You may have been a TickTick veteran for many years already, knowing a lot of tricks that suit your workflow best. Or, maybe you just got started today. No matter whether you’re in the know of how powerful TickTick can be to help you stay organized, focused, and productive, this article will level up your TickTick knowledge for sure!
Read on to learn something new!
Section 1: Task & List
Some may have well recognized the Quick Add Button "+", which usually stays on the left or right bottom corner of your list, but what you may not be familiar with is that "+" can move all over your list! Once you drag the “+” and drop it somewhere, a task will be added straight to the bull's eye. For example, if "+" is dropped under a subtask, you’ll be taken to create a new subtask.
To make this happen, simply short press on the "+" > release it anywhere you'd like your task to be added > create a task and it will go into the targeted area (example below)!
Quickly arrange Today’s tasks with “Plan Your Day”
There is a built-in smart list called “Today” in TickTick, but did you know that there’s a little feature called “Plan Your Day” in the Today list? If you ever wondered why there was a circle-shaped button on the top of Today, that is “Plan Your Day”! Tapping in, you’ll get started with the arrangement of all overdue and today’s tasks one by one. What you can do is reschedule, complete, or delete them. Stay Today-free with everything getting quickly arranged one click away!
Mark the progress of tasks with “Status Bar”
We’ve received multiple requests for marking the progress of tasks/subtasks. However, this feature has been there for a long time. Have you found that before?
- On Mobile: Long press the time of a task and the status bar will appear. Swipe left or right to mark how many percentages of the task has been completed.
- On Desktop: Go to the task detail page > Click on the line (status bar) below the time of a task to mark/change its progress status.
Customize the “Repeat Type” of a recurring task
Setting a task as recurrent is a widely-used feature in TickTick, but a lesser-known feature within it is customizing the "Repeat Type". You can decide how the next recurrence of your task will be generated: based on completion of the current recurrence, or based on a fixed time. If you select Completion Date, the next recurrence will appear when a task was last completed. But if it’s set to the Due Date, your next task will appear on time, no matter if you’ve completed this current cycle or not.
To access this when adding a new task, simply go to Repeat > Custom > Repeat Type.
Jump from task A to task B with task links
Each of your tasks has a unique link. Simply copy the link of task A (from the “…” menu) + paste it into the description of task B. These two tasks will be connected. You’re then free to jump from one to another anytime you want.
Customize how you get reminded with “Default Reminder”
Task reminders may not qualify as a little-known feature, but some of the ways you can customize them aren’t so obvious. Tired of setting reminders whenever you add a new task? Try to change “Default Reminder” in the Task Default settings. There, you can customize how long before a due time the automatic reminder will be sent, i.e. on time,15 minutes before the due date, 30 minutes before, etc.
See an overview of today’s tasks with “Daily Notification”
Wish to have an overview of today’s tasks, showing what’s been completed and what’s not? Daily Notification allows you to do that! Go to Settings > Sounds & Notifications > enable “Daily Notification”, and select the time you wish to get this. TickTick will then send you the daily report at the time you’ve set. It can be more personalized if you’d like, i.e.skipping weekends. Try and see if it helps with your daily self-reflection!
Remove date/time in the task name
The Smart Recognition in TickTick can automatically capture the date/time when you input a new task, either from typing or voice input. Do you know that you can choose whether to keep the date/time in the task name or not? Once enabling it within Smart Recognition settings, the date/time won’t remain in the task name. But what if the date keyword is the task itself, not a time you wish to set to the task? Easy. Tap on the blue-highlighted keywords when adding a task and it will go back to plain text. This will avoid it from being smartly recognized as the due date and being removed from the task name.
Customize swipe actions on a task/list
Is it possible to change swipe actions on a task/list? Yes, you can tailor everything you like! You can customize all these powerful gestures so whenever you swipe left or right on a task, TickTick performs one of many actions as you wish: move, schedule, etc.
Section 2: Date & Time
Set time to a task based on flexible “Time Zone” options
Considering the need for business trips or across-timezone collaboration, TickTick introduced two Time Zone options: Fixed Time Zone and Floating Time Zone.
- Fixed Time Zone: the time set for your task will change according to the actual time zone you are in.
- Floating Time Zone: the time setting of your task will stay the same no matter where you are in the world.
Once enabling the “Time Zone” in Date & Time settings, you’ll be able to select the two above when setting time for tasks. Learn more here.
