Use To-dos

A To-do is something Magpie is responsible for bringing back to your attention. It is different from a Note (information you want to keep), a checkbox inside a Note (a lightweight marker in a document), a Kanban card (work moving through a process), and a Calendar event (something happening at a time).

Every To-do belongs to Personal or to a team. To-dos you add while Personal is selected are yours alone; To-dos you add in a team are part of that team's work.

To-dos lists the To-dos that are yours, from Personal and every team. It is the same list whichever team you are in. Inside a team, Team To-dos lists everything in that team, whoever it is assigned to. See Your To-dos and Team To-dos.

Add a To-do

Type a title into the field at the top of the list and press Enter; New To-do in the page bar puts the cursor in that field. A To-do goes into Personal or the team you are in.

The When row under the field shows where it will go, already chosen for the view you are on:

• On Today, it is planned for today.
• On Upcoming, it is planned for tomorrow.
• On Anytime, it has no date.
• On Someday, it is set aside for someday.
• On a List's page, it goes into that List with no date.

To send it somewhere else, choose Today, Tomorrow, Next week (next Monday, or on a Sunday the Monday after tomorrow), Someday or No date before you press Enter, or Pick a date… to choose a day. The field's placeholder names the place, such as "Add a To-do for tomorrow in Acme". After each To-do, the row goes back to the view's own choice.

The new To-do appears in the list straight away. When it goes to another view, the line under the field says where, with a link to open it. A title can be up to 500 characters long.

Dates in the title

Magpie reads a date or a repeat at the end of the title:

• "Buy printer ink tomorrow" is planned for tomorrow.
• "Call dentist Friday" is planned for the coming Friday.
• "Take bins out every Thursday" repeats every week.
• "Submit report next Monday at 9am" gets a date and a time.
• "Plan the offsite next week" is planned for the same day as Next week.
• "Learn the cello someday" is set aside for Someday.
• "Sort the loft no date" has no date.

While you type, the line under the field shows what Magpie understood, such as "Friday 16 October", and the When row shows the matching choice. Those words are removed from the title when the To-do is added. To add the title exactly as typed, choose Keep as text. Choosing another place in the When row removes them too.

Date words inside a title, such as "Watch Friday Night Lights" or "Fix 3/4 inch pipe", are not read as dates. A date at the end of the title is used instead of the When choice: "Call dentist Friday" added on Today is planned for Friday. A time with no day, such as "Call mum at 5pm", is on the chosen day, or today when the choice has no day.

Views

• Today: To-dos planned for today or an earlier day, and To-dos whose Deadline is within 7 days, in one list. A To-do from an earlier day says Overdue and the date it was planned for.
• Upcoming: To-dos planned for a later day, in a group for each day.
• Anytime: open To-dos with no date. On Team To-dos, To-dos in no List come first, then a group for each List; on To-dos, each one shows its List.
• Someday: To-dos you have set aside. Giving a To-do a date takes it out of Someday, and moving it to Someday clears its date.
• Completed: completed To-dos, most recent first, a page at a time.

The numbers beside Today, Upcoming and Anytime show how many To-dos each holds. Older links to an Inbox view open Anytime.

A To-do's page

Select a To-do's title to open its page. Each value on it saves as soon as you change it: the title, When date and time, Deadline, Repeat, Reminder, List, Assignee (in a team), Priority (Normal or Important), Someday, notes, checklist and tags. If the To-do was started from a contact, a Kanban card or a Note, its page links back to that record.

Start timer on a To-do's page starts a Time Tracking timer with the To-do's title and links the time entry to the To-do; see Track time. Delete To-do is in its More menu.

Links to a To-do in email, Search, Calendar and the assistant open this page.

Tick off, move and reorder

Select the circle beside a To-do to tick it off. It is struck through, and after a few seconds it leaves the list for Completed. Until then, selecting the circle again reopens it; afterwards, choose Undo in the message that appears. If you tick several in a row, they leave together, and none leaves while your mouse pointer is over the list.

To delete a To-do without opening it, choose ⋯ at the right of its row, then Delete To-do. It goes from the list at once. Choose Undo in the message that appears to put it back, with its notes, checklist and reminder.

To change several To-dos at once, choose Select, select them, then choose Complete, When… (Today, Tomorrow, Next week, Someday or No date), Move to… a List, or Delete. One change can include up to 100 To-dos. Move to… lists the Lists of the team you are in, and only that team's To-dos can move into them. Choose Done to leave Select.

On Today and on a List's page, drag a To-do by the grip at its left (three short lines) to put it in the order you want, or use the up and down buttons at its right. On a phone or tablet, use the buttons. Today keeps your order on every device you use, and Team To-dos shows Today in the same order; each teammate has their own. A To-do you have not put in order yet starts at the top of Today when it is overdue, and at the end otherwise.

On a wide screen each To-do is one line: its title, then its day and where it belongs (its team, then its List) in two columns at the right. On a phone they are on a line under the title.

When and Deadline

When is when you plan to work on something. Deadline is when it is actually due. They are independent: set one, both, or neither. Magpie starts showing a To-do in Today from its When date. Its Deadline stays visible and does not move when you snooze a reminder.

Reminders and snooze

On a To-do's page, choose a Reminder: at When, 15 minutes or 1 hour before When, at Deadline, or 1 day before Deadline. A reminder at When uses the To-do's time, or 9:00 am when it has no time. A reminder by Deadline is at 9:00 am on that day. Reminders are emailed to the person the To-do is assigned to, or to the person who added it when nobody is, at their own local time.

Completing a To-do cancels its pending reminder. Snooze a reminder in the mobile app or by asking the assistant. Snoozing changes when Magpie reminds you again; it never changes the Deadline.

