Using Nesk

Quick Start

1. Add one useful task. In Add task, type Plan meals /Home and press Enter or the + button. Quick Add finds or creates Home for you. A title alone is enough: it goes to Inbox. Estimates, priorities and dates are optional; add them when useful.
2. Do the next thing. The large card under What's Nesk? is your Next Task. Choose Start when you begin, Pause for a break, and Done when finished. If an actual-effort prompt appears, check its minutes before completing. You remain in charge of the recommendation.
3. Choose “later” deliberately. Use Not now when you could do the work but choose not to. Use Follow-Up and a delay when it cannot progress yet; it waits in On hold until its return time. Compare these actions.
4. Look beyond the next task. Open Workspace for Overview, Projects and Triage. Overview helps you organise and plan; Triage asks you to reconsider repeatedly deferred tasks.
5. Add availability when ready. In Schedule, choose Set usual week, enter your available hours and time zone, then save. This gives planning and recommendations useful context. It is optional: Nesk still ranks tasks without a Schedule.

Core concepts and workflows

Organise work without over-organising it

Domains separate workspaces, such as Work and Personal. Switch using the Domain buttons at the top; manage them in Settings → Domains. Projects group related tasks within a Domain. Inbox holds tasks captured without a project.

Subtasks break larger work into smaller actions. A parent with unfinished subtasks is not recommended ahead of them. Completing all its children can complete the parent; adding or reopening unfinished children makes completed ancestors unfinished again. Held future children count too.

Recommendations and your choice

Next Task is the large card headed What's Nesk?. Up Nesk lists other ranked tasks beneath it; the Workspace button switches that area to planning and management views.

Nesk weighs deadlines, priority, estimates, project context, recent deferrals and work-session momentum. It recommends actionable work; it does not decide for you. Started or paused work stays on the main card during its active session. An explicitly selected task can also be shown instead of the top suggestion, but opening a title's editor does not select it for work.

You can defer the suggestion, change project focus, or use Complete on an Up Nesk task you've finished out of order. Editing metadata can change recommendations.

Snacks and Frogs

A Snack is estimated at 15 minutes or less; a Frog at 45 minutes or more. Quick wins get an early-session boost that tapers as work progresses. These labels describe task size, not separate modes you must choose.

Start, Pause, Resume and Done

Start begins tracked work. Pause stops tracking and keeps the task selected; Resume continues it. Done on current work completes it using tracked effort. For other tasks, Done or Complete opens an Actual effort prompt: check or edit the whole minutes, then choose Complete. The starting value uses tracked work where available, otherwise the estimate.

A work session expires after more than 30 minutes without Start/Resume, Pause, Done/Complete, Not now or a successful task edit. Nesk then ends stale tracking at the last such action and releases the current selection. Reading, typing or automatic refresh does not extend it; hiding the tab does not itself pause work. Check recorded effort when completing work after a long uninterrupted stretch.

For a mistaken completion, use the confirmation's Undo, or Overview → All → Show completed tasks and Reopen. You can then edit or complete again, including adjusting effort in the completion prompt. Recurring work has an additional reopening safeguard.

Not now, Follow-Up and Triage

• Not now: skip an available recommendation. Recent skips reduce its ranking. On started or paused work, this also stops tracking and releases your current focus; it still counts as a skip.
• Follow-Up: wait for a dependency or a better time. Choose minutes, hours, days or weeks, enter a positive whole amount and Save. The task leaves normal ranking until that time; its due date is separate.

Use On hold to see return times, Change follow-up, or bring work back early with Return to ranking. Expired holds become eligible again when Nesk refreshes, subject to the other task rules.

Reconsider, then Recommit

After three recommendation skips, a task moves to Triage instead of continuing through normal ranking. Review its prompt: clarify the task, break it down, adjust its estimate, put it on hold or delete work you no longer need. Recommit clears its skips and returns it to normal ranking. Holding a triaged task does not by itself clear those skips.

Plan and review in Overview

• All: your project/task tree, with creation, editing and hierarchy controls. Use the eye control, Show completed tasks, to include Done work.
• Today: review immediate commitments, overdue work and today's load.
• This Week: review upcoming work and estimated commitments across projects.
• Last Week: review completed work, unfinished commitments and carry-over.

