lexbritvin Creating Tasks
Task Format Setting
The Tasks plugin has two mutually exclusive ways to write metadata on a task line, chosen in Settings → Tasks → Task Format:
- Tasks Emoji Format (default) — emoji signifiers, positional. Covered below.
- Dataview Format — inline fields (
[key:: value]), read by both Tasks and the Dataview plugin.
Check which one a vault uses before writing a task line — check taskFormat in the Tasks plugin's data.json ("emoji" or "dataview"), or ask the user. Writing emoji signifiers into a vault set to Dataview format (or vice versa) means Tasks won't parse the metadata at all.
Task Line Format — Tasks Emoji Format
- [ ] Task description 🔼 🔁 every week 🛫 2025-01-01 ⏳ 2025-01-05 📅 2025-01-10
Order matters: description first, then priority, then recurrence, then dates. The Tasks plugin parses emoji signifiers by position — putting them out of order can cause misreads. Dates are always YYYY-MM-DD — natural language like "tomorrow" is not recognized on task lines (it only works in query blocks).
Task Line Format — Dataview Format
- [ ] Task description [priority:: medium] [repeat:: every week] [start:: 2025-01-01] [scheduled:: 2025-01-05] [due:: 2025-01-10]
Fields are matched by name, not position — order does not matter. Each field is its own [key:: value] bracket; don't combine several keys inside one bracket. Dates are still always YYYY-MM-DD.
Emoji → Dataview field name:
| Emoji | Dataview field | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 📅 due date | due |
|
| ⏳ scheduled date | scheduled |
|
| 🛫 start date | start |
|
| ➕ created date | created |
|
| ✅ done date | completion |
not done |
| ❌ cancelled date | cancelled |
|
| 🔺⏫🔼🔽⏬ priority | priority |
values: highest, high, medium, low, lowest (omit for Normal) |
| 🔁 recurrence | repeat |
not recurrence; rule text unchanged (every week, etc.) |
| 🆔 id | id |
|
| ⛔ dependsOn | dependsOn |
onCompletion (auto-delete/archive on done, no emoji equivalent) is also available as [onCompletion:: delete] / [onCompletion:: keep].
Dates
| Emoji | Name | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| 📅 | Due date | The deadline — when the task must be finished |
| ⏳ | Scheduled date | When you plan to work on it (hides task from views until this date) |
| 🛫 | Start date | Earliest date the task becomes actionable (blocks it before then) |
| ➕ | Created date | Auto-set by Tasks plugin, or add manually for tracking |
| ✅ | Done date | Auto-set when completing a task |
| ❌ | Cancelled date | Auto-set when cancelling |
Choosing between dates: Use 📅 due for deadlines. Use ⏳ scheduled to defer a task you don't want cluttering today's view. Use 🛫 start for tasks that literally can't begin before a date (e.g., waiting for access). Most tasks only need 📅 due.
Priority (decreasing)
🔺 Highest · ⏫ High · 🔼 Medium · (none = Normal) · 🔽 Low · ⏬ Lowest
Normal sits between Low and Medium — tasks without a priority emoji are higher than Low. Only add priority when it meaningfully differs from normal.
Recurrence
🔁 followed by a rule starting with every. Requires at least one date.
- [ ] Weekly review 🔁 every Friday 📅 2025-01-10
- [ ] Pay rent 🔁 every month on the 1st 📅 2025-02-01
- [ ] Water plants 🔁 every 3 days when done 📅 2025-01-10
Patterns: every day, every weekday, every week on Monday, Wednesday, every 2 weeks, every month on the 1st, every month on the last Friday, every year, every January on the 15th.
when done — add this to base the next occurrence on the completion date instead of the original date. Use it for flexible-interval tasks (like watering plants) where the gap matters more than a fixed schedule.
Dependencies
| Emoji | Field |
|---|---|
| 🆔 | id — identifies this task |
| ⛔ | dependsOn — blocks until the referenced id is done |
- [ ] Write draft 🆔 draft1
- [ ] Review draft ⛔ draft1
A blocked task (⛔) won't appear in "not blocked" queries until its dependency is completed.
Statuses
| Checkbox | Type | Query match |
|---|---|---|
[ ] |
TODO | not done |
[/] |
IN_PROGRESS | not done |
[x] |
DONE | done |
[-] |
CANCELLED | done |
Custom statuses (ON_HOLD, NON_TASK, etc.) depend on theme/CSS configuration.
Examples
- [ ] Buy groceries 📅 2025-04-10
- [ ] Weekly review 🔼 🔁 every Friday 📅 2025-04-11
- [ ] Start writing article 🛫 2025-04-07 📅 2025-04-14
- [ ] Research topic ⏳ 2025-04-08 📅 2025-04-12
- [/] Working on presentation 📅 2025-04-10
- [ ] Prepare slides 🆔 slides1 📅 2025-04-09
- [ ] Send presentation ⛔ slides1 📅 2025-04-10
- [ ] Water plants 🔁 every 3 days when done 📅 2025-04-08
- [ ] Pay rent 🔺 🔁 every month on the 1st 📅 2025-05-01