In the past six months, our team has been working hard on how to take another step forward. Finally, after numerous reflections, self-confrontations and breakthroughs, it is time to welcome Tick 6.0. Ever since the version of 4.7.0, we began to discover the magic of customization. We launched the “Make Your Own Tab Bar” function and encourage you to customize TickTick according to your own need. This time, we not only go further in the necessary efficiency and practicality as a tool app, but also pay more attention to the personalized experience of users.

Custom Appearance

Don't like the default tone? Not satisfied with the default theme? Custom appearance can further meet your individual needs! You can upload any beautiful picture you like and set it as background. It will not only be displayed in the side bar, but also be used as the background for list, calendar view, pomo timer, etc., which makes the page style more harmonious. Also, we offer more icons of different styles for you to choose from.

Brand-new UI

Following the GTD concept, TickTick 6.0 is designed to help you get more things done and take your productivity to the next level. Different from the previous list layout, in the new version, we use block layout to display different types of tasks. Such a logical way can help you find what you need in a shorter time, with lower energy consumption and higher efficiency.

Pin Tasks

Have you ever been bothered by list sort? Is your most important task at the end of the list in chronological order or among a group of tasks of the same priority? Now, the 'Pin Tasks' feature can make it easy for you to carry the task to the top of the list.

Rich Text

The much anticipated feature, Rich Text, is finally released in TickTick 6.0! When taking notes, diaries and memos, we often need pictures or other attachments to improve the aesthetics and readability of the content. And TickTick 6.0 really did that. Pictures, videos, recordings, files, all kinds of attachments can be inserted into text, which makes it more convenient to edit and comfortable to read.

Last but not least, we want to thank all of our beta testers for giving their feedback regarding the new UI and features. 6.0 is a fresh beginning for TickTick. We will note down all your feedback, carefully evaluate them and continue improving the functionality in the future. If you like the new release or have any feedback to give, let us know! Have fun with TickTick 6.0. Cheers.

Journaling has been attracting a lot of attention. Its influence on personal growth and productivity has made it worthy of anyone’s attention. 

Keeping a journal can be a very effective way to keep track of your progress and thoughts. It can also allow you to find new ways to tackle certain issues and approach your goals.

Are you aware of the power of journaling? Do you know how journaling can help you reach a better version of yourself?

If you are inquisitive about journaling and you want to push towards your goals, you are in the right place. We present to you 6 ways through which will journaling can help with promoting productivity and personal growth. Let’s get started!

1. Write Down Your Most Important Goals

What do you want to accomplish? Who do you want to become? What are your short-term goals?

These are just some of the questions you can answer while journaling. The journal is the perfect keeper of your goals. Writing your short-term and long-term goals in the journal can keep you focused on what you want to accomplish.  

What's more, writing down goals has been linked to a higher achievement rate. According to research, if you write down your goals regularly, you are 42% more likely to achieve them. 

When you write your goals down, you're activating both the logic-based left hemisphere of the brain and the imaginative right hemisphere. Thus, you'll be more inspired to work on those goals, and you'll also stay on track with your objectives. 

Still, we all would like to make our goals and objectives more tangible and goal-oriented, which is why you simply ought to try a helpful app called TickTick. What makes it unique is you can also input your goals in the app's goal-tracking to-do list feature that lets you write them down, analyze, and finally organize them accordingly right inside this handy app! 

2. Pick a Daily Motivational Quote

Boost your motivation with quotes. A powerful quote that builds up excitement within you can help you start the day on a positive note.

Every day when you open your journal, write down a motivational quote for the day. By writing them every day, you’ll be consistently invested in building up your positive mindset.

You are what you think. Therefore, fill your mind with productivity-related quotes and quotes that will help you grow.

Here are some motivational quotes to get you started:

• "Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most." — Buddha. 
• "Action is the foundational key to all success." — Pablo Picasso
• "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work." — Stephen King
• "Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all." — Nathan W. Morris
• "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." — Theodore Roosevelt

If you like to pull out quotes from less ordinary sources, you can try looking into essays. For starters, browse this site with free essay samples, and you can surface quotes from topics you are interested in. 

3. Don't Overthink about What You Want to Write

Your journal is only for your eyes. It is probably the only form of expression that doesn’t demand any kind of filtering. What you think is what you should write about.

Spilling all your thoughts in the journal will clear your mind. It will also give you a better perspective on your fears, doubts, frustrations, and accomplishments. 

You can do 5 to 10 minutes of "stream of consciousness" writing. Simply sit down and write whatever comes to your mind first. The thoughts can be jumbled or disorganized. It doesn't matter. 

It is vital to get your thoughts and ideas sorted because if you focus on the chaos and have ideas scattered all over your journal, it may decrease your creative flow and make it look pressured. Some great things are rather simple after all, which is why journaling acts as a great way to free your mind and make some room for positive thinking and work-related tasks. 

4. Use Colors and Shapes To Promote Your Writing

Who says that journaling is limited solely to writing? With the help of color and shapes, you can get inspired and promote your writing. 

Get yourself more pumped up about journaling by using different-colored pens, including images, collages, and shapes. Express yourself freely. 

Adding color and variety to your journal will make it more personal. Embrace your creativity and let the journal showcase your personality. 

Visual prompts can make you more inspired to be consistent in journaling. Besides, your journal can be a form of expression, not just a safe place for sharing your thoughts and dreams. 

5. Keep Track of Your Daily and Weekly Objectives

Introducing healthy habits and a productive routine is beneficial for both your personal and professional success. Use the journal to keep track of your daily and weekly objectives.

Staying true to your promise of jogging 3 times a week will be easier if you write that objective down. 

The fast-paced life often swallows our short-term objectives. A new habit you wanted to embrace can get lost among your daily obligations. The journal won't let that happen anymore.

When you are dealing with some short-term and long-term goals, remember to keep track of your daily or weekly objectives as well. Some things will be usual to you just like habits while some challenges will seem difficult, which is normal. You can also use the great Habit Tracking feature in TickTick, which is exactly what its name implies – it helps to track down your habits and will train you as you start with something new like exercising or reading a chapter of an important book for your job and the personal growth. 

