🚀 NEW Priorities are here! Unlock the update for your account here. Your UI might look slightly different as we update our help docs for the new system – check out the Priorities overview to learn more.
The Google Task integration supports natural language to create Tasks. In addition to being a fast way to add Tasks to Reclaim, one benefit of using natural language is that you can express options for the Task that are not natively supported by Google Tasks.
How to use natural language for Google Tasks
The general syntax for Google Tasks is as follows, and should be entered into the Title field of Google Tasks: TITLE ([DURATION] [DUE_DATE] [NOT_BEFORE] [TYPE])
The TITLE is required, and the additional text in the parenthesis is optional fine-tuning of the Task. Refer to Tasks overview for a description of each field.
Once synced, Reclaim will automatically strip out other parameters besides the title, so your calendar events and Google Tasks won't have a lot of extra words on them when they're placed on your calendar.
Syntax and format
You must use parentheses to contain the syntax. For example,
Build slide deck 30mwon't work, butBuild slide deck (for 30m)will.Durationmust be specified ashfor hours, andmfor minutes, and you cannot use expressions like1h30mor1 hour and 30 min. Instead, you'd use90mor1.5h.Typeis eitherworkorpersonal. The default forTypeiswork, which will schedule the time during your Working Hours, or you can specifypersonalto schedule the task during your Personal Hours.Due dateandnot beforecan use relative dates (e.g.,due Sundayordue next Tuesday) and can also take specific dates and times (e.g.,not before Monday September 18th 3pm)
Examples
To create a work task for "Build slide deck" for four hours by next Friday, you would enter
Build slide deck (for 4h due next Friday)To create a personal task for "Mow the lawn" for one hour (default) by this Sunday, you would type
Mow the lawn (type personal due sunday)To create a work task for "Get back to CEO" for 30m by September 21st, not to be started before September 15th, you would type
Get back to CEO (for 30m due sept 21 not before sept 15)
Updating existing Tasks
While the TITLE and DUE DATE can be directly edited using Google Tasks, you have to edit the title using natural language to update the DURATION, TYPE, or NOT BEFORE date because those features do not exist in Google Tasks.
For example, if you decide you need two hours instead of the default one hour for a Task, add (for 2h) to the end of the title. In about one minute, you'll see that text disappear and your schedule adjusted accordingly.
Using natural language to prioritize Google Tasks
*Priorities settings are available in the new prioritization system. Enable Priorities for your account in one-click here →
Tasks synced via Reclaim's task integrations will automatically map Priorities in Reclaim to the priority you set for a task in your project management apps.
Since Google Tasks does not feature native 'priority' levels, specifying your priority level for Reclaim on synced items can be done through native language syntax:
Priority syntax in Google Tasks | Priority level mapped in Reclaim |
(priority:critical) (priority:high) (priority:medium) (priority:low) | Critical (P1) High priority (P2) Medium priority (P3) Low priority (P4) |
(priority:P1) (priority:P2) (priority:P3) (priority:P4) | Critical (P1) High priority (P2) Medium priority (P3) Low priority (P4) |
To set the priority level for a Google Task, include the native language label in the title of the task in this format:
Eat Bananas(priority:medium)
Alternatively, you can replace the priority term with the corresponding 'P1'-'P4' level. For example:
Eat Bananas(priority:P3)
If you don’t specify a priority for your Google Tasks, the task will schedule with the priority setting you have selected in your Default Task Settings under Settings > General in the app. By default, this is set to High priority (P2).
Since you are specifying the priority level in Reclaim when adding it to the task title, updating your priority level for a synced Google Task in Reclaim will reflect the new priority in Google Tasks (unlike other task integrations as outlined in this doc).