**Or aka Tasking like a mad genius!** The goal with our approach to your task trust system is to find a balance between making it as simple as possible for you to get tasks into it, and yet expressive enough so the system can help you to sort, prioritize, and group tasks into useful contexts (like projects!). We do this by offering you 2 main modes of entering tasks - entering information using the user interface items, or using the text syntax. All the elements you can select in the UI elements can also be easily entered using the task text syntax. Here are all the elements available for you to fully specify your tasks: ![[Flow Task Advanced View.png]] ## What is most commonly used / most useful ### Projects ``` #project1 an awesome task in this project ``` Put # and then the project name anywhere in the task and it will know you want that task in that project. You will notice a popup that will help autocomplete project names for you. You will also see that “Project A” is converted to #project_a, so if you want to create a sub project feel free to use this yourself. E.g. if you have #project1 then you can easily add #project1_sub1 to create “Project1 Sub1” > [!tip]- Advanced: Projects and Areas > You can also associate a task with an Area. Areas are easy ways to group projects. use `#area/project` to associate a task with a project in a particular area. Use `#area_51/` or `area:area_51` to have the task be associated with just an area (with no project). ### Estimated time to complete ``` This is a long possible task 2h This is a fast easy task 5m ``` To add an estimated time (or how much you want to timeblock that task for), just add Xm or Xh for minutes or hours. > [!tip]- Advanced: Better estimation with the x-factor > Understanding how uncertain your estimate can be really valuable (for you and the system) to help calibrate actually how long something will take you. See [this article on the x-factor](https://start.maketimeflow.com/blog/x-factor) for more. You can add “x2” or “x4” or “x8” to the task to associate it with that x-factor. ### When do I want to do this - Today, Next, Later or by a specific date We find it much simpler and more useful (and more realistic) to just use buckets for when you want to do a task. The buckets in our system are: - **Today** - something I want to do today - **Next** - tasks that I will get to as soon as I can, but I don’t have to do them today - **Later** - tasks I’ll think about at another time - **Inbox** - tasks I just thought of but I have not yet decided when I will do them With these buckets in place, you now have a much easier system for capturing, prioritizing and then doing (in the right order) your tasks, without becoming overly stressed. To associate a task with any of these buckets just use `@bucket` e.g. `@today`, `@next`, `@later` (In general you don’t need to add `@inbox` as this will be automatically assigned when you use the quick add window). Sometimes however you want to only think about something on a specific date. For that we think about specific dates for tasks in 2 ways: - When do I want to start working on something (usually well before the deadline) - you will use “start” - When is something due (yes actually due) - use “due” or “deadline” Specifying when you want to start something is probably the more useful, so you can add this to a task in a lot of different (and hopefully) natural ways. All of these will work: ``` Important start:2024-09-29 Important with a time start:2024-09-29 3pm Important start next week Important start in 2 days Important start at 3pm ``` It understands start next week, next month, next year. It understands start in X days, months or years.  You can also use this for deadlines: ``` This must be delivered due:2024-12-01 This must be delivered deadline:2024-12-01 This must be delivered due in 2 weeks ``` ### Assigning priority You can associate a priority with a task. In general the best way to do this is by dragging it up in position. But if you want to remind yourself that something is high or low priority, just use “priority:high” or “priority:medium” or “priority:low”. If you use `!` in your task, the system will automatically assign it as *high priority*. ### Task Positioning When adding tasks, you can control where they appear in your task list using simple commands: ``` important task that needs immediate attention /top most important thing to do in this bucket @next /first ``` - `/top` - Places the task at the very top of all your tasks - `/first` - Adds the task to the beginning of its specific bucket (Today, Next, or Later) > [!tip]- Why no "/last" or "/bottom" commands? > By default, new tasks are automatically added to the bottom of their bucket since most of us naturally think of tasks in sequence. This means you don't need a special command for adding tasks to the end of a list! You can also quickly reposition existing tasks using the move-to-top and move-to-bottom arrows. ![[Flow Move to Top or Bottom.png|200]] These work instantly to help you rapidly reorganize your tasks, especially useful when reviewing your Next bucket to identify priorities.