6. Organize Your Thoughts

Is there anything better for organizing your thoughts than a journal? 

The journal gives you a retrospective of what you have on your mind and helps you organize those ideas.

But how to keep your journal organized? If you want to be more productive, you also want to display your productiveness in the journal. 

What can help you organize your thoughts is using a bullet journal. This journal can be used for many purposes. No matter what you used it for, it will ensure that your thoughts are organized and efficient. You can also create different sections within your journal. One section can be for goal-setting, another for "stream of consciousness" writing, and the third one for essay-like storytelling.

The beauty of any journal experience is that it can easily become whatever you would like it to be. You can simplify the majority of your tasks. For example, using the Note feature of TickTick, you can simplify your note-taking process, which is an essential part of successful journaling. You can organize your ideas and goals all within a single format. Taking notes in TickTick is quite intuitive and is a breeze to work with. It reminds you of journaling with a pen and paper, yet with a comfortable digital tool that will make you feel right at home. The trick is to stay creative and add descriptions to each step that you take to serve as reminders! 

Final Thoughts

Journaling is more than writing down your daily activities. If you give it a chance, a journal can embody your life. This seemingly small habit that is journaling can help you grow and become a more productive person.

Give journaling a try, and let us know whether you’ve noticed some changes in personal growth and productivity levels. If you have some other useful journaling prompt, share with us what those are.

Note: This article is written by Marques Coleman, a content editor at Subjecto education website, where he combines his passion for writing with an interest in research.

“The tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.”

Benjamin E. Mays

When we talk about goals in life, two scenarios may come to the stage: Some people are super goal-oriented and drive themselves harshly goal after goal. Others live in static and dullness with no goals to reach. In this article, I tend not to address the adverse effects behind both but emphasize a healthier and more scientific approach for goal setting and reaching in life. That is the SMART Goals.

The Definition of SMART Goals

You may have heard of it multiple times but are still confused with the interchangeably used definitions. Despite those slightly different interpretations of this acronym, the most well-recognized version of the SMART Goals criteria is the one popularized by Professor Robert S. Rubin in Saint Louis University:

• S - specific
• M - measurable
• A - achievable
• R - relevant
• T - time-bound

Each step is essential for overall success. I’ll explain them specifically in the following with some tips and examples of SMART Goals to help you understand them better.

S - specific

This simply means that a goal has to be clear and well-defined for more effective planning. Most of the time, one’s failure of reaching a goal can be largely attributed to the ambiguity of his/her objective. The more vague the goal is, the less clear our mind will be, and the less likely we will be goal-driven. Therefore, start by narrowing down an ambiguous statement and making it something more specific and that can be executed. 

Example: 

An ambiguous goal: “I want to be a social influencer.”

A specific goal: “I want to be a social influencer with a not-so-big size of the audience in the make-up field on Youtube.”

Tips:

• Use adjectives and adverbs to describe and define your idea.
• Ask yourself the classic 4W questions: what, why, who, and where.

M - measurable

A smart goal also has to be measurable, which means that some metrics are set beforehand and can be used to evaluate whether the goal is met and progresses along the way. 

Example: 

“I want to be a social influencer with a not-so-big size of audience in the make-up field on Youtube.” Define the promising result “a not-so-big size of the audience” and make it more specific with a number, e.g. 20k subscribers. 

Tips:

• You can also have multiple layers to indicate the outcome: When your subscribers reach 20k, that would be an A result. B=80%, C=60%, etc.
• Replace KPIs with OKRs to objectively measure results and work towards the goal.

A = achievable

An unrealistic goal is set usually because of the blind optimism we have on the ability of our future self, according to some psychological studies. We also tend to experience an instant adrenaline rush when a goal we’ve set is ambitious because it seems exciting enough even just thinking about the time the goal is met and our beautiful future life after that. This is what makes setting an achievable goal not easy as being said. 

Tips:

• Apply a 30% discount to your expected results when setting a goal.
• Visualize the process of doing something instead of the outcomes.
• Do some research and take more inside and outside factors into account. For example, if you want to be a make-up YouTuber in the example, ask yourself at least those questions: “Do I have enough time to do that?” “Do I have enough make-up skills?” “How will I learn video shooting and editing?” “What is my special style compared with other competitors?” “Will there be any costs?”

R = relevant

This metric suggests you consider your goal from a broader perspective. Does the goal align with your life purpose or other long-term pursuits? Will the accomplishment of it be a stepping stone for you to achieve bigger goals in the future? Is it the right time to do that now? What will I gain and sacrifice and is it worth doing? Does it match your skill set?

Example:

Before you determine to be a make-upYouTuber, you may need to consider whether it suits your situation. If you happened to quit a job recently with some savings and are good at make-up techniques, and developing a side business on social media is a long-time dream of yours, you may find this goal is relevant to yourself from many different angles. 

Tip:

• Consider opinions from people you trust as well because they can sometimes provide you with more objective thoughts.

T = time-bound

Time-bounding your goal is the last but not the least. Why?

Having a specific time frame for your goal can increase your motivation. If there is no end date, most of us would be prone to procrastinate because we know something is still far away, which means the reward of it is also far away.

Having a time-based goal can also help you prioritize tasks because you have a deadline to focus on and always know what to do next. This can increase your efficiency and thus the possibility of reaching your goal.

Example:

Think about what you can do tomorrow, one month from now, and within a year. Sketch a roadmap with a clear timeline of what you do to become a make-up YouTuber with 20k fans. On the roadmap, there should be different stages, within which tasks are scheduled to be checked off one by one.

Tips:

• Always time-bound your tasks, every little one. You can learn more about the Time Blocking method (the most popular time management skill used by Bill Gates)!
• Use a simple calendar and to-do list app to manage tasks and make schedules. Let TickTick help!

The Science behind SMART Goals

The benefits of goal-setting have been pointed out by many psychological researchers before. Just to name one, having a goal to achieve can enhance our self-awareness due to the continuous reality check and self-evaluation. Then, what are the extra benefits of using the SMART framework? Why can it be effective in goal setting and reaching? Let’s dive into it.

Specific: The more specific the goal is, the more we will be able to notice the resources that help us get to it or things associated with it. This is because it has been brought to your attention and thus stimulates the “Reticular Activating System” (RAS) in our brain.

