Types of Tasks

TaskQuark makes no distinction between a task, a todo item or a calendar event.

All tasks, however, always belong to a project. For simple tasks where the project is not relevant just use the default project in your profile. See The Default Project for more information.

These are the main “types” of tasks you can create in TaskQuark:

  • ToDo item: a simple task with a description, but no scheduled work time.

  • Calendar event: a task with a specific start date and a scheduled work time and duration.

  • Pinned task: a task that is scheduled to work on daily basis, but has no repetions.

Note

ToDo item will not be synchronized with external calendars, event when created on an project from an imported calendar. See Import a Google Calendar for more information.

ToDo Items

A “Todo Item” is a task with no scheduled work time. It can be in any state in the workflow and have any priority.

These items can be used as quick activities, notes or reminders, e.g. “Call John”, “Buy milk”, “Finish report”, and may have task event dates set for the task start, due date, etc, but have no scheduled work time.

Unbound ToDo items

The most simple task is a “Todo Item” with just a title or summary. There is no start date or end date.

These items, however, can be in any state, which affects how the are displayed in the different taskpads, and have a due or a target date set.

Time-bound ToDo items

A more complex ToDo Item may have a start event or an end date and time, but never a scheduled work time (wich will turn it into a calendar event).

If it has a start date but no end date is set, the task is considered to have no end time to work on.

If it has an end date but no start date is set, the task is considered ready to work on it since any date in the past.

Calendar Events

A task with a start date and a scheduled work time and duration” is a calendar event. If there is only repetition it is a single event, otherwise it is a recurring event. Single events are not repeated, but recurring events have multiple repetitions for the same work time and duration in different dates.

Note

Calendar events in a project can be synchronized with a Google Calendar. See Import a Google Calendar for more information.

Single Event

A single event is a task scheduled to work on only once, on a specific date and time with a given work duration.

Note

A task work duration is set in hours and minutes, with a maximum lenght of 24 hours and rounded to 15 minutes.

All Day Event

An all-day event is a task with a start date but not start time, and an end date with no end time. The start and end dates are considered to be the whole day, from 00:00 to 23:59, and the task is considered to be scheduled to work on the whole day.

However, the start and end dates may not necessarily be the same. In this case, the task is considered to be scheduled to work on the whole day for this period of time.

Recurring Event

A recurring event is a task scheduled to be repeated on several dates under some conditions or intervals (e.g. daily, the 1st. of each month, etc.). Each of these repeated occurrences, derived from the recurring task, is called a repetition.

A repetition is an instance of the recurring task, scheduled to be repeated at a given interval or combination of scheduling conditions. These repetitions may appear on different TaskQuark pads as different instances of the same tasks, but they all are related to the original recurring task.

A recurring task may have a start and/or a end date and time, or even due and/or target date; but it must have a scheduled work time and duration.

Note

Some external calendars may not support recurring events with no start date.

The actual set of repetitions is determined as follows:

  • The task will be repeated every day, between the start and end events, at the work time set.

  • If any other field in the work schedule is set, the task will be repeated only according to the values of those fields. All schedule fields are cumulative, i.e. the repetition of the task will occur ONLY on the dates that match ALL the values indicated.

  • The repetitions start on, or after, the date of the start event, if any is set. Otherwise, the repetitions are scheduled from any past date.

  • The repetitions end on, or before, the date of the end event, if any is set. Otherwise, the repetitions are scheduled to repeat forever.

Hint

Examples:

  • If you set the time to 10:00, the task will be repeated every day at 10:00.

  • If you set the time to 10:00 and the weekdays to Monday and Wednesday, the task will be repeated every Monday and Wednesday at 10:00.

  • If you set the day to 1 and the month to January, the task will be repeated on January 1st of every year.

  • If you set the weekdays to Monday and Wednesday and the day to 1, the task will be repeated only on the first day of the months when that happens to be Monday or Wednesday.

Pinned Tasks

A pinned task is a special task scheduled to work on on a daily basis (today if set to “current date”, or the following day, if pinned to “next day”).

This task event appears only once in any TaskQuark pad, and will move automatically from today to the next day when the current day ends. This is different from a regular scheduled task set to repeat every day, where the repetitions are shown on every day of the date range. A pinned tasks appears only once on the Monthpad or the Weekpad, and it is not shown on every day contrary to a regular repeating task.

Tip

Pinned tasks are useful for tasks that you want to keep doing (or being reminded of) on a daily basis, but you don’t want them to appear repeated every day on the Weekpad multiple times.

Note

Pinned tasks are not synchronized with external calendars.