Repeating To-dos

End a title with a repeat, such as "every Thursday", or choose one under Repeat on a To-do's page: every day, every weekday, every week on the To-do's weekday, every two weeks, every month on its date, or every year. A To-do with no date starts on the first day that fits the repeat, which is today for "every day", or for "every Thursday" added on a Thursday.

A repeating To-do keeps its own history: completing this week's occurrence does not erase last week's, and the next occurrence is scheduled as soon as you complete the current one.

Choosing another repeat changes future occurrences. Choosing Never stops the repeat; occurrences already created, including completed ones, are kept.

Lists

A List groups the To-dos for one project or place, such as "Home" or "Tournament Preparation". Lists have no stages or statuses; for work that moves through stages, use a Kanban board (Track work with Kanban boards). A List's To-dos still appear in Today, Upcoming and Anytime by their dates.

Lists shows each List with its number of open To-dos and who it is shared with. New List asks for a name and opens the new List. On a List's page you can add To-dos to it and see its completed To-dos. The line under its name says who can see it. To rename it or give it a description, choose Edit details in the List's More menu; Import To-dos and Archive List are in the same menu. Archiving a List keeps its To-dos, with no List.

To share a List, choose Share next to its name, enter the person's handle, choose Can edit or Can view, and select Share. They can see the To-dos in that List, and add and change them with Can edit; they see nothing else that belongs to the team.

Someone who is not on the team will be invited, and can open the List once they accept, as a guest of the team; see Guests on a team. Until then the drawer lists them as Invited, waiting, with Cancel. A guest of the team is added at once, and members of the team already have access. The same drawer lists who it is shared with, with Remove for each person. Removing someone who has nothing else in the team also removes them from it, and the confirmation says so.

Who can change To-dos

In a team, members with edit access add and change To-dos. A member with View only access can open Team To-dos and, on a To-do assigned to them, tick it off, tick its checklist, and set or snooze its reminder. Team admins choose Member access on the team's page.

Team To-dos and assignment

Inside a team, a To-do can be assigned to one person. You can only assign a To-do to someone who already has access to it, either through team membership or through a List shared with them.

Your To-dos and Team To-dos

To-dos brings together the To-dos that are yours:

• your Personal To-dos;
• To-dos assigned to you in any team;
• To-dos nobody is assigned to, in the teams where you can use To-dos;
• To-dos in Lists shared with you directly.

You do not need to visit each team to see what you need to do today. When you belong to a team, each To-do shows which team it belongs to and opens in that team. A To-do assigned to a teammate is not in your To-dos.

Team To-dos appears beside To-dos while you are in a team. It lists every To-do in that team, including those assigned to teammates, with who each one is assigned to. Older links to My To-dos open To-dos.

Dashboard shows the start of your To-dos under To-dos: the To-dos in Today first, then the next ones planned after today. Tick them off there, or select Open To-dos for the rest. To leave the list off Dashboard, switch off To-dos on Dashboard in Account settings.

+ New To-do at the top of that section (or the T key) opens a window over Dashboard with the same field as the To-dos page, so nothing on the page moves. Type the title and press Enter. The When row under the field starts on Today; choose another place or Pick a date… to send the To-do somewhere else, or end the title with a day. The To-do goes into Personal or the team you are in, which the window's heading names. A To-do for today or a later day appears in the Dashboard list at once; the line under the field says where any other one went, with a link to it. The field is ready for the next To-do; select Done or press Esc to close the window.

Calendar

Scheduled To-dos appear on Calendar at their When date. Deadlines appear separately at their Deadline date, so planned work and due dates are not treated as the same thing. Selecting a To-do on Calendar opens its page. See Use Calendar.

Checklists and tags

On a To-do's page, add a short checklist for its own steps. A checklist item is not a To-do on its own; choose Make it a To-do when one needs its own date, reminder, or assignee.

Tags are optional labels for your own cross-cutting organization, such as "phone" or "waiting". They do not appear anywhere unless you add one.

The assistant

You can ask the assistant to find To-dos by status, When or Deadline date, priority, assignee, List or tag. It can also create, change, complete, reopen, move or snooze a To-do, set its repeat or reminder, change its tags and checklist, and create, change, archive and share Lists. It asks you to confirm in your message before it deletes anything, changes several To-dos at once, archives a List, or changes who a List is shared with. After a change it links to what it changed.

Creating a To-do from somewhere else

On a Kanban card, choose + Add a To-do to add a To-do to the card. It shows on the card and on Team To-dos, and ticking it off in either place ticks off the same To-do. See Track work with Kanban boards.

A contact can start a To-do that links back to it: To-dos opens with the title already in the add field, and nothing is created until you press Enter.

A Note can become one: choose Convert to To-do… in the Note's More menu, in Notes or in its window on Dashboard. The New To-do window opens with the Note's title, and pressing Enter adds the To-do to the Note's team, with the rest of the Note as its notes. Tick Move the note to Trash to delete the Note at the same time. A checkbox in a Note can be turned into a To-do from the Note. See Write and organize notes.

A To-do added on a card, or started from a contact or a Note, has a link to it under its title, such as "Card: Redesign pricing page".

In the mobile app

The mobile app shows a To-do's notes with their formatting: headings, lists, quotes, emphasis, code and links. It can also set a reminder for an exact time, and snooze a reminder; with no reminder set, snoozing moves When and leaves Deadline unchanged. A List can be shared there as Can edit or View only.

While you create or edit a To-do, the app keeps a copy of your changes on the device and removes it after you save or delete the To-do. The copy is not an offline save queue, so save the To-do before leaving the app.

If a To-do, reminder, or shared List is not behaving as expected, Contact support.