Working with Tasks

Once a task is created, you have a few things you can do with it:

• You can complete the task by clicking the checkbox.
• You can charge the task immediately from inside the task's menu.
• You can edit the task, as long as you're making it harder, from the task's menu.
• You can copy the task from the task's menu, using it as a template for creating a new task.
• You can filter what tasks are displayed from the toolbar.

Task Management

Completing Tasks

To mark a task as complete, simply click or tap the checkbox next to the task. Once completed, the task will be visually marked as done and you won't be charged.

Task Menu Options

Click the three dots (⋮) next to any task to access the task menu:

• Charge Immediately: Manually trigger the charge for this task
• Edit: Modify your task, deadline, or stakes (you can only make tasks harder)
• Copy: Open the new task dialog with the task's parameters prefilled

Filtering Tasks

At the top-right of TaskRatchet there's a funnel icon. Clicking it will open a menu that allows you to filter the tasks that are displayed.

Toggling one of the three checkboxes will toggle whether or not tasks in that state are displayed:

• Pending: Tasks that haven't been completed and aren't past their deadline
• Complete: Tasks you've successfully completed
• Expired: Tasks that have passed their deadline without completion

For example, if you only want to see tasks that are incomplete, you can deselect the "complete" and "expired" checkboxes. If you want to see all tasks, you can check all three boxes.

Pulling in Items from Integrations

The pull-in sidebar collects deadlines you've already committed to elsewhere and offers them up as candidates for a TaskRatchet task. It doesn't stake anything on its own — it saves you from retyping something you've already written down.

Open it with the inbox icon (Pull in Tasks) in the toolbar at the top of the app. A badge on the icon shows how many candidates are currently waiting; the badge disappears when there are none.

What Shows Up

The sidebar lists items from the integrations you've connected, grouped by source and sorted soonest-first. Everything it surfaces is due within the next seven days:

• Beeminder — goals set to derail in the next week. Each is listed by its goal slug, with a chip showing how much is currently pledged on the goal.
• Todoist — open tasks due in the next week. Recurring tasks and tasks with no due date are skipped.

An item drops off the list once you've pulled it in, and Todoist tasks that the Todoist integration already imported on its own never appear. Sources you haven't connected are simply absent. When there's nothing to show at all, the sidebar says so and links you to your settings.

Use the Filter field to narrow the list. It matches on the item's title only, and it resets each time you close the sidebar.

Pulling an Item In

Click an item and the normal Add Task dialog opens, prefilled with:

• Task — the item's title, which you're free to rewrite.
• Due Date and Due Time — the item's own deadline (its Beeminder derail time or Todoist due date).
• Stakes — TaskRatchet's default of $5.00.

Stakes are never inferred from the source. A Beeminder goal's pledge is shown for context only; what you risk in TaskRatchet is always your own choice.

Nothing is created until you click Add. Once you do, the new task behaves like any other — the deadline is firm and the stake is live, regardless of what happens to the original item in Beeminder or Todoist.

There's no way to dismiss or snooze an item you're not interested in. Items age out of the list on their own as their deadlines pass or move beyond the seven-day window.

Monthly Stakes Limit

Every account has a monthly stakes limit: a cap on the total you can stake across all the tasks you create in a calendar month. The default is $200. It's a guardrail against a bad week — or a misconfigured integration — quietly putting far more of your money at risk than you intended.

When a new task would push the month's total past your limit, it isn't created. In the app you'll see "Monthly stake limit exceeded" with a link to your settings. Recurring tasks and Todoist imports are skipped instead of failing loudly, and Todoist emails you to say so.

A few details worth knowing:

• It counts what you stake, not what you're charged. Every task you create counts against the limit for the month you created it in, whether you go on to complete it or not. Completing a task doesn't free up headroom.
• It resets at the start of each calendar month (UTC), so a task that couldn't be created in a full month can be created once the new one begins.
• It's based on the task's creation date, not its deadline. A task created in March and due in April counts toward March.
• Raising an existing task's stake counts too. The increase is measured against the month the task was created in, so editing a March task in April spends March's headroom. Leaving the stake alone never needs headroom.

To change it, go to your settings page and find the Monthly Stakes Limit section. Enter a new dollar amount and click Save, or leave the field empty and save to remove the limit entirely.

Task Pattern Examples

Effective Task Descriptions

Good tasks are specific, actionable, and have clear completion criteria:

✅ "Write 500 words for blog post"
✅ "Complete tax form W-2"
✅ "Run for 30 minutes"

Less Effective Task Descriptions

Avoid vague tasks that make it hard to determine when they're complete:

❌ "Work on project"
❌ "Make progress on essay"
❌ "Exercise more"