Anatomy of a Task

You write down a task. “Prepare presentation.”

But when you actually try to start, you freeze. What do I do first? How far is enough? When does it need to be done? There comes a moment when a title alone isn’t enough.

That moment is what I’m trying to design for. The structure isn’t finished — it’s still being built.

Title and Tactics

Every task starts with a title. “Prepare presentation.” For many tasks, that’s all you need.

Below the title is Tactics. Not a description, not a memo — a strategy for how you’ll get this done. “Keep slides under 10, three key messages, two rehearsals.” Writing it down like that makes the vague feel a little less vague.

It was originally called Description. But as people used it, they weren’t describing — they were planning. So I renamed it. The name changed, and so did how people wrote in it.

Schedule

Start date, due date, estimated duration, location. These are grouped under Schedule.

It used to be called Details, but that was too broad. The name didn’t tell you what to put there. Changing it to Schedule made the section’s role clear: when, where, how long.

It’s collapsed by default. You only open it for tasks where time matters. No need to set a due date for “buy groceries.”

Intention

This is the part I’ve thought about the most recently.

Difficulty, target, expectation. These three are grouped under Intention. When you can’t start because the goal is unclear, this is where you write things out slowly and make them concrete.

There’s a reason difficulty lives here. Difficulty isn’t a physical property of the task — it’s how heavy it feels to you. The same task can feel easy or hard depending on the day. So it belongs closer to intention than to schedule.

Target is where you describe the thing you want to change, in detail. If you’re preparing a presentation, the target is your audience. How many people, what kind of people, what do they already know. The more you describe the target, the clearer the approach becomes.

Expectation is what state you want to be in when this task is done. It’s defining the finish line before you start.

Honestly, I don’t think many people will fill in all three fields every time. But for the really important tasks, the ones you keep putting off, the ones where you’re not sure why you’re even doing them — writing these out once makes a real difference.

That’s why I added a ? button. A short explanation of what this section is for and when to use it. Read it once, close it, move on.

Links and Photos

Reference links and related photos. These used to be hidden inside a collapsible section. I pulled them out.

The reason is simple. Reference materials get used often. If there’s an extra step to reveal them, people stop using them. So I made them always visible.

Photos sit below links, above sub-tasks. They mark the boundary between setting context (links, photos) and executing the work (sub-tasks, retrospect).

Sub-tasks

Breaking a big task into smaller ones. I’ve covered this in a separate post, so I’ll keep it brief here.

You can set dependency relationships between sub-tasks. A must be done before B, that sort of thing. Useful for complex projects, but again — only use it if you need it.

Retrospect

This section appears when you complete a task. You rate your satisfaction and write a retrospect.

I think this is one of the most important features in Fecit. But it’s never forced. It’s collapsed, and it’s there when you expand it.

“What did I do well this time, and what would I change next time?” That single reflection changes the quality of the next attempt. Especially when connected to templates, where retrospects feed back into future execution. That’s growth.

The Full Flow

To summarize:

1. Title — What
2. Tactics — How
3. Schedule — When, where, how long
4. Intention — Why, to what degree
5. Links and Photos — Reference materials
6. Sub-tasks — Break it down and execute
7. Retrospect — Look back

You don’t have to use all of them. A title alone is fine. But when you need it, unfolding each section one by one gives shape to what was shapeless.

I don’t know if this structure is right. I’m changing it a little every week. Just this week, I renamed sections, moved things around, and added help buttons. Next week, something will probably be different again.

This isn’t a post introducing a finished design. It’s more of a progress report on something still being shaped. If you see something that could be better, let me know. I’d like to figure it out together.

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A task starts with a title. How deep you go from there — that’s up to the task.