Add task dependencies

03 Apr, '23
Lucian System

Highlighted comment

"Subtask dependencies / Hide parent-task until its subtask is completed" (suggested by Nic Barnshaw on 2023-03-31), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

15 Dec, '24
Bill Admin Pinned

It lives! https://www.amplenote.com/blog/linked_task_dependency_mirrored_task_blocked_task_implement_goal_task

07 Jun, '20
Mike

This would be nice. Tasks aren't all in isolation and the current Task Score system treats them all that way.

24 Oct, '20
Melonaise

Agree- and task score could go up for tasks that are at the head of a chain of dependencies, prompting you to unblock the next task sooner.

13 Feb, '21
Gadwood

This is a must have feature since this app is so action related

13 Feb, '21
Gadwood

Maybe just add an option in the hide task section « hide until subtask is done » would be a easy way to do it

18 Mar, '21
edw

A special case. If there are several tasks in the note and the rule "subtasks in order" is set for it, then all tasks except the first are hidden in ToDo.

26 Sep, '21
Michael Cole

Most other task managers epically fail at dependencies :/

Perhaps also a progress map in a similar way that video game developers have quest progression charts so that developers know what players have to do first before they get to earn the next adventure/quest.

Most game quests are dependent on previous quests’ tasks/milestones being collected before being able to progress to the next one. You know, earn 5000 xp/gold, beat monster, collect sword…

Real life examples like: Workouts to certain level of fitness, bank balances, purchases (of say, a bike or weights), dated events, lists of todos checked…

These are achievements that might be milestones needed to move forward before other lists of todos are even worth looking at.

Often multiple projects/quests branch from or to a single important milestone that is done. “Baby is born” for example.

It would be useful to be able to drag them around and put them in the right order and branches so we can see our own roadmap.

03 Oct, '21
Paul Hacker

Yes, this would make Amplenote very powerful. It could also be used for habit tracking and/or rewards if repeated dependent tasks were incorporated. For example, if the task “work out for 30 minutes” gets repeated 5 times then it unhides the task “have a scoop of ice cream”! (Okay I know that’s not the best way to reward healthy behaviour, but you get the idea!)

29 Nov, '21
Paul Hacker

Also, sometimes you may have a group of tasks that need to be done, not necessarily in order, Effie the next big task needs to be done. If you could have the logic to create task groups that could all be “unhid” at once, that would also be super helpful and powerful.

23 Jun, '22
April

Oh, yes please! I ran into this issue on day one of using Amplenote. It can add more choices… so perhaps a very subtle icon.

25 Aug, '22
John Sletta

Dare we ask for a Gantt chart view as well? Amplenote works so well for project managers, this would take that to another level.

04 Jan, '23
Aleks

Blocker-task also should get higher score (maybe sum of dependencies scores), so, even if it is complex (90+ minutes) it is on top of the tasklist

28 Mar, '23
Nic Barnshaw

This is essential. Looking forward to this possibility

31 Mar, '23
Nic Barnshaw Merged

I'm a freelancer with multiple side-hustles. I break everything down into tasks. What i struggle with the most in regards to task management is the amount of tasks i have on my plate that are waiting for other tasks to be finished first. My ADHD brain has a hard time keeping up with all the "A can't be done until i finish B, B can't be done until i finish C, and so on". I have multiple levels of this going on at any one time, it's a huge challenge to even get to the scheduling phase. I love Amplenote's "Task Score" feature, i'd love to be able to take advantage of it with task dependencies too, it'd help. It's the only thing stopping me from using Amplenote as my primary app.

My suggestion is to be able to set relations between tasks. I.e. is it a parent-task, a child-task, or an "isolated" task? This would define what gets shown in task view. I don't want to see the parent task until the child task is finished.

Either that, or just add ability to "Hide: Until [#task-x] is comple

10 Apr, '23
Vsevolod

Instead of the current time selection for the task (15, 30, 60 and 90+ minutes), make the choice of the time interval according to the Pomodoro timer. Something similar to how it is implemented here: https://www.pomonow.com/. Or provide a choice of format

10 Apr, '23
Alejandro Eva

this would totally game changing and would make my system so much efficient

16 Apr, '23
David

This would take Amplenote to the next level, for sure. This would make the Task view much less cluttered and more helpful at a glance. Like others suggested: I imagine an option in the task options to select the parent task, which would automatically hide the current task until the parent is done.

