Using Nesk

Getting Started

Nesk has two jobs:

1. Keep track of the work you need to do.
2. Help you decide what to work on next.

You don't need to perfectly organise your entire workload before you start.

Capture your tasks, give them useful context, and Nesk will rank the work available to you.

When you're ready to execute, start with What's Nesk?

Adding Tasks

Quick Add

The fastest way to create a task is the Quick Add bar.

Type the task naturally and add metadata using Nesk's keyboard syntax:

Review Q3 architecture spec /opsys ~45m P1 @today ^2

Nesk separates the task title from its metadata automatically.

You don't need every piece of metadata on every task. Add the context that is useful.

Project

Use / followed by the project name:

/opsys

This assigns the task to that project.

Effort

Use ~ followed by an estimated duration:

~10m
~45m
~2h

Effort helps Nesk understand the size of the task and how it fits into your current work session.

Priority

Use P1 through P5:

P1
P2
P3
P4
P5

P1 is the highest priority.

Priority is an important ranking signal, but it isn't the only thing Nesk considers.

Due Date

Use @ to specify when something is due.

Examples:

@today
@tomorrow
@wed
@25/09/2026

Due dates should represent genuine commitments where possible.

Nesk deliberately pays attention to overdue work and due-date changes. Moving a date shouldn't be a way of making an uncomfortable task disappear.

Stakeholder

Use ^ to indicate stakeholder seniority or organisational importance:

^1
^2

This gives Nesk additional context when a task carries wider visibility or commitment.

Recurring Tasks

Use ! to tell Nesk that a task should recur.

Examples include:

!d
!w
!w2
!m

For example:

Complete weekly review /planning ~30m P2 !w

Use recurring tasks for work that genuinely repeats rather than manually recreating the same task each time.

Task Details

A task title should tell you what needs doing.

For anything more complicated, use Details.

Details support Markdown, so you can add useful working context such as:

• notes;
• acceptance criteria;
• links;
• checklists;
• meeting outcomes;
• supporting information.

Keep the task title actionable and put supporting context in Details.

What's Nesk?

The Next Task is the centre of Nesk.

Nesk evaluates the work currently available to you and surfaces the task that deserves the most attention.

It considers signals including:

• priority;
• deadlines and urgency;
• estimated effort;
• task age;
• project balance;
• recent project context;
• session momentum;
• stakeholder importance;
• previous deferrals.

The highest-ranked available task becomes What's Nesk?

The ranking is dynamic.

Complete something, defer something, put work on hold, or allow a deadline to move closer and the answer may change.

Working a Task

When Nesk surfaces a task, you aren't locked into its recommendation.

What happens next gives Nesk useful context about your work.

Start

Start the task when you're ready to work on it.

Nesk uses work sessions to understand the context of your current period of work.

Complete

When you're finished, complete the task.

Where appropriate, record the actual effort taken.

This helps Nesk build a more useful picture of how estimated work compares with reality.

Pause

If you start something but need to temporarily stop, pause it.

A paused task remains active work rather than being treated as something you've rejected.

Use Pause when the task is still the thing you're actively working on but you've temporarily stepped away from it.

Not Now / Defer

Sometimes Nesk's recommendation is reasonable, but you don't want to work on it right now.

Defer it.

Nesk takes that decision into account rather than immediately presenting exactly the same choice again.

A single deferral isn't a problem.

Maybe the timing was wrong. Maybe you needed a different kind of work. Maybe something more important was happening that Nesk couldn't see.

But repeatedly deferring the same task is useful information.

After a task has been deferred three times, Nesk sends it to Triage.

At that point, the question changes from:

Should I do this now?

to:

Why do I keep not doing this?

Hold & Follow-Up

Not every task can progress continuously.

Sometimes you've done everything you can and the next action depends on somebody or something else.

That's what Hold / Follow-Up is for.

You might be:

• waiting for your manager to review a document;
• waiting for a signature or approval;
• waiting for somebody to answer a question;
• waiting for information from a supplier;
• waiting for another team to complete an action;
• waiting for a system or process to progress;
• following up after sending an email.

For example, you might create:

Chase supplier for tooling quotation

You send the email.

The task isn't complete—the outcome still matters—but there is nothing useful for you to do with it tomorrow.

Put it on Hold and set an appropriate follow-up.

While the hold is active, Nesk removes the task from normal ranking.

When the hold clears, the task becomes available again.

That might remind you to:

• chase the person again;
• check whether an approval has arrived;
• review their response;
• start the next action in the workflow;
• decide whether the task can now be completed.

This keeps waiting work out of your active queue without allowing it to disappear.

Hold means: I can't meaningfully progress this yet.

Defer means: I could work on this, but not now.

That distinction gives Nesk much better context.

Triage

Triage is where Nesk sends work that needs a closer look.

A task enters Triage after it has been deferred three times.

Repeated deferral is a signal.

It doesn't necessarily mean the task is unimportant or that you've done anything wrong.

It means something about the task probably deserves attention.

Ask yourself:

Is the task clearly defined?

