Your Tasks list
Where a task lands when you name no other list, and what it keeps.
Your Tasks list is the list every capture lands on unless you name another one. It is the page Roma opens on, in the browser and the Mac app as the Tasks page and on the iPhone as the Tasks tab. It is named Tasks, it cannot be deleted or shared, and it always keeps a Status and a Due date on its tasks. In everything else it is a list like any other.
What a task carries
A task has a title, a body, a status and a due date, plus its own conversation with the operator. The status is To do, In progress or Completed. The due date is a day unless you state a time, and a time asks to be reminded, so "Friday at 5 pm" buzzes your phone on Friday at five while "Friday" sorts with Friday's tasks and stays quiet. You can add properties of your own to the Tasks list, like an Effort select or a Link, and they show on every task.
Adding a task
Type into the New task row at the top of the list (⌘N on the Mac and in the browser, the plus on the iPhone) and press Enter. The task lands where you typed it and holds the top of the list for two minutes, so it does not slip away under a sort while you are still looking at it. A quiet background pass then tidies the title and reads the due date out of your words: "Return the parcel by Thursday" becomes Return the parcel, due Thursday. Two switches turn that pass off: Clean up what I type in Settings → AI Editing, and Clean up new tasks in Edit list.
Or say it to the operator, which also splits several things into several tasks and keeps a long message as one task with a checklist. Create a task compares the ways in.
When Assist with new tasks is on, the operator takes a first turn on every task you type: it works out what you most likely mean and asks one question, or takes a small first step. The task stays To do until you move it, because nobody has committed to the work yet. Sam types "shirt for the wedding" and the operator asks, right in the task, whether he means the navy linen one he mentioned last week, which is the one question that decides what happens next.
Status and completing
Tap the status on a task to move it along: To do, then In progress, then Completed, then back to To do. A menu on the task lets you jump straight to one. A completed task stays in view for ten seconds in a list that hides completed tasks, then fades out, so a slip is undone with a second tap. Show completed on the list's settings is Always, Last day or Never. Task status and completing tasks covers the rest, including what the operator may and may not do to a status.
Due dates in the list
A task due today reads as its hour when it has one and as Today when it does not, in blue. A task whose day has passed reads as its real day, Yesterday or Mon or Aug 21, in red. If you would rather see every late task as Today, switch on Show overdue tasks as today in Settings → Tasks & Notes, and the operator follows the same reading when you ask for "today's tasks". Inside one day, tasks with a time lead, in order of their hour, and tasks with a bare day follow. Due dates, times and reminders explains the chip and the reminder.
Sorting and layouts
The Tasks list sorts by due date, by status, by title, by Date added or Last edited, or by hand, and it has the list, board and table layouts like every list. A board grouped by the due date gives you Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, This week, Later and No due date as columns. Rows are compact by default, with the status, the title and the due pill on one line, and Full size gives each task a line for its summary and puts the pills on a line of their own.
By default the Tasks page shows the Tasks list alone. Tasks on your other lists, the ones that keep a Status and a Due date, stay on their own pages until you switch on Show tasks from all lists in the Tasks list's Edit list. Then a row of pills above the tasks lets you see all of them together or one list at a time.
The welcome card
A brand-new account's Tasks list opens on a welcome card with a few example tasks. Tap one and it becomes a real task under the card, with the operator already at work on it. The card's close button dismisses it. The New task row and every task you create land under the card while it stands.
Questions people ask
Can I rename or delete the Tasks list?
No. It is the one list every account keeps, so it stays named Tasks and cannot be deleted or shared. You can share any task on it on its own, and you can add, rename and reorder its other properties as on any list.
Where did a task go that I captured without naming a list?
To the Tasks list. Nothing in Roma is unfiled. If you were on another list's page when you captured it, it landed there instead, and the operator said where in a word.
Can I see tasks from my other lists together with these?
Yes. In the Tasks list's Edit list, switch on Show tasks from all lists. The page then spans every list that keeps a Status and a Due date, with a pill per list to narrow it, and a task typed under one list's pill lands on that list.
Do completed tasks disappear forever?
No. They are still on the list, hidden by the Show completed setting when it is Never or Last day, and shown when it is Always. A deleted task is different: it is gone from the list and stays recoverable for about 30 days, which deleted tasks, notes and lists explains.