Due dates and reminders

A blip can carry a due date that everyone on the radar sees, and each person can add their own private reminder for it. After reading this page you can set both, choose where the reminder reaches you, and predict what happens to it when the work is finished.

Two separate things

• The due date belongs to the blip. Anyone who can read the radar sees it. Only people who can edit the radar can change it.
• A reminder belongs to you. Nobody else sees it, and nobody else can set one for you. Anyone who can read a blip with a due date can set their own reminder, including viewers.

The due date is not the same as the Later state. Putting a blip in Later does not set a date or a reminder.

Set a due date and reminder

1. Find the blip. On a card, use the calendar-clock button. Its tooltip reads "Set due date", or "Due date and reminder" once a date exists. In a blip's detail view the button is labelled "Due".
2. In the dialog titled "Due date and reminder", fill in "Due date". It takes a date and a time.
3. To be reminded, tick "Remind me". When you pick a date for the first time and have no reminder yet, this box is ticked for you. Untick it if you do not want one.
4. Under "Reminder timing", choose one of "At due time", "1 hour before" or "1 day before".
5. Click "Save".

To remove the date, click "Clear due date", then "Save". To stop being reminded, untick "Remind me" and save.

If you can only read the radar, the button is labelled "Personal reminder" and the date field is disabled, with the note "Only radar editors can change the shared due date." You can still tick "Remind me" and choose a timing.

You can see the date on the card as "Due" with the date and time. Once the time passes and the blip is not done or dropped, it reads "Overdue". A bell on the chip means you have a personal reminder. On a public radar visitors see the shared due date but never reminders.

Note: A reminder needs a due date. "Remind me" is greyed out on a blip that has no date and no reminder of yours. If you clear the date while a reminder is on, the dialog tells you "Your reminder will pause until a due date is set."

Time zones

• The dialog shows "Time zone:" followed by your browser's time zone. The time you type is in that zone.
• The date is stored as one exact moment. Colleagues in other time zones see the same moment shown in their own local time.
• If you pick a clock time that does not exist in your zone, such as the hour skipped by a daylight saving change, the dialog says "That local time does not exist. Choose another time."
• Search date filters are different. They use UTC. See Search syntax.

How a reminder reaches you

When the reminder time arrives, you get a line in your Activity feed reading "(blip) is due". Where else it goes depends on your notification settings.

• In the app. The Activity line is created whatever your email and push switches say, unless you have set the blip's radar to "Nothing". See Notifications.
• Push. On by default for "Personal due reminders". It goes to browsers and phones you have connected under Settings, then Notifications.
• Email. Off by default for "Personal due reminders". You can switch it on in the same place.
• Muting. The "Email notifications" and "Push notifications" switches, and a radar set to "Nothing", stop email and push for a reminder. A radar set to "Nothing" also stops the Activity line. The dialog says "Reminders follow your notification preferences and radar mute settings."

A reminder fires once per due date. It is sent by a background check that runs continuously, so it arrives shortly after the reminder time. If a reminder is more than an hour late, for example after an outage, it is dropped rather than sent. A push that was queued also expires an hour after the reminder time.

Dialog messages you may see:

• "This reminder time has passed. The due date will remain visible, but no future alert is scheduled."
• "This reminder has already created an activity notification. Change the due date to schedule another."

What changes a reminder

• Changing the due date schedules a fresh reminder, even if the earlier one already fired.
• Moving the blip to another radar reschedules it too.
• Marking the blip Done or Dropped pauses your reminder. The dialog says "Paused because this blip is completed." Reopen the blip and, if the reminder time is still in the future, it is scheduled again.
• Clearing the due date pauses the reminder: "Paused until a due date is set." A viewer who still has a reminder sees "Reminder paused" on the card.
• Archived radar. A radar that has been archived pauses reminders: "Paused while this radar is archived." The web app has no control for archiving a whole radar; an agent can do it.
• Losing access. If you can no longer read the radar, your reminder is removed when it comes due, and nothing is sent.

Finished blips on a Kanban, reading list or helpdesk radar can also age out into the archive. That does not change anything here, because Done and Dropped already pause the reminder.

Not available

• Reminders do not repeat. There is no recurring due date.
• You cannot set a reminder for another person.
• You cannot filter search by due date.

Agents

An agent can set the shared due date when it creates or updates a blip, using an ISO timestamp that includes a UTC offset, or clear it with null. It can read your reminder status with get_blip_reminder. It cannot set a reminder for you, because that controls your attention. You set it yourself in the app. See MCP reference.

Next

• Notifications
• Archive and Dropped
• Search syntax