How To Plan Tasks in Shovel

Planning/Timeboxing in Shovel
Written by Jim
Updated 2 years ago

How to know if a task is planned or not?

Red Icon Without Time - This means that the task does not have a task estimate (no time needed) and is not planned in the calendar. 

Red Icon With Time - This means that the full task or part of the task is still not planned. Red number represents the amount of time that is not planned. For example, if a task estimate is 5 hours and red number is 3, it means that you already planned the task for 2 hours. 

Green Icon With "Planned" - This means you planned a task fully. AKA planned time equals or is greater than task estimate.

How To Plan a Task

1. Drag and Drop From The Plan Sidebar (Right)

Calendar > Plan sidebar (open from top right corner)

To plan a task, drag a task out of the right sidebar into the date and time that you want to do it in. You can plan a task into multiple time blocks until it is fully planned. 

Once fully planned, the task will show a green calendar icon with the word "Planned" in the bottom right.

You can over-plan a task but it will show the same as a fully planned task. 

2. Batch Plan from the Study Block

When you hover a specific study time block in the calendar a small calendar icon will appear.

Clicking on this icon will allow you to select one or more tasks.

Once you select your tasks, you will go to the next step where you will be able to set how long you want to work on each of the selected tasks during this study block with a slider.

3. Plan From Top of The Calendar 

If a task is due on a certain day, it will show on top of the day in the calendar. You can click the "xx tasks due" and drag a task into the calendar right away. 

4. Plan from the Deadline Flag

If a task is due on a certain day, it will show at what time with a small indicator flag inside the calendar. You can click on the flag and plan a task from there. 

Un-plan

To un-plan a task, hover the task in the Calendar and click the calendar icon with 'x' inside it in the upper right corner of the task. It will disappear from the Calendar and show as unplanned in the sidebar.

Sort

Tasks shown in the sidebar can be sorted by Within Start Date, All To-Do, and Completed using the drop down menu above the task blocks.

Filter

The task list can be filtered using the small funnel icon above the task blocks.

Calculate Cushion

The available study time Cushion can be updated by clicking on the small graph icon above the task blocks. 

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