Scheduling & Grouping

Scheduled vs Due

Daylight separates two concepts that most task apps conflate: the date you plan to work on something and the date it’s actually due. These are independent fields with different effects on how tasks are grouped and surfaced.

Scheduled Date

The date you intend to work on the task. This is the primary driver for temporal grouping — a task scheduled for today shows in “Now,” a task scheduled for next Tuesday shows in “Upcoming.”

• Purpose: Controls when the task appears in your daily view
• Behavior: Determines the task’s group (Past/Now/Upcoming). Can be changed freely without affecting the due date.
• Example: A report due Friday might be scheduled for Wednesday to give time for review

Due Date

The hard deadline. Optional. When set, a task approaching or past its due date surfaces with urgency regardless of its scheduled date.

• Purpose: Marks the external deadline for completion
• Behavior: Tasks past their due date appear in “Past” even if scheduled later. Independent of the scheduled date.
• Example: An expense report due on the 15th of every month

The Four Groups

Past

Overdue tasks and incomplete recurring instances from previous days. These didn’t get done when planned and need a decision: complete them, reschedule them, or skip them. Past never silently empties itself — if you missed something, you’ll see it.

• Tasks scheduled before today
• Not yet completed
• Visible for review and action

Now

Today’s work surface. Tasks scheduled for today plus any active recurring instances. This is where you spend most of your time. The goal is a short, honest list of what’s actually on your plate right now.

• Tasks scheduled for today
• Active and ready for work
• Primary focus area

Upcoming

Future-scheduled tasks visible for planning. You can see what’s coming without it cluttering today’s view. Rescheduling moves tasks between groups instantly — drag something from Upcoming to today and it lands in Now.

• Tasks scheduled for future dates
• Visible for planning
• Can be rescheduled

Wrapped

Tasks completed today. They don’t disappear — they move here as a visible record of what you finished. Wrapped provides closure at the end of the day and keeps Now clean without losing track of progress.

• Completed today
• Satisfying visibility
• Clears from Now after completion

Why This Reduces Cognitive Load

Traditional List Problems

A flat task list forces you to do the grouping work yourself:

1. Everything visible at once — no distinction between today’s work and next month’s
2. No temporal context — you’re constantly scanning dates to figure out what matters now
3. Constant re-sorting required — completed items clutter the list until manually archived

Daylight’s Approach

Temporal grouping does the sorting work for you:

1. Temporal grouping reduces scanning — four groups replace one undifferentiated list
2. Past shows what needs attention — missed tasks are surfaced, not hidden
3. Now is the focus — today’s work is isolated from everything else
4. Wrapped provides closure — completed work stays visible without blocking active tasks

Examples

Morning Workflow

Past (2)
├── Overdue task from yesterday
└── Missed recurring instance

Now (5)
├── Morning standup
├── Review PR
├── Write documentation
├── Weekly planning
└── Client call

Upcoming (3)
├── Tomorrow: Team sync
├── Friday: Deploy release
└── Next week: Quarterly review

Wrapped (1)
└── ✓ Morning exercise

End of Day

Past (0)
[empty - all addressed]

Now (1)
└── Wrap up notes

Upcoming (3)
├── Tomorrow: Team sync
├── Friday: Deploy release
└── Next week: Quarterly review

Wrapped (6)
├── ✓ Morning exercise
├── ✓ Morning standup
├── ✓ Review PR
├── ✓ Write documentation
├── ✓ Weekly planning
└── ✓ Client call