Measurable: Being able to see the milestones that indicate our progress along the way contributes to the final success. It also shapes our behavior and keeps us on track. Those stepping stones are also strong motivators that will keep us in a good momentum.

Achievable: This is the easiest to understand, because the more attainable the task is, the less execution power it will involve. Conversely, if a goal is too unrealistic or big,  we tend to put it off and off again as we know it requires great effort and commitment.

Relevant: Keeping a relevant goal involves our core values since we have to analyze our strengths and weaknesses to go with it. We also need to ensure it’s relevant to our life purposes. Therefore, it can increase our self-understanding and also help us reach it.

Time-bound: As being said, having a deadline can be the most direct way to motivate ourselves because we tend to avoid the mental suffering caused by missing deadlines. It reminds us of the completion of tasks and regulates our behaviors by creating a limited timeframe.

Final Words

Understanding the basics of SMART Goals and the science behind the criteria, it's the right time to take these tips and set a smart goal NOW!

Keeping your motivation up when you're working in an office is relatively easy. You need to get your work done before you can return to the comfort and privacy of home, so dragging your feet will only cause you further inconvenience. And with your colleagues surrounding and observing you, you’ll at once be reminded that you’re part of a team and driven to show productivity.

For most of us, though, that office life is behind us: gone for the foreseeable future, at least, and plausibly gone for good. Unless you've been hibernating in a hermetically-sealed underground chamber since early 2020, you know perfectly well why it isn't advisable for people to gather in significant groups. Regardless of the broader consequences, remote working is the new normal.

So how are you supposed to stay motivated when you’re working from home with your colleagues many miles away? How can you achieve focus when trying to get things done in an environment designed and built for comfort? It isn’t easy, but it can be done, and in this piece we’re going to set out five tips that can help you manage it. Let’s get started.

Assemble a solid home office

Slouching on the couch with your laptop on your lap can sound like a good idea when you’re used to a stuffy office. Isn’t that an ideal scenario? No more needing to sit at a desk under harsh fluorescent lights (per this piece, they can really bother some people). With your mind at ease, you can truly focus on getting things done. Well, things don’t work that way. Not only does such an arrangement lead to lowered productivity due to reduced concentration, but it also becomes uncomfortable remarkably quickly.

You need a proper home office — or as close to one as you can get with the resources and space available to you. At a minimum, that means a desk, a practical chair, enough artificial light to keep you awake during the winter, and whatever computer peripherals can help you work efficiently. Multiple monitors are particularly useful, for instance, and you can use a laptop dock to make it optimally easy to take your laptop elsewhere for the occasional change of scenery.

Rely on the right tools

Getting lost in admin is one of the fastest ways to get bored and disillusioned, and it’s a major risk when you’re working remotely. Digital communication within an office is often lax because the workers can simply talk directly when necessary, and any confusion concerning time or task management can be resolved through impromptu in-person meetings. But if you allow such poor digital management when people are working remotely, admin tedium will build up.

There are two components to good remote-working admin: using the right tools, and ensuring that everyone knows how to use them appropriately. The importance of SaaS is why businesses everywhere are scrambling to find and deploy the best task management apps on the market — and while options proliferate (as evidenced by myriad roundups featuring varied tools: examples here and here), you can stay exactly where you are.

TickTick makes it vastly easier to manage a remote business, allowing you to keep tasks managed across all major platforms. You can queue up all your key actions, giving each one a suitable priority level and deadline along with a custom prompt to nudge you into action ahead of time. Speaking of prompts, the Daily Alert feature is great if your mind drifts due to the weight of your workload (understandable when you don’t have colleagues or employees around to keep you sharp). It pops up at a set time every day to let you know what you need to get done that day.

And with TickTick Premium, you can make good use of Smart Lists. Using core logic operators, you get to create task lists to help you focus your attention on the most pressing concerns. For example, if you want to plan your schedule, you can create a Smart List showing only the top-priority tasks with start and due dates within the next week. I find this hugely useful because it lets me set up and knock down the most onerous tasks first, leaving time for other things.

Work towards small goals

To a major extent, our actions are governed by psychological rewards. When you do something right and achieve a victory, your emotional state improves (particularly when it comes to your level of confidence), and that feeling encourages you to keep going so you can reach it again. This is why people who pursue goals are so much happier. Even when they encounter setbacks, they can stay fixated on where they’re going and what they want to do.

Since the days can start to blur together when you’re working from home, you need something to break up the monotony, and that means pushing towards small but meaningful goals (more on this). Maybe you can aim to get a particular project done by the end of a working week, or set yourself a challenge of cultivating and demonstrating a new skill. However you define and approach your goals, simply having them in place will make a huge difference.

Maintain a clear routine

As much as people have always liked to complain about the daily grind of commuting to and from work, there’s a lot to be said for the clear distinction it established between their professional lives and their personal lives. When they were at their places of employment, they needed to get work done — and when they were home, they didn’t need to think about work.

Now that so many of us are working from home, we’re finding that distinction much harder to achieve. What does it mean to finish a working day now that you’re not necessarily going anywhere? Worrying about how much you’re getting done can lead you to feel that you should work longer hours to make up for it, but that’s a mistake. You can’t stay motivated if you reach the point of burnout due to too much work. When your day is done, log off, and go elsewhere.

Relax and take regular breaks

Even if you get into the habit of starting and finishing work at sensible times, the lack of anywhere to go (and colleagues to hang out with) can lead you to stay at your desk for the entire day. And since there’s no realistic way for anyone to mandate that you take a break, you can just keep on working through the time you would have taken for lunch.

Don’t do that: you need breaks. There’s a reason why good managers talk about them so much, and it isn’t that they’re trying to sneakily extend the working day. The longer you spend on a task without letting your mind fully wander, the worse your mood will get. You’ll become impatient, frustrated, and prone to making mistakes — and all of that will sap your motivation. So take a deep breath, relax, and take the day as it comes.

Note: Laura May is Digital Editor at Just Another Magazine. We write about beauty, fashion, lifestyle, relationships, travel, trends, and anything else that matters to you. Name throwing you off? Don’t take it too seriously — we intend to stand out from the crowd.

