To-dos
How Continual asks for your attention: what a to-do is, your To-dos list, and how to work one in its own thread.
A to-do asks one person to act on one record, such as "Call Northwind back" or "Decide this change". Your open to-dos wait under To-dos in your thread, and each one opens in a thread of its own.
What a to-do is
A to-do lives under the record it is about, such as a deal or a quote, so anyone who opens that record sees it. Continual gives people to-dos when it needs them, and people give them to each other. Continual's own work is never a to-do.
Before it gives you one, Continual does the work it can, such as drafting the follow-up. Then it writes a brief that leads with what it needs from you.
| Field | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Number | Its number, such as TODO-12 |
| Title | What to do, in a few words |
| Description | The brief: what it needs and why |
| Owner | The person accountable for it |
| Due date | When it is due, if it is |
| Attachments | Records to review for it, such as a quote |
| Replies | Up to four answers offered when you open it |
| Resolution | How it ended, in one line, such as "Offered 5% for a two-year term." |
A to-do moves through these statuses:
- Open
- Started
- Completed
- Canceled
A to-do that decides an approval closes when you approve or decline the change, not before.
Your To-dos
The message box in your thread has a switch, Chat and To-dos, which shows how many to-dos wait. To change it, click it, or press ⇧ Tab in the message box.
Under To-dos, choose Open or Done, or search them. Open to-dos come in the order to take them:
- By due date, earliest first.
- To-dos with no due date after those.
- Then oldest first.
A snoozed to-do leaves the list until its snooze ends.
Coming: to-dos ordered by what is at stake, and by your goals.
Work a to-do in its thread
Open a to-do, and its own thread opens, with the to-do at the top:
- Its title, and when it is due or how it ended.
- The brief, and the records to review. To see one, choose Open beside at the top right, or press ⌘ \.
- The change it decides, if it decides one, with Approve and Decline.
- Its replies, until you first write.
- Done and Snooze.
Write in the to-do's thread to talk it through with Continual. It reads your words as being about this to-do. Choose Chat at the top to go back to your main thread.
Finish a to-do
The keys work when the message box is empty. On Windows, use the Ctrl key in place of ⌘.
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Complete it | Choose Done, or press ⌘ ↵ |
| Snooze it | Choose Snooze, or press Esc |
| Answer with a reply | Click a reply |
| Talk it through | Write anything else |
A snooze lasts until 9 AM tomorrow, your time. To snooze until another time, ask Continual, such as "Snooze this until Monday."
Replies
A reply is one of two kinds:
- It says you did it, such as "Sent it". It closes the to-do at once, with its resolution.
- It asks Continual to act, such as "Make it shorter". Continual works on it in the to-do's thread.
When the work is finished, Continual closes the to-do with a one-line resolution.
To-dos outside the thread
To-dos are records. You also find them under the record they are about, and in the To-dos list under Records. On the phone, they wait under Inbox.