Capturing Tasks
Quick add, inline create, and natural-language dates.
Quick Add
Every task list has a quick-add input at the top.
- Type the task title
- Press Enter to create
The new task is created in the current view's scope:
| Where you quick-add | Goes to |
|---|---|
| All Tasks | No project, status defaults to your Default Sort Order setting |
| Today | Today as due date |
| Inside a project | That project, with the project's first status |
| Inside a status column (kanban) | That column |
Natural Language Dates
Start a date with @ — the same @ phrases the note editor understands — and quick-add parses the whole phrase into a due date:
| You type | memrynote sets |
|---|---|
Buy bread @tomorrow | Due tomorrow |
Email Dana @next friday | Due next Friday |
Pay rent @in 3 days | Due 3 days from now |
Quarterly review @next month | Due a month from today |
Standup @tomorrow at 9:30 | Due tomorrow, with a due time |
The phrase turns into a pill inside the input as soon as it is recognised, so you can see what will be captured before you press Enter. Text that doesn't read as a date — Ping @bob — stays part of the title.
Finishing What You Type
The rest of the phrase appears greyed out ahead of the cursor as you type — @tomo shows @tomorrow. Press Tab or → to take it, or keep typing to ignore it. The same completion works for !high, +project, #tag and the repeat phrases below.
Enter never takes the suggestion — it captures exactly what is on screen.
Repeats
Type the cadence in plain English and the task is created as a repeating task:
| You type | Repeats |
|---|---|
Standup every weekday | Mon–Fri |
Team sync every monday | Weekly on Monday |
Water plants every 2 weeks | Every second week |
Pay rent every month | Monthly, on the task's due date |
Backup every other day | Every second day |
No @ is needed — a phrase that doesn't read as a cadence, like Check every door, is left in the title. Like a date, a recognised cadence becomes a pill in the input, and every w completes to every weekday on Tab.
If you didn't give the task a due date of its own, it starts on the first matching day: every monday lands on the next Monday, every day starts today.
Repeats are English-only for now.
The Whole Grammar
Quick-add speaks the same shorthand as the note editor, so a marker means the same thing wherever you type it:
Ship the beta @next friday !high +Memry #launch [[Roadmap]] every 2 weeks| Marker | Sets | Notes |
|---|---|---|
@… | Due date | Any phrase from Natural Language Dates |
!… | Priority | !urgent, !high, !medium, !low — !u, !h, !m, !l too |
+… | Project | +work, +Personal, +project-alpha |
#… | Tag | Every #tag counts, so a task can take several |
[[…]] | A linked note | Opens a note picker as you type |
every … | Repeat | See Repeats |
Each marker has to start a word, so ordinary writing is safe: Ship it!, Learn C++, Compute 1+2 and Close issue#12 are captured exactly as typed. A marker the app cannot resolve — +nowhere for a project that doesn't exist — stays in the title rather than disappearing.
Changed in this release
# used to mean project. It now means tag, matching the note editor. Use + for projects: #Work files a Work tag, +Work files into the Work project. Priority is a single ! — !high, not !!high — and the old !today date shorthand is gone; @today does more.
Every marker sets the same field the pickers in the task drawer set — quick-add is a shortcut, not a separate system.
Linking a Note
Type [[ and a note picker opens straight away, showing your most recently edited notes and narrowing as you type:
- ↑ / ↓ to move
- Enter or Tab to pick — the title is written in as
[[Note title]] - Esc to close the list and keep what you typed (a second Esc clears the field)
The [[…]] run leaves the task title, and the note shows up under Related on the task. You can type the title yourself, too — [[Roadmap]] links the note called Roadmap. A title that matches no note is simply dropped from the title with nothing linked.
This is the one marker with a list instead of greyed-out completion: note titles are yours, so showing them beats guessing at them.
Tags
Tasks take tags from the same pool as your notes — one tag means one thing across the app, and it keeps whatever colour and icon you gave it.
You can tag a task in three places:
- Quick-add — type
#launchin the capture field, as many as you like - The add-task dialog — tag it as you create it
- The task detail drawer — add or remove tags on an existing task
Tags appear as chips on the task row, and you can filter by them from the filter bar. See Filters & Sorting.
Tags are case-insensitive but keep the case you type: MIT stays MIT, and tagging something mit later files it under the same tag.
A common use is marking your Most Important Tasks — tag them MIT, then filter to that tag to see just today's short list.
Nested tags work the same way they do in notes: #work/client files under work. A brand-new tag typed in quick-add is created on the spot and picks up a colour like any other.
From a Project View
Quick-add inside a project automatically assigns the task to that project. The status defaults to the project's first status.
Subtasks
To create a subtask:
- Use the inline
+on a parent row - Or indent within the quick-add field (Tab in some contexts)
Subtasks inherit nothing automatically — give them their own due dates and priorities as needed.
From a Note
Selecting a checklist item in a note offers a "Convert to task" action in the inline menu. The task is created with the note as a back-reference.
A checklist item that is already ticked becomes a task that is already done — so a note you imported with - [x] Book flights in it does not reopen work you finished elsewhere.
The Checkbox in the File Wins
A note's tasks live in the note's own Markdown file, as checklist lines carrying the task id:
- [ ] Book flights {task:0f2a…}
- [x] Renew passport {task:9c41…}That checkbox is the source of truth for whether the task is done. Tick or untick it in any other editor — Obsidian, vim, a script, a file you sync in from another machine — and memrynote follows the file:
| The file says | memrynote does |
|---|---|
- [x] | Marks the task complete |
- [ ] | Reopens the task |
The change lands whether the file was edited while memrynote was running or while it was closed, and it shows up everywhere the task appears — the task lists, Today, the project, and any other note that links it.
Only the checkbox is read this way; due dates, priority, and project stay with the task itself. Leave the {task:…} suffix alone — it is how the line and the task find each other. A line whose id no longer matches a task is left untouched.
Any list marker works (-, *, +), as does an uppercase - [X]. Other markers some editors use for "in progress", such as - [-], are ignored rather than guessed at.
Rich Descriptions
A task's description is a rich text editor, the same style as notes. In the task detail drawer (and the add-task dialog) you can use headings, lists, checkboxes, and inline formatting, and paste links that stay clickable. Type / for the block menu. Descriptions are stored as Markdown, so plain-text descriptions from earlier versions keep working unchanged.
See Also
- List vs Kanban — view options
- Filters & Sorting
- Subtasks & Recurrence