Kanban Board: the basics

Purpose

In Sunsama, tasks are always viewed in the context of the day you want to work on them. Each day, has its own column, in which you can see the tasks and meetings you want to do that day.

When these task columns are placed side by side, we refer to it as a "Kanban" or "Board".

In this guide, we will explain how task columns are laid out, how the kanban works, as well as some special behaviors like task rollover and completion credits.

Walkthrough

How to use

Column layout · 0:00

A single task column has a date header, a new task creation button, and then a list of tasks that are associated with that day.

Navigate forwards or backwards in time using your mouse or the date picker in the top left corner. Previous days' task lists will show the tasks you worked on, future day task lists will show the tasks you have planned that day.

Focus a day by clicking on it's header. This will determine what day shows in the single day calendar in the right hand panel.

Task Rollover · 2:30

At midnight, any uncompleted task will roll over to the next day.

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Archive

Note: If a task rolls over multiple consecutive days, it may be captured by your archive in the right hand panel, which you can configure or disable

Completion Credits · 3:32

If you make some progress on a task on a given day but don't finish it that day, you'll see "completion credit" or "breadcrumb" in your task column. This will show as a faded out task with no main checkbox.

You can get completion credit for a task if:

• You check off a subtask that day
• You track actual time on the task (or any of it's subtasks) for that day

Tasks that take multiple days to complete

If, at the end of your work day, you have worked on but not completed a task, you can simply leave it un-checked and it will appear in your task list tomorrow for you to continue working on. Alternatively, you can pro-actively drag the task to tomorrow's column.

If you had logged actual time and/or completed a subtask on the task before doing so, evidence of the task will still show on the previous day as a record of work you did on that task.

If you are regularly working on tasks across multiple days, consider these techniques to better manage those types of tasks.

Moving tasks between days · 5:49

There are three ways to move tasks between days:

• Dragging and dropping them
• clicking the little calendar icon on the task card
• Using the "Start date" menu that appears on any task

Adding tasks · 6:14

Click the "Add task" button at the top of any day's task list to add a task to that date.

Alternatively, open the add task modal with the A key on your keyboard and create a task. Within that modal, you can type @ or click the date to set a particular date for that task.

Workload counters · 6:51

The top of every task list shows a workload counter. This can show the sum of your tasks' planned times and/or the sum of your actual times compared with the total planned time.

For today's list, you may click on the workload counter to cycle between different views.

Task ordering · 8:06

The easiest way to re-order tasks is to drag and drop a task in the list. If your list is long, you can right click on the task to pull up the context menu which allows you "Move to top" and "Move to Bottom".

You can quickly trigger a certain type of sort, such as a chronological sort, by opening the command bar with shortcut CMD K or CTRL K, and typing the word "Sort".