Goals & task detail

Turning on Goals & task detail gives your tasks statuses and types, adds two more views to the Tasks screen, and fills in the Goals tab. The switch is on Settings → Apps → Tasks, under the app's own.

Turning it back off hides all of that and destroys none of it. Your statuses stay defined, your goals stay written, and the list goes back to the simple checklist, a ring you tap. Goals stays on the menu with the switch off and says which switch fills it in. In the phone app that page opens Settings in one tap. Turn it on again a month later and everything is where you left it.

Goals is on the menu everywhere: in the browser, on a phone's browser, and on the installed phone app. All three list the same rows under the same three views, and all three open a single goal onto its own page, with its writing, its tasks and its journal.

A status says where a task stands, and the words are yours. Settings → Apps → Tasks → Your statuses lists what you have under its four group headings, and opening one lets you rename it, recolour it from the palette, and write what it means. + Add status under a group adds one to that group. Open, Scheduled, Done and Cancel are the four the app writes itself, so those recolour but keep their names, and none of the four can be deleted.

Every status belongs to one of four groups, and those four are fixed because the rest of the app reads them.

Active

Being worked, or needs un-sticking.

Upcoming

Agreed to, not started.

Later

Deliberately set aside. Still on the list, behind everything upcoming in the Status view.

Closed

Finished, in any of its senses.

A status shows as a coloured word beside its task, and the colour is the status's own, so renaming or adding one can never break how a list reads. The ring beside a task only ever means open or done. Deleting a status asks where its tasks should go before it removes anything, so no task ends up with a status that no longer exists.

Clicking the status on a task opens the list of your statuses, and you can work it from the keyboard alone: type a few letters to narrow it, use the up and down arrows to move through what is left, and press Return to set the highlighted one. A status whose name starts with what you typed is the one you get, so d means Done rather than the first status that happens to contain a d.

A kind says what sort of thing a goal is, and the words are yours. A kind is a name and nothing else. It has no groups, since nothing in the app reads a kind the way it reads a status's group. It has no colour either, since a goal's row prints its kind as plain words and the heading over a section of goals prints it plainly too.

Settings → Apps → Goals lists what you have in order, under the app's switch, headed Kinds. Opening a kind lets you rename it. + Add kind under the list opens that same panel with the name empty. A kind you add is the last one on the list. The installed phone app has the same list in the same place, under Settings → Apps → Goals, headed Kinds, and offers your kinds wherever a goal takes one.

Renaming a kind refiles every goal that said the old word, in the same gesture, so no goal is left saying a kind your list no longer has. Deleting a kind goals are using asks where they should go before it removes anything, and the last kind on the list cannot be deleted, since a goal is made with the first word on the list and a list with nothing on it could not make one. Delete is in that same panel. A kind nothing is using goes on the second press, with nothing to ask. You move a kind by dragging it up or down. The first word on the list is the one a new goal starts on, so moving a kind to the top changes it. On a computer, drag the row where you want it. A line marks the edge it would land against, and it appears only where letting go would move something. In the installed phone app, hold the row until it lifts, then drag it. A phone's browser has no drag, the way it has none on the Goals list, so the order is set on a computer or in the installed app. The statuses page has no drag, so your statuses keep the order they are in.

Every goal you make has a kind. Make one without picking a kind and it takes the first word on your list, so the word at the top of the page is the one a new goal starts on. The field cannot be emptied afterwards either.

On the Goals list a goal's kind is set from the panel a right-click or a press and hold opens, and that panel offers exactly this list. A goal's own page offers the same words where the kind is shown. Typing in either narrows what is shown rather than naming a new kind, which is how the old list filled up. Every row in both pickers is one of your words, and the one the goal has now stands at the top of them.

Only a goal made before this list existed, and never given a kind, has none. It gathers under General on the Goals list and its own page reads No kind, until you pick one for it.

