Future tasks and scheduling
We offers date-based scheduling in two ways, depending on a workflow chosen for each area of life:
- In Kanban-like workflows (our recommended approach) – such as Now/Later, Kanban, Must/Should/Want, and others – it’s used for future tasks as future reminders
- In our date-based workflow (Plan Your Days), it naturally follows a more traditional planning approach (e.g. “I will do this today, and that tomorrow“)
In contrast to other apps that are designed around dates and planning, or act more like databases – you assign properties to tasks and are left alone to manage them – this distinction is important to understand in learning how to use dates in Lunatask correctly.
Most apps teach you to think in dates, so your first instinct may be to use Lunatask the same way – but doing so, you would immediately bump into problems and confusion.
Lunatask works differently, offering a more human, forgiving, now-focused approach that helps you step away from thinking in dates 💡
Unlike other apps that try to organize your life by asking you to create plans – decide what to do and when - and eventually fall short, Lunatask embraces the fact that the future is inherently uncertain rather than fighting it.
The future always changes, new tasks and priorities pop up, one underestimates one thing or another, or a friend may suddenly need help. You may feel unwell or simply have a poor night’s sleep – life happens. Whatever the case, plans become obsolete quite quickly or fail to meet eventual reality. Even worse, they can leave you feeling like you’ve failed – but the truth is, it’s not you who failed, it’s the system that failed you 💡
Instead of forcing you into a rigid, artificial system that ultimately doesn’t work, we offer many tools and workflows to help you reduce overwhelm, improve focus, minimize distractions, and guide you to work through your tasks in an organized, manageable, and forgiving way – one by one, without relying on dates.
Scheduling is still available for future tasks or when you intentionally choose a date-based workflow, so keep reading to learn when to reach for scheduling and when not.
Keep in mind that many points in this article don’t apply to our planning, date-based Play Your Days workflow. Scheduling there is simple, straightforward, and works as you’d expect – with all its upsides and downsides.
Future tasks and reminders
In Lunatask, use date-based scheduling to keep a future task out of sight until it becomes actionable (i.e. “Hey Lunatask, remind me in three months that I need to …”).
After my dog’s annual vaccination, I create a new task (reminder) for the same time next year to take them for their next visit.
To do this, open the task and choose the option to schedule or defer it. Then pick or type a date – our natural language parser will do its best to interpret it.
No need to open a task – just select it in the list and press S to bring up its quick scheduling window. Learn about all keyboard shortcuts here.
On mobile, long-press a task in your list to open its quick actions menu.
Future tasks are automatically set to Later and move to the bottom of your list, as tasks are always sorted from most to least actionable.
“just came up” reminders
Nice – you’ve just created a future reminder. When the time comes, Lunatask will bring it back to your attention, showing it above your task list in “just came up” notification area, along with a red badge across the app.
Tasks in “just came up” aren’t meant to stay there – move it where it now fits your plans. You can move it into your current focus, into “Later”, or postpone it again for another later date 👈
Most likely, you’ll now move it into your current focus – your current tasks. How these are organized depends on the workflow you use:
- In Now / Later workflow, you have only one section called “Now“
- In Kanban workflow, it will likely go into the “Next” section, or jump in immediately and move it straight to “In Progress”
- In Must/Should/Want, your current tasks are further broken down into "Must", "Should", and "Want" – move it where it fits
- In Eisenhower Matrix, your current tasks are organized into four sections based on importance and urgency – set its current importance and urgency at the moment
Scheduling in Lunatask
While we offer workflows for date-based planning (such as Plan Your Days) that still encourage you to address older tasks first, most our workflows work differently.
They free you to focus on what matters right now – your current focus – instead of building a perfect plan you’ll abandon, or that becomes obsolete shortly as new priorities pop up, you misjudge how much energy you’ll have on a given day, or whatever else happens.
The future is inherently uncertain – it changes, as it always does. You can only work on one task at a time, so rather than treating your task lists as rigid plans, think of them as perfectly organized and presented overviews of options to choose from when the moment comes.
Outside of date-based workflows, dates aren’t supposed to be involved or needed except for truly future tasks. Tasks are instead already organized by age, priority, status, and other similar concepts in the most helpful, guiding, and forgiving way.
Most of our workflows work like Kanban or Trello boards. On Kanban boards, you don’t assign dates to cards – you move cards on the board instead 💡
Also, nothing changes on a Kanban board at midnight – it looks the same when you go to sleep today and when you wake up tomorrow – it always reflects the current state of things.
No need to constantly manage your to-do list, no rescheduling when new priorities pop up, no pushing things to tomorrow, and no feeling of failure when you don’t finish everything in “Today” for a given day – that’s the forgiving power of replacing a date with a simple word “Now” 🌟
Date changes at midnight, whereas nothing happens to your current focus – you will just continue next day.
Give this approach a try and let go of date-based thinking that most apps encourage. Need even more help with organization? Try our Kanban workflow. Is prioritization still an issue? Let Must/Should/Want tell you what’s most important first.
It’s a wonderful, more forgiving, human, and actually manageable way to prioritize work, life goals, and everyday tasks as they come and go. It always keeps your list focused and achievable – no dates or constant rescheduling required.
Instead of managing your tasks like a calendar, you’ll get a smart, ever-evolving list that’s always up to date and highlights what matters most right now – built by people with ADHD in the most guiding, forgiving, ADHD-friendly way possible.
That said, let’s summarize what to avoid and consider:
Avoid scheduling a task for “Today“ ❌
Conceptually, it doesn’t add up – you already have your current tasks and focus in front of you, whether the section is labeled “Now” or differently. Use sections and manually adjust priorities instead.
Avoid using scheduling for planning ❌
Don’t use scheduling for planning – tasks naturally rise in your list as they age, while priorities and sections reflect what matters most to you.
You can still use scheduling for future reminders – just keep the following point in mind.
Scheduling a task resets its age ⚠️
A small detail, but worth noting – since “age” plays an important role in Lunatask to keep even long lists organized and guiding, there may be an unintended consequence you might not realize at first.
Returning to our earlier “dog’s vaccination” example – when the task for next year’s visit comes up, what should its age be? How long has it actually been actionable? 💡
It is – as it should be – irrelevant exactly when throughout the year you create this future task, this future reminder. It only becomes a real to-do once its time arrives – on that day next year.
Now that you understand how to work with dates, continue by learning how to work with “time” in our article on Time Blocking – and how it all fits together 👈