See how many days left for a task with “Countdown Mode”
How about seeing both the due date of a task and how many days left for the task before the due date? This can happen with a simple tap on the task’s due date. How? Enabling “Countdown Mode” in the Date & Time settings! Without taking extra space, you can just tap to switch between the due date and the number of days left.
Section 3: Calendar
Hide certain time slots from the timeline of Calendar
On TickTick Calendar, you may have noticed that 0-7:00 and 21-24:00 are hidden from the timeline. Yet, what you may not find out is if you click on the hidden slots, you can drag to adjust certain time slots you wish to hide. For example, If you’d only like to view schedules during work hours (10-6), just hide the rest on your Calendar with a simple click.
Switch back to Today from any date on Calendar
Another little feature in Calendar is to quickly switch back to Today from any date. Without the need to swipe a long way back to Today, or the risk of getting lost on Calendar, you can simply:
- On mobile: tap the date above the current Calendar view and you’ll be back to Today.
- On desktop: Click Today on the top right to quickly switch back.
Decide how your tasks are color-coded on Calendar
Have you ever wondered why tasks are shown in those certain colors on Calendar? Is there any way to change them?
Yes! Within the “…” menu, you’ll find “View options”, and the first option appearing is “Color”. By system default, all tasks shown on Calendar are based on their “List Color”, but you can change that to be based on their “Tag Color”, or “Priority Color”.
Customize the first day of the week and the first week of the year
Varied in different cultures and working environments, the first day of the week can be different. In TickTick, you can choose your week to start from Sunday, Monday, or Saturday. Similarly, you can also customize when the first week of the year starts. This is especially handy if you’d like the first week on the Calendar to be week 1 of a new school year so that it would be clear to check which week you’re currently in and how many weeks are left.
* Take me to the complete Calendar Tutorial: video or blog!
Section 4: Pomo
See the contrast between estimated time and actual time spent on a task
Wouldn’t it be nice to see the estimated time you’ve set to a task vs. the actual time-spending on it? Do you know how to do that in TickTick?
Go to the task detail page > Unfold “...” and select “Start Focus” > “Estimation”, you can then set beforehand an estimated Pomo number that you intend to get for this task or an estimated duration you’ll spend doing it before the timer starts. This will then appear above the task name, and you can also get a preview of it when back to the list.
After you’ve completed the task with the company of Pomo Timer/ Stopwatch, the actual time you spent will show besides the estimation you set before (see the example below).
Quickly change the duration of your Pomo Timer
To quickly change the duration of a Pomo Timer (25 mins by system default), there are also two fast ways to do without the need of going to Pomo Settings.
- Long press on the Pomo timer > scroll up and down to adjust the duration.
- Tap on the Pomo timer > Select or customize a new duration.
Section 5: Habit
Tap to switch between Current Streak & Total Days
Similar to what you do to see between the due date and days left for a task, in TickTick Habit, you can also tap the number behind a habit to switch between the Current Streak and Total Days you’ve been insisting on.
Quickly checking-in a cumulative habit
“Drinking 8 cups of water a day” or “Reading for 20 mins a day” can be considered as a cumulative habit that usually needs multiple check-ins based on your completion. Instead of checking it off multiple times, you can just give such habits a one-time check-in.
Simply swipe left on the habit > tap “+” > type in how many times you’ve done. Or, if you are more used to checking in all with a one-time swipe, you can also enable the “Achieve it all” option in the setting of a cumulative habit. This will allow you to complete it all at one time too.
Section 6: Note
Get a Summary for tasks and save it as a note
Summary is a hidden but handy feature combined with Note in TickTick, to help you review and reflect on your task completion and management. It is an auto-generated report (review) of things (tasks) that you’ve done plus those undone, which can be customized by applying different filters on it. For example, you can get a Summary of what tasks at study you’ve completed today if you filtered it by List (Today) and Tag (Study).
Summary in Note is savable, printable, and shareable as well. Where to find it?
- On mobile: Go to the editing page of a note > unfold the bottom toolkit > you’ll see the access to Summary (see the demonstration below).
- On desktops: Find “…” on the bottom right corner of your note > select “Insert Task Summary”, and you’ll also get a broad view of Summary.
Final words
Once you’ve made it there, I believe you’ve all got to know TickTick a little bit better than before. Take these tips to help yourself get more organized, focused, and productive! Tell us your unique tricks that are not covered in this article and you’d like to share with others!