Maybe "Prepare strategy" isn't really a task. What is the first concrete action?

Is it too large?

A four-hour task you keep avoiding might need to become several smaller actions.

Is something blocking it?

If progress actually depends on somebody else, perhaps it belongs on Hold rather than being repeatedly deferred.

Is the estimate realistic?

Maybe the task represents considerably more work than you originally thought.

Is it still relevant?

Work changes. A task that mattered two weeks ago may no longer need doing.

Do I simply not want to do it?

That's useful information too.

Sometimes the answer is to clarify it.

Sometimes it's to break it down.

Sometimes it's to put it on Hold.

Sometimes it's to change its priority or estimate.

Sometimes it's to delete it.

And sometimes the answer really is:

I don't want to do this, but it still needs doing.

In that case, acknowledge it and put the task back into the queue deliberately.

Triage exists to stop repeated avoidance from becoming invisible.

Snacks and Frogs

Nesk treats tasks of different sizes differently.

Snacks

A Snack is a small task that can be completed quickly.

Typically:

15 minutes or less.

Snacks can be useful early in a work session to clear small commitments and build momentum.

But Nesk deliberately reduces their influence as a session progresses so easy work doesn't consume the entire day.

Frogs

A Frog is substantial work that requires meaningful attention.

Typically:

45 minutes or more.

Frogs often carry more resistance simply because starting them represents a larger commitment.

Nesk balances quick wins against the need to make progress on larger work.

You shouldn't need to manually choose between "Snack mode" and "Frog mode."

Give Nesk realistic estimates and let the ranking engine use them as context.

Recurring Work

Some work doesn't really finish—it repeats.

Weekly reviews, monthly reports, routine checks and regular administration shouldn't need to be manually recreated every time.

Create them as recurring tasks using Quick Add:

Weekly workload review /planning ~30m P2 !w

or:

Monthly metrics review /reporting ~45m P2 !m

Complete the task normally when the current occurrence is finished.

Nesk manages the recurrence so the next occurrence can return at the appropriate time.

Recurring work should represent a genuine repeating commitment.

Don't use recurrence simply to keep something permanently visible in your queue.

Planning

Sometimes you need to zoom out.

Nesk's planning views give you context without replacing the Next Task workflow.

Today

Use Today at the beginning of the day or whenever you need to understand immediate commitments.

Look for:

• tasks due today;
• important deadlines;
• larger tasks that may need protected time;
• unrealistic commitments;
• work that requires early communication.

The goal isn't to manually construct a perfect sequence for the day.

It's to understand the landscape before returning to What's Nesk?

This Week

Use This Week to understand your broader workload.

It helps you see upcoming commitments, planned effort and where you may be overcommitting.

Use it to recognise problems while there's still time to do something about them.

Last Week

Use Last Week to review what actually happened.

Look at:

• completed work;
• unfinished commitments;
• carry-over;
• effort closed out;
• work that needs to be deliberately rebased.

All

Use All when you genuinely need the complete picture.

It's your task inventory.

It's useful when you need it—but you shouldn't need to scan the entire thing every time you're deciding what to work on.

That's what Nesk is for.

Projects

Projects organise related work and give Nesk another layer of context.

The Projects view helps you understand:

• what work belongs together;
• progress;
• total effort;
• recently active projects;
• areas that haven't received attention.

Nesk can use project balance when ranking work so quieter projects don't disappear simply because another project is constantly generating urgent tasks.

Analytics

Nesk analytics are designed for reflection, not scoring.

The purpose isn't to tell you whether you were "productive."

It's to make patterns visible.

Depending on the available history, Nesk can help you examine things such as:

• priority distribution;
• estimated versus actual effort;
• overdue work;
• available versus planned capacity;
• skipped or deferred tasks;
• due-date changes;
• completion patterns;
• neglected work.

Useful questions include:

Am I making everything P1?

Do I consistently underestimate certain kinds of work?

Which projects keep getting neglected?

What do I repeatedly defer?

Am I moving deadlines instead of confronting an unrealistic workload?

Am I planning more work than my available capacity allows?

The useful outcome isn't a better score.

It's a better understanding of how you actually work.

A Good Nesk Workflow

You don't need a complicated productivity ritual.

A simple workflow is enough.

The Important Bit

Nesk works best when the information you give it reflects reality.

Don't mark everything P1.

Don't invent deadlines to make tasks feel important.

Don't deliberately underestimate work.

Don't move due dates simply to make overdue work disappear.

Don't keep deferring something just because you don't want to confront why it isn't getting done.

And don't leave a task competing for attention when you know you're actually waiting for somebody else—put it on Hold.

You don't need to make your task list look good.

Nobody is grading it.

Nesk doesn't need an idealised version of your workload.

It needs the real one.

The more honestly Nesk represents your work, the better its next recommendation can be.

Leaving Nesk

Your work is yours.

Nesk provides account-management options for exporting your data and deleting your account.

We don't believe your task history should be used to lock you into the product.

For information about how Nesk handles personal information, see the Privacy Policy.

For the rules governing use of the service, see the Terms of Service.