The UnaTask blog

Short, practical reads on time blocking, focus and keeping a team in sync.

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Series

Blocks No. 01, 8 chapters

Eleven minutes: what a working day actually looks like

In 2005 three researchers followed twenty four office workers with stopwatches. The numbers they came back with explain more about your week than any productivity advice you have ever been given.

Time blocking. Aug 21, 2026. 6 min read.

The task you just left is still running

The cost of switching is not paid at the moment you switch. It is paid afterwards, quietly, in the work you thought you had moved on to.

Focus. Aug 21, 2026. 5 min read.

Planning it, not finishing it, is what quiets your head

Almost everyone believes the weight of an unfinished task is lifted by finishing it. There is good evidence it is lifted by deciding when you will do it, which is a far cheaper operation.

Planning. Aug 21, 2026. 5 min read.

Time blocking is four techniques wearing one name

Task batching, day theming, timeboxing and deep work solve four different problems. Most people who bounced off time blocking were using the right one for a week they were not having.

Time blocking. Aug 21, 2026. 6 min read.

How long a block should be, and the 60 percent rule

Two sizes cause most of the failures: the block that is too short to be a block, and the day that is too full to be a day. The second is why people quit in week two.

Time blocking. Aug 21, 2026. 5 min read.

What to do when the day is ruined by ten in the morning

Something broke, someone needed you, and last night's careful plan now describes a day that is not happening. What you do in the next four minutes decides whether the habit survives the month.

Guide. Aug 21, 2026. 6 min read.

Why your blocks are too short, every single time

Not sometimes. Systematically, in one direction. And knowing about the bias does not fix it, which is exactly why the correction has to be mechanical.

Guide. Aug 21, 2026. 5 min read.

What a thirty minute meeting actually costs six people

It does not cost thirty minutes, and it does not cost three hours either. The real number is larger, it is almost never counted, and the biggest part of it does not add up neatly at all.

Teams. Aug 21, 2026. 5 min read.

AI agents fail one task in three. We built for that.

The honest number nobody puts on a landing page, and what it changes about how an AI teammate should hand work back to you.

AI teammates. Aug 2, 2026. 5 min read.

What you can actually hand to an AI teammate

Not everything, and not nothing. The honest list of what comes back useful, what comes back wrong, and how to tell which is which before you delegate.

AI teammates. Aug 2, 2026. 5 min read.

Assign a task to an AI the way you assign it to a person

No chat window, no prompt box, no separate tool. You put the teammate on the task, and the work comes back on that task.

AI teammates. Aug 2, 2026. 4 min read.

Teach your AI teammate once, and it remembers

The reason a human junior gets better and a chatbot does not is that somebody told them, and it stuck. Here is what happens when a correction is kept.

AI teammates. Aug 2, 2026. 4 min read.

The AI teammate that hands you a file, not a chat reply

A wall of text in a chat window is not a deliverable. Sometimes the work is a spreadsheet, and it should arrive as one, attached to the task.

AI teammates. Aug 2, 2026. 4 min read.

Move a task to Done when its pull request merges

The pull request is merged, so the work is done, but the card still says otherwise until someone drags it. Here is how to let a merge close the task for you, and when to choose that over a gentler nudge.

How it works. Jul 26, 2026. 4 min read.

A task manager for solo developers that speaks GitHub

When you are the whole team, context switching is the tax. Keep the task, its pull request, and the time block to work on it in one place, and let the plan follow the repo instead of fighting it.

Time blocking. Jul 26, 2026. 5 min read.

See what your dev team is shipping, without asking

When your task manager and your repository disagree, standup becomes a status meeting. Link each task to the pull request that closes it, and the board starts telling the truth on its own.

Teams. Jul 26, 2026. 5 min read.

How to link a GitHub pull request to a task

The code is written and the pull request is open, but the task still says To do. Here is how to link a GitHub pull request to the task it closes, follow its status and checks, and let a merge finish the job.

Guide. Jul 26, 2026. 5 min read.

Plan your whole week in one plain sentence

Type free up my afternoons and watch your tasks drop into the gaps you actually have, ranked by deadline and priority, each with a one line reason. Here is how Smart Schedule plans your week without inventing a single time.

Guide. Jul 8, 2026. 5 min read.

Turn a voice note into tasks, without sending your voice anywhere

Talk through everything on your plate and get back a tidy list of tasks, each with an owner, a due date and a priority. The transcription happens on your device, so the recording of your voice never leaves the browser.

Guide. Jul 8, 2026. 4 min read.

