Task Text Format

Or aka Tasking like a mad genius!

Type tasks naturally and add inline shortcuts to set the bucket, duration, priority, dates, and more — all without touching a single dropdown.

Parent Tasks (Projects)

/Launch Product do this task

Type / followed by the parent task name to file a task under a parent. A popup will help autocomplete existing task names for you.

Any top-level task with subtasks naturally becomes a “project” — no special setup needed. Just nest tasks under a parent to create structure.

Quick Add with Parent

In any quick-add field, use /Parent Name to assign a parent task. For example: Buy milk /Grocery Run creates a task under “Grocery Run”.

Estimated Time

This is a long possible task 2h
This is a fast easy task 5m
This is an all day task 1d

Add Xm, Xh, or Xd for minutes, hours, or days.

Better estimation with the x-factor

Understanding how uncertain your estimate is can be really valuable — both for you and the system — to calibrate how long things actually take. You can add x2, x4, or x8 to express your uncertainty. See this article on the x-factor for more.

When — Buckets

We find it much simpler and more realistic to use buckets for when you want to do a task:

• @today — something I want to do today
• @next — tasks I’ll get to as soon as I can, but not necessarily today
• @later — tasks I’ll think about another time
• @inbox — tasks I just captured but haven’t decided when to do (default in quick add)
• @reference — reference material, not actionable

Just type @today, @next, @later, @inbox, or @reference anywhere in your task text.

Dates

Sometimes you want a task to appear on a specific date. There are two kinds:

• Start date — when you want to begin working on it (usually well before a deadline)
• Due date — when it’s actually due

You can write dates in many natural ways:

Review proposal start:2025-03-15
Meeting prep start:2025-03-15 3pm
Plan the retreat start today
Send invite start tomorrow 2pm
Write report start Monday
Team sync start on Tues 2pm
Quarterly review start next Wednesday
Big deadline due Friday
Submit proposal due next Thursday
Finish draft start next week
Wrap up project due next month
Think ahead start in 3 days
Deliver start in 2 weeks

It understands start/due with:

• Exact dates: start:2025-03-15 or start:2025-03-15 3pm
• Today/tomorrow: start today, start tomorrow 2pm
• Day of week: start Monday, start on Tues 2pm
• Next + day of week: start next Wednesday, due next Friday
• Relative: start next week, due next month, start in 3 days

You can also use deadline: as an alias for due: with exact dates.

Priority

• p1 — high priority
• p2 — medium priority
• p3 — low priority

You can also write priority:high, priority:medium, or priority:low. In practice, p1 and p3 are the most useful — medium is the default.

Task Type

Team standup type:meeting
Focus block type:x_block
End of sprint type:marker

• type:meeting — calendar meetings (usually synced from your calendar)
• type:x_block — extended time blocks for focused work
• type:marker — section dividers (see Markers - Section Dividers)

The -- Shortcut for Markers

The fastest way to create a marker is the -- prefix (two dashes and a space):

-- if time allows
-- quick wins
-- home & family

MakeTimeFlow automatically converts these into markers and strips the prefix. This works in quick add, the outliner, or anywhere you create tasks. See Markers - Section Dividers for how markers can transform your daily planning.

Quick Reference

Element	Syntax	Example
Parent	/Parent Name	/Launch Product fix the bug
Bucket	@bucket	@today, @next, @later
Duration	Xm, Xh, Xd	30m, 2h, 1d
X-Factor	xN	x2, x4
Priority	p1 / p2 / p3	p1 (high)
Start date	start:DATE or start PHRASE	start:2025-01-15, start Monday
Due date	due:DATE or due PHRASE	due:2025-12-01, due next Friday
Task type	type:TYPE	type:meeting

See Also

• Task Import and Export — bulk export/import format with status markers, hierarchy, notes, and task IDs
• Repeating Tasks — setting up daily and weekly routines