Dates and Durations

Give a task a Start Date when you want to decide when it becomes available, a Due Date when it has a deadline, and a Duration when you want to allow working time before that deadline. Each is optional.

Open the task and tap a date row or the date button in the bottom toolbar. Choose Due, Start, or Duration in the date panel. Select a day in the calendar or use the date shortcuts. Tap Set Due Time or Set Start Time to add a clock time. None clears the selected date.

To make your days off easier to see while choosing dates, set your Work Week in Advanced settings.

A date and an alert do different jobs. Set an alert when you want a notification; setting a date does not always create one.

Time Zones

Ordinary task schedules use floating time. A task due at 9:00 AM keeps that local clock time when you travel. For example, a 9:00 AM routine stays at 9:00 AM after your device changes from London time to New York time.

A date without a time stays on its chosen calendar day. Floating times are useful for routines and deadlines that you follow in the place where you are working.

For an appointment managed by a calendar, use Calendar Events. Calendar events and 2Do task schedules are separate.

Choosing Between Start and Due

Use the date that fits the task:

• A Start Date keeps it out of the way until you can begin.
• A Due Date records when it must be finished.
• Both create a working period between a start and a deadline.
• A Duration records how long it takes and, with a due date, allows time before the deadline.

Only a due date makes a task overdue. A past start date means the task is available, rather than late.

Daily Routines

For a routine you want to see at a certain time without making it late after that time, set a start date and time, add a daily repeat, and leave the due date empty.

For example, Update journal can start at 8:00 AM. It stays hidden until the start when scheduled tasks are hidden, then becomes available. Each completion advances it to the next start. See Repeating Tasks.

A Plain, Undated Task

An undated task stays in its list and never becomes overdue. Having no dates does not add it to Today through the date rules. It can still appear there if, for example, you star it and turn on Include starred tasks.

Use this for ideas, reference tasks, and work that does not yet have a schedule.

Just a Due Date

A task due on Friday can appear in Today throughout Friday. A due time makes the deadline more precise without keeping it hidden until that time.

Without a due time, the task becomes overdue after the due day ends. With a due time, Settings > Advanced > Due time can overdue decides whether the task becomes overdue at that time or on the following day.

Settings > Appearance > Include overdue tasks controls whether those overdue tasks remain in Today. Completing the task clears its overdue state.

For example, Submit invoice due Friday appears in Today on Friday. Send proposal due Friday at 3:00 PM has a 3:00 PM deadline; add an alert if you also want a reminder.

Just a Start Date

A task with a future start is scheduled. When scheduled tasks are hidden, it stays out of ordinary task views until its start arrives. A start without a time begins at the start of that day.

To see it early, open the Scheduled Focus List or use the clock button on the sort bar to show scheduled tasks in the current view. This changes what the view includes without changing any dates.

For example, Pack for trip starting Thursday at 6:00 PM stays out of the way until Thursday evening. Once it starts, it is available without becoming overdue.

The Always show 'Still Working On' option in Settings > Appearance keeps tasks with past start dates in Today. Turn it off to keep those tasks out unless they also meet Today's other rules, such as being due today.

Projects and child tasks

A project and its children can have different start dates. A project with no start date can remain visible while a future-start child stays hidden. A future start on the parent also affects its children in ordinary task views. Opening Project View lets you work with the contents together.

Start Date + Due Date

Use both when work can begin before it must be finished. Prepare quarterly review could start Monday and be due Friday.

With scheduled tasks hidden, the task stays out of view before Monday. It is available from Monday and due on Friday. Always show 'Still Working On' can include it in Today during the working period. After the deadline it becomes overdue.

Just a Duration

Without a due date, a duration is an estimate. It does not add a deadline or make an undated task appear in Today.

For example, Write outline with a 30-minute duration records the time you expect it to take. You can use duration when sorting or planning even before you choose a date.

Due Date + Due Time + Duration

2Do counts duration backward from the due date and time. A task due at 3:00 PM with a 30-minute duration has a working window beginning at 2:30 PM.

The deadline remains 3:00 PM. The duration allows the task to appear earlier when its working window reaches the day you are viewing. It does not create a separate start date, postpone the deadline, or automatically add an alert.

For Submit proposal, due Friday at 5:00 PM with a 2-hour duration, the duration window begins at 3:00 PM Friday.

Due Date + Duration

Without a due time, 2Do counts the duration backward from the beginning of the due day. This can bring a task into Today before the due date.

For example, Prepare slides due Friday with a 2-day duration has a lead-up window beginning Wednesday. Use a due time when you need the window to begin at a particular clock time.

