How unfinished to-dos roll forward

Carry-over moves any to-do you did not check off onto the next day, on its own, until you either do it or delete it.

Why you'd care#

This is the behavior the whole product is built around, and it is the one people misunderstand first.

Every other to-do app makes yesterday's failures your problem this morning. You open it and find a list of overdue items in red, and the first thing you do is triage a plan you already made once. Carry-over removes that step. Unfinished work is simply on today, in the ordinary list, looking like everything else.

The point is not that NewTwos nags you less. It is that you only ever plan a to-do once.

What moves and what does not#

This is the whole rule, and it is worth being precise about.

So only to-dos travel. Everything else is a record of that day and stays put, which is what makes past days worth reading later.

A to-do that carries over is the same thing, not a copy. Its tags, its note, its reminder and its history all come with it. Check it off in three weeks and it will sit on that day, not the one you first wrote it on.

Turning it off#

Carry-over is on by default. Turn it off in Settings → Lists & <i>Things</i> → Carry over unfinished to-dos.

With it off, unfinished to-dos stay on the day you wrote them, and you move them yourself. Some people prefer this because they want each day to be a closed record. It is a real preference, not a wrong one, but be aware that nothing will remind you those to-dos exist unless you go looking.

Going further#

Carrying reminders too. A to-do with a reminder whose time has passed is a separate case, because moving the thing does not automatically move the alert. Settings → Calendar & Reminders → Carry over reminders rolls overdue reminders onto today as well, so an alert you slept through does not quietly stay in the past. It is off by default, because it changes when you get notified, and that is not a decision to make for you.

Doing it by hand. You do not have to wait for midnight. Open yesterday, select the to-dos you still want, and move them to Today. See selecting many things at once, which is much faster than one at a time.

A to-do that has carried for two weeks is telling you something. Usually one of three things: it is not actually a to-do, it is too big to be one thing, or you are not going to do it. All three are fine. Delete it, break it up, or move it to a list where it can wait without following you around.

Tips#

• If a to-do keeps arriving and you keep ignoring it, put it on a list instead of a day. Days are for this week.
• Checking a to-do off records it on the day you finished it, so your past days end up being an accurate log of what you got done. That is worth more than it sounds a year later.
• Carry-over runs when you open the app, not on a server at midnight. If you have not opened NewTwos in four days, everything catches up when you do.

If it's not working#

My to-dos did not carry over. Most often carry-over is off. Check Settings → Lists & <i>Things</i> → Carry over unfinished to-dos. If it is on, open the app and give it a moment, because the roll happens on open rather than overnight on a server.

A note carried over and I did not expect it. Only to-dos carry. If a plain thing moved, it is a to-do that does not look like one, which happens when the checkbox style is set to something subtle. Check its type in thing types.

Something carried over but its reminder did not fire again. That is the separate setting. Turn on Settings → Calendar & Reminders → Carry over reminders.

Everything from months ago suddenly landed on today. That is a first open after a long gap, and it is carry-over catching up. Select the ones you no longer want and delete them in one pass.

Related#

• Today, the page all of this happens on
• Select many things at once, for clearing a backlog in one move
• Set a reminder, for when a to-do needs to speak up rather than wait