Help: Task Management
Terminology
Appointments
Appointments for a day are not directly supported in PostTask (as of now). However, you can easily associate a due time to a task by adding it to its name. For example, if you had a client meeting at 11:00 am for today, you could insert a task with the name "11:00 - client meeting" and the appropriate estimated duration.
Adding tasks
Adding tasks in PostTask is very easy. When you navigate to your tasks page you will notice a big rounded grey box at the top of the screen. It comes with two states: by default the 'Time' checkbox is not clicked. Here is a picture:
However, as this section is about adding tasks (and not tasklets), please click the checkbox. You will now see a duration field, too:
To add a new task you simply type the name of the task, insert a duration estimate (to complete the task) and hit enter on your keyboard. If your keyboard does not support form submission via hitting enter you can alternatively click the little Add button right next to the input field.
Now that was simple. To find out about more advanced features for adding tasks, please have a look at the hidden features section.
Updating tasks
To update the name of a task that is already listed you need to click with your mouse on its name field in the task list. The name field will transform into a little editor in-place and you are ready to type in a new name. To save the task you simply hit enter again or use the little save icon.
Updating a task's duration is just as easy. A click on the actual duration will open an in-place editor again and you can insert a new time estimate. By hitting enter or clicking the save icon you save the new duration estimate.
Deleting tasks
To remove a task from your task list you need to click the little bin icon which is next to the duration field. If you simply click on the bin you are prompted to confirm the deletion. This is built-in to prevent accidental deletion of a task. By holding the shift key while clicking the bin you bypass the confirmation.
Rescheduling tasks
If you added a task for today, but want it for another day, simply drag and drop it onto a day in the weekdays scroller. Everything will automatically update behind the scenes. In order to reschedule a task for a day that it is not in the current week, drag and drop it onto the red arrows of the weekdays scroller. A datepicker will pop up where you can click on a day.
What is this automatic rescheduling at 00:00am?
PostTask will give you a chance to alter your tasklist before all tasks are carried forward to the next day. This usually happens at 00:00am (if your timezone is set up correctly) or the next time you open up PostTask. Essentially, a little box will pop up telling you "a new day has risen". After hitting "Ok" a page refresh is issued, which allows us to update your statistics and everything else that would be either too complex or too slow to do behind the scenes.
After the page refresh your tasklist is split in two: The top one shows the new tasklist for the next day. The bottom one shows all tasks from yesterday that weren't completed. You can alter those and then hit the "Reschedule" button. That will carry the tasks from yesterday forward and update all times nicely again.
Importing tasks (and tasklets)
In PostTask you can import tasks very easily from a text file. Just open up your favorite editor and write down some information about the tasks. Then go to the appropriate page, upload the file and PostTask will import the tasks for you.
In order to extract the correct information, your file has to be in a given file format, which is explain in the following.
1. Every line of your text file makes up for one task or tasklet.
2. Start every line with "- ".
3. Write down the task's name after it. If you want to associate the task with a context, write the context's name (case insensitive) before the task name and separate with a colon (:). For example: "- Household: Take out trash". If you want to use a colon ( : ) within the taskname itself, escape it with a backslash. For example: "- Household: Mom said\: hurry up or the internet cable will be cut"
4. After the task and context name, supply a pair of parenthesis in which you supply information regarding the progress and the duration of the task. Separate the two with a slash (/).
There are several ways to do this, they are best explained when looking at examples.
(01:00) will set the duration to one hour.
(10% / 02:00) will set the duration to two hours and the progress to 10 percent.
(01:00 / 02:00) will set the duration to two hours and the progress to fifty percent.
5. The last thing you can do is add a date this task will be scheduled for. You can specify it either as "+x days" or in the "yyyy-mm-dd" format.
When you are done with the file, save it to your Desktop, go to 'My Tasks' (link at the top navigation bar when you are logged in) and see the import box at the top right. Browser through your computer, pick your file and hit 'Import'. You are done. You can repeat these steps as often as you wish.
So here is an example for a possible file:
- Body & Soul: Walk the Dog (01:00) +0 days // schedules for today, one hour duration, context is "Body & Soul"
- Debuggable: Finish Posts Preview (10% / 01:00) +220 dayds // invalid date format
- Write unit tests for excerpts (00:20 / 00:30) +1 day // scheduled for tomorrow, 30 minutes duration, 20 minutes done already which means 67% progress
- PostTask: I am a tasklet with nothing else // adds a tasklet to the "PostTask" context
- Errands: Get a new T-shirt sometime // adds a tasklet to the Errands context
The importer is smart enough to dig out most errors you can make. However, if you discover a misbehavior, please email us.
Hidden features / Tips
| How you do it | What happens |
|---|---|
| Hold down the shift key while adding a task | Adds a task with 100% progress |
| Hold down the shift key while you click on the progress bar of the task | Set a task's progress to 100% with one click |
| Hold down the shift key while you click on the duration field of the task | Set a task's progress to 100% and edit the time spent |
| Hold down the alt key while you click on the duration field of the task | Update the time of the task without changing the progress |
| Hold down the alt key while you click on theprogress bar of your task | Bypass the default behavior of PostTask trying to find a progress value that equals a minute count that is a multiple of 5. |
| Click on the My Tasks in the main navigation at the top of the page | You return to today after having 'travelled' in time using the weekdays scroller |
| Hold down the shift key while you click the bin icon next to a task | Delete a task without the need to confirm |
| Drag a task onto a context in the magic box. | Have that task associated with the context. |
| Drag tasks from the tasklist onto the days in the weekdays scroller. | Reschedule the task for the day you drag/drop'ed it onto. |