The Meaning of PDCA Cycle

PDCA Cycle (also known as PDSA Cycle or Deming Cycle), is a problem-solving method used for the continuous learning and improvement of a process or product. 

There are 4 basic steps in PDCA Cycle:

• Plan: identify a problem and possible solutions
• Do: execute the plan and test the solution(s)
• Check: evaluate the results and lessons learned
• Act: improve the plan/process for better solutions

These four steps incorporate inductive-deductive interplay and have been a simple and scientific approach for problem-solving (process-improving). It follows the curve of how we acquire knowledge through constant reflection, standardization, and modification.

The PDCA framework begins with a planning phase where a problem or a process to be improved is identified. This involves not only the goal setting and finding possible solutions, but also hypothesizing methods that can be used to reach the ultimate goal. Another thing that needs special attention is defining the success metrics. This simply means a clear evaluation matrix is ideally to be set beforehand.

Then, the solution(s) will be tested in the Do process. To detach the Do, there could be two steps: making the Do multiple To-Dos by splitting the task and defining them with a specific time, personnel, and steps, and collecting real-time data and feedback. 

Check includes analyzing the results and comparing them to the hypothesis in the Plan stage: how well the solution worked, how much the goal has been achieved, and whether the methods were proven feasible. If there are any unexpected issues, you may also need to find the causes and possible solutions. Note that there might be forth and back between Do and check.

The Act step closes the cycle, which involves adjustment on the initial goal or solutions and integration of all key learnings by the entire process, to standardize successful parts and avoid error recurrence. In a nutshell, the Act phase summarizes the current cycle and prepares for the next.

However, the PDCA cycle doesn’t stop here. Instead, it can repeat from the beginning with a modified version of the Plan. There is no end to it and sustainability should be its main pitch.

How PDCA Has Evolved

Usually used interchangeably with “PDSA Cycle”, “Deming Cycle”, “Deming wheel”, “Shewhart Cycle” etc, the PDCA model has indeed confronted some misunderstanding and confusion. It remains unexplained in most cases how PDCA became what it is today and what’s the difference between those mysterious terminologies and how they interact. According to Ronald D. Moen & Clifford L. Norman, its evolution could be summarized like the following:

Shewhart cycle (1939): Specification - Production - Inspection. 

He brought up this method from the viewpoint of Quality Control.

Deming Wheel (1950): Design the product - Make the product - Sell it - Test it.

Deming built off the Shewhart cycle and emphasized the four steps should be rotated constantly to aim for the product quality. This has gained increasing popularity when Deming participated in the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE).

PDCA Cycle (the 1950s):  Plan - Do - Check - Act.

A Japanese executive reworked the Deming Wheel and translated it into the PDCA Cycle for problem-solving. PDCA emphasizes more on the establishment of standards during the process and the ongoing modification of those standards. 

Extended PDCA Cycle (1985): Plan - Do - Check - Act.

Kaoru Ishikawa refined the PDCA model to include more steps in the Plan and Do steps: Identify the goals and methods to use; involve in training and education during implementation.

PDSA Cycle (1985): Plan - Do - Study - Act.

Deming claimed that the ownership of PDCA Cycle was never recognized by anyone and the word “check” was used incorrectly because it means “to hold back”. Therefore, he replaced it with “study” to emphasize the importance of the continuous learning-improvement model.

How to Implement - PDCA Examples

Now, you’ve got a clear idea of what the PDCA Cycle is and how it changes over time. As a simple and structured method widely adopted in Quality Control and Total Quality Management, can it also be applied in wider areas, such as personal growth and business development? Yes, I’ll give you a couple of examples.

Benefits of PDCA Cycle

Among all those other methods, why does the PDCA model shade some lights in the history, especially known for the “Japanese Quality” and is still widely used today? Some key benefits of it need to be valued.

PDCA methodology emphasizes minimizing errors and maximizing outcomes. When applied to business development, e.g. a product’s iterations, it could ensure a developing path where the product is shaped better and better to the market and customers. It’s the same when it comes to personal growth. It also leaves space for constant check and reflection, which can avoid wasting time on the mistakes or making the same mistakes.

PDCA framework follows a learning curve and enhances the learning-improvement process continually. This is the key factor defining PDCA as a scientific and methodical way to gain knowledge. With knowledge building up, people’s ability goes up. 

PDCA model encourages a growth mindset. Seeing continuous improvements is a good way to enhance individuals’ self-esteem levels and bring a great sense of accomplishment. People tend to find meaning in the things they do. Imagine if one stops making progress, they would stay in the static and lose meaning in repetitive work and life. 

Takeaways

• PDCA Cycle is a simple and scientific way for problem-solving and process improvement.
• PDCA Cycle involves four key steps: Plan, Do, Check and Act.
• PDCA works slightly differently from Deming Cycle, Shewhart Cycle, and PDSA.
• PDCA Cycle is a never-ending process that can be used on a continual basis.
• PDCA Cycle can be used for quality control, business development, and personal growth.

What is the Pomodoro Technique?

The Pomodoro Technique is one of the simplest and most feasible methods of time management, proposed by Francesco Cirillo in 1992. He named it “Pomodoro” (tomato in Italian) just because of the tomato-shaped kitchen timer he used to track time.

Struggling with constantly refilling to-do lists and never-ceasing deadlines like all of us today, Francesco found a way to enhance his concentration and productively get things done as a university student. That is Pomodoro Technique. Every 25-minute is considered as a Pomo, dedicating to a task during the Pomo and taking a 5-minute break when it ends. After 4 Pomos, take a longer break (usually 15-30 minutes). The whole process goes like that. With time, this can train our brain to focus in short and timed intervals, while also ensuring relaxation for quick recharging during work. Therefore, Pomodoro Technique outweighs other productivity methods mainly because it’s distraction-fighting and brain-training.

How to do it?

Pomo Timer was introduced to TickTick a long time ago, and we’ve mentioned this technique several times before, but we’ve never dived into it to see how it can be applied practically into work and life. Let’s do that now.

First of all, Pomodoro Technique ≠ focus + rest. The complete process involves four steps: planning, executing, tracking, and analyzing.

