Dealing with multi-day tasks

There are a few techniques and strategies you can employ to manage tasks that you don't complete in a single day. There's no right or wrong answer here, the technique you choose may depend on personal preferences and/or the specific nature of the task itself.

As a single task · 0:31

Log time on the task today as you work on it. Unless a task is marked as complete, it will roll over to the next day's task list automatically at midnight. Or, you can preemptively move the task to tomorrow's list when you know you're done working on it for today.

As long as you logged any amount of actual time on the task today, both methods will leave a breadcrumb of the task in today's task list as evidence, or credit, for you having worked on it.

Note: when a single task exists on multiple days like this, it is in fact the same task. This means deleting it on one day will delete the entire task and it's history.

Via subtasks · 1:43

If the task has several components or steps, create subtasks for those.

Similar to the above method, wherein logging actual time on the task today leaves a breadcrumb, completing any number of a task's subtasks will leave a breadcrumb of the task in today's list. You can then allow the parent task (and any incomplete subtasks) to roll over to tomorrow's task list at midnight, or preemptively move the task to tomorrow's task list.

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Note: when a single task exists on multiple days' task lists like in the above two methods, it is the very same task showing on multiple days. This means deleting it on one day will delete the entire task and it's history.

Via weekly objectives · 3:00

If you anticipate a task will take multiple days to complete, consider creating a weekly objective for it. This method allows you to create individual tasks from the objective for each day you plan to work on it, which eliminates the need for and complications that come from task rollover. It also allows you to get a fuller picture of the days and total time you spent working on this task, via the features of weekly objectives.

When you finish working on the task today, check it off in today's list even if you're not finished with the task at large. You can then create another task from the objective for the next day you plan to work on it.

Other methods:

Duplicating the task

Duplicate the task to create a copy of it. You can do this with keyboard shortcut CMD D, via the right click menu, or via "other actions" inside the task card. Then, move that copy to the next day you plan to work on the task.

This method is similar to the weekly objectives method listed above, in that you can avoid the issue of a single task existing on multiple days. It may be a better method if you have any significant content in the notes or subtasks of the task you wish to duplicate.

You could even combine this method with the weekly objectives method, aligning all associated tasks to the same objective, to get the added benefits of weekly objectives.

From an integration

If the task comes from an integration, you can import the task from that integration multiple times to each day you plan to work on it.

This method, as well as other variations on some of the methods here, are also outlined on this page where this pro-tip was previously covered.