Actions & Tasks

Overview

Actions are the individual tasks that make up your daily work. Exponential provides flexible task management with smart prioritization, due dates, and seamless project integration.

Key Capabilities

• Flexible priorities: 11 priority levels for nuanced task ordering
• Due date tracking: Schedule tasks with overdue detection
• Project linking: Associate tasks with projects
• Epic grouping: Bundle related actions into larger initiatives
• Sprint assignment: Plan work in time-boxed sprints
• Effort estimates: Size your work with story points, t-shirt sizes, or hours
• Dependencies: Track which tasks are blocked by others
• Kanban boards: Visual task management per project
• External sync: Import from Notion, create via API
• Team assignment: Assign tasks to team members

Creating Actions

Quick Creation

1. Click the + button in the header or press the keyboard shortcut
2. Enter the action name
3. Optionally set due date and project
4. Press Enter or click Create

Detailed Creation

1. Click New Action from the Actions page
2. Fill in details:
   • Name: Clear description of the task
   • Description: Additional context
   • Due Date: When it needs to be done
   • Priority: Importance level
   • Project: Associated project (optional)
   • Epic: Group this action under a larger initiative (optional)
   • Sprint: Assign to a sprint for time-boxed planning (optional)
   • Effort: Estimate the size of this work (optional)
   • Blockers: Mark other actions that need to finish first (optional)

Priority System

Actions use an 11-level priority system:

Views

Inbox

Actions without a project. Use the inbox to:

• Capture quick thoughts
• Process unorganized tasks
• Review and assign to projects

Today

Tasks due today with automatic overdue grouping:

• Today's Tasks: Due today, ready to work
• Overdue: Past due date, needs attention

Bulk operations available:

• Reschedule overdue items
• Delete completed tasks
• Move to tomorrow

Upcoming

Future tasks organized by timeframe:

• Tomorrow
• This Week
• This Month

Project View

All tasks for a specific project displayed on a Kanban board:

Drag and drop to change status and reorder within columns.

Advanced Action Features

The features below — Epics, Sprint Assignment, Effort Estimates, and Dependencies — are available when Advanced Action Features is turned on in your Workspace Settings. A workspace owner or admin can enable this at any time.

Epics

Epics let you group related actions into larger initiatives. When you're working on something that involves multiple steps — like launching a feature or running a campaign — an epic keeps everything connected.

Assigning an Epic

1. Open the Create or Edit Action modal
2. Click the Epic button
3. Choose an existing epic, or click New Epic to create one
4. The button turns purple to show the action is linked

You can change or remove the epic at any time.

Learn more about Epics

Sprint Assignment

Sprints are time-boxed periods (usually one or two weeks) where you commit to completing a set of actions. Assigning actions to sprints helps you plan your work in manageable chunks.

Assigning to a Sprint

1. Open the Create or Edit Action modal
2. Click the Sprint button
3. Browse available sprints — each shows its date range
4. Select a sprint

The button turns teal to confirm the assignment. This makes it easy to see at a glance which actions are planned for the current sprint.

Effort Estimates

Effort estimates help you understand the size of each action before you start. This is useful for planning how much you can realistically take on in a sprint or a week.

Your workspace admin chooses one of three estimation methods in Settings:

Setting an Estimate

1. Open the Create or Edit Action modal
2. Click the Effort button
3. Select or enter your estimate
4. Click Clear if you want to remove it

The estimation method is consistent across your whole workspace, so everyone is speaking the same language when sizing work.

Dependencies

Sometimes you can't start a task until something else is finished. Dependencies let you mark these relationships so nothing falls through the cracks.

Adding Blockers

1. Open the Create or Edit Action modal
2. Click the Blockers button
3. Search for the action that needs to finish first
4. Select it to add it as a blocker

You can add multiple blockers, and each one appears as a chip that you can remove individually. This gives you a clear picture of what's holding up your work and helps you prioritize accordingly.

Action Sources

Actions can be created from multiple sources:

External Integration

Notion Sync

When a project has Notion sync configured:

1. Actions sync bidirectionally
2. Status and priority map between systems
3. Sync indicators show current state

Sync Status Indicators:

• Synced: Successfully synced with Notion
• Failed: Sync error occurred
• Deleted Remotely: Removed from Notion

Quick Create API

Create actions programmatically:

• iOS Shortcuts integration
• Browser extension
• External automation tools

The API supports natural language:

Review marketing proposal for Acme project tomorrow

Automatically extracts:

• Task name
• Due date
• Project (if mentioned)

Team Assignment

For team projects, assign actions to members:

1. Open the action
2. Click Assign
3. Select team member(s)
4. Save changes

Assignment features:

• Multiple assignees per action
• "From [Creator]" badge for assigned tasks
• Assignee avatars on task cards

Bulk Operations

Select multiple actions for batch operations:

• Delete: Remove selected actions
• Reschedule: Move to a new date
• Change Project: Reassign to different project

Available in Inbox, Today, and Upcoming views.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Completion Tracking

When an action is completed:

• Status changes to COMPLETED
• completedAt timestamp recorded
• Moves to Done column in Kanban
• Removed from active views

Revert completion by unchecking the task checkbox.

Best Practices

Daily Processing

1. Check Today view each morning
2. Process Inbox items
3. Review Overdue and reschedule or complete
4. Work through priorities in order

Project Organization

• Keep Inbox empty by assigning projects
• Use Kanban for project execution
• Review project progress weekly

Priority Management

• Reserve 1st-5th Priority for truly important items
• Use Quick for small tasks
• Put uncertain items in Someday Maybe

Due Date Strategy

• Only set due dates for actual deadlines
• Use Today view for daily planning
• Batch reschedule overdue items weekly