15 Jul, '23
Aster

In OmniFocus, you can set different type "parallel", "sequential" and "single action" for a project/task list. In a "sequential" list, a task is grey until the previous task has been completed, unlike a "parallel" list where all tasks are treated as equal with no particular order.

If Amplenote can offer options like that, it would be very useful to stay focus on the available items in the task view.

22 Dec, '23
Juha

Dependencies (blockers) are a must, but the "hide until X is completed" feature should be optional. For me, hiding tasks only results in me creating the same tasks again without remembering that they already exist. For me, a dependency indicator similar to a backlink would do the trick (hopefully combined with a way to sort the task list by 'blocked').

Parent being dependent on completed subtasks would be a great feature as well. This I think requires subtasks to be indicated as subtasks in general tasklist.

29 Jan, '24
CK

After scrubbing through this app, which has many good ideas.....and they've done an enormous amount of work on the administrative side of things, but a large number of their good ideas are poorly implemented.....what worries me is that the AN folks will deliver the "Add Task Dependencies" feature (and others) without doing the conceptual process analysis work to make sure what is developed is thought through. They seem to be a bunch of young folks who have energy and goodwill, but not a lot of experience in the realities of a professional work environment, so when they do something like "Add Task Dependencies", they will indeed deliver something that does just that...Adds A Task Dependency, but the expression will miss all of the supporting process considerations that are needed to have the desired impact. In short, "we'll have done it....but like a bucket full of holes, it will not hold water". In time, they may get there....I hope they do.

14 Feb, '24
Lucian Admin

@CK, we are actually working on the design of this feature right now. Please feel free to shoot me an email at lucian@amplenote with your thoughts & what you think we definitely shouldn't miss. Thanks!

03 May, '24
Tinker

It's good to clarify two unrelated concepts.

1) task dependencies
2) breaking down a task into subtasks.
Should the parent only appear in calendar scheduling? How do we show the relationship, through a collapsible task? Currently they all appear as isolated tasks.

Both will likely have to be work seamlessly together in the design.

06 Jul, '24
Carson

Nested tasks are great but one task can have multiple dependencies that are unrelated to one another. We need graph-network dependency editing.

21 Aug, '24
Will

Don't know if this is already captured, but had the idea to have nested/dependent tasks located within the "Rich Footnote Description" of the parent task. So subtasks, or subchecklists are dynamic within the rich footnote. This would solve most of my use cases for tasks dependency which currently feels missing.

19 Sep, '24
Andy

this should not be added. it adds further complexity to the UI for most people who won't use it.

if amplenote ever dies, it will be due to cluttering of UI / UX. just see far its starting to go away from starting a quick apple note or a simplenote.

14 Oct, '24
Peter Mattingly

Please note this workaround suggested by @lukkes on the sub:

> No dependency support yet. The most common way of hiding tasks is by using Note Reference Filtering - that is you can add an "@next" inline tag to all of your actionable tasks and then filter by it in order to omit showing tasks with missing dependencies.

> This workflow does require some manual interventions compared to one where tasks would get automatically unhidden in sequence. However, it encourages reviewing your tasks more often (e.g. to move the "@next" tag to the next task) which is arguably a good habit to have anyway, I have found.

16 Oct, '24
Peter Mattingly

+1 this.

Also, I had an idea about implementation. At the moment there's functionality to "Hide Until {date} {time}". A way to implement this feature might to modify this existing functionality to read: "Hide Until {task} is {state}". And so for example, to create a dependency between two tasks (task1 and task2), create task1, and in task2 set: "Hide Until task1 is complete". Then, when task1 is complete, task2 appears in the task-list as normal. This also allows for more complex constructions, for example: "Hide Until task1 is 50% complete."

Then also, a way to expand on this functionality is to add more "Hide Until" blocks and link them with boolean logic, so for example (with task1 and task2):

task2: "Hide Until task1 is complete" AND "Hide until November 1st at 9a"

or

task2: "Hide Until task1 is complete" OR "Hide until task3 is 25% complete."

or

task2: "Hide Until task1 is complete" AND NOT "Hide until task3 is complete." OR "Hide until November 1st at 9a"

etc.

Add task dependencies

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Comments: 28
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