How to use Taskmill

Taskmill shares tasks between the Google Tasks accounts of a small group. You keep using the Google Tasks app. Taskmill copies shared tasks to the other people, and keeps the copies in step.

The examples below use a group called @family with three people: Alex, Jo and Sam.

1. Getting started

1. The administrator invites you and sends you an invite link.
2. Open the link and select Connect. Sign in with the Google account that you were invited with.
3. Google shows an "unverified app" screen. Select Advanced, then Go to Taskmill.
4. Leave every box ticked. Google Tasks access is needed; calendar access is for reminders and is optional.

Within a minute or two, Taskmill makes a list in Google Tasks for each of your groups. Tasks that were shared with you before you connected arrive then too.

Changes reach the others within about a minute while people are working on shared tasks, and within 15 minutes when nothing has happened for a while.

2. Share a task with your group

Add a task to a group list, or move one of your own tasks into it. Every member gets a copy in their own group list.

• Edit: anyone can change the title, notes or due date of their copy, and the change reaches every copy. When two people change a task at about the same time, the later change wins.
  Example

  Sam changes the title to Fix the garden fence (buy nails). Alex and Jo see the new title.

• Complete: when anyone completes the task, it is completed for everyone. Reopening it reopens it for everyone.
  Example

  Jo ticks the task off. It is ticked off in Alex's and Sam's lists too. Alex unticks it by mistake; it is open again for all three.

• Delete: when the person who made the task deletes it, every copy goes. When someone else deletes their copy, only they stop seeing it.
  Example

  Sam deletes the fence task: it leaves Sam's list only. Alex, who made it, deletes it: it leaves everyone's list.

• Move: you can move your copy to another list. It stays shared.

3. Give a task to one person

Write #to: and a name in the title or the notes of any copy. The name is the person's first name, or the part of their email address before the @.

• To give it to someone else, change the marker: #to:sam. Jo's personal copy goes, and Sam gets one.
• To take it back from everyone, remove the marker. If Jo deletes the personal copy, the task is no longer assigned to Jo.
• If the name is someone who is not in the group yet, the task waits, unassigned. When that person joins the group, it is assigned to them.

4. A task for everyone to do

Write #each in a new task in a group list. Every member gets their own copy to complete. Your copy completes when everyone has completed theirs. Taskmill reads #each only when the task is new.

5. Share with particular people

In any list, write #share: and the people, separated by commas, in the title or notes of a task. You can also name a whole group with @. Each person gets their own copy and completes it on their own. Your copy completes when everyone has completed theirs.

Only people who were invited to Taskmill can get a task. If a name is not known, Taskmill does not share the task. Taskmill never changes a task that has no Taskmill marker.

6. Times and reminders

Google Tasks keeps only a date. To give a task a time, write #t: and the time on the 24-hour clock. The task also needs a due date.

• The time is in your own time zone. For another zone, add #tz: with the zone's name, for example #t:09:00 #tz:Europe/Berlin.
• Taskmill also understands the TasksBoard form, for example ⏰ 18:30.
• Google sends the reminder, so it comes even when Taskmill is down.

7. Repeating tasks

Write #r: and how often: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or days of the week such as mon,thu. When the task is completed, Taskmill makes the next one with the next due date. The completed one stays as a record, and is no longer shared.

8. Where markers go

A marker is a word that starts with # and that Taskmill knows, such as #to:jo or #t:18:30. You can type markers at the end of the title, which is easier in the app. Taskmill then moves them to the last line of the notes.

Title: Fix the garden fence
Notes: ⇄ #tm:ab3cd4ef5g #to:jo #t:10:00

• The #tm: part is how Taskmill recognizes the copies of a task. Do not change or delete it.
• Hashtags that Taskmill does not know, such as #garden, stay where you wrote them.
• Markers that contradict each other, such as #to:jo #to:sam, change nothing and stay where they are until you fix them.

9. When you are away

If your Google account is disconnected for a while, your copies catch up when you connect again: edits, completions, repeats and assignments. A task that was deleted meanwhile disappears. If you edited a copy while away, and your edit is the later one, your edit wins.

10. Rules to keep in mind

• Set times and repeats with markers only, never with the time or repeat controls of the Google Tasks app. Taskmill cannot see those settings, so they are not shared, and a later change can remove them.
  Example

  Write #t:18:30 #r:weekly in the title, not "18:30" and "Repeats weekly" in the app's date dialog.

• Stars are not shared.
• Taskmill stores no task text, only IDs. See the privacy policy.