Tasks and handoff

A task is more than a name and a status. Each one keeps a history, and it can move from person to person without losing context. This page covers the task timeline, handing a task off and turning freeform time into a task.

The task timeline

Open a task and look for the Discussion section. It holds the task’s timeline, a list of what has happened to the task, in order. Until something happens it says No activity yet.

The timeline records:

Comments from you and your teammates.
Handoffs, such as “Sam handed off to Alex”.
Review steps: a review requested, approved or sent back.
Status changes, shown as Status: Open → In progress.
Times when someone marked the task blocked or cleared it.

Each entry shows who did it and when. If a handoff came with a message, the message appears under the entry.

Comment on a task

Write in the box under the timeline and choose Comment. The box also says ⌘↵ to send. Type @ to mention a teammate. They get a notification. See Collaboration.

You can Edit or Delete your own comments. An edited comment is marked (edited). A deleted one stays in the timeline as Comment deleted.

Hand a task off

Above the timeline, the Task actions group has the buttons for moving a task to someone else. Any task that is not completed shows them.

Pass… gives the task to a person. Choose the Person, add a Message, then choose Pass. The message is required.
Request review… asks someone to check the work. Choose the Reviewer and choose Request review. The message is optional. If the task is already in review, this button reads Change reviewer….

When you are the reviewer, two more buttons appear:

Approve accepts the work. The message is optional.
Send back… returns it with a Message that says what needs to change. The message is required.

Each step appears in the timeline. The person you pass the task to, or ask for a review, gets a notification in their inbox.

Your resume note becomes the message

When you Leave a task, Lykert asks for a short note. If you wrote that note yourself, Pass… starts with it as the message, with the line From your resume note. Edit before sending. Change it or keep it. Lykert never prefills a message from a note it drafted for you.

Turn freeform time into a task

You do not have to pick a task before you start working. Press T to open the switcher, type what you are doing and choose Track “what you typed”. Lykert starts the clock and records the time as freeform: it has a label but no project or task yet.

When the work turns into something real, make it a task.

From the switcher

While a freeform interval is running, open the switcher with T. The list ends with Make “what you typed” a task…. If the interval has no label, it says Make it a task….

Choose Make it a task…
Pick the Project.
Check the Task name. It starts as the label you typed.
Choose Convert.

From the Time page

On the Time page, select any freeform work interval, running or past. In the panel beside the ledger, choose Make it a task, then fill in the same Project and Task name and choose Convert.

The new task is created in the project you chose. The interval is attached to it, so the time you already recorded counts toward the task. The task name can be up to 200 characters.

Only work you tracked without a project can be converted. A break, or an interval that already belongs to a task, does not offer the option.

See Time for the ledger.