Projects and Focus

Projects summarises progress, estimated effort and recent attention. Use Add project (+) there or in Overview, or capture directly with a Quick Add project token. The top Focus: selector limits recommendations to one project; choose All followed by your Domain name to clear it.

If nothing is ready, check Focus and the selected Domain, then look in On hold and Triage. Work may also depend on unfinished subtasks. Add a task if there is no actionable work left; an empty recommendation is not a reason to invent a deadline.

Feature reference

Capture and edit · Recurring work · Schedule · Analytics · Keyboard

Capture and edit tasks

Quick Add is the Add task bar. Enter a title, optionally followed by these tokens, then press Enter or +. Use one token of each kind.

For example: Plan meals /Home ~20m P2 @tomorrow. You can also change Stakeholder level in task editors: 0 means your level/no elevated stakeholder, 1 means one organisational level above, and larger whole numbers follow the same pattern. An existing fractional value can be kept unchanged. Task dates use the Domain's usual-week Schedule time zone, or UTC when unconfigured. A date means the start of that local day. Saving an unchanged date preserves its stored time; clearing the date removes it.

Create and arrange subtasks

In Overview → All, use a project's Add task (+) or a task's Add subtask (+). Type using the same syntax, then choose Add or Enter. Enter saves and opens a new sibling row. The chosen project/parent controls location here; a /Project token does not move the task elsewhere.

While typing a new inline task, Tab nests it under the preceding sibling; Shift+Tab brings it out one level. Use disclosure arrows to expand branches. For existing work, Move task lets you choose a project and parent, then Move; its subtasks move with it.

Edit, save or delete

Use the Edit task pencil at the bottom right of expanded Next Task or in Overview's row actions. To edit Up Nesk, double-click its task title or focus the title and press Enter/F2; these alternatives also work on Next Task. Overview supports Enter on a focused task row and double-click on its title. Use Save or Save changes; Cancel or Escape leaves the saved task unchanged.

Change the editor's project to move the task and its subtasks to the destination project's top level. Use Details for notes: Markdown supports headings, bold/italic text, lists, read-only checklists, quotes, code and links. Edit the checklist text to update it; it does not complete Nesk subtasks. Titles and project names remain text.

Delete task (×) in Overview or Triage asks for confirmation and deletes the task and its subtasks. Delete project (×) in Overview also removes its work and history; Inbox cannot be deleted. Read the scope shown before confirming. There is no deletion Undo.

Recurring work

Create a repeating task with a token such as Weekly review /Home ~30m !w, including in inline subtask creation. Add a date for its first occurrence; otherwise it starts now. Future-due recurring work waits on hold until due. Completing it produces the next occurrence in its intended project and parent, without copying subtasks or effort. Late completion skips elapsed slots.

For active recurring work, saved title, Details, estimate, priority and stakeholder changes carry forward, as do moves to another parent or project. Due dates, temporary follow-ups and effort are not template edits. Editing a completed occurrence changes only that occurrence.

Stop repeating in the editor keeps the current task, effort and history but prevents future generation. It does not save other pending edits. Deleting unfinished recurring work stops its repetition; deleting only a completed occurrence keeps its separate active successor. Deleting its intended parent can also stop the series.

Completion Undo/Reopen can remove an untouched, automatically generated successor. Once that successor has been started, edited or acquired other work, reopening is refused to protect it. Stopped repetition is never restarted by reopening.

Task recurrence advances in UTC: local clock times may shift at daylight-saving changes. Schedule's repeating occupied-time blocks follow their own local-time rules and do not create tasks.

Schedule and task dates

Open Schedule → Set usual week (or Set my usual week on the introductory panel). Choose an IANA time zone such as Europe/London, add each day's available windows, then Save usual week. The weekday preset and Copy a day can speed this up. Use Edit usual week to change it later.

Choose + Block to record occupied time. Enter dates, times and a time zone; the title is optional. Choose Does not repeat or Weekly, selecting days and an effective start/end for a repeating block. Save when the preview is right. You can also select empty calendar time; on desktop, drag to select a duration.

Open an existing block to edit it or choose Delete. For a repeating block, first choose Apply to → This meeting, This and future meetings or Entire series. Series/future edits clear individual changes in that scope; read the warning. Deletion requires confirmation and has no Undo.