The duration window is separate from overdue status. A task does not become overdue just because its duration window has begun.

Start + Due + Duration

The start date controls scheduled visibility, while the due date and duration define the deadline and working window. A future start can still hide the task when scheduled tasks are hidden, even if its duration window has begun.

For example, Prepare conference talk can start Monday, be due Friday at 5:00 PM, and have a 4-hour duration. The task becomes available Monday, and its duration window begins Friday at 1:00 PM.

Choose a start date early enough for the work you need to do. Use Show Scheduled when you want to review work before its start.

Duration Totals

In 2Do 3.2 and later, headings such as Today and Tomorrow show the total duration of unfinished tasks beside their title. The total uses the same color as task duration labels, so you can judge how much work a group contains at a glance.

For example, Meeting at 90 minutes, Lunch at 1 hour, and Fitness at 2 hours give Today a total of 4h 30m.

Completed tasks and tasks without a duration add nothing. Each task counts once. A heading with no remaining duration has no label. Collapsing a group does not change its total.

Projects and Checklists

Totals include eligible unfinished sub-tasks without requiring you to open their project or checklist:

• With Due Date sorting, a sub-task with its own due date contributes to that date group. A sub-task without a due date contributes to its displayed parent's group. Start Date sorting uses the same rule for start dates. Other sorts use each task's own values.
• If a parent and its timed sub-tasks contribute to the same group, their durations replace the parent's estimate in that group. This avoids adding a project estimate on top of the work it describes.
• Totals update the headings already in the view. They do not create a new heading just to show a sub-task's duration or change any saved dates.

Sub-tasks first follow the current task view's filters. For Due Date and Start Date sorting, 2Do can add further sub-tasks that lack the relevant date to their displayed parent's heading. Those additional contributions follow Android's Project View rules for Focus Filter, paused tasks, and Project view inherits search keywords. Project View includes scheduled sub-tasks, so they can count through this missing-date rule too. Project View filters do not remove a sub-task that already matched the current view's filters.

Showing or Hiding Totals

Show durations in headings is on by default. To change it, open Settings, find Appearance, tap More..., and change the switch. See Appearance settings.

When sorting by Duration, the headings already describe durations, so an extra total is hidden. In a list with named sections, totals appear beside the sorted groups inside each section, such as Today, rather than beside the section's name. A long heading can leave too little room for its total on a narrow screen.

Repeating Tasks and Dates

Repeating tasks keep their schedule's structure:

• A due-only task gets the next due date.
• A start-only task gets the next start date without gaining a due date.
• A task with both dates keeps the gap between them.
• Times and duration carry into the next occurrence.

With Repeat after completion off, the rule advances from the current due date, or the start date if there is no due date. Turn it on to count from the day you finish instead. See Repeating Tasks.

Smart Scheduling

Scheduled visibility helps you keep future work out of the current view. The clock button on the sort bar switches between showing and hiding scheduled tasks. It does not edit the tasks or change their sort.

A hidden task can also be affected by a paused tag, Focus Filter, list exclusions, or a search. Showing scheduled tasks changes only the scheduled-task filter. See Focus Filter and Tags.

Filtering by Date with the Mini Calendar

Use the mini calendar to filter tasks by a day or date range. On phones, open it from the lists panel. On wide tablet layouts, it can appear beside the task list.

The mini calendar also uses your Work Week to mark days off. You can still select those days when filtering tasks.

A date filter changes the tasks displayed; it does not reschedule them. Pulling down on the task list starts a sync. See Search for date-range and search options.

Building a Daily View

Today combines tasks due today with the start-date, overdue, and starred options you have enabled. List exclusions and other filters can affect which tasks it shows.

When building a Smart List, choose the filter that matches the dates you want:

• type: today and type: duetoday match due dates today.
• type: anytoday matches start or due dates today.

See Focus Lists for Today and Smart Lists for saved searches.

Practical Examples

Task	Schedule	Effect
Buy milk	No dates	Stays in its list and never becomes overdue.
Submit invoice	Due Friday	Due in Today on Friday, then overdue if unfinished.
Pack for trip	Starts Thursday at 6:00 PM	Scheduled until Thursday evening.
Update journal	Starts daily at 8:00 AM, with no due date	Becomes available at the start and never becomes overdue.
Prepare quarterly review	Starts Monday, due Friday	Available during the working period, then due Friday.
Send proposal	Due Friday at 5:00 PM, duration 2 hours	Has a duration window beginning at 3:00 PM Friday.
Prepare slides	Due Friday, duration 2 days	Has a lead-up window beginning Wednesday.