How do When, Deadline and reminders work on a task?

A task’s When is when it starts: a day, a start time and a length. The end is the start plus the length, and the form shows it next to the word When. A Deadline is a separate, optional line for the latest the task may be finished. A reminder counts from the start, unless you tell it to count from the deadline.

#When: day, start and length

In the task form, the When block has Day, Start and Length. Start stays grey, with the words “Set a day first”, until there is a day. Length offers 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 1 hour and 2 hours, and an Other button that opens a box where you can type 50, 2h or 1h 30. A length runs from 1 minute to 24 hours. Click a chosen length again to take it off.

Once there is a start and a length, the block reads, for example, “Ends 3:30 PM”. A block that crosses midnight adds “the next day”.

#Deadline

Click Add a deadline under When, then pick a day and a time. Remove takes it off again. A task with a deadline and no start is listed on its deadline day, and it shows in Today from the day before.

If the block would run past the deadline, the form says so in a plain line, “This ends after the deadline.” or “This starts after the deadline.”, with a button such as Start at 2:30 PM that moves the start to one that fits.

#Suggested start

Give a task a deadline with a time and a length but no start time, and the form offers one: “To finish by 3:00 PM, start at 2:30 PM. Remind me then?” Click Use 2:30 PM to take it, or No thanks. The start it suggests is the deadline minus the length, rounded down to five minutes and never earlier than now. If there is too little time, the form says “There is not enough time left to finish by” and the deadline’s time.

#Reminders

The Reminder list has nine choices: At the start, 5 minutes before, 10 minutes before, 15 minutes before, 30 minutes before, 1 hour before, 2 hours before, 1 day before and No reminder. A task needs a day first. A day with no time goes off at 9:00 AM. Under the list the form says when it will go off, for example “Goes off at 2:45 PM”.

When a task has both a start and a deadline, a Count from choice appears with two buttons, The start and The deadline. Counted from the deadline, the first choice reads “At the deadline” and the others read, for example, “10 minutes before the deadline”.

#Two settings that shape reminders

Both are in Settings → Assistant and tasks, in the Tasks card, and both are on to begin with.

• The switch Remind me when a task’s time comes gives every task with a start time a reminder at the start. You can still pick No reminder on any one task.
• The switch Check in when a task’s time ends asks about a task with a length when its time is up. A switch in the task form, Check in when it ends, changes it for one task.

What each reminder looks like when it goes off, and the buttons on it, is in what happens when a reminder is due.

#When it does not work

A repeating task cannot have a deadline.

This ends after the deadline.