Chris Messina

Tasks by Reclaim.ai - Your to-do list finally meets your calendar.

Your to-do list is useless if you can't find the time to get stuff done. Tasks automatically blocks smart, flexible time on your calendar for all the things burning a hole in your backlog.

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Henry Shapiro
👋 Hi ProductHunt! 👋 After months of testing, refining, and polishing with hundreds of private beta users, we're finally ready to share Tasks with the world. 🥳 We know that for most busy professionals with crazy calendars and endless meetings, it's impossible to find time during the workweek to get the important stuff done. We built Tasks to solve that problem once and for all. Tasks automatically blocks smart, flexible time on your calendar for anything you want to get done. Unlike other attempts at this solution that we've seen in the past, Tasks doesn't require you to know when you want to get something scheduled: just tell Reclaim when it's due, how much time you need, and we take care of the rest. Want to know more? Here's a quick look: 🗓 Say what you need and when it's due, and Reclaim blocks time automatically 🆓 Tasks stay flexible and free until Reclaim notices your due date approaching 👆 Because Reclaim keeps Tasks flexible, your availability stays open (until it's not) 🤖 Tasks auto-adapt to your schedule, rescheduling and moving as things change 🔄 Integrations with Google Tasks and Slack let you manage your Tasks from anywhere 💬 Create Tasks directly from chat messages and make changes on the fly via Slack ✉️ You can even create Tasks from an email (using our Google Tasks integration)! We envision a world in the not-too-distant future where your entire schedule is automatically managed for you, where the calendar knows what your priorities are, and where you just have to flick a few knobs and tweak a few dials to rethink your workweek. We're still working hard to make that vision a reality, but Tasks brings us one step closer. Since we went into private beta, we've seen nearly 2000 hours of Tasks blocked on people's calendars. We can't wait to hear what you do with it. Finally, a big thanks to @chrismessina for the Hunt 🙏 Have fun crushing your to-do list! 💪 Cheers, The Reclaim Team
Amy Vernon
For the first time since the Sunrise calendar app was slaughtered mercilessly by Microsoft, I've felt hope for my calendar. I also love how Tasks integrates so easily with Google Tasks. Reclaim is very protective of my time, but also adjusts super-quickly when new things are added to my calendar.
Patrick Lightbody
@amyvernon What a huge compliment. We were big fans of Sunrise as well and got a lot of inspiration from it.
Henry Shapiro
@amyvernon thank you! And thanks for all the feedback and help you’ve given us along the way 🙏
Jade Rubick
I use tasks to declare the things I need to get done. I love how Reclaim leaves flexibility in my schedule, while still making sure I have the time off when needed. It's kind of like magic: it moves things around when your calendar shifts, and it leaves it open for other people until things get too tight. The perfect combination of flexibility and structure!
Henry Shapiro
@jadeforrest 😊😊😊
Andrew Mackross
I love reclaim :) it would be great if this could sync with Things 3 - I’m not sure if they open up with anyone though...
Patrick Lightbody
@andrew_mackenzie_ross Henry and I are both Things users as well. We want this. I am pretty sure there is an API, but it requires access through the desktop. So first step is for us to build a desktop app... which we are in fact working on!
Henry Shapiro
@andrew_mackenzie_ross @plightbo +1000 — big Things fan here and can’t wait to build that integration!
Colin GS
I've been looking for an app like this for a long time. It can be hard to protect time for getting tasks done when you calendar looks open, adding tasks as invites manually is a pain since schedules often have to be adjusted for urgent unexpected meetings. I love that reclaim automatically adjusts when tasks can be done and protects my time when I really need to get things done
Patrick Lightbody
@colin_goodheart_smithe Thanks Colin! What we also do is manage the task's free/busy time, preserving your availability for other meetings if there is enough slack in your schedule to let you push the work back. But if the due date is approaching, we mark it as busy and get a bit more defensive on your behalf.
Henry Shapiro
@colin_goodheart_smithe thanks! It’s just the beginning, but hearing feedback like this is music to our ears.
John Zeratsky
I have written more about calendars and scheduling than anyone really should 🤓 And I really love Reclaim because it takes the best ideas around proactive scheduling and timeboxing and makes them sticky by building them into a product.
Patrick Lightbody
@john_zeratsky It means so much to see this. John is being humble... he is the coauthor of an amazing book + community centered around strategic time management and basically being your best self. If you're interested in Reclaim, you also owe it to yourself to check out his work over at https://maketime.blog/
Kirill Noskov
Love the idea and was dreaming about this kind of app. But I've found an initial set-up a little bit too complex and exhaustive. Also, an interface seems to be all around for me. Looking forward for updates!
Henry Shapiro
@noskovvkirill thanks for the feedback! We are definitely looking to decrease that onboarding friction over time and shorten the time to value. Part of why we err on the side of a longer onboarding is because there are some concepts we really want to make sure users grok before they get started.
Vivek Karna
This is exactly what i was waiting for. Would love to see the integration with Todoist as currently i create all tasks in Todoist
Patrick Lightbody
@vkarna We'd love to see it too! It won't be long now, but if you want to participate in the beta, make sure you click on "I'm interested" in the Settings so we can contact you about it.
Henry Shapiro
@vkarna Todoist integration FTW. It’s by far the most popular todo app in our data.
Anne Furlow
