Reminders
Reminders make sure work doesn’t slip. Add one or more reminders to a task list and the people you choose get notified at the right time — a set amount of time before or after it starts or is due (down to the hour), or at a custom date and time you pick. Each reminder can go to everyone on the list or to specific people, and can carry a short note (“Bring the tall ladder”).
Reminders are set on the list, by whoever manages it — not per person. When one fires, its recipients get an in-app notification (the bell) and a push notification on mobile, both of which open the list.
Reminders are available on every plan. An account owner can turn the feature off entirely (see Feature Flags and Account Settings).
Permissions
| Action | User / Team User | Admin / Team Admin | Root |
|---|---|---|---|
| See a list’s reminders | ✓ (lists they can view) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Add / edit / remove a reminder | ✓ (lists they can edit) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Receive a reminder | ✓ (if a recipient) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Turn Reminders on/off for the account | — | — | ✓ |
Seeing a list’s reminders follows the same rule as seeing the list itself — anyone who can open the list (its creator, an assignee, a team member, or an admin) sees its reminder countdown. Setting them is stricter: it follows the “who can manage this list” rule shared with recurrence and assignments — the list creator, an admin, or a team admin on the list’s team. Being merely assigned to a list lets you see its reminders and receive them, but not add, edit, or remove them.
How it works
On the list
A task list’s reminders show in the side rail, in the timing group next to the start and due dates, as a small countdown — the reminders that will fire, ordered soonest-first, ending at the due date. The next one to fire is highlighted, and any that have already been sent are dimmed and marked Sent. Tap the + or Manage reminders to open the manage modal.
Adding a reminder
From the rail, tap + (or Manage reminders, or Add a reminder when there are none). The modal shows the list’s current reminders and a form to add another:
The When field has three modes:
- Preset — one tap for the common choices (each shows the exact date it resolves to): Hour / Day / Week before due, Hour / Day before start, and At start. A “before due” preset is only offered when the list has a due date; a “before/at start” preset only when it has a start date.
- Offset — build any timing as [number] [hours / days / weeks] [before / after] [start / due] (for example, 2 hours before due or 1 day after start). A live preview shows the exact date and time it will fire.
- Exact — pick any date and time.
Then choose:
- Who — Everyone on the list (all assignees, resolved when the reminder fires, plus the list’s creator) or Specific people (choose from the list’s members).
- Note (optional) — a short message shown in the notification.
Tap Add reminder. It’s saved immediately and appears in the list above. Remove one with its trash icon.
When reminders fire
- Preset and Offset (relative) reminders fire at the exact time of the list’s start or due, shifted by the amount you chose — so “2 hours before due” on a list due at 5:00 PM fires at 3:00 PM, and “1 day before” fires at the same time of day, one day earlier. They follow the start/due time directly; there’s no fixed hour of the day.
- Exact reminders fire at the precise date and time you chose.
- A reminder fires once, then is marked Sent in the list (a dimmed row with a check). If the list is completed or archived before it fires, it’s skipped (and also marked Sent).
- Adding or removing a reminder is recorded in the Activity Log, so managers can see who changed a list’s reminders.
Recurring lists
If you add a relative reminder (before/after start or due) to a recurring list, every generated instance gets its own copy, re-timed to that instance’s dates — so a daily or weekly list can remind its crew before each occurrence. Exact (fixed-date) reminders are not copied to instances, since a single date shouldn’t repeat.
One limit: a recurring instance is created at its start time, so a “before start” reminder can’t fire ahead on a recurring list. Those options are disabled with an inline note — use before due or after start instead (a “before due” reminder still fires ahead of each occurrence’s due date).
The dashboard widget
Everyone sees an Upcoming reminders panel on their dashboard, showing the reminders they’ll receive in the next 7 days (grouped Today / this week). A reminder aimed only at other people won’t appear on your dashboard.
Support notes
- A reminder didn’t arrive. Check: the account has Reminders on (Account Settings); the list is still active (not completed/archived); the person is a recipient (an assignee for an “everyone” reminder, or explicitly chosen); and, for push, that they’ve allowed notifications on their device.
- It fired at the wrong time. Relative reminders follow the list’s start/due time exactly, shifted by the offset — so check the list’s start/due time first. Those times use the account timezone; if it’s set wrong (or left at UTC), the fire time is off by that difference. Fix the timezone in Account Settings; pending reminders re-time automatically.
- Editing a list’s start/due date automatically re-times its pending relative reminders. Already fired reminders are left as-is.
- Reminders are delivered as regular notifications, so they also respect the member’s notification settings and appear in the bell.