duration and can have multiple participants. Nothing new here.

Routine however allows you to take private notes for those events (meeting, class, or else). Likewise, Routine bridges tasks and events by allowing you to block time for your most important tasks.

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For more information, please refer to Attach notes to events and Block time for important tasks.

Like in any calendar product, events can be manipulated through the following actions:

• Create: 🛑 Not yet available
• Open: click the event to open it or use the ⌘/^ ↵ keyboard shortcut if the event is in a list (e.g Journal)
• Move: drag & drop the event to reposition it in the agenda
• Resize: drag & drop the bottom part
• Delete: use the Delete action in the ... submenu or through the ⌘/^ ⌫/␡ keyboard shortcut

📚 Pages

Pages are objects that allow users to save and organize long-term information. Unlike tasks or events, pages are not time-bound and therefore do not "expire".

People often rely on pages to record information such as their plumber's phone number, a bucket list, the list of renovations to perform on their house, etc.

The actions on the pages all relate to the hierarchy. For the pages' content, please refer to notes (Write & edit notes).

• Create: use the + button or use the … menu to create a subpage
• Open: click on a page to open it
• Organize: drag & drop the page to reposition it in a list or drop it on another page to nest it
• Describe: use the keyboard arrows to select a template or press ↵ to start typing in an empty page
• Archive: use the Archive button at the top of an opened page or the … menu in the hierarchy
• Delete: click Delete in the ... submenu or use the ⌘/^ ⌫/␡ keyboard shortcut

And because pages rely on notes, they can contain anything from text and media to checkboxes which are full-fledged tasks in Routine.

When the time comes to act, this feature allows you to turn any information into a task and then act upon it: complete, schedule, postpone etc.

🧑 People

People are, like events, tasks and pages, a core component of your productivity operating system.

People represent the contacts you have interacted with over time. Routine synchronizes with your favorite contact management system (e.g Google Contacts) to maintain the information up-to-date.

But Routine goes further, allowing you to take notes on people you interact with. Those notes could be simple points you would like to discuss during your next meeting, tasks you need to complete that relate to that person up to recurrent actions you want to be remembered to take e.g scheduling a review meeting, booking a restaurant for your marriage anniversary etc.

🗒️ Notes

In Routine, a note is anything that is used to enrich another object: task, person, event, etc.

Since notes are usually used to describe other objects, they often contain non-actionable information.

But Routine has been designed to reconcile all those objects — that usually live in different tools (to-do, notes-taking, calendar apps) — in a single and coherent product.

A note is composed of blocks of different types:

• Text
• Bulleted list: /bullet, or through the shortcut * or - followed by a ⎵ (SPACE)
• Ordered list: /ordered or through the shortcut 0., 1., 2. etc. followed by a ⎵
• Section heading: /h1, /h2, /h3 or through the equivalent shortcuts #, ##, ### followed by a ⎵
• Quote: /quote or through the shortcut | followed by a ⎵
• Divider: /divider or through the shortcut ---
• Embed (photos, videos, tweets, etc.): /embed
• Task: /todo, /task, /checkbox or through the shortcut [] followed by a ⎵
• Attachment: 🛑 not yet available

Routine differs from other productivity tools in the sense that notes can contain tasks of their own in the form of checkboxes. In other words, a checkbox represents a full-fledged task that can be archived, scheduled but also extended further with a description.

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For more information on note edition, please refer to Write & edit notes.

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