A LifeOps whose goals name no kinds starts with Upcoming Goal, Long Term Goal and Responsibility, and a brand new one does too. A LifeOps whose goals already carried kind words starts with those words, since those are the words you have been working in.

One status is written by the app rather than picked by you. Give an Open task a date still to come and it moves to Scheduled, which sits just ahead of Open. Pull that date back to today or take it off and it goes back to Open in the same gesture. The day arriving moves nothing on its own, so the task is still Scheduled that morning until you touch it. The pickers offer Scheduled once you have connected a calendar, and until then it is not one of the words they list. A task carrying any other status keeps it whatever its date, so work you marked as mattering now stays where you put it.

The Scheduled section opens on the days in front of you rather than on everything it holds. It shows the next two days at least, then whole days beyond that until six tasks are on screen, and Show more under the last row opens the rest.

The Goals tab is one row per goal, and a goal row reads the way a task row reads. The status you declared leads it, as a coloured pill. Beside the pill, quieter, come the life area, your own word for the kind of thing it is, and how much is open under it. The goal's name takes the line under them, and on anything wider than a phone the names line up in one column past the pills. A goal with nothing open says nothing in that last slot, so the number appears where there is something to count. The kind drops off the row while the list is sectioned by kind, since the heading above it has already said it.

Kind, Areas and Status above the list arrange the same goals three ways, the way the view names above Tasks do. Kind opens first, and after that the list opens on whichever of the three you left it on. Under Status the sections follow the order your statuses are in, and under Areas they follow the order of your life areas, so a section of one can lead a section of ten. Under Kind they follow the order your kinds are in under Settings, in a browser and in the installed phone app alike. A row drops whichever field the heading above it has already said, so the kind goes under Kind and the area goes under Areas, and the status stays on every row because it is the control that changes it. A kind you have no goals of gets no heading, and a list that is all one kind gets no headings at all. Every heading folds, and a folded section says how many goals are inside it and stays folded until you open it again. Every goal has a kind now, so General at the end holds only goals made before your kinds were a list and never given one, and the same slot reads No area or No status under the other two. A sideways swipe across the goals moves between the three, the way it does above Tasks: a finger in the phone app or in a phone's browser, two fingers on a laptop's trackpad.

You can put the goals in your own order. On a computer, drag a row where you want it. There is no handle to aim at: the whole row is the thing you drag, and the pointer turns to a grab over it. A line appears at the edge where the row would go, along the top of the row you are over while you are in its upper half and along the bottom while you are in its lower half, so the last seat in a section is one you can reach. In the installed phone app, hold the row until it lifts, then drag it. Letting go without moving opens the goal's menu there, and a press and hold in a phone's browser opens the menu too, so the order is dragged rather than held. Your order holds under every one of the three views, and it is one order rather than one per screen, so the phone and the computer read the same list. It outranks the order the app would otherwise use, which leads with the most actionable status and puts the longest untouched first inside that. A goal you have never moved keeps to the end of its section rather than landing in the middle of the ones you placed, which is where a goal made after you ordered them starts out. While any goal has a place you dragged it to, the Goals header shows Sort by status. One press forgets every place, on the phone and the computer alike, and the list reads by status again, the longest untouched first inside each; dragging afterwards starts a new order.

A drag moves a goal between sections too. Drop a row into another section and the goal takes what that section stands for: the kind under Kind, the life area under Areas, the status under Status. Drop it on the upper half of a row to land above that row, on the lower half to land below it, or on the section itself to go last. A folded section takes a drop on its heading, so you can put a goal into one without opening it. The No area section is a real answer under Areas and clears the area. General under Kind and No status under Status take no row from another section, since a goal always has a kind and a status and neither section has a word to give it. Today takes none either, since it names a day rather than a kind, an area or a status; the star is set from the row's menu. A drop inside a section is still only a reorder. A kind no goal has yet gets no heading, so the first goal of a new kind takes it from the goal's panel or its own page rather than from a drag. The word and the place are written together, so a drop the app refuses leaves the goal where it was rather than half-moving it. In the installed phone app, hold the row until it lifts, then drop it on a row in another section or on that section’s heading, and the same thing happens.

