Run your week with tasks and the calendar

By Friday, the week's to-dos are everywhere. Two came out of Thursday's meeting, one is buried in a project note, three are in a list you started on Monday, and you can't remember whether you ever booked the boiler service. A separate to-do app helps until the tasks in it drift away from the notes that explain them.

Terra keeps each task where it was born, as a checkbox line in a note, and gathers every one of them into a single board and onto the Calendar. This guide builds a weekly routine around that: write tasks down as they come up, sort them once a week, plan the coming days on the Calendar, and close the week out. The example is the field-guide launch from Run a project: you're working with Sam and Ines, and it's Friday 16 October.

How it fits together

A task is a line like - [ ] Book the copy editor in any note. Terra reads every one and shows it in three places, each suited to a different moment in the week:

Change a task in any of them and the line in the note changes too. There is nothing to sync.

Step 1Capture tasks where they come up

A task is most useful next to the note that explains it: the meeting where it was agreed, the chapter it belongs to. So the first habit is to write tasks straight into whatever note you're in, and to keep one list for odds and ends that don't belong anywhere.

1. In any note, start a new line with [ ] and a space, then type the task. (You can also type /todo and choose To-do.)
2. To give it a due date, type a space, three colons and a space at the end, then the date: ::: due=2026-10-21. When you type the next space, the date turns into a pill under the task.
3. To add more, type ::: again before each one: ::: priority=high, ::: assignee=Sam. Or click ⋯ at the end of the line, choose Properties and switch on Due, Priority or Assignee.
4. Press Tab on a new line to make it a subtask of the one above.

Here's a personal list kept in Inbox/tasks.md, as it's stored:

- [ ] Weekly review ::: due=2026-10-16 repeat=weekly
- [ ] Call the printer about paper stock ::: due=2026-10-16T09:30
- [ ] Book the boiler service ::: due=2026-10-21
- [ ] Renew the passport
- [x] Order more notebooks

Step 2Triage everything on the Tasks board

Once a week, look at all of it in one place. The board shows every task from every note, so nothing hides in a note you haven't opened for a while.

1. Click Tasks in the sidebar. The board opens with four columns: Open, In progress, Done and Cancelled. The number beside Tasks in the sidebar counts the ones that aren't done or cancelled.

   

2. Read down Open. For each card, decide: is it this week's, later, or not at all?

3. Drag the ones you're starting into In progress, and anything you've decided against into Cancelled. Terra rewrites the checkbox in the note: [ ] becomes [/] or [-].

4. To add a task that came to mind, click Add task at the foot of a column, type it and press Return. It's written to Inbox/tasks.md. Click the note name under the field to send it to another note.

   

5. Click a card to open Edit task. Click the status pill to change status, click the tag button at the top to add a due date or priority, and use Add subtask to break a big task down.

   

Step 3Keep an Overdue view

Tasks that slip past their date are the ones worth catching early. A saved view that shows only overdue tasks takes a few seconds to set up and turns the weekly check into one click.

1. In Tasks, click + (Add view) in the header. View preferences opens on the Layout tab with a new table view.
2. Type Overdue in Name and click Save view, then close the panel with ×.
3. Click Filters, then + (Add condition). A condition appears that reads Title is.
4. Click Title and choose Due. Click is and choose overdue.

For each task in the view, do one of three things: do it now, give it a realistic new date in Edit task, or drag it to Cancelled on the board. To switch between Board and Overdue later, use the view menu at the top right of the header.

For a quicker glance, hover the number beside Tasks in the sidebar. A Closest due list opens with the unfinished tasks, soonest first. Its filter button narrows the list to Today, This week, Overdue or No date.

Step 4Plan the coming week on the Calendar

The board tells you what's open; the Calendar tells you whether it fits. Meetings and due dates side by side show which days are already full.

1. Click Calendar in the sidebar. It opens on the current month. Tasks sit on their due dates, outlined in their status colour; meetings show their start time.

   

2. Look for crowded days and empty ones. Here Friday holds four tasks, while Thursday 22 October is clear.

3. Drag a task to another day to move its due date. Terra rewrites due= in the task's note and keeps the time, if it had one.

