How do you manage completed tasks?

[Jack Lynch 291]

We are working on improving how we handle completed tasks. How completed tasks work affects many aspects of Tasks, including existing features such as the Tasks view and in-note tasks, as well as potential future features such as recurring tasks or tasks in tables. It also has implications for things like speed and performance. So:

How do you manage completed tasks in your life? How long after you complete a task do you still need to access it easily? How important is it for you to see the context of the completed task when you access it?

In your answers, it would be really helpful if you could share your specific use case. We typically build our designs with vivid, specific, real-life examples in mind. Tell us your story!

[DTLow 5,736]

I'm using the Evernote Legacy product    
and my task management process uses the Reminder feature to store due date   
The Reminder feature also stores completed date/status

I use saved searches that include/exclude completed tasks using the reminderDoneTime field

Yes, I want continued access to completed tasks   
They are part of the archive for project notes   
Also needed to reset recurring taskS

fwiw  I use a tag to identify recurring tasks and the interval: example tag:!Actionable-RecurringMonth1

          My project notes are linked using tag:!Project-aaaaaaaaaa     
          This includes a master overview note, reference notes, task notes, ..

[rmw 35]

The only time I have need to see a completed task is since intro of EN tasks. In notes of ongoing project or task it has been nice to see the progress. The only irritant so far is that once a task in a note is complete the note stays in the task tray. If the task is not part of a note and just an individual task I do not need to see the task after completion. In my outside task manager I never go back to look for a completed task.

[Jack Lynch 291]

10 hours ago, DTLow said:

I'm using the Evernote Legacy product    
and my task management process uses the Reminder feature to store due date   
The Reminder feature also stores completed date/status

I use saved searches that include/exclude completed tasks using the reminderDoneTime field

Yes, I want continued access to completed tasks   
They are part of the archive for project notes   
Also needed to reset recurring taskS

fwiw  I use a tag to identify recurring tasks and the interval: example tag:!Actionable-RecurringMonth1

          My project notes are linked using tag:!Project-aaaaaaaaaa     
          This includes a master overview note, reference notes, task notes, ..

@DTLow, thank you for sharing! Help me understand what you mean by "archive for project notes"?

also, for project notes that you are actively using, do you keep all completed tasks in that note visible the whole time? how do you keep them from cluttering up the note?

[Jack Lynch 291]

3 hours ago, rmw said:

The only time I have need to see a completed task is since intro of EN tasks. In notes of ongoing project or task it has been nice to see the progress. The only irritant so far is that once a task in a note is complete the note stays in the task tray. If the task is not part of a note and just an individual task I do not need to see the task after completion. In my outside task manager I never go back to look for a completed task.

@rmwthanks for this. We have fixed the problem where notes in which all tasks were completed continued to appear in the Tasks view, so hopefully that irritant diminishes for you.

Would love to understand how you balance "nice to see the progress" and "do not need to see the task after completion". For how long after the task is completed do you like to be able to see the progress?

[DTLow 5,736]

48 minutes ago, Jack Lynch said:

Help me understand what you mean by "archive for project notes"?

An example would be a review of Project - Evernote v10 Conversion   
I retrieve all the notes for the project; Master Overview Note    
                                                                    Reference Notes   
                                                                    Active Tasks   
                                                                    Pending Tasks    
                                                                   Completed Tasks 

>>do you keep all completed tasks in that note visible the whole time? how do you keep them from cluttering up the note?

I'm actually using a saved search, generating a note list    
The search can include/exclude completed tasks    
I can generate a Table-of-Contents note from the note list

[rmw 35]

2 hours ago, Jack Lynch said:

@rmwthanks for this. We have fixed the problem where notes in which all tasks were completed continued to appear in the Tasks view, so hopefully that irritant diminishes for you.

Would love to understand how you balance "nice to see the progress" and "do not need to see the task after completion". For how long after the task is completed do you like to be able to see the progress?

I typically don't like to see completed task for more than a couple minutes. If I need to see one in my current task manager I can always search or look in trash folder. In the new EN task manager for tasks that are standalone once I check off I don't need to see. If it is part of a note or project I have liked being able to see the progress in the note. My view is once done get it out of my view so it won't distract. Have used multiple task managers and am optimistic EN may be able to handle what I need for tasks going forward

[danio72 105]

Hi Jack,

I use 'Things' as my core task manager and don't see that changing due to the rich feature set it has and I wouldn't really be expecting Evernote to match.

The new Task function in Evernote is brilliant for my workflow and I appreciate the Note centric focus the Task system has - you have that so spot on!!  This perfectly compliments Things and is already helping me greatly in both private and business activities

I have several use cases I have in play already and I am sure that as I touch Notes in my account I will find more, but, I would actually love the following for completed items-:

