Task Management Pro-Tips

Best practices and guidelines for dealing with tasks.

Where do I put tasks if I don’t know what day I want to do them?

Use Sunsama’s lightweight backlog for storing tasks intended for future work but without specific day commitments. Open it in the right panel with Shift B or the filing box icon, or press B to go to the full backlog page.

Using shortcuts while creating a task

Create tasks quickly with keyboard shortcuts while typing the title:

  • # assigns a channel
  • ~ sets time estimate or planned time
  • @ sets start date (e.g., @tomorrow, @dec 14, @backlog)
  • $ aligns with an objective
  • ! sets priority level

Quickly create tasks from outside Sunsama and from other tools

With the desktop app running, use the Global Add Task shortcut (Cmd Shift A or Ctrl Shift A for Windows/Linux). The Add via URL feature creates tasks from integrations or websites without manual importing.

Viewing all tasks in a list

The search panel (magnifying glass icon, Cmd/Ctrl F) returns filtered task lists. Filter by task type, date range, and channel to locate specific task sets.

Choosing a “Backlog” tool

Sunsama functions as a daily and weekly task list, not a comprehensive project planner. When your backlog, archive, or today’s list accumulate extensively, integrate robust tools like Todoist, Trello, Asana, or ClickUp. Trello and Notion integrations enable bidirectional task movement.

Dealing with multi-day tasks

Multiple strategies exist for multi-day task management:

As a single task

  1. Create one large task
  2. Add constituent pieces as notes
  3. Convert today’s pieces to subtasks
  4. Upon completion, convert the next piece to a subtask and bump the parent to the desired day

Via subtasks

  1. Create a single task
  2. Add all pieces as subtasks
  3. Add time estimates to today’s subtasks
  4. Upon completion, bump the parent task and repeat

From an integration

Use the strategies above or pull the task fresh daily, renaming specifically for today’s work.

Using Weekly Objectives

Consider Weekly Objectives for single multi-day tasks or tasks normally requiring multiple subtasks.

Should recurring work be a recurring task or a recurring event?

Use a recurring task for work you want to check off, whether its timing varies (reviewing email) or is fixed (a morning workout with a rigid start time). Use a recurring calendar event when the time must be blocked so colleagues can’t book over it, such as “pick up kids from school”. See Recurring tasks versus recurring calendar events for the full comparison.

Counting actual work against your workload counter

Two approaches:

  1. Don’t import calendar items into the task list; remove auto-imported items via right-click
  2. Add items to a “Personal” context (never counts against work time)

Not losing sight of tasks in the Archive or Backlog

Create a recurring task titled “Review Backlog and Archive” as a reminder. Set recurrence frequency based on your usage patterns (weekly on Mondays, weekdays, etc.).

Decluttering your task view

Minimize attention residue through:

  • Hiding subtasks via right-click (unhide when actively working); update all instances of recurring tasks simultaneously
  • Using Today View and Focus Mode
  • Filtering to relevant contexts during work periods
  • Moving uncompleted tasks to tomorrow, backlog, or deletion (today’s column should only contain accomplishable items)

Converting subtasks to tasks

Open the task details and hover over subtasks to reveal a conversion button.

Converting a subtask to a task

Creating task templates

Create a task in the backlog under a “Templates” channel. Duplicate templates via the task menu or keyboard shortcuts (Cmd D or Ctrl D on Windows/Linux).

I forgot to stop the timer on a task/subtask that rolled over

Open the task’s actual time and use Edit entries to move the entry to the right day, trim it, or delete it. See Edit or delete tracked time.

Sorting the task list

Sunsama auto-sorts chronologically when importing calendar tasks or timeboxing. Manual adjustments persist. Access sorting via the Command Palette (Cmd K or Ctrl K), then type “sort”:

  • Reorder by start time (Cmd S or Ctrl S) – orders the day’s tasks by when they start
  • Reorder by unscheduled – puts tasks without a start time first (shown only when “Visualize projected time for tasks on calendar” is off)
  • Reorder by priority – sorts the focused day’s tasks by priority once
  • Reorder by shortest / Reorder by longest – orders by planned time
  • Reorder by newest / Reorder by oldest – puts the most recently or least recently scheduled tasks first
  • Reorder by channel – groups tasks in your channel order

For ongoing maintenance instead of one-shot sorts, Auto-sort keeps your daily list ordered automatically as you create or update tasks.

How do I hide subtasks?

Right click on a task and select “Hide subtasks” to collapse them on the task list view. Select “Reveal subtasks” to show them again.