Planning

Planning can be broken down into 2 steps: scheduling and estimating. Writing down everything you need to do, and scheduling tasks for today is the start of preparation. Once scheduled, set estimated Pomo numbers on those tasks. For example: 

Tips: 

• Split a complex task with more than 7 Pomos into multiple subtasks.
• Combine trivial tasks that are less than a Pomodoro within 1.

Executing

Before you get down to switch on the Pomo timer, there are some simple tips:

• Can I pause the Pomo timer?

Pauses cause interruptions that may make it 10 times harder to start again. Therefore, it is usually recommended to complete a Pomo in one sitting. Pause it only if there’s something urgent.

P.S. In TickTick Focus, the Pomo Timer can be paused (with limited times), and you can choose to continue or end it. 

• Can I switch tasks within one Pomo?

Yes, but regular switches between tasks may not be a good way to stay focused. Ideally, doing one thing in one Pomo can contribute to a higher level of concentration.

• How to avoid distractions during Pomo?

Unexpected things usually pop up and distract us away from focusing on the tasks at hand. For example, those external distractions are various in the office, such as phone calls or a colleague’s coffee invitation. To avoid this, White Noise could be something you could at least try. Comparatively, interruptions from ourselves are more subtle, because a random idea can spring up out of nowhere. When this comes, take note of it to be dealt with later, and quickly return to the current Pomo. 

• What if I complete the task before the Pomo is over? 

What the author of Pomodoro Technique Illustrated suggested is "Over-learning". That is, if there is extra time in a Pomodoro, go back to the completed task to see if there is anything that can be improved.

• How to use TickTick Pomo Timer? (See the illustration below)

Tracking

For athletes and professional gamers, performance tracking is almost as important as three meals a day. Without tracking, you won't be able to know where you went wrong and what to improve. Therefore, don't forget to regularly evaluate your completed Pomos and think about whether you can do better next time. Instead of manually calculating all the numbers, TickTick Focus Statistics provides everything you need, from time spent on individual tasks, a daily Focus record to weekly/monthly trends of your Pomo Performance.

Analyzing

Last but not least, analyzing the data you’ve collected and optimizing the Pomo process for next time. With all in-depth data TickTick Focus provides, some key info needs special attention:

• The gap between estimated time and actual time on each task

Based on the difference between the estimated time and the actual time expenditure on a task, you can gain a fair understanding and make a better estimation next time. 

• The number of interruptions and specific contents 

According to the number and contents of interruptions, summarize what usually distracted you from being focused, and think about how to avoid similar situations in the future.

• Distribution of your daily focused hours 

From this perspective, you can find out your most productive time of the day to suit your workflow best.

Why can it work?

Although sounding effective, you may wonder why Pomodoro Technique can be a productivity booster?

• It creates a sense of ritual: Once getting used to starting being concentrated when the Pomo timer is switched on, our brain will be trained to listen to that command, similarly to a conditional reflex.

• It turns us from being passive to active: The moment you activate the Pomodoro, you have control over your time.

• It ensures a good work-life balance: It leaves time for relaxing and recharging during work. 5-minute breaks in between allow you to temporarily get away from stressful work and let your brain rest.

• It emphasizes optimization: Tracking and analyzing your Focus flow and time expenditure plays a great role in self-growth and reflection. One can get more and more aware of how he/she spent time and how to manage time well. 

• It provides instant positive feedback: With the Pomo timer practices, you can not only reap a bunch of tomatoes but also a great sense of accomplishment. This kind of positive feedback keeps you away from negative emotions developed from completing tasks and increases motivation greatly. 

Common misuses to avoid

Pomodoro can only be 25 minutes.

Pomodoro can be customized.

Working for 25 minutes + taking a break for 5 minutes is just the author’s suggestion. Customizing a cycle that suits your habits is the correct way to adopt the Pomodoro Technique. If you don't want it to be too fragmented, you can extend your Pomo appropriately; if you feel 25 minutes is too long, you can maybe start with 15 minutes.

I’m super productive because I finished 10+ Pomos today.

The number of Pomos cannot be the only indicator of productivity.

It should be noted that Pomodoro is a tool for improving efficiency rather than quantifying time. The completion of tasks and results are more important than the number of tomatoes!

As long as the Pomo is completed, there is no need to spend time reviewing it.

The analysis of Pomo statistics cannot be omitted.

Taking a few minutes to reflect on how time was spent on different tasks and what time you were most productive can make you perform better in the next execution of Pomo. But it is indeed unnecessary to waste too much time on reflection. Analyzing is suggested to be done within a Pomo. 

Fun facts

Francesco Cirillo, the author of The Pomodoro Technique, has also found some fun facts:

• The ideal Pomodoro time is from 20 to 35 minutes, preferably less than 40 minutes.

• The Pomodoro Technique can make people more sensitive to time. Some who have used Pomodoro for a while reported that they could accurately determine whether a Pomo has passed halfway.

• Two types of people are prone to anxiety when using Pomodoro: One is those who procrastinate a lot, and the others are perfectionists. For procrastinators to better execute Pomodoro Technique, the first goal is to complete the first 25-minute Pomodoro without interruption; for those perfectionists, TickTick wants to tell you that starting to do is more important than doing well. Time to reap your first Pomo!

As 2020 has officially come to the end, some may have already engaged themselves in re-evaluation on things completed and changes made throughout the year. Looking back to last year’s resolution and seeing what has been ticked off is always a good way to do that, so is listing what you did well and what you didn’t. To help you do that, 2020 TickTick Memory is ready! You’re not only able to quickly generate your TickTick 2020 year-in-review but can also write down your 2021 new year's resolutions at the same time in the list we create for you! 

Your 2020 TickTick Memory

Generally, there are 3 parts in the review, regarding Task completion, Focus, and Habit tracking data respectively. Some of the most curious questions will be covered, such as:

• How many tasks have I completed this year?
• How long have I been focused on my tasks?
• What time in a day is my most productive hour?
• What is the habit that I insisted on for the longest time?

More surprisingly, apart from the review itself, another handy feature we’ve added in the review is a 2021 resolution list! You can write down your 2021 new year's resolutions immediately after reading the review and this list will then automatically be added and kept in your TickTick.

