Your tasks now set up your workspace automatically, and your communication tools now come with built-in time boundaries. Two features that work together to protect your focus time. **Released:** Friday, March 6, 2026 ### Task Actions: Your Workspace, Instantly Task Actions detect URLs and keywords in your tasks and launch everything you need when you start working. Add a GitHub link to a task, and it opens when you begin. Write "check comms" and all your configured communication tools launch. Include "do shutdown" and you're taken straight to your shutdown ritual. **What gets detected:** - Any URL (`https://`, `obsidian://`, `slack://`, etc.) - Communication keywords (`check comms`, `do Gmail`, `do Slack`) - Ritual keywords (`shutdown`, `wrap`, `begin well`) Actions are detected the moment you save a task. A lightning bolt on the Start button tells you a task has actions before you start it. Hover over the bolt to see exactly what will run. **You stay in control.** By default, actions run automatically if there are 5 or fewer. More than 5 and you'll be asked to confirm first -- no surprise tab explosions. You can also set your preference to always ask, or never auto-run. For full details on all action types and configuration, see [[Task Actions]]. ### Comms Scan/Process: Time-Bounded Communication The new Scan and Process buttons on the Communications page let you check your email and chat with a timer running -- so you decide how long to spend *before* you open your inbox. **Scan** is for quick checks: 5 or 10 minutes. Open your tools, see if anything urgent needs attention, then get back to work. **Process** is for dedicated communication time: 10 or 25 minutes. Read, respond, triage, then move on. Both modes: 1. Open all the tools in the selected group 2. Start a timer for the duration you chose 3. Return you to where you were when the timer ends or you mark it done **Why this matters:** Without a boundary, "let me just check email" easily becomes 30 minutes lost. Scan and Process give that impulse a container. You set the time, do the work, and MakeTimeFlow brings you back. Your focus time stays protected. The **Open** button is still there for when you just want to launch your tools without a timer. For setup and best practices, see [[Communication Tools]]. ### How They Work Together Task Actions and Comms Scan/Process are built on the same foundation: lifecycle actions that fire at the right moment. - **On Start** opens your URLs and tools when you begin - **On Stop** and **On Done** navigate you back when you finish When you click "Scan Email (5 min)", MakeTimeFlow creates a task called "Scan Email" with your email URLs as On Start actions and a return-to-previous-page as the On Stop action. It's Task Actions all the way down -- just packaged into a one-click workflow for your most common communication patterns. ### Getting Started **Task Actions:** 1. Add a URL to any task title or notes 2. Look for the lightning bolt on the Start button 3. Start the task -- your URL opens automatically **Comms Scan/Process:** 1. Make sure you have communication tools configured (Communications page > Customize Tools) 2. Click Scan or Process on any tool group, pick a duration 3. Your tools open, the timer runs, and you're brought back when it ends