Subtasks and checklists

“Sort out the car” is hard to start. “Find the insurance letter” is not. Thendoo gives you two ways to break a task down, and picking the right one keeps your lists short.

Checklist or subtasks?

	Checklist	Subtasks
What each item is	A line of text you tick	A full task
Own date, priority, estimate	No	Yes
Shows on Today and in views	No, it stays inside the task	Yes, it can be scheduled on its own
Limit	100 steps per task	No fixed limit
Best for	Steps you’ll do in one sitting	Parts you’ll do on different days

A rule of thumb: if you’d want to put it on a different day than the rest, make it a subtask.

Add a checklist

1. Open the task.
2. Under Checklist, choose Add a step and type the first tiny action.
3. Keep adding steps. Use the move up and move down controls to reorder them, and remove any you don’t need.

A checklist is a good home for a first step that’s almost too small to count, such as “Open the laptop” or “Put the form on the table”. Starting is often the hardest part.

Add subtasks

1. Open the parent task.
2. Under Subtasks, choose Add a subtask.
3. Give it a title, then open it to set a date, Priority or Estimate as you would any task.

Each subtask shows Part of with its parent. The parent shows progress such as “2 of 5 subtasks done”. In list views you can show or hide a task’s subtasks. A task can’t be placed inside one of its own subtasks.

When one task waits on another

If a task can’t start until something else is done, that’s a dependency, not a subtask. Use Waits for… in the task panel. The task then lists it under This waits for, and Thendoo refuses loops where two tasks wait on each other.

Repeating tasks and checklists

When a repeating task creates its next occurrence, the checklist comes along fresh and unticked. Subtasks don’t copy over, so for a weekly routine of steps, a checklist is usually the better fit.