This has been a game changer! I’ve had time blocking recommended to me a few times now. Every time I would start I would spend so much time setting up the time blocks, thinking about my days, and then more time adjusting when an unexpected meeting or priority popped up. I gave up when I needed to start scheduling a block for “schedule/adjust time blocks” on my calendar. Reclaim/Tasks is like having my own personal assistant! Something changes? No problem, the rest of my day shifts automatically. I need to add that new priority? No problem Tasks will figure out when I have time to take care of it. I love that it isn’t only built for work habits/tasks. I also use Reclaim to maintain work-life balance while working from home to make sure that I’m spending enough time on personal projects and routines. I look forward to the Todoist integration, because I know it will just make it even better!
Patrick Lightbody
@theannefaire "like having my own personal assistant" ❤️ Music to my ears!
Henry Shapiro
@theannefaire we couldn’t have described it better ourselves 😊 thanks so much — Todoist integration is on the way!
Mike Orren
Reclaim tasks have completely improved my GTD flow. Seamlessly, quietly runs my week behind the scenes.
Patrick Lightbody
@mikeorren Thanks Mike! 💪
Henry Shapiro
@mikeorren 🤟🤟🤟
Reef Ray
Hi, really like this product! although im having some issues. Are you planning to release a mobile app? Also happens if i dont do a task when its scheduled for...how does reclaim know i have been unable to do it and that it needs to find another time?
Henry Shapiro
@reefray thanks for reaching out! We are indeed planning to release a mobile app and desktop app soon. We automatically consider a Task Event done when time passes over it. So if it's in the past, Reclaim thinks it's done. If you didn't actually do it, it's super easy to tell Reclaim that: just delete the event from the past. We'll take that as a signal that you still need the time, and we'll schedule it for the next available time slot in the future. You can also do this from our Slack integration :)
Steven Grin
I am absolutely loving Tasks and the Reclaim app. As I make my calendar available externally and use my calendar to schedule TO-DOs Reclaim's feature set is incredible. On the personal front I love how I can create flexibility in my schedule for habits, family time, etc. I would love the ability to have greater control over calendar shifts and when a calendar is too tight for Tasks. For example, if you already have 4 hours of meetings booked on a day Tasks will not schedule something during that free time. Further, if I delete a Tasks schedule off my calendar Tasks will automatically find a time the next day to reschedule.
Henry Shapiro
@sgrin77 awesome to hear! Yes, this is definitely in line with our vision -- we've also heard requests for things like "Hey, I don't really want to do more than an hour of this task per day". Sort of a circuit breaker for your own mental sanity :) Another thing we're really interested in is actually starting to push toward negotiation. Imagine a world where Reclaim might say "Steven, you don't have time for this task this week, but if it's really urgent, here are 2 meetings you might consider rescheduling or dropping". Essentially bringing the tradeoffs to the fore so you don't have to hunt them down yourself.
Bryan Sbriglia
amazing! i default to using my calendar as a to do list anyways, so this with the slack app makes it so easy
Patrick Lightbody
@bs2889 so glad you love it. don't forget to try out the "/reclaim task" command line trick as well as the message shortcut that lets you create a task from a Slack thread.
Hernán Romero
Does it support Apple Calendar yet without having to use a Google Calendar?
Patrick Lightbody
@hernrome Today we only support operating on Google Calendars, but you don't have to use the Google Calendar app (we're app agnostic). So if your question is which app you can use, the answer is "any". If you're asking about the underlying calendar platform (Apple's iCloud vs Google's), then the answer is "not yet".
Henry Shapiro
@hernrome not yet. We likely will build O365 support first since that tends to be the second most common calendar platform for orgs. Apple is a bit harder to integrate with (particularly since it requires native auth through iOS), but we’ll get there!
Katy Rotman
I love Tasks!!
Henry Shapiro
@katy246 thanks! 🤟
Walter Elly
YES! I love Reclaim's Habit feature, and I've been waiting for Tasks to help programmatically guide me in getting through my week. Reclaim is a lifehack for me - being proactive is a bigger mental lift for me then being reactive. So I take proactive things and feed it to Reclaim, then Reclaim schedules them on my calendar and my brain sees calendar items as "reactive" and I find myself making time for the tasks I wouldn't otherwise make time for! Win win! Thank you Reclaim team!
Henry Shapiro
@walterelly Thank you! We've loved having you as an early user and we're excited to see what you do with Tasks 🥳
Julianne Bond
Yay! So excited to have this, thank you for creating it!
Henry Shapiro
@julianne_bond Thanks mom LOL 🤫 💛
Matt Davis
This has to be one of the best UX for task scheduling. Bravo!
Henry Shapiro
@matt_davis9 wow, thank you so much for saying that. We think we have a long way to go on design and UX, but we're getting there. We want to create a world where you just don't have to think about your time and Reclaim sorts it out for you as you express your needs. Thanks so much for your support!
Matt Davis
@henry_shapiro What happens when the tasks aren't complete on the specified times?
Henry Shapiro
@matt_davis9 We automatically consider a Task Event done when time passes over it. So if it's in the past, Reclaim thinks it's done. If you didn't actually do it, it's super easy to tell Reclaim that: just delete the event from the past. We'll take that as a signal that you still need the time, and we'll schedule it for the next available time slot in the future. You can also do this from our Slack integration :)
Paresh Deshmukh
This is indeed a much needed product!
Henry Shapiro
@paresh_deshmukh 💖 thank you for saying so! We're just getting started, and we think you're going to like what's coming next...
Lisa League
I have a major project due, and this keeps me from crowding out time for it. The tasks needed to get it done keep reappearing on my calendar leaving little room for distraction.👍👩🏼‍💻
Henry Shapiro
@lisaleague awesome to hear! Bear in mind that you can interact with Task Events the same way you would other calendar events, and Reclaim will adapt. If you want to ever move those events, book over them, extend them, or delete them, Reclaim will work around your changes to keep things stable on your calendar. Let us know if you have feedback as you get up and running!