The email that is really a task, handled in one click

Some emails are just to-dos in disguise. The UnaTask button in Gmail turns one into a task in a click, the subject as the title, a link back to the thread, and a due date read out of the text. No Gmail API, no Google sign in.

Guide. Jul 8, 2026. 4 min read.

Round robin scheduling, without the spreadsheet

One booking link for the whole team, and each new meeting goes to whoever is free, in the share you set. Here is how round robin scheduling works in UnaTask, and when to reach for it.

Guide. Jul 8, 2026. 4 min read.

How to book a meeting when everyone has to be there

Some meetings only happen if three calendars line up. A group booking link offers only the times when every host is free, so one link replaces the whole who is around on Thursday thread.

Guide. Jul 8, 2026. 4 min read.

Your project roadmap, finally on a timeline

Two facts that never met: the task running late, and the work waiting on it. The new Dependencies tab puts them on the same timeline, so the clash is a red line you see coming.

New feature. Jul 6, 2026. 4 min read.

Plan a project in 10 minutes with the dependency timeline

Planning a project usually feels like a second job, so most of us skip it and hope the order sorts itself out. Here is a ten minute version that leaves you with a plan you can actually trust.

Guide. Jul 6, 2026. 5 min read.

The hidden delay: catch date conflicts before they hurt

The worst delays are the ones nobody saw coming, a blocker quietly ending after the thing it was blocking was due. On a timeline that clash is a red line you can see a week before it lands.

Planning. Jul 6, 2026. 4 min read.

Stretch a task and watch the plan reshuffle itself

A task runs a few days long, and normally that means an afternoon of updating every date downstream by hand. On the timeline you drag one edge and everything waiting on it slides forward on its own.

How it works. Jul 6, 2026. 4 min read.

Add a task by just typing it

Most tools make you fill in a small form to add one task. On the timeline you click an empty spot and type it the way you would say it, and the date, the person and the priority land on their own.

Capture. Jul 6, 2026. 3 min read.

Gantt or dependency graph? Why we merged the two

You have met both tools. The Gantt chart knows about time but hates change. The dependency graph knows about links but forgets the calendar. Each is half a picture, so we stopped making people choose.

Product thinking. Jul 6, 2026. 5 min read.

How a team of 5 stopped fighting over deadlines

When who is waiting on whom lives in everyone’s head, standups get tense and delivery gets unpredictable. Here is what changes for a small team when those dependencies become something everyone can point at.

Teams. Jul 6, 2026. 4 min read.

Why we built UnaTask

It’s 6 on a Friday and the list is longer than it was on Monday. Here’s the problem we set out to fix, and the week we’re aiming for instead.

Why UnaTask. Jun 21, 2026. 5 min read.

Let your meetings write their own task list

A notetaker joins the call, and the action items land as real tasks: assigned, dated, on the right person’s calendar. No more “who was taking notes?”

Meetings. Jun 20, 2026. 4 min read.

Booking links that fit your day, not the other way around

Share a link, let people pick a time, but only the times that don’t trample your focus. Scheduling without the back and forth, or the broken afternoon.

Booking. Jun 14, 2026. 4 min read.

One booking link, shared fairly across the team

When the booking link belongs to a team, two questions follow: who gets each call, and who needs to be on it. Round robin spreads the load. Collective makes sure everyone’s there.

Booking. Jun 25, 2026. 4 min read.

Turn an email into a task without leaving your inbox

The request lands in your inbox, you make it a task in one click, deadline and all. No copy and paste, no “I’ll deal with it later” that never comes.

Gmail. Jun 18, 2026. 4 min read.

One calendar, finally. Work and life in the same view

Two way sync with Google Calendar, across every account you have. Your tasks, your meetings and your real life stop fighting over the same hours.

Calendar. Jun 16, 2026. 4 min read.

From “can you handle this?” to a real task

Right click a Slack or Discord message and turn it into a task, assignee and deadline included. The ask stops drowning in the thread.

Slack & Discord. Jun 11, 2026. 4 min read.

Stop rebuilding the same project from scratch

If your team runs the same kind of project over and over, save it once as a template and spin up the next one in a click, tasks and owners and deadlines included.

Templates. Jun 9, 2026. 4 min read.

Add a task as fast as you can type it

Capture should never break your train of thought. Type the task in plain words, and chain a dependency or a heads up with a single character.

Capture. Jun 4, 2026. 4 min read.

List or board. See your work the way your brain wants

Some days you want a tidy list. Some days you want to push cards across a board. Same tasks, same data, you just pick the view that fits the moment.

Views. Jun 6, 2026. 4 min read.