Occupied time reduces availability across all your Domains, even when its origin is another Domain or Global. Overlaps count once; another Domain's private title is hidden. Free windows inform task-fit recommendations and planned-load reports. Warnings are advisory: Nesk neither places tasks in your calendar nor synchronises an external calendar.

Without a usual week, capacity is unknown, not zero, and ordinary ranking still works. Edit usual week → Clear schedule removes the usual-week hours, keeps occupied blocks, and returns task dates to UTC. Otherwise task date input/display and review periods use the usual-week time zone. Changing it can change the displayed date of an existing task without moving its stored instant; an open date form must be reviewed before saving.

Understand Analytics

Choose Analytics and a time range. Reports use the selected Domain and its history:

• Planning: priority spread, estimate versus actual effort, planned load and due-date changes.
• Delivery: completions, recorded actual effort and overdue/on-time outcomes.
• Behaviour: skips, started-but-unfinished work and fragmentation into work segments.
• Nesk Intelligence: whether recommendations matched your choices, out-of-order completions and the Snack/Frog mix.

Planned load compares task estimates with Schedule free time for Today/This Week; it is not measured utilisation. These are live plans using the current Schedule. Historical capacity is not recorded, so older periods show task outcomes without that comparison. Missing history can mean no result yet, not zero performance.

These personal reports are separate from optional Help improve Nesk product-usage analytics. Turning that preference off does not disable your workflow or these reports.

Keyboard reference

Space/H/D apply only outside focused controls, disclosures and editable text, with no editor, dialog, popover or dirty draft open. Modifiers and held/repeating keys do not trigger them. Use the visible buttons whenever unsure.

Account, settings and help

Account and appearance

Open Workspace → Settings. Under Account, use Change email or Change password with your current password. Follow the email-verification instructions; a pending email change is not complete yet. Log out ends access in this browser, not your other devices.

If you forgot your password, use Forgotten password? on the sign-in page, enter your account email and follow the newest recovery email. Request a fresh link if it has expired or was already used. Contact support if delivery or recovery fails; never send your password or recovery link.

Theme → Light / Dark sets your appearance across Domains and devices. The access section shows your current end date or read-only status.

When access becomes read-only, task, project, Domain and Schedule changes stop. You can still view work, switch Domains, change account credentials/theme, control product analytics, export or delete your account. Expiry does not start billing or automatically delete data.

Export or delete your account

In Settings → Data, Export data downloads a ZIP across all your Domains: CSV task/project, recurrence, activity, history and work-session data, plus Schedule and recurring-task history in JSON. Nesk does not currently import or restore this download.

Delete Nesk account offers export first. To confirm, enter DELETE and your current password, then choose Permanently delete account. This removes your account and Nesk work; it cannot be undone in the app. Retained copies and exceptions are explained in the Privacy Policy.

Optional product analytics

In Settings → Privacy & Analytics, set Help improve Nesk to Off and Save preference to stop future optional product events. Turning it off does not remove earlier events: use Delete my existing product analytics to erase that history without deleting tasks. Your preference stays the same; if On, later usage starts a new history. See the Privacy Policy for scope and retention.

When something needs attention

• Invalid input: correct the named field and save again. Use a real calendar date, P1–P5 and a positive estimate. Check retained input rather than assuming a default replaced the error.
• Sign-in expired: sign in again, return to the same Domain and review any recovered draft. Keep a copy of important unfinished text before navigating away.
• Save outcome uncertain: wait for the response. If Nesk cannot confirm a save, copy the draft, reload and check the task or block before submitting again. A lost response does not prove that nothing was saved.
• Workspace or time zone changed: reopen the form in the intended Domain and review dates using the current Schedule time zone. Do not repeatedly submit the stale form.
• No recommendation: check the Domain, project Focus, On hold, Triage and unfinished subtasks as described under planning.

Draft recovery helps with interruptions but is not a backup; browser storage and the page's state can affect it. Save useful work deliberately.

For help, email support@whatsnesk.com. For privacy or data-rights requests, use privacy@whatsnesk.com. Describe the action and safe error message without sending passwords, private task content or authentication links.

Use generic task reminders and keep restricted information out of task content. Read the Terms' content restrictions and Privacy Policy.