Making a goal takes a name and nothing else. In a browser it is New goal in the header, or the blank page's own prompt, and the dialog it opens can also take the goal's life area and a Summary. The life area chips are the areas your goals already use, and All areas opens every one of your areas, in your order, with a filter. Type a name and press Enter and the goal is made at once; with a Summary written, Cmd+Enter or Add goal makes it. In the phone app it is the bar at the foot of the list, which reads Name a goal; the new goal joins the list under whichever heading its own facts put it, and where that is somewhere you cannot see, a copy of the row stands above the bar so you can tell it took.

A right-click on a row, or a press and hold on a touch screen, opens the goal's menu: Top priority today, Details… and Delete. It holds the moves the row cannot make by itself — the status is the pill on the row, and the goal's own page is a click on its words. The installed phone app opens the same menu on the same press and hold, so long as you let go without moving. Move your finger while you are holding and the row lifts to be dragged instead, so one gesture does both jobs. Delete asks first on every surface.

Details… opens the goal's panel: its name, its status, the kind of thing it is, its life area, and a way through to its page. Each of those saves on the word you pick, in a browser and in the phone app alike, so shutting the panel keeps what you chose. The name is the exception, and it saves when you press Save, or on return and tapping away in the phone app.

Top priority today stars the goal for today and puts it in a Today section at the top of the list, above whichever of the three views is grouping the rest, while it also keeps its place under its own kind, area or status — the same star and the same section the Tasks page has. A goal that moved today stands in Today as well, without a star: one whose task changed today, or that was written about in the journal today. The star holds for one day. A goal starred yesterday reads as an ordinary goal this morning, and one you did not get to is a priority again only when you say so again. The installed phone app draws the same star and the same section.

A task can become one too. On the Tasks page, right-click it on a computer or press and hold it on a phone, and choose Make this a goal. It asks first, since the task leaves the list when it lands. It keeps its area, its dates and everything written against it, and anything that was a subtask of it becomes one of the goal's tasks. It takes the first kind on your list, the way a goal you make from scratch does. The action is never offered on a meeting, on either surface, since a meeting is not a goal in waiting. Every other open task is offered it, including one already filed under a goal. The installed phone app also has it as Make it a goal at the foot of the task's own page, and it does not ask there. The page closes, and the Tasks list you land back on says the goal it became, with a link that opens that goal. Both surfaces say that, since a row that empties out with nothing said reads as a delete.

A task filed under a goal says so wherever you meet it. Its row on Tasks reads the life area first, then the date, then the goal’s name, which is the order a journal entry’s row already uses. On a computer that name is a link to the goal’s page. The one place it is left off is that page itself, where the title above the tasks has already said it.

Closing a goal is a status change rather than a separate action, so a closed goal moves under Show closed and stays readable, with Back to open goals for the way out. That is the ordinary way to be done with one, since what you were once aiming at is worth keeping. Delete is on the goal’s own page, at the very bottom, for a goal you never meant to make. It asks twice: the first press arms it and the second removes the goal for good. The tasks that were filed under it stay on your list.

Clicking a goal's name opens its page. The top gives the status, the life area, the kind of thing it is, and the days it runs between. Every one of those is a fact you set, and the page draws no conclusion of its own beside them. A word reading Moving or Stalled since a date stood there until Sep 6 2026, on the browser and the phone alike, and it is gone from both.

Everything in that top line is also the control that changes it. The name opens for typing, and the status, the life area, the kind of thing it is and the days the goal runs between each open where they are shown. The kind is one of the words on your kinds list, which is what the picker offers. Typing in it narrows the list rather than naming a new kind, which is done under Settings → Apps → Goals. It is the word the goals list opens sectioned by, so this is where a goal moves from one section to another. The two dates are set together, since a start and an end are one decision, and an end before its start is refused. A goal with neither reads No dates.

