features · Apr 26, 2016

Type it while you think it, with @, #, <> and more.

My helpful screenshot

Today, you’re bound to have a Q-shaped smile on your face, because we’ve got special productivity-boosting tips for everyone, especially those who’re addicted to keeping your hands on the keyboard! Now, you no longer need to switch between keyboard and mouse while adding and prepping your task.

So what are they? They’re smart keyboard shortcuts. They can help you add assignees (with @), tags (with #), start and due dates (with <>) and priority (with !) quickly, and more naturally in a single line.

When you add a new task...

You may want to get David to write an article that’s urgent and is related to marketing by Oct. 2nd.

Simply add a task, and type “Write the article **@David !1 #Marketing <10/2>” and press Enter.

My helpful screenshot

Your task would, of course, be automatically assigned to David, have a priority of Urgent, a due date of Oct. 2nd and the tag Marketing.

My helpful screenshot

If you want to set a start date as well, simply type "Publish the article @David #Marketing <9/20; 10/2>" and press Enter.

Obviously, when you type @, # or <> (with or without ;), you can use the Up or Down arrow key to select the assignee, tag or start/due date you want.

You can see all the input date formats allowed here.

Note: Priority from high to low is !1, !2, !3 and !4.

When you edit a task…

You may want to add or change the assignee, tag and due date of an existing task.

It’s like what you’d do when you’re adding a new task. For example, you can type “Write the article @Kevin @Megan <+7d>” (counting from today) and press Enter.

My helpful screenshot

What happens is that this task would be assigned to both Kevin and Megan instead, and has a new due date of Sept. 30th.

My helpful screenshot

You may also want to add or remove assigness and tags from a task, without having to type them all over again.

To add one more assignee or tag to a task, type +@assignee or +#tag in the task name.

To remove an existing assignee or tag from a task, type -@assignee or -#tag instead.

When you search for tasks...

You can type keywords, assignees (with @), tags (with #) and priority (with !) to search a specific task or more.

You can also hover a task in the search results to highlight it in the tree list.

My helpful screenshot

Wait, there’s more!

There might be a couple extra useful shortcuts you’re not aware of.

To add a task, you can simply press Ctrl+Enter. You can even press Tab or Shift+Tab to make it a subtask (indent) or task (unindent) while you're typing the task name.

After you’ve added a task, you can still move it horizontally by pressing Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right. To move it vertically, press Ctrl+Up or Ctrl+Down.

To delete a task? Like you might have guessed, press Ctrl+Delete.

We’re bringing you the smart shortcuts because it’s natural that when you’re adding a task, you already have an idea who should do it, what priority it should have, and when it should be done. So, instead of choosing them after you add a task, you can now do them all together with @, # and <>.

There are also a whole other shortcuts in store you can check out!

Crystal Chen
Content writer, food lover, and aniholic.