MakeTimeFlow Help

Task Text Format

6 min read

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.

It works at either end of the line, and the slash means something slightly different at each:

/Launch Product do this task     ← declare the parent, then write the task
Buy milk /Grocery Run            ← write the task, then file it

At the start, MakeTime takes the longest run of words that is actually one of your task names — so /Launch Product do this task files under “Launch Product”, not under “Launch”. At the end, everything after the slash is the name.

Names aren’t case-sensitive, and if two things share a name the project wins.

When to use quotes

Only when the name would otherwise be cut short — usually because it contains a dash: Reply to Rob /"Q3 planning — revenue".

If nothing matches the name, MakeTime leaves your text exactly as you typed it rather than guessing. That’s your cue that you’ve got the name slightly wrong.

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

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. A day means a working day, eight hours.

An hour and a half can be written whichever way you’d naturally write it:

Draft the proposal 1h30m
Draft the proposal 1h 30m
Draft the proposal 1hr30m
Draft the proposal 1h30
Draft the proposal 1.5h

All five are 90 minutes. Fractions work on any unit, so 0.5h is half an hour and 2.5d is two and a half working days.

The one rule worth knowing: a number and its unit have to touch. 1hour is an hour; 1 hour is two words in your title. That’s deliberate — it’s what keeps “call Sam in 5 minutes” from quietly becoming a five-minute task. If you want the time counted, close the gap.

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.

Blocking Time on Something

Two words turn a task into a sitting — time set aside for a body of work rather than one item.

work on #email                   ← a session on everything tagged #email
work on Flow Product             ← a session on that project
work on "Q3 planning — revenue"  ← quotes when the name holds a dash

Start one and you land in flow with the outliner already showing just that work — the tasks carrying that tag, or that project’s tree. See Tag Buckets.

The difference between the two is the #. With a sigil (#email, @waiting_for) it means the tag. Without one, it’s the name of a project or task you already have.

This is the one that pays off in a repeating task

A repeating task is just its text, so work on #email as a weekly repeat gives you an email session every week without setting one up each time.

Everything else still applies: work on #email @today 45m is a 45-minute email session in today.

Quick Reference

ElementSyntaxExample
Parent/Parent Name/Launch Product fix the bug, Buy milk /Grocery Run
Time on a tagwork on #tagwork on #email
Time on a projectwork on Namework on Flow Product
Bucket@bucket@today, @next, @later
DurationXm, Xh, Xd, XhYm30m, 2h, 1d, 1h30m, 1.5h
X-FactorxNx2, x4
Priorityp1 / p2 / p3p1 (high)
Start datestart:DATE or start PHRASEstart:2025-01-15, start Monday
Due datedue:DATE or due PHRASEdue:2025-12-01, due next Friday
Task typetype:TYPEtype:meeting

See Also