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Taskade is a real-time organizational and collaboration tool that is used by remote and distributed teams to keep projects moving forward. It offers web, desktop and mobile apps so it can be used by anyone on any platform.

If you use the desktop app, there’s a handy feature that can make your workflow considerably more efficient. That feature enables you to quickly add a task without even having to bring the app into focus.

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I’m talking about the system tray icon. With this tip, you can add a task, select a due date, change the workspace, folder and project, select a block and even set a location, but the best thing about this is how easy it makes adding a task to a project. Even with the app minimized to the system tray, you can add the required task in just a couple of seconds. This feature makes Taskade one of the more efficient tools of its kind.

What you’ll need to add a task in Taskade from the system tray

The only things you’ll need are a Taskade account and the Taskade app running on your desktop. This feature does not work with the web or mobile version. I’m going to demonstrate on Pop!_OS Linux, because there’s a slight bit of confusion that isn’t part of either the macOS or Windows experience. I’ll explain.

How to install the Taskade app

On both macOS and Windows, Taskade can be found in their respective app stores. On Linux, Taskade is available as either an AppImage or a Snap Package. I’m going to show you how to install via Snap, because using the AppImage can be problematic when wanting to create a panel launcher for the app.

Here are the instructions for installing Taskade with Snap:

  1. Log in to your Linux desktop.
  2. Open a terminal window.
  3. Issue the command sudo snap install taskade.
  4. Allow the installation to complete.
  5. Close the terminal window using the exit command.

You should now be able to open Taskade from the desktop menu and sign in with your account. With the app open, you can also add it to your desktop favorites or whatever panel your operating system uses.

How to add a task from the system tray

When you open Taskade, you’ll see a small icon in your system tray or top bar. If you click that icon, a drop-down will appear where you can add your project (Figure A).

Figure A

The Taskade drop-down is in action.

Now, if you are using Linux as your desktop operating system when you click the Taskade icon, you’ll be greeted with a pop-up that only contains the version number installed (Figure B).

Figure B

Taskade running on Pop!_OS 22.04.

If you click the version number, the Taskade pop-up will appear on the opposite side of the desktop, where you can add the details for the task to be added to your project. Interestingly enough, on Linux, if you close the app, the icon remains in the system tray, and you can add a task here even if the app isn’t running. On macOS, this is not the case. I have not tested the app on Windows, so I cannot confirm if the same behavior holds true there.

Conclusion

That’s all there is to quickly adding a task to a project in Taskade. If you need a reason to adopt the desktop app for this service, now you have it. Work smarter, not harder.

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