Tasks

Tasks in Zettly are not a separate app. They’re lines in your notes that the app recognizes, collects, and presents in a dedicated hub. A task you write in a meeting note shows up in the same task list as a task you write in a project brief. The notes are the source; the hub is the view.

This is the opposite of the typical task app, where the task is the canonical thing and the context is attached as a comment or a link. In Zettly, the context comes first — the meeting note, the project brief, the research log — and the task is one line in that context. The hub gathers them all so you can see your work in one place.

This page covers task syntax, the hub, the views, and the conventions that make tasks work without becoming busywork.

Task lines: the basic syntax

A task line is a Markdown checkbox with optional metadata. The simplest form is a checkbox:

- [ ] Outline the new essay
- [x] Read the shoreline draft

The first one is open (the box is empty), the second is done (the box is checked). You can tick the box from inside the note or from the Tasks hub — the two stay in sync.

Metadata is added inline, in a natural, human-readable way:

- [ ] Outline the new essay @due(2026-04-30) #writing
- [ ] Review the research notes @due(2026-05-01) #research @priority(high)
- [ ] Schedule the launch call @due(2026-05-10) #planning
- [ ] Migrate the old notes @due(2026-06-01) @recurring(monthly) #housekeeping

The recognized metadata:

• @due(YYYY-MM-DD) — a due date. The task shows up on the Calendar on this date.
• @priority(low | medium | high | urgent) — a priority. Affects sort order and matrix position.
• @recurring(daily | weekly | monthly | yearly) — a recurrence. Completing the task generates the next one.
• @status(todo | in-progress | review | done | blocked | cancelled) — an explicit status. Defaults to todo for an open task, done for a checked task.
• #tag — one or more tags. Tags are the way to group tasks across notes.

The app parses these inline annotations and exposes them as proper fields in the Tasks hub. You can edit them in either place.

Categories

Every task line belongs to a category. Add an optional @(letter) marker as a standalone word after the title (before @tokens):

- [ ] Outline the essay
- [ ] Meditate @(h) @repeat(weekly:mon,wed,fri)
- [ ] Ship launch checklist @(p) @due(2026-05-01)
- [ ] Run 20km this month @(g) @due(2026-05-31)
- [ ] Design review @(e) @scheduled(2026-04-15)
- [ ] Take out recycling @(c) @repeat(weekly)

Marker	Category	Meaning
(omit) or @(t)	Task	Regular to-do
@(h)	Habit	Recurring habit with @repeat
@(p)	Project	Project-management work item
@(g)	Goal	Outcome tracked via subtasks
@(e)	Event	Timed calendar event
@(c)	Chore	Household or rotating chore

Omit the marker and the line is a normal task. Markers are @(t), @(h), @(p), @(g), @(e), @(c).

Recurrence and habit progress

Use @repeat(...) for habits and chores. Extended grammar supports weekday lists, per-day or series times, and until:YYYY-MM-DD — for example @repeat(weekly:mon,wed,fri|09:00-10:00|until:2026-12-31).

Weekly habit progress comes from scheduled repeat days and done: YYYY-MM-DD logs — not a separate Nx/week target. A habit with only @repeat(daily) still tracks consistency on the habit dashboard.

The task hub

The task hub is one place to see every task in your vault. Open it from the sidebar.

Category tabs (All, Task, Habit, Project, Goal, Event, Chore) filter the hub. Each category exposes the views that fit it:

• All / Task — table, kanban, matrix (All also includes timeline and workload).
• Habit / Goal — dashboard (default) and table.
• Project — kanban (default), timeline, workload, matrix, table.
• Event — calendar (default) and table.
• Chore — table (default), kanban, dashboard.

Classic layouts:

• Table — a flat, sortable list. Sort by due date, priority, status, or last modified.
• Kanban — columns are statuses. Drag tasks between columns to change status.
• Timeline — Gantt-style layout by date, with dependencies as connectors. Useful for project planning.
• Matrix — priority vs. urgency (due soon or overdue). The “do these now” view.
• Workload — effort across assignees or notes.
• Calendar — timed events on a calendar layout.
• Dashboard — category widgets (habit consistency grid and scheduled-day progress; goal progress cards; chore rotation). Layouts are customizable: add, remove, resize, and rearrange widgets; the layout is saved per category.

You switch category and view from the hub header. The combination you pick is remembered per vault.

