Types of Tasks

ToDo Items, Scheduled Tasks, Pinned Tasks…

TaskQuark makes no distinction between a task and a calendar event, or a task and an simple item in a todo list.

All tasks, however, 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.

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

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

ToDo Items

A “Todo Item” is a task with no scheduled work time. It may be in any state and have any priority. It is a task that you want to keep in mind, but has no specific scheduled time to work on it.

Simple ToDo items

The most simple task is a “Todo Item” with just a title or summary. There is no start date or end date, and no scheduled work time has been set.

Tip

These items can be used as quick notes or reminders, e.g. “Call John”, “Buy milk”, “Finish report”.

These items, however, can be in any state, which affects how the are displayed in the different taskpads.

ToDo items

A more complex ToDo item may have a start or an end date and time, but no sheduled work time. Nonetheless, you can set filters to the task to be scheduled only in a specific day of the week, day of the month or month or year.

If it has a start date, but no end date is set, the task is considered not to have an 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 on any date.

Scheduled Tasks

A task with “scheduled work time” is a recurring task with one or more repetitions.

A recurring task is a task scheduled to be repeated at some interval. Each of these actual, repeated tasks, derived from the recurring task, is called a repetition.

A repetition is an instance of a recurring task, scheduled to be repeated at a given interval or combination of scheduling conditions. These repetitions appear in the different TaskQuark pads as different 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.

The actual repetitions are calculated as follows:

  • If no fields are set, the task will be repeated every day at no specific time, between the start and end events.

  • If any field in the work schedule is set, the task will be repeated according to the values of that field.

  • All fields are cumulative, i.e. the repetition of the task will occur ONLY on the days 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 weekdays to Monday and Wednesday and the day to 1, the task will be repeated only on the first day of the month that happens to be Monday or Wednesday.

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

Pinned Tasks

A pinned task is a special task that is scheduled to work on daily (or the following day, if pinned to “next day”).

This task event appears only once in any 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. A pinned tasks appears only once on the Monthpad and the Weekpad, and it is not shown on every day contrary to a regular task that appears repeated every day on the pads.

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 every day on the Weekpad as a repetition.