Duration Estimates

Add a duration estimate to a task

Christina avatar
Written by Christina
Updated over a week ago

A duration estimate (also called time estimate, task length estimate) is a property you can add to a task that describes how long you think it will take you to complete a task.

Duration Estimates strategy in ☰ → Strategies

How to add a duration estimate to a task

The only way to add a time estimate to a tasks is via a task input shortcut. 

Use the shortcut ~ or ca. followed by the time estimate (e.g. 5m, 20m, 1h etc.) either during tasks creation or afterwards while editing the task title. 

To edit a task title, click on the title to highlight the entire text and then click again or use the arrow keys to position the cursor.

For Marvin to recognize the time estimate make sure there is a space before and after the estimate.

Adding a duraion estimate to a task using ~ shortcut

How to see your estimation totals

At the top of your daily list you will see the total for your tasks estimations. 

Showing duration estimate for the whole list

If not every task in that day has a time estimate there will be a plus at the end of the total to tell you that the actual total is even higher than what is displayed. 

Using sections

If you are using sections to organize the tasks in your day, you will get a separate estimation total for each section and the overall total at the very top.

Duration estimates with Break the day down sections

Clicking on the duration estimate

In the strategy settings you can choose what happens when you click on the duration estimate:

Duration Estimates strategy settings

By default, this is set to "Add timer" which starts a timer. If you change it to "Edit time estimate", you'll get a dialog that lets you quickly change the duration estimate to another one:

Using the Set time estimate to change the duration estimate
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