Todos

Things you mean to do rarely arrive at a convenient moment. They turn up mid-conversation, mid-commute, halfway through something else — and the cost of a list is usually the effort of getting to it before you forget. Here the list is a text message: fire it off the moment it crosses your mind and Pepper holds onto it.

A to-do stays on the list until you close it, and it can carry a reminder time: say when, and Pepper reminds you once at that time.

What you can do

• Add an item: "Add 'call the dentist' to my list", "Make a to-do to review the contract." You can include a bit of context, a soft due date, and a priority (high, normal, or low). For example: "Add a high-priority to-do to finish the proposal by Friday."
• See your list: "What's on my to-do list?", "Show my open to-dos." Pepper lists open items first, soonest-due at the top, with their priority and any due date. You can also ask to see completed or dismissed items.
• Edit an item: "Push the dentist call to Friday", "Bump the proposal to high priority", "Reword it to 'call Dr. Lee's office.'" Pepper updates the item in place — same item, without creating a new one.
• Mark one done: "Mark the dentist call done", "I finished the proposal." You don't have to phrase it as an instruction — telling Pepper you've done the work closes the item. That covers several at once: "did all those" or "finished everything you just added" closes the items you were both just talking about. If what you said could mean only some of them ("got most of that done"), Pepper asks which ones rather than guessing — closing the wrong item is the kind of thing you'd have no reason to go back and check.
• Dismiss one: "Drop the contract review, it's no longer needed." Dismissing closes an item without claiming you did it — handy for things that turned out not to matter.
• Put one back on the list: "Actually I haven't done the dentist call yet", "Put the proposal back on my list." Closing an item isn't permanent — reopening clears the done mark and returns it to your open list.
• Find the ones you've already done: "Which of my to-dos are already done?", "clean up my list." Pepper checks the items it can actually verify — things tied to a GitHub issue or PR, or to an email you've since replied to — and comes back with what looks finished and why. It proposes; you say which ones to close. See "Find todos" in Skills.
• Move the list along: "Help me move my todos along", "make progress on my list." Pepper looks at what's still open and, for each item it can actually act on, drafts the email reply it needs, looks into what it asked you to research, or sets up a watch for something you're waiting on — then lays out the whole batch and only drafts, researches, or schedules the ones you say go ahead with. It never sends anything on its own. See "Todo advance" in Skills.
• Ask a room-mate, in a room: "Ask Chris to book the van" sends it as a request rather than a to-do of your own — it goes on the room's shared list, credited to you as the one who asked, and shortly after onto Chris's own list. Only you (the one who asked) can edit it, hand it to someone else instead, or withdraw it. Chris can decline it with a tap, no reason needed: that takes it off Chris's list, and the room's list keeps it, showing that Chris said no. It works for another member of the room with their own Pepper account — not for Pepper itself. You can ask from inside the room, or from your one-on-one chat with Pepper by naming the room ("in the Smith house room, ask Chris to book the van"), where changing a room's apps from a chat is switched on; the ask is still credited to you.

Your todo list in the web app

Your list is also a page you can open — type /todos in the web chat, or tap the grid button next to the message box and pick Todos. It opens right in the conversation, so you can keep talking to Pepper about what you're looking at, and closes with the ✕ or the Escape key. Anything you ask while it's open is understood in front of it, and the page updates itself if what you asked for changed the list. It's still at /apps/todo as a standalone page if you'd rather have it in its own tab (the old /todos link redirects there). See Apps.

Every open to-do shows its next step. Under each item's title, a "Next:" line names the one concrete thing to do to move it along — "Reply to Dana's thread with the Q3 numbers", not "handle Q3". Pepper writes it for you, about a minute after you add the item or change it, and shows it in grey so you can tell it's Pepper's. For something you asked of someone else, it's what you're waiting on ("Waiting on Allen to send the draft"). Click it to change it, and it's yours: Pepper never rewrites a next step you've written or edited. If something changes later — a new email in the thread, say — Pepper puts its idea on a grey "Or:" line under yours instead; click it to use it, or the × to dismiss it. The × beside one of Pepper's own removes it, and Pepper leaves that item alone until it changes. You can also say it: "the next step for the dentist is to find my insurance card." The same lines show in the iPhone app, and pepper todos list and pepper next in the terminal.

