How do I set up a goal and keep its tasks together?

A goal is a name, an optional finish-by date and the tasks that lead to it. To make one, open Tasks, click the flag at the top right to open Goals, click New goal, and work through three short steps. The goal then has its own page that shows how far along it is.

#Make a goal

1. Open Tasks, click the flag (Goals), then New goal.
2. Step 1 asks “What are you trying to finish?” Type a name of up to 80 characters. Finish by and Colour are optional, and if you skip the colour the app picks one. Click Next.
3. Step 2 asks “What needs to happen to finish this?” Type one task per line. Days and times you type are read for you, as in Add a task, and a list shows what was read from each line. Click Next, or Skip planning to add tasks later.
4. Step 3 shows “Here is the plan”. Click the button, for example Create goal and 3 tasks.

To put an existing task in a goal, pick the goal in the task’s Goal field, or type @ and the goal’s name when you add it. A goal counts its tasks, and sub-tasks are steps inside them.

#The goal page

Click a goal in the list to open its page. Near the top is a ring with “3 of 9” and the words “tasks done”, the days left to the finish-by date, and one line about the pace: “On the planned pace.” or, for example, “Running tight. 2 tasks are still open from an earlier day.” The pace line reads only the days on your tasks. Under it come the next task, a strip called The days of this goal with a mark for each task, the tasks grouped By status or By day, and a list called What happened.

Click Add task to add a task straight into the goal. The menu at the top right has Pause goal (and Resume goal), Finish goal (and Reopen goal), Rename goal, Change finish-by date and Delete goal. Deleting a goal never deletes its tasks. A paused goal turns its pace line off.

#Finishing a goal

When you finish the last open task of a goal, the goal finishes with it. A card says, for example, “All 9 tasks for Client landing page are done.” and “It is now a finished goal.” It stays for a few seconds with an Undo, which puts the task back and makes the goal active again. Putting an open task into a finished goal opens the goal again: “Client landing page is open again.”

Finish goal in the menu finishes a goal by hand and leaves its open tasks open. A paused goal never finishes by itself. Finished goals are listed under the goals with their dates and counts only.

#The goal as a Mind Map

Pick a goal in the Filter by goal chip under the Tasks title, then switch to the Mind Map. The goal sits in the centre, its open tasks are the branches around it, and their sub-tasks hang under them.

• Drag a task to move it together with its sub-tasks. Hold Alt (Option on a Mac) while you drag to move only that one.
• With the keyboard, press M on a task to pick it up, move it with the arrow keys, and press Enter to put it down.
• Reset layout appears among the map’s tools once you have moved something. It puts every node back and offers an Undo.

Moving a node changes no task. The places are saved when the drag ends, on this computer, for that goal only.

#When it does not work

That goal could not be made, and nothing was created. Try again.

A repeating task cannot join a goal, so the goal tag is left off.