Ideas and tips for your 2021 new year's resolutions 

Based on your 2020 Memory TickTick has generated for you, it becomes much easier to nail out your 2021 goals because you're now in the know of your productivity flow and task completion capacity. Here in the following are 8 common resolution ideas we’ve prepared for you, together with some tips on how to reach them.

1. Beat procrastination

Procrastination is perhaps one of the biggest struggles of people living in this modern society, either at study or the workplace. It is not just a bad habit, but a psychological syndrome concerning people’s inner fear, expectations, doubts, and pressures. Procrastination usually comes in the form of feeling unmotivated to start doing any tasks despite knowing there’s a deadline or putting things off and off again till the last minute. We all know this is unhealthy because of the mental suffering it causes. Therefore, finding the roots of why we procrastinate and ways to tackle it is an important goal that should be on the resolution! This article will prepare you with everything you need to know about procrastination. 

2. Increase focus and productivity

Being focused is a way to become more productive, and being productive speeds one’s way of reaching their goals. Therefore, this should be a fundamental skill required for achieving other resolutions. It is also something that can be practiced through time. You might have been familiar with some tricks already, but here I’d like to mention the 3 most essential things that you should at least know:

• Pomodoro technique -- Best way to help you stay focused.
• White Noises -- Soothing your mind and avoiding distractions.
• A Flow state -- Being “in the zone” with full immersion.

3. Manage your time well

24-hour a day remains the same for everyone, but the meaning of life relies on how we spend our time. However, the truth is most people still lack the awareness and skills of managing their time well and getting things done. Complying to GTD methodology, TickTick is such a tool that intends to help you gain more control over your time and life in many different ways, and one of the many is “Time Blocking”. By cutting your day into different blocks and putting your tasks and events into these blocks with a built-in Calendar in TickTick, your time is boxed and everything could be well planned out.

“Eat That Frog” is another useful method to help manage time. “Frog” means the most important task, and “Eat That Frog” means doing that task first thing at the start of your workday. Successfully eating that frog will carry you into the momentum for the rest of your day, which will not only make sure you’ve spent your most focused hours on the high-value task, but also increase the efficiency when working on those less-important ones.

4. Be more mindful of life

Being mindful simply means living in the present. It focuses your attention on what's happening now, instead of looking backward to the past or anticipating too much about the future. It is a way to soothe yourself and achieve greater happiness as you get more and more aware of the moment. To practice mindfulness, one can simply start from mindfulness meditation. Learn more or create a meditation habit from today in your TickTick!

5. Keep things minimal

Minimalism is another concept that we’ve heard often over these recent years. It is a less-is-more mindset and lifestyle, by trimming all unnecessary things out of our lives, whether they are personal belongings, mental burdens or digital clutters. The golden principle embedded is to live to the minimum and keep things dead simple. Having that mindset can help us in many ways, and on top of that, it reduces mental pressures, especially when living in such a commercial and highly competitive world. Although starting a minimal life is not a must but at least it is something beneficial. Learn more about minimalism.

6. Eat a healthy diet

“Eating healthy” is commonly seen in most people’s resolutions. Indeed, it seems so easy to be said but not that easy to be executed. What drags us back is usually our inertness and lack of plans. To counter that, the skills of sticking to a habit and tools to help us keep track of the habit are quite essential. The “21/90” principle is such a method that tells about how to form a new habit -- 21 days to establish a new habit and 90 days to make it stick. Yet, a complete habit-forming process requires more than that. Learn more:

• 3 key stages of making a new habit stick
• How to use TickTick to build a complete habit-tracking system

7. Develop a side hustle

If it was last year, I might not even mention “developing a side business” as a new year’s resolution, but things have changed unprecedentedly due to the COVID-19 crisis. Remote working has become the next normal and a lot of physical opportunities have vapored. It then becomes important to have a simple side hustle/project to enhance your financial stability and get you through any difficult times. Learn more about the benefits and methods of having a slash career.

8. Spend more time with family

Family time is always what needs to be cherished. The company and emotional support from family cannot be compared with other feelings and is always what gets us through tough times. Spending more time with family, even if it’s just a simple Sunday meal or a small gift sharing. Being grateful and expressing love as much as possible is perhaps the biggest resolution that I should suggest to everyone for 2021. 

Well, since you’ve got there – a bunch of ideas, tips, and resources to help you review the past year and see your New Year’s resolution through. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Don’t forget to check back on 2020 TickTick Memory in the app ! We’ll see you there:)

Approaching the end of 2020, we can’t wait to walk you through a complete TickTick feature review: what features have been newly added, what major improvements have been made, as well as what integrations and projects were introduced. Read through the full review of features coming to TickTick this year, and pick up things you’ve missed along the way! 

Section 1: New features

Break down a complex task with Task Nesting

One of the biggest new features introduced in TickTick this year is Task Nesting (Subtask). Beforehand, there were only Check Items within the task, which could be checked off and set reminders to. Yet, it couldn't perform other functions like a complete task. We brought the whole Task Nesting into your to-do lists! (Please note Check Items are still available in the task description for basic listing).

Task Nesting (Subtask) allows you to cut a huge task into smaller chunk and chucks into slices if you’d like (5 levels supported for subtasks). Each subtask is empowered with the functionality that a task has: setting due dates, priority or tags, or assigning to others.

Breaking down a task into more manageable and actionable ones is a great way to help beat procrastination, because the easier the task is, the less fear of difficulty one would feel. Subtasks also make managing a complex project easier, because it usually takes steps over steps to reach a big goal. Learn more about Task Nesting here.

Sort out your lists with Sections 

With Task Nesting, you’re maybe familiar with the task “breaking” process, but what’s also important is the “grouping” process. Here comes the “Section”, which can be added to your lists to help you sort out and group tasks, instead of letting them sparsely scattered. 

Sections are like subtitles in the list, which give you a clear clue of what underneath tasks are about. They function as a subelement in the list, to help reduce visual clutter and keep tasks in order. Select “...” in the list > “Add/Manage Sections” and you’ll be able to create Sections. You can also choose to fold any Sections to save more space in the list. It’s also handy if you switch your list to Kanban View because Sections will automatically become Columns under Kanban!