See the whole team’s week before you book over it

A shared view of who’s busy and who’s free, so you plan around real availability instead of guessing, and stop scheduling over someone’s only focus block.

Teams. Jun 2, 2026. 4 min read.

A little friendly competition for focus, not busywork

Most productivity scoreboards reward looking busy. We’re building one that rewards the thing that actually matters: time spent in real, focused work.

Arena. May 30, 2026. 4 min read.

Let your AI assistant fill the backlog for you

Plan a project in chat with Claude or your editor, and have it create the projects and tasks in UnaTask directly. No copy and paste from idea to backlog.

AI teammates. May 27, 2026. 4 min read.

Tell the calendar what you want, and let it draft the day

You know what needs doing today. Say it in plain words, and watch a real schedule lay itself out around your meetings and your focus, yours to approve or rearrange.

Planning. Jun 24, 2026. 4 min read.

Recurring tasks that show up on time, not all at once

Most recurring tasks are decorative, or they bury you under twelve copies of the same chore. The fix is to only ever show you the next one, and generate the one after when it’s due.

Recurring. Jun 23, 2026. 4 min read.

Say it out loud and watch it become a list

The best ideas arrive when your hands are full. Dictate freely, in one messy ramble, and let it come back as separate, clean tasks, ready to land on your week.

Voice. Jun 24, 2026. 4 min read.

An inbox for your tasks, and a week to put them in

Capturing fast is only half the job. The other half is deciding what each thing is and when it happens. Triage the pile, then drag it onto the days it belongs to.

Planning. Jun 22, 2026. 5 min read.

Book the meeting by just asking for it

No availability ping-pong, no link to share. Say “book the first free slot with Serena,” and it reads both calendars, finds the mutual gap, and sets it up for you to confirm.

Planning. Jun 25, 2026. 4 min read.

For the things you can’t afford to miss, a reminder that reaches your pocket

Email and in-app notifications are easy to miss exactly when it matters. For the deadline that really can’t slip, a text lands where you’ll actually see it.

Reminders. Jun 26, 2026. 4 min read.

A gentle nudge, instead of chasing or letting it slide

When a task you’re waiting on goes quiet, you usually have two bad options: nag in chat or say nothing and hope. A single nudge is the kinder third one.

Teams. Jun 21, 2026. 4 min read.

Invite anyone to the call, even if they’re not on your team

Plenty of meetings include people outside your workspace: a client, a freelancer, a candidate. Add them by email when you create the event, and they get a proper invite.

Calendar. Jun 23, 2026. 4 min read.

A shared address book that fills itself in

Every client and collaborator you’ve worked with is already in your history. Instead of retyping their email each time, the team’s contacts build themselves from who you’ve worked with.

Contacts. Jun 22, 2026. 4 min read.

How to plan a day you can actually finish

The to do list lies about how much fits in a day. Here is the small habit that turns a wishlist into a schedule.

Time blocking. Jun 12, 2026. 5 min read.

One thing at a time: the case for doing the next thing

Multitasking feels productive and rarely is. Here is why a single next action beats a busy board, and how a schedule makes it safe.

Focus. Jun 5, 2026. 5 min read.

Why your to-do list keeps lying to you

On Monday the list felt like a plan. By Friday it was longer than when you started. The list wasn’t the problem, it was that the list never knew what a day can hold.

Time blocking. Jun 26, 2026. 5 min read.

Time blocking for teams: the 20 minute setup

Most people try time blocking alone, in a private calendar, and quietly give up. It works far better as a team sport. Here’s the setup, in about twenty minutes.

Time blocking. Jun 26, 2026. 6 min read.

Stop context switching: capture tasks from Gmail, Slack and your voice

The work that slips is rarely forgotten. It’s the work you couldn’t write down without breaking what you were doing. So let the task come to you, where it already is.

Capture. Jun 26, 2026. 5 min read.

The shared calendar that respects deep work

Most calendars treat your focus time as empty space waiting to be booked. A calendar that shows focus as real, and shows the team where you’re free, changes who gets to interrupt you.

Teams. Jun 26, 2026. 5 min read.

How to run your whole week in UnaTask

Not a system you have to maintain like a houseplant. A light weekly rhythm, about fifteen minutes of planning, that turns the Monday scramble into a week with a shape.

Workflow. Jun 26, 2026. 6 min read.

Time blocking vs the usual task apps

List apps are great at sorting work and blind to time. Calendar apps are great at meetings and blind to tasks. Time blocking is just the honest admission that you need both in one place.

Time blocking. Jun 26, 2026. 6 min read.