Under that comes Summary, the goal's own writing. It is the goal rather than a note attached to it. It is the same editor a note uses and it saves itself the same way, so History in the top corner reads back what it said before. An empty Summary is one grey line reading Write a summary or scratch notes, on the page's own ground, with no box and no reserved space under it. The formatting bar arrives when you start writing and leaves when you stop. In a browser it appears on the Summary heading's own line. On the phone, where tapping the writing opens the editor over the page, it stands above the keyboard, within reach of the thumb already there. Write what the goal answers and what being done would mean into that text like anything else. Two separate fields held those two things until Aug 30 2026. Whatever you had written in them is the first paragraph of the text now, word for word.

Below the Summary are the notes filed under this goal, then its tasks, then its Journal, one after the other down a single column, each in its own card. Every card folds: a press anywhere on its header shuts it, the chevron at the left turns, and what you shut stays shut on that device until you open it again. All three arrive open. The installed phone app draws the same cards and folds them the same way. The notes read first because the thinking behind a goal comes before the work it produced, and each row says the day it was written and the day it last moved, or one day where those fall together. Write a note at the right end of the Notes card's header opens the note panel, the same one the Journal's + opens, on a note already filed under this goal. In a browser it also takes a row in the goal's Journal below, so a note started here is on the day it was written on. The phone files the note and adds no such row. That heading stands whether or not anything is filed there, and reads No notes yet under it while nothing is.

Attach a file, beside Write a note on that same header, takes a Word document, a PowerPoint, an Excel sheet, a PDF, a text file or an image. Each file is a row under the notes, saying its name, its kind and the day it was added, and an image row shows a small picture of the file as well. Pressing the name opens the file. A right-click on the row, or a press and hold, opens its menu, which holds Delete permanently and asks before it removes anything. The phone attaches photos. Other files from the phone come with a later update.

Finished tasks arrive folded, kept behind Show finished under the open ones, which says how many there are and opens them. The tasks and the Journal each end with a bar for adding to them, and a section with nothing in it is that bar alone rather than a heading over an empty space. The Journal's bar reads Add a journal entry, and it is the Journal's own bar rather than a plain field: the same + beside it, offering Write a note, a video, a voice memo and a file off your device, and everything it makes filed under this goal. Holding the arrow in a browser starts a time log against the goal, the way it does on the Journal. The phone's bar leaves that one out, since a clock started here would run with nothing on this page showing it. What you add appears once. The new row joins its own list, and where that list is not drawing it, a copy of the row stands above the bar you typed it into instead, so you can see it took. A task that landed behind the fold, and an entry filed under a day the Journal section does not reach, are the two ways that happens. A journal update written here is an ordinary entry on your Journal and your Day. A timer still running shows its count in that section with a Stop beside it, so a session started against this goal ends where you can see it rather than back on the Journal tab. That tab shows it under the goal's life area when you gave it none of its own, since the area is borrowed at reading time rather than written onto the entry.

Map, beside New goal at the top of the Goals list on a wide window, opens a board. Each open goal is a card wearing its name and its area in the area’s colour. Each link between two goals is an arrow, drawn from the one card to the other, with the link’s word on its midpoint. A goal that is closed is off the board, with its arrows.

Drag a card where you want it. The arrangement is kept in that browser, so the board you come back to is the board you left, on that computer. Tidy stands the cards back in columns, one per area in your own area order, with goals under no area in the last column. A press on a card that does not move it opens the goal.

To draw a new arrow, drag from the small handle on a card’s right edge and let go on another card. The arrow appears and a field opens on it for the word that says what the arrow means; Enter keeps the word, and Escape leaves the arrow without one. A click on an arrow’s word opens its menu, with Rename label and Remove, which asks first. The same arrows are the Linked goals card on each goal’s page, so one drawn here shows there, and one added there shows here. A goal cannot be linked to itself, and a pair already linked that way says so under the title; change that link’s word instead.

The phone has no map, so a phone browser shows no Map link.