Tasks, estimates and time tracking

A task is the smallest unit BooshHUB plans, bills and reports on, so it is worth knowing what each field actually changes.

Estimates are load-bearing

An estimate is not decoration. It is the number the auto-scheduler packs, the number the “will it fit?” preview checks against your capacity, and the number your tracked time is compared to afterwards.

A task with no estimate is skipped by the planner and reported as skipped, rather than being quietly assigned a guess. That is deliberate — a plan built on invented durations looks exactly like a plan built on real ones.

Subtasks

Subtasks break a job into steps without turning each step into a separate thing to schedule and chase. Use them when the parts are not independently deliverable. When they are, make them separate tasks — they can then be scheduled, estimated and finished on their own.

Recurring tasks

A recurring task is scheduled on every occurrence, not just the next one. A weekly three-hour review costs three hours a week, and the plan lists one row per occurrence rather than one row for the task.

Each occurrence keeps its own estimate. Change one week on its own and it is planned at the size you gave it; skip a week and it is not planned at all.

Expect your first plan after adding recurring work to look fuller than you remembered. That work was always there — it just was not being counted.

Time tracking

Start a timer from the task itself. Tracked time sits beside the estimate, which is how you find out whether your estimates are any good — usually the most useful thing in the app after about a month of honest use.

Locking a task in place

Lock to fixed time turns a task into a wall the planner works around rather than something it can move. This is a meeting is a label that also locks it.

Use locking for the things that genuinely cannot move. Locking everything defeats the point, and a plan where nothing can move is a calendar, not a plan.