working-with-tasks

Working with Tasks

Note: For Fedora specific information/documentation on working with tasks, see Tasks on Fedora.

About tasks

Tasks are the basic objects that you manipulate. Tasks can represent anything from a single little thing you have to do to a complete project consisting of different phases and numerous activities (i.e. subtasks).

Task properties

Task properties are grouped into tabs. You can change the order of tabs by drag and drop. Tasks have the following properties you can change:

Description

• Subject: a single line that summarizes the task.
• Description: a multi-line description of the task.
  TODO: Formatting
• Priority: Ranging from negative infinity (lowest priority) over 0 (default value, suitable for average tasks) to positive infinity (highest priority / shall be done first). Can be increased/decreased by CTRL+I / CTRL+D in the tasklist.
  TODO: prio of parent and subtasks => overall prio
  
  

Dates

• They can be set to 'none' (no mark in checkbox).
• Start date: The first date on which the task can be started. Thestart date defaults to the date the task is created. It can also be 'None' indicating that you don't really want to start this task, e.g. for registering sick leave.
• Due date: The date the task should be finished. This can be 'None' indicating that this task has no fixed due date.
• Completion date: This date is 'None' as long as the task has not been completed. It is set to the current date when you mark the task as completed. The completion date can also be entered manually.
• Reminder: Allows enabling or disabling a pop-up reminder to occur at a specific time.This in conjunction with recurrence allow for daily reminders.
• Recurrence: Recurring tasks recur when you mark them completed, that's why they don't stay completed: they change into their next recurrence. It simply changes the dates to the next recurring date. Effort is accumulated.
  
  

Prerequisites:

• Other tasks that need to be completed before a task can be started. The task is inactive until the last prerequisite task is completed.
  
  

Budget:

• Budget: amount of hours available for the task. This in combination with tracked efforts result in the time spent and budget left.
• Hourly fee: the amount of money earned with the task per hour.
• Fixed fee: the amount of money earned with the task regardless of the time spent.
  
  

Effort:

• Lists the time/effort for this task.
  
  

Progress:

• Define how much percent of the task are completed and how the completion shall behave when all children (subtasks) are completed.
  
  

Categories:

• Allows selection of categories for a specific task
  
  

Notes:

• Allows creation of notes to go along with a task. These notes will also appear in help tips while hovering over the task.
  
  

Attachments:

• Allow files to be added to a project. File are stored as a path not directly within the taskcoach file/system. You can open the attachments through taskcoach.
  
  

Appearance:

• Appearance allows you to change the foreground color, background color, font and icon. This allows for customization of specific tasks.

The following properties are calculated from the properties above:

• Days left: the number of days left until the due date.
• Dependencies: other tasks that can be started when the prerequisite task has been completed.
• Time spent: effort spent on the task.
• Budget left: task budget minus time spent on the task.
• Revenue: hourly fee times hours spent plus fixed fee.
  
  

Task states

Tasks always have exactly one of the following states:

• Active: The start date is in the past, all prerequisite tasks are completed and the due date is in the future.
• Inactive: The start date is in the future, and/or not all prerequisite tasks have been completed.
• Completed: The task has been completed.

In addition, tasks can be referenced as:

• Over due: the due date is in the past;
• Due soon: the due date is soon (what 'soon' is, can be changed in the preferences);
• Over budget: no budget left;
• Under budget: still budget left;
• No budget: the task has no budget.
  
  

Task colors

The text of tasks is colored according to the following rules:

• Over due tasks are red;
• Tasks due soon are orange;
• Active tasks are black text with a blue icon;
• Future tasks are gray, and
• Completed tasks are green.

This all assumes you have not changed the text colors through the preferences dialog, of course.

The background color of tasks is determined by the categories the task belongs to. See the section about categories.