Every to-do that came from somewhere says where, and links back. On the page, each row's "from …" shows its source, and when there is somewhere to go it is a link: a to-do Pepper picked up from one of your notes (or a room's note) shows the note's current name and opens that note ("from a deleted note" if it has since been deleted); one found in an email opens that email in Gmail; a GitHub issue or pull request opens on GitHub; an ask from a room says who asked and which room, and opens the room; a reply Pepper held back opens its room. A to-do found on your calendar says so but has no link, since Pepper's calendar has no page per event. To-dos you typed yourself have no source line. Pepper's list view says the same in its "from …" text and links: line, and the client API's to-do entries carry it as source_link (label, href).

Adding one on the page picks up a date and time as you type it, on the web and in the iPhone app. Typing a date phrase into the add field — "December 1st", "12/1", "tomorrow", "Friday", "in 3 days" — shows it as a removable chip ("due Dec 1 ×") and leaves the rest of what you typed alone; add the item and the date comes off the title and becomes its due date. A time goes with it: "tomorrow at 5pm", "Friday 9:30am", "Dec 1 at noon". A time on its own ("at 5pm") means today if it's still ahead, otherwise tomorrow. Don't want it? Tap the × and the text you typed is kept exactly as written, with no due date. The small calendar button beside the field opens a date picker instead, if you'd rather pick one than type it — and a picked date always wins over anything recognized in the text. Once an item is on the list, tap its due-date chip (or, on an undated item, the quiet calendar button that appears when you hover or focus the row) to set or change its due date the same way.

Your rooms' to-dos are on your list too. Under your own items, each room you're in that has open to-dos gets its own section, headed by the room's name — tap the name to open that room's list. Tick one off and it closes on the room's list (everyone in the room sees it done) and moves to your Closed list with the room's name on it, where you can reopen it.

Pepper can also show you the list mid-conversation without you opening anything: when a card serves the answer better than a paragraph, it drops one into the chat, and you can tick items off straight from the card. The checkbox works in both directions — unticking a closed item puts it back on your list.

The page itself isn't customizable — its title, sort order and layout are the same for everyone, and asking for a restyle won't change it. What you can change is the list.

Good to know

• Due dates are for sorting, not alarms. A to-do's due date helps order your list and shows it's coming up, but it does not ping you. A reminder time does.
• A to-do can remind you once. "Remind me to call the dentist at 3pm" adds the to-do and reminds you at 3pm, in the way you've chosen to be notified, with Done and Snooze buttons. Snooze reminds you again in an hour, as many times as you like. To pick another time, reply to the reminder — "remind me again at 5." With no time ("remind me to call the dentist"), there is no reminder. Reminders that repeat, or follow sunset, are scheduled tasks (see Reminders & scheduling).
• A day stays that day, wherever you are. Ask for something "by Friday" and Pepper keeps it as Friday — shown as a date, with no time attached. If you later travel, or change the timezone in your settings, it is still due Friday rather than sliding to the Thursday. Give an actual time ("by 5pm Friday") and Pepper keeps the time instead, and shows it in whatever timezone you're set to — which is the point of a time, and why the two are stored differently.
• A due date also shows up on your calendar. An open item due within the week appears on the day it's due in the Calendar app (see Calendar), so a deadline turns up where you're already looking instead of only on the list. It sits beside your events rather than among them — nothing about your calendar's own answer changes.
• Priority is one of high, normal, or low.
• Closing an item isn't final. Re-completing an already-done item doesn't change anything, but you can reopen a done or dismissed item any time — just say so, or untick it on the page or card.
• To change an item's wording, due date, or priority, just ask — Pepper edits it in place, so it stays the same item rather than becoming a new one.

Todos vs. reminders

• To-do = something on a list. "Track this for me." Add a time and it reminds you once.
• Scheduled reminder = a message or routine at a time, one-off or repeating. "Every weekday at 9, remind me to check email."

Things to try

• Catch it before it's gone. The moment something crosses your mind, catch it — "add renew the passport, due end of the month" — and what's due soon turns up in your morning brief without you asking.
  Try it: "Add renew the passport, due end of the month"
• Move the old ones along. Todos that have been sitting a while can be moved along: "help me move my todos along" has Pepper draft the reply one is waiting on, or look up what another needs. It only acts on the ones you confirm, and never sends anything itself.
  Try it: "Help me move my todos along"
• Clear out what's already done. Lists go stale. "Which of my to-dos are already done?" checks your sent mail for the ones that quietly got finished and offers to close them.
  Try it: "Which of my to-dos are already done?"