Simplify note-taking with Note

A brand-new Note feature has been introduced in TickTick for mainly two purposes: 

To provide a separate room for simple note-keeping at TickTick, where you can record any random thoughts and ideas, without the need of switching to other apps. 

To function additionally for the task management. For example, if you’d like to include some context information (background info, learning resources, references) regarding a task in your lists, Note can serve this purpose well. 

To enable the Note feature, please first create a Note List (select the type when adding a new list). You can then either take notes in the Note List you just created, or go back to any of your task lists, and convert any tasks to notes! Learn more about how to use Note.

Widgets for iOS14 & macOS Big Sur 

Since Apple introduced iOS14 and macOS Big Sur this year, we also brought you all-new TickTick widgets that work perfectly on the new systems. Three types of widgets were redesigned respectively for Tasks, Calendar, and Habits. Check everything from your Home Screen and never miss an important thing! Varying from different sizes and themes, you’re free to customize TickTick widgets to go with your devices however you like!

Check out widgets for iOS14 and widgets for macOS Big Sur.

Section 2: Major improvements

Pomo evolved to Focus

Pomo was renamed as “Focus”, to include another new timer -- “Stopwatch”, which could count up your focused hours, in contrast to Pomo Timer. 

White Noises within Focus were also enriched and replaced by better-quality ones, to be more ear-pleasant and helpful for focus experience. 

What has also been improved was Focus Statistics. From different perspectives, those stats include how much time you’ve spent on which task, and a timeline chronologically demonstrating your time-spending. 

With such updates, you will have more additional resources to track your focused time, and also enjoy a smoother Focus experience. Learn more about Focus.

A more customizable Habit

We also made the Habit feature in TickTick  more flexible and personalized, with a lot more customizable choices, such as Habit Icon DIY, individual switches for Habit Log, emoticons within habit logs, and customizable habit frequencies. All these made building and tracking habits a more fun and enjoyable thing to do in TickTick! Learn more about Habit.

Kanban went on mobile

Kanban is not an unfamiliar feature in TickTick already because it’s within the top 3 features picked by our users. But a very important update on Kanban is it can now be accessed and managed on mobile devices too! This means you could simply track the progress of your project, collaborate with team members, and manage your workflow anytime on the go! Learn more about Kanban.

Section 3: New integrations

Stay connected with TickTick + IFTTT

IFTTT (If This Then That) empowers your apps and devices to work together in a new way by establishing connections (“applets”). The integration with IFTTT brings a more automated task management experience in TickTick because, through IFTTT, you can either make TickTick a “Trigger” or “Action” to other of your daily tools. For example, if you’d like to write in a designated note in Evernote every time you complete a task, you can make “Completing a task” as a Trigger, and it will be automatically fired to Evernote. Just like that, everything could simply be connected. Learn how to set it up.

Streamline workflow with TickTick + Zapier

Similar to what you can do with TickTick + IFTTT, Zaiper is also a wonderful tool to help you connect everything and automate your workflow. It moves info between your web apps automatically, so you can focus on your most important work. Via creating “Zaps” in Zapier, you can link your TickTick with other apps you use daily. Learn how to set it up.

Stay hands-free with TickTick + Alexa 

As a popular voice assistant loved by many, Alexa has been offering us a revolutionary hands-free experience in life. Now, you can do more with TickTick + Alexa integration! Call TickTick by the name of “Tick Tick” as the invocation name at Alexa, and it will further be able to “Add Task With Reminder”, “Read Your Today’s To-Dos”, “Read Your Tasks From Any Lists”, “Add Task to a Specific List” and “Read Your Next Task”. Find out more!

Stay on top of your Inbox with TickTick + Gmail

Checking emails might be a daily task for most of us. Now, with the powerful TickTick + Gmail integration, you can easily stay Inbox zero and streamline your workflow, because turning emails into tasks in TickTick is one-click away. Simply follow the path: Add TickTick for Gmail from your G Suite Marketplace > Open the desired email in Gmail > Click TickTick on the panel to the right > Edit some details and set due dates and priorities if needed > Click “Add Task”.

Stay control of your emails with TickTick + Spark

TickTick has also been integrated with another widely-used email app – Spark. With Spark, you can stay on top of your inbox by intelligently prioritizing your emails, and keep your inbox distraction-free. And from Spark to TickTick, you can simply streamline your workflow from email inbox to task management tools! Please note this feature is currently iOS-only. Help me get connected!

Section 4: New Projects

TickTick Blog has a new home

Long been on other blog platforms, TickTick Blog finally has its official site on our website! In TickTick Blog, you can find articles about features and updates in TickTick, contents regarding productivity, time management methods, self-growth, and positive lifestyle, as well as stories shared by our users! Click here to have a small cruise, or simply find “Blog” via the bottom menu on our website, or through the About page in the App!

TickTick Educational Offer 

To help people most in need to get through a tough time during Covid-19, TickTick developed the educational plan, offering discounts (25% off) for all students and educators! That special offer would be a long-standing policy, to help more people manage their time well and be more productive while studying from home. Click here to apply!

TickTick Ambassador Program

As an all-in-one productivity app loved by tens of millions, we sincerely would like to invite those who are also passionate about spreading the power of productivity around to be part of TickTick! That’s why we brought up the Ambassador Program and are calling for people worldwide to join the TickTick family and contribute to the larger community! Check out there.

TickTick Gift Card is available 

As Christmas and new year are approaching, we introduced TickTick digital gift cards officially! Either to have one for yourself/your team, or send one to friends or family, it would be your best choice when selecting a practical and worthwhile gift! Time is the most precious gift. TickTick Gift cards help people save time and get things done. Can’t wait to Send Love!

Final Words

Reading TickTick feature review in 2020, I believe you have got a general idea of what's new and picked up things missed. We can’t wait to bring you an even better TickTick in the year of 2021!

We wish you all a wonderful new year ahead! Don't forget to check out the video of 2020 Top 5 features in TickTick!