4. Click a task to change its status or priority without leaving the Calendar. Open note takes you to the line.

   

5. To put a meeting on the Calendar, give its note a start-time; see Calendar.

Step 5Work through each day

During the week, keep the day's tasks beside your work instead of switching back to the board.

1. Open the note you're working in.

2. Click Properties in the toolbar (⌘R) to open the panel on the right, then click Show Tasks in the row of buttons along its bottom.

3. The Tasks drawer lists the open note's tasks. Hover its header and click the Library button to see every task instead.

   

4. Click a task's marker to move it to the next status, or right-click the marker to pick one. Click the task itself to jump to its note.

5. For the day's plan, click Show Calendar in the same row. Click a day in the small month to list its meetings and tasks.

   

The ring at the bottom of each note counts how many of its tasks are done. Click it for a list of them.

Step 6Close out the week

On Friday, finish the loop: mark what's done, decide about what isn't, and let the repeating tasks roll over.

1. Open Tasks and drag finished cards to Done.

2. Drag anything you've dropped to Cancelled. It stays in its note, struck through, as a record.

3. Finish your repeating tasks the same way. The weekly review in Inbox/tasks.md has repeat=weekly, so marking it Done on the board changes the note to:

   - [x] Weekly review ::: due=2026-10-16 repeat=weekly
   - [ ] Weekly review ::: due=2026-10-23 repeat=weekly
   

   Next week's copy is waiting on Friday the 23rd.

4. Check the Overdue view one last time and give every task in it a new date or a decision.

Done and cancelled tasks stay on the board, which keeps a record but adds clutter. To hide them in your main view, add a filter: Status › is not › done, and another for cancelled.

Features you might have missed

A board for one project

The built-in Tasks board always shows every task. Right-click Tasks in the sidebar, choose New task database and name it Field guide. In its header, click Sources and pick the projects/field-guide folder. That board shows only the project's tasks, and Add task writes into the project folder.

Group the board another way

Show boards as in a board's header groups cards by Due, Start, Priority, Project, Category, Assignee or Note instead of status. Grouped by Assignee, it shows what Sam and Ines owe you; dragging a card to another column rewrites that property. The menu has no way back to status columns, so try it in a second board view (+ › Board layout) rather than on Board itself.

A page for each day

There's no daily-note button, but the Daily log template (File › New from Template…, ⇧⌘N) starts a page titled with today's date, with Wins, Blockers and Tomorrow sections. Tasks you write in it join the board like any others.

Give a big task its own note

When a task grows into a project, open it in Edit task, click Move task to note and choose New note: … at the top. The task, its subtasks and its description move into a new note in Inbox.

Bring in Jira issues

If your team uses Jira, Terra can show issues on the board too. Connect an Atlassian account under Settings › Integrations › Jira (Configure, then Connect an Atlassian account). Then, in Tasks, click Sources and pick a project under Jira projects. Dragging a Jira card to another column moves the issue in Jira once you've turned on Write access for the site.

Troubleshooting

A task I wrote isn't on the board

The line has to be a bulleted list item with a checkbox: - [ ] Book the venue. Numbered items (1. [ ]) and checkboxes inside code blocks aren't tasks. See Task syntax.

The due date shows as text instead of a pill

Check for a space inside a value, such as assignee=Sam Lee: Terra then reads the whole property list as part of the title. Also check for the older due:2026-10-21 form, which needs to be ::: due=2026-10-21.

The weekly review didn't come back

It was probably ticked in the note. Mark it done on the board instead; the next copy appears straight under it.

The board is full of finished tasks

Done and cancelled tasks stay until you delete their lines. Filter them out of your main view, or keep a separate view that shows only Open and In progress.

What's next

• Take meeting notes that turn into tasks — action items that land on this board automatically.
• Tasks — statuses, custom statuses, the Edit task dialog and more.
• Calendar — what appears on it and how to choose the dates it uses.
• Task syntax — every property and repeat rule you can type.