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Managing Tasks

This page covers how to create tasks, keep them organised, and use the Governance tab to set up your categories and custom statuses.

Creating a task​

On the Home tab, type in the task entry field and submit.

Standard fields:

  • Title — what needs to be done (required)
  • Description — additional detail (optional)
  • Priority — Low, Medium, or High
  • Category — a custom category you've created
  • Due date — surfaces on your Calendar and in daily views
  • Status — defaults to Active; change to any default or custom status
  • Notification — a reminder at a configurable time

Natural language entry​

Type naturally and Terra parses it for you:

  • "Call dentist Friday" → sets due date to the next Friday
  • "Submit report tomorrow high priority" → sets due date to tomorrow, priority to High
  • "Review contract next week" → sets due date to next Monday

Parsed values appear as badges on the task before you submit so you can confirm before saving.

Completing a task​

Tap the completion toggle on any task to mark it done. The task moves to the completed section. Tap again to undo if you toggled by mistake.

Deleting completed tasks​

On the Database tab, use the Delete All Completed option to clear your completed tasks in bulk. Individual tasks can be deleted one at a time from their detail view.

The Database tab​

The Database tab shows your full task list with filtering and sorting options:

  • Filter by status, priority, or category
  • Search by keyword in the title
  • Group by active vs. completed

Use the Database tab when you need to find a specific task or review everything in a certain category.

The Governance tab​

Governance is where you set up and maintain your task organisation system.

Categories​

Create custom categories to group related tasks. Examples: Work, Personal, Home, Creative, Admin. Categories appear as filter options in the Database tab and as a dropdown when creating or editing tasks.

Rename or delete categories at any time. Deleting a category removes the label from tasks that used it but doesn't delete the tasks themselves.

Custom statuses​

Beyond the default statuses (Active, In Progress, Blocked, On Hold, Cancelled, Completed), you can create your own:

  • Give each status a name and a color
  • Use statuses to represent states specific to your workflow — "Waiting on client," "In review," "Delegated"

Custom statuses appear in the status dropdown when editing any task and can be used as filters in the Database tab.

Delete a custom status to remove it from the options; tasks using it revert to Active.

Tips​

  • Keep task titles action-oriented. "Email landlord about the leak" is more useful than "Landlord issue." When you re-read the list, an action-oriented title tells you exactly what to do without opening the task.
  • Use priority sparingly. If everything is High priority, nothing is. Reserve High for things that genuinely can't slip.
  • Categories work best when they're broad. Four or five categories is easier to maintain than twenty narrow ones. Start broad and split only when a category gets unwieldy.
  • Set due dates only when they actually matter. A task with a fake due date to "encourage you" creates noise in your Calendar and daily views.