Statuses

The app recognizes six statuses. They’re standard for a reason — they cover the lifecycle of a task from “this needs to happen” to “this is done” with the stops in between.

• Todo — the default. The task is recognized but no work has started.
• In progress — someone is actively working on it.
• Review — the work is done; someone needs to look at it. The AI can flag tasks for review based on context.
• Done — the task is complete. Ticked in a note or marked in the hub.
• Blocked — the task can’t proceed. The hub can show why a task is blocked (a linked note explains it).
• Cancelled — the task is no longer relevant. Stays in the vault as history.

Statuses are visible in the hub columns, in the list view, and on the Calendar. The kanban view treats them as columns.

Saved filters and quick filters

A vault with hundreds of tasks can be hard to navigate. Filters narrow the hub to what matters right now.

Two kinds:

• Quick filters are one-click presets. #urgent, due this week, in progress, overdue, no due date. Quick filters live in the hub header.
• Saved filters are combinations of conditions you build and save. A typical saved filter is “tasks in the launch project, due this week, not blocked.” Save it once and re-use it from the hub header or the Calendar.

Filters are built from a small set of fields: status, priority, due date, tags, source note, and assigned project. You can combine them with and / or and save the result.

Quick add

A lot of tasks arrive in a hurry. The quick add bar is a small input at the top of the hub that parses natural language and turns it into a task.

Type something like:

Outline the new essay due friday #writing

…and the app parses “due friday” into a date, “#writing” into a tag, and the rest into the title. The task lands in the hub and (if a target note is in context) is filed in that note’s task list.

Quick add understands the most common patterns: dates in plain English (tomorrow, next monday, 2026-04-30), priorities (urgent, low), and tags. It’s a fast path from “I just thought of something” to “it’s in the system.”

Tasks and notes

The relationship between tasks and notes is bidirectional. A task in a note shows up in the hub; a task added in the hub can be filed back to a specific note.

A few patterns worth knowing:

• The meeting note pattern. Take notes in a meeting note. As decisions come up, write a task line for each one. After the meeting, open the hub and review the tasks. They’re all there, in context, with the meeting note as the source.
• The project note pattern. A project note is the canonical home for the project’s tasks. Use tags to scope the hub to the project. The board for the project can show the same tasks as a widget.
• The daily note pattern. A daily note collects the day’s tasks and thoughts. The hub shows them in context. The graph shows the day as a hub connecting everything that happened.

The hub is the aggregator, not the origin. Tasks originate in notes, where the context is. The hub is the place to see them all together.

Tasks on boards and the calendar

Tasks don’t live only in the hub. They show up wherever they make sense.

• On a board. Drop a task widget on a board and scope it to a project or a saved filter. The widget is a live slice of the hub — completing a task on the board marks it done in the hub.
• On the calendar. Tasks with a due date appear on the Calendar. Drag a task to a new date to reschedule; the change flows back to the note. See Calendar for the full picture.
• In a deck. Drop a task widget on a slide to show the status of a project in a talk. The slide stays in sync with the hub.

The point is that tasks are everywhere at once, but there’s only one of them. Edit a task in any of these places and the change shows up everywhere else.

The AI and tasks

The AI assistant can help with tasks in two ways.

First, the AI can schedule tasks for you. Say “schedule the launch tasks for next week” and the AI proposes a schedule — a set of dates and times for each task. You review the proposed schedule and accept it. The dates flow back to the task lines in the notes.

Second, the AI can organize tasks. Say “group the launch tasks by phase” and the AI proposes a tag structure, a saved filter, or a board layout. You review the proposal and accept it.

Neither change happens without your approval. See AI assistant for the full model, including how to undo anything the AI does.

Tips and conventions

A few things that make tasks work better:

• Tasks are sentences, not just titles. A task line is short, but a well-written task is specific. “Outline the new essay” is good. “Outline the new essay by reading the existing drafts first” is better.
• Tags project the task. A task with no tag is invisible to project filters. If a task is part of a project, give it the project tag.
• Due dates are promises. Don’t put a date on a task you can’t commit to. The Calendar is a place for promises, not aspirations.
• Done is a real state. Mark tasks done when they’re done. A clean hub is a useful hub.
• Cancelled is honest. If a task is no longer relevant, mark it cancelled. Don’t leave it hanging at “todo” forever.

See Notes & editing for the writing side of task lines, Calendar for the scheduling side, and AI assistant for the AI side.