• An ability to choose a global setting for Completed Tasks, such as to be retained for a certain period, for me 'Always', for some perhaps for X amount of time etc - but - with a Task specific override to have a Delete when marked done option
  • My use case here is that I would like to remind myself of certain Tasks, such as I have added an e-mail for an item ordered on Amazon, I want to remind myself to collect the Invoice and add it to the note, when that Task is done, I complete it... I don't need that to clutter the Note after that and its cleaner for it to vanish.  Right now I am manually deleting those but an auto-vanish option there would be a real treat
• Completed Tasks I would generally keep always/forever as part of the Note please, but, I would like to see them semi-hidden behind a collapsed item to keep the length of the Note tight and uncluttered.
  • My daily project Notes, contain all my information for my daily assigned project work with customers.  I am loving the fact I can now quickly add Tasks to that Note with brilliant context.  If a Note has 2, 3, 5 and higher Tasks the length begins to grow and it begins to look potentially untidy and certainly adds to the scrolling.  When completed, I still need to see all these so that I can overview what I completed and have evidence in some circumstances of it - but - it would be super helpful to keep the Note space used by Tasks to a minimum.
  • If the collection of Tasks is collapsed it would be great to have a 'count' as a visual of how much is contained in the collapsed set
• Would it be possible to add a Date/Time in terms of when a Task was completed; that would be great information to have to hand
• When Printing or Exporting a Note, it would be great to have the to piton to include or not include the Tasks and I suppose to include or not include the completed Tasks
• I know you are working on Tasks in Tables but this specific missing ability is something that would really excite me to have as a option; I have quite a number of Notes with information and/or entries in Tables which collect information on a timed basis - which are literally screaming out for this ability - so just a +1 to your efforts in this direction if I may

Loving Task V1, it was never in any doubt but you guys have cemented my subscription being paid ✊

[buckethead 218]

I use Evernote for both personal and work. Right now I have everything broken into two stacks - personal and work stacks. I have been doing different things with completed tasks depending on there the task lives and what the task was. Doing these things mainly so that my task panel is not a list of 50 notes long….. 

• default task note - personal tasks
  • i usually just end up deleting quick and easy tasks
  • if it’s something I want to know I did and keep track of I move the task to a “completed tasks” note that I made. I also have a link to this note in my default task note
• tasks within a note - personal
  • i have done two things.
    1) delete the task if it was something I do not need to remember I did
    2) copy task into a checkbox I can mark done so I know I did it without clogging the task panel view
• task within a note - work
  • if the note still has uncompleted tasks OR is a note that I will be adding more tasks to I leave the completed tasks alone (no reason to remove them to clean view up if there are more or more coming)
  • i mainly delete tasks for work as they are not project based and I don’t need to keep track of what I did
  • if I do need to keep track of what I did I again convert the task into something  

[M. Black 13]

I love all of these ideas, particularly adding a date when a completed task is marked finished, since I often need to be able to see completed tasks. I also really need completed tasks to jump to the bottom of a list, so that completed tasks aren't cluttering up my main view of what needs to be done.

Can  you tell us about your progress on some of these task updates?

[Jack Lynch 291]

Hi there @M. Black, we are working on managing completed tasks in the context of recurring tasks. An archiving function is a little further down the road.

Making sure you know: in the Tasks view, in the 3-dot menu at the top right, under view options, you can select "Move completed to bottom", which puts your tasks in a Completed section at the bottom of each note (while you are still in the Tasks view).

We're still evaluating the right approach for managing completed tasks while you are viewing the note itself.

[M. Black 13]

Thanks, Jack! I've been a Premium user pretty much since the beginning and your quick response reminds me why! 

[Tony L 4]

I’ve tried to love tasks but am going back to Microsoft todo.

 

For me tasks is missing 2 basic features.

first is the ability to bulk delete all completed tasks, even at note level would be useful. Global would be even better.

 

I have been trying to use it as a general todo list. That means I brain dump everything I want to accomplish that day and tick them off as I go.

 

that is hundreds of tasks per week. 
 

here is the problem. When I brain dump I may enter 20 tasks at a time.

if I do that on the main task view then each time I hit enter I then have to click back to add new task. In ms todo I can just type, enter, type enter and keep adding, so much more efficient. That is the 2nd thing that is missing.

 

back to the first. If I go into the actual note I can bulk add tasks as I’ve described but if it’s littered with hundreds of completed tasks it’s a mess.

becasue of the lack of bulk delete it takes a lot of time to delete them.

 

ive tried to love it. I upgraded my subscription to have access to it which was a mistake as i was locked into a price deal.

so nice idea guys but doesn’t work for me so back to Microsoft todo.

[HWB 7]

The most important feature needed for tasks is not tables or recurring (tho that would be nice). What we REALLY need is the ability to print or export the task list. It is great that all the tasks from multiple notes feed into one task list, but working professionals quickly pile up hundreds of tasks, and they can't all be viewed or prioritized well in the current task view since the user has to scroll and scroll and scroll to see them all. We just need to be able to print them out -- or export them to a single doc where we can control size, group them by project, etc.

As for how long to access completed ones, your current system is great: showing them greyed out in perpetuity in the note where they were created but letting us opt out of viewing them on the task list.

[felipebgferreira 11]

Hi, @Jack Lynch!
Could you share some good news about task description? Do Evernote team plan to roll out this simple but important feature?

I would like to see a task description section available. A space to insert some description that complements the tasks is so important, mainly why it's inconvenient to move tasks and the additional text inserted below the task inside the note. In this case, the description is part of the task and could be edited by accessing the task details window.

Please, ask the Evernote Team for this feature!

[janndk 495]

On 7/6/2021 at 7:12 AM, Jack Lynch said:

We are working on improving how we handle completed tasks. How completed tasks work affects many aspects of Tasks, including existing features such as the Tasks view and in-note tasks, as well as potential future features such as recurring tasks or tasks in tables. It also has implications for things like speed and performance. So:

How do you manage completed tasks in your life? How long after you complete a task do you still need to access it easily? How important is it for you to see the context of the completed task when you access it?

In your answers, it would be really helpful if you could share your specific use case. We typically build our designs with vivid, specific, real-life examples in mind. Tell us your story!

Ability to convert a completed tasks to 'checked' checklist items would be nice.