In a Nutshell: Nearly everyone in the U.S. is juggling multiple bills each month from internet services to credit cards. And, if you’re like me, occasionally a bill slips past you, and you forget to pay it. TickTick helps to eliminate these occasional flubs and keeps the rest of your to-do items, appointments, and reminders in one convenient place. The app shines with its powerful calendar and scheduling features and generally helps people stay organized and free to focus on other things. The company also values input from its users and makes it a priority to continually refine and improve the TickTick experience.

Between credit cards, utility bills, a mortgage, streaming services, and other monthly bills, it can be challenging to keep up with due dates and payment amounts. Sure, many companies offer automatic payment options, but personally, I prefer to make the payment myself to have a better understanding of where my funds are going each month.

The consequences of missing a payment can vary widely. A missed cellphone payment may result in a $5 late fee; no big deal. But a missed credit card payment can end up costing the cardholder access to special interest rates and eventually even impact credit scores.That’s why an app like TickTick can be extremely useful when it comes time to pay those bills.

TickTick is like the ultimate digital planner, with a number of valuable features that we’ll dive into below. But first, a bit of background information on the company itself.

“The predecessor of TickTick is an app called GTasks,” according to the company. “This was something that happened 10 years ago. As early as 2010, TickTick’s founding team has been dedicated to the field of time.”

GTasks is an Android app that syncs with Google Tasks. At the time, the app was listed as one of the best to-do list apps in the Google Play Store.

“In 2013, we officially launched TickTick. This new app derives from GTasks, but has a lot more functionalities and can sync across multiple platforms,” according to the company.

A To-Do List and Powerful Scheduling App

A TickTick representative recently spoke with us about the value of the scheduling app and how it is so much more.

“The market need is the underlying power to push us forward,” according to TickTick. “We aim to lucubrate in the realm of time, empowering everyone the ability and peacefulness to stay organized, stay creative.”

The app is one of the first to-do list apps that creatively integrates features such as Calendar, Pomodoro Timer, Habit, and Markdown into one functional app, the company stated.

TickTick aims to help users become more organized so they can focus on being more creative and productive.

“The Calendar feature is among the ones that are most popular among TickTick users,” according to the company. “It is common that we combine tasks, to-dos together with calendar events to arrange schedules. TickTick is more than a to-do list, but also a powerful scheduling app to help us take control of the calendar.”

The company provided a rundown of some of the key functions of the Calendar.

“Five calendar views: List, Month, and three timeline views, i.e. day, 3 day, week,” according to TickTick. “You can also zoom to adjust for a better view or adjust to hide a certain time slot, such as 12 a.m. to 4 a.m.”

Calendar also uses natural language processing to add and edit schedules more efficiently.

“Third, Plan Your Day is a combination of calendar and the list of Today to quickly plan the day out,” according to the company. “Fourth, arrange undated tasks: swipe to unfold the Arrange Tasks area. Quickly sort the undated ones by List, Tag, or Priority. Simply drag and drop the task onto the date in the calendar.”

Finally, Calendar subscriptions allow users to display events from or add events to local calendars or other third-party calendars.

Never miss a credit card payment again.

The Importance of Staying Organized

“On the official website of TickTick, we wrote ‘stay organized, stay creative,’” according to the company representative. “This is exactly the reason why we think it’s important to stay organized. An organized plan can free our mind from remembering things, but leaving the space to let us focus on things that really matter.”

The idea is that, by not having to spend mental energy on remembering due dates, appointments, and the like, our brains can ultimately be more productive.

“When things are getting done as planned, we can leave more time to explore things we’re interested in and also to spend more time with our family and friends,” according to the company. “The balance between work and life can in turn give us the energy to discover the beauty of things around us, and have a creative mind.”The company describes its app as an all-in-one task management tool with a focus on simplicity.

TickTick syncs across a wide variety of platforms, including the Apple Watch.

“The app is available for more than 10 platforms, including Android, iOS, Web, Mac, Windows, Apple Watch, Android watches, etc.,” according to the company. “Time is at the heart of TickTick. And it is lightweight. The app’s workflows are carefully designed and optimized.”

For example, users can start by adding tasks and setting reminders. Later, they can use the Pomodoro timer to help them stay focused as they work on those same tasks, or they could punch in daily to develop a task into a habit, according to TickTick.

“TickTick puts you in full control letting you choose to show or hide each of these features in the Tab Bar so you always have exactly what you need, no more, no less,” the company stated.

Another essential part of the app, according to the company, is TickTick’s simple clean-cut design.

“From List to Subtask, each interface is clean and tidy. Unlike to-do apps that are littered with checkboxes, TickTick makes managing tasks a breeze that feels as natural as note-taking,” the company stated.

All-in-one is not only about features, but also the seamless sync across multiple platforms, including mobile and desktop apps, Mac and Apple Watch. TickTick’s R&D team develops each and every application to fit its many platforms.

“Getting things done on every platform you work on has never been so easy,” according to TickTick.

Prioritizing the User Experience and Making TickTick Even More Efficient

“We value our users’ experience, and continuously develop innovative features to make the app ever more stable and smooth,” the company told us. “Users are at our heart, and the inexhaustible source of power to make TickTick grow.”

The TickTick team collects feedback from tickets it receives through the app, as well as through support emails, the TickTick forum, app stores, and social media communities, according to the company.

“We hear feedback about current feature improvement and new features suggested by our users,” the company stated.

And TickTick takes user suggestions and feedback to heart, making sure their ideas are given consideration and included in the company’s development road map.

“In the future, we want to make TickTick smarter. We aim to offer intelligent suggestions to let our users use TickTick even more efficiently. For example, we want to be able to automatically generate available time slots for interviewees and have that shared with interviewers more conveniently.” — TickTick

The folks behind TickTick also value its global audience.

“There will also be internationalization support to better serve our users spreading across the world,” according to the company. “For example, We will enable quick add voice input with different languages. We’re also working on adding more ready-made templates, such as meeting agenda, travel plan, fitness plan, etc.”

Whether you’re scheduling a meeting or you just need a little help remembering to pay that monthly credit card bill, TickTick offers a convenient, simple way to do both and much more.

Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

This article is originally posted on CardRates.com by Matt Walker.

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

Add tasks all over the list with the draggable "+" button (mobile)

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!