Tasks

A task is the atomic unit of work in Sonto. Everything you do flows through tasks — capturing them, scheduling them, and checking them off.

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Adding tasks

Click or tap the purple + button to add a task. On Mac you can also press Cmd + N. The new task appears at the top of the list, ready for you to type.

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Drop a task exactly where you want it

If the top of the list isn’t where the task belongs, don’t add it and then move it — place it as you create it. Press and hold the +, drag it into the list, and the list opens a gap to show you where the task will land. Let go, and the task appears there with its name field already active. You can drop into a group as well as the main list. On iPhone, either drag the + or hold it still for a moment to pick it up. Dragging back onto the + cancels — it turns into a ✕. This works on the inbox, day, week, project, area and tag screens. It isn’t available on search, History or repetitions, or on a day or week that has already passed.

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Type tasks naturally

You can set a task up as you name it. Type a date, a time, a project or area, and tags right into the name, and Sonto files them for you — Prepare deck #Work @urgent tomorrow 3pm schedules the task for tomorrow at 3 pm, files it in Work, and tags it urgent, leaving the name as Prepare deck. See Natural language input for everything it understands.

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Editing tasks

To begin editing a task, double-click it (or tap it on iPhone), or select it with the arrow keys and press Return. The buttons at the bottom-right let you take quick action — move it, schedule it, or reach many more actions through the … menu.

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Reordering tasks

Pick a task up and drag it where you want it. On Mac you can do the same from the keyboard: select a task and press Cmd + ↑ or Cmd + ↓ to move it one place at a time, or Cmd + Shift + ↑ / Cmd + Shift + ↓ to send it straight to the top or bottom. A multiple selection moves as one block, and a task can travel from one group into the next. Reordering applies to the inbox, day, week, project, area and tag screens. Search, History, repetitions and the plan screens sort themselves. On a day, tasks linked to a calendar event stay at the top in start-time order. To arrange those by hand too, turn off Keep calendar tasks at the top in Settings → Tasks.

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Copying and pasting tasks

Tasks go on the clipboard like anything else — copy one in a project and paste it into next week, or duplicate a task you set up carefully rather than building it again. A pasted task brings its name, notes, tags, priority and completed state with it. It does not bring its project, area or schedule — where it lands is decided entirely by where you paste it. You can also paste plain text from another app: Sonto makes one task per line, and strips list markers like -, * and 1. as it goes. A line starting [x] arrives already completed. Copying the other way gives you a Markdown checklist, one - [ ] Task name per line.

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Deleting tasks

Sonto doesn’t ask you to confirm — not for a task, and not for a group and everything inside it. Undo brings it back instead, along with any calendar event the task was linked to.

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Undo and redo

Almost anything you do to your tasks can be undone: deleting, cutting and pasting, completing, scheduling, moving between lists, reordering, renaming, editing notes, tag changes, creating a project or an area — and the changes an AI assistant makes on your behalf. Undo is per-device and per-session. It doesn’t travel over sync, so it only ever reverses changes you made on the device you’re holding, and the history starts empty each time you open Sonto.

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Turning a task into a project

Some tasks grow. When one turns out to be a piece of work in its own right, select it and choose Convert to Project from its … menu. Sonto creates a project with the task’s name and notes, and opens it. The option appears only when you have exactly one task selected. A whole group can become a project too, and that route keeps much more — see Convert a group or task into a project.

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What a task can hold

A single task can carry all of the following:

• Priority — mark a task as priority so it stands out and surfaces on your day (Cmd + T). You can also type !!! in the name — see Natural language input.
• Scheduling — assign a task to a day or a week, or place it on the calendar as a time block.
• Notes & checklist — context, links, formatting, and sub-tasks. See Notes & Checklists.
• File attachments — keep PDFs, images and other files with the task. See File Attachments.
• Project or area — file a task in a project or area, or leave it in the inbox.
• Tags — label a task so it shows up across tag filters (Cmd + Shift + T).
• Deadline — a task inherits the deadline of its project, which Sonto surfaces as the date approaches.

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Task states

A task is in one of five states:

• Open — not started.
• In progress — currently being worked on.
• Waiting for — blocked on someone or something else.
• Complete — done.
• Won’t Do — you’ve decided not to do it. See Won’t Do.

Clicking or tapping the checkbox completes a task, or reopens a closed one. To set any other state, use the Status menu or Cmd + R.

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The Status menu

The menu offers Mark Complete, Mark In Progress, Mark Waiting For and Mark as Won’t Do. On a closed task, Mark Complete becomes Mark Incomplete. Choosing the state a task is already in takes it back to open.

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Cycling with the keyboard

On Mac, and on iPad with a keyboard, Cmd + R steps the selected tasks through open → in progress → waiting for → Won’t Do → open. A completed task reopens as in progress, and tasks in different states all go to in progress. The command is listed in the Tasks menu in the menu bar as Cycle Status. Cmd + E toggles completion, whatever state the task is in.

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Won’t Do

Use Won’t Do for a task you’ve deliberately dropped, such as something you planned but no longer intend to do. Unlike deleting it, you keep the record that it was planned. Unlike completing it, it doesn’t inflate your progress. A Won’t Do task is closed like a completed one, and shows a box with a × and a struck-through name:

• Progress — it doesn’t count at all, neither as done nor as still to do. That goes for project and plan progress as well as the Apple Watch and widgets.
• Lists — it leaves your open tasks. On the inbox, day and week screens it sits below your completed tasks. In a plan, tasks stay exactly where you put them.
• History — it appears alongside the tasks you completed.
• Repeating tasks — it skips that occurrence, and the next one is created as usual.

Cmd + R and the checkbox’s menu give you two seconds before the task closes, the same as clicking the checkbox. Press Cmd + R again, or click the checkbox, to take it back. After that, click the checkbox or press Cmd + E to reopen it, or undo. On Mac, hover over the checkbox to see when you marked the task. Hovering over a waiting task shows how long it has been waiting.

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Repeating tasks

Any task can repeat — on a fixed schedule or when you complete it — and optionally add itself to your calendar. See Repeating tasks.

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Focus

To work on a task distraction-free, open it in Focus — full screen, with everything else out of the way (Cmd + . on Mac).

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Availability

Tasks work on both Mac and iPhone & iPad. The keyboard shortcuts above are Mac-only.

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