Managing Tasks in Reflect

Reflect’s tasks system draws a hard line between simple checkboxes and trackable tasks: checkboxes are lightweight, visual markdown items, while tasks (the circular check) are collected in Reflect’s dedicated Tasks tab and can be scheduled, filtered, archived, and organized across notes. That distinction matters because it lets users track only the work that needs follow-through—without cluttering the Tasks tab with habits or “done/not done” items that shouldn’t carry over.

Checkboxes are meant for items that shouldn’t be tracked in the Tasks tab. The practical litmus test offered is carryover: if skipping something today shouldn’t create a backlog tomorrow, it belongs as a checkbox. Examples include “getting email inbox zero,” taking a walk, taking medication, or picking up kids—things that may be daily or habit-like, where the goal is to mark completion for the day but not manage them as an ongoing queue.

Tasks are for commitments that must happen eventually, even if they’re not daily. Creating a new consulting landing page, setting up an outbound email system, following up with client leads, or producing testimonials are treated as tasks because they represent work that can be deferred and then scheduled. Tasks can also be placed in different notes, not just the daily note, and Reflect keeps useful context: tasks retain the label of the note where they were created.

Inside the Tasks tab, organization goes further. Tasks can be grouped by parent bullets within a note—so a “consulting work” section can contain tasks under parent categories like “internal marketing,” “sales,” or “active client work,” preserving the hierarchy when those tasks appear in the global tasks view. Backlinks also play a key role: when tasks are scheduled using a date backlink (e.g., linking to “today”), they move into the “current” bucket automatically after leaving the note.

Scheduling creates three main states: “current” tasks (tied to the daily note), “upcoming” tasks (scheduled for the future), and “overdue” tasks (scheduled in the past). Clicking a scheduled backlink takes users to the daily note where the task is displayed, with the task also showing up in the incoming backlinks section—because the task itself lives in its original note and the daily note is effectively where it’s being referenced.

On desktop, tasks and checkboxes can be created via shortcuts (turning bullet points into checkboxes, and then into circular tasks using command + shift variants) or manually using markdown syntax (square brackets for checkboxes, plus sign for tasks). The Tasks tab also supports adding items with relative dates, filtering what appears, and then archiving or converting completed items into checklists—actions that remove them from the active tasks list.

A typical workflow starts by dumping everything for the day as checkboxes, then selecting the true “core work” to convert into tasks that will be tracked and managed through the Tasks tab. The same approach carries to iPhone: the Tasks tab mirrors desktop functionality for checking off, adding, scheduling, archiving, and filtering. On iOS, toggling between bullet, checkbox, and task is done through tap-based controls rather than keyboard shortcuts. Finally, Reflect’s tasks are positioned as minimalist; users needing recurring tasks or deeper integrations may need a more feature-rich alternative like Todoist.