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Subtasks

A job usually has parts. A subtask is one of those parts, kept under the task it belongs to.

A subtask is a full task. It can have its own due date, its own person and its own logged hours, and you'll see it in Calendar and on the Dashboard like any other task.

It's a subtask because of the task it belongs to, and nothing else about it changes.

Subtask or checklist?​

The notes field has checklists in it too, so you have two ways to break something down.

Does the step need its own date, its own person, or its own hours? Then make it a subtask. If it doesn't, use a checklist in the notes.

A checklist item is a note to yourself. A subtask is work you can put a deadline on and hand to somebody else.

You add them from the task itself​

Open a task and use the Subtasks box in the panel. Type a title, press Enter, and carry on. The field stays where it is, so you can write out all the parts in one go. When you click a subtask, it opens like any other task.

If you already have the list somewhere, paste it into that field. Nydli will ask whether you want one subtask per line. It takes off the bullets and the numbering, and it skips blank lines. That's the quickest way to get a checklist out of a document and into the task it belongs to.

If you want to file a task you already have under another one, open it and use the Make this a subtask button in the same box. Then search for the task it should belong to.

You can lift one back out​

Make it its own task turns a subtask back into a task of its own, and it keeps its hours and everything else. You'll find the button on the Belongs to line when the subtask is open, and on each row in the parent's list.

A subtask is always in its parent's category​

You can't change that while it's a subtask, so all the hours for one job stay together in one place.

When you move the parent, the subtasks move with it. If you make a subtask its own task again, it stays where it is and you can move it on its own.

It also means that if you file a task under a parent in another category, the task moves there. The picker tells you so before you pick.

In List you'll see them indented under the parent​

You fold them away with the number after the parent's title, and fold them back out the same way.

If you want them off altogether, use Subtasks in the list's settings menu at the top right. The number stays either way, so you can always see that there's something in there.

Two things stay true whatever you set:

  • A search or a filter always shows you a subtask that matches, even when you have subtasks switched off. We never hide something you went looking for.
  • If the parent isn't in view, because it's filtered out or done or archived, you get the subtask on its own with the parent's name in front of it.

Every task's hours are its own​

The Time tracked column on a List row shows the time logged on that one task, and nothing else.

You do get the totals in two places. The Subtasks box in the editor adds up the parts, and the timesheet adds up everything under a category.

On the timesheet, every row is one task's own hours. A category's total is always the sum of the rows under it, and a subtask's row has its parent's name in front of the title.

You finish a parent and its subtasks separately​

Neither one ticks the other off. The count on the row and the 3/5 done in the panel tell you where things stand, and then you decide.

If the same job comes round again, Mark all as not done in the Subtasks box reopens every one of them at once.

They follow their parent into the archive, and back out again​

If you archived or binned a subtask on its own earlier, it keeps its own 30 days and stays where it is.

There are two exceptions worth knowing about:

  • You can't delete a task that has an archived subtask. Reactivate it first, because deleting doesn't touch anything in the archive.
  • If you restore a subtask while its parent is still in the Bin, we make it a task of its own. That way it comes back somewhere you can actually see it.

Subtasks don't have subtasks​

We limited it to one level on purpose, because any deeper and a task list turns into a project plan.

If a piece of work has grown enough to need its own parts, it has probably earned a category of its own.