Turning a List Item into a Task: Quick or Job Task

In brief: Open a My Lists item's menu, choose Create Task, and its name and description carry across into either a Quick Task or a Job Task.

Applies to: Everyone in the workspace, from their own My Lists. Promotion happens one item at a time.

See also: My Lists: The Private Capture Space Only You Can See covers where these items start, and Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use covers which shape the work should take.

Turning a list item into a task takes one menu click and no retyping. Any item in My Lists can become real work: open the item's ⋮ menu and choose Create Task..., and the Create Task drawer opens with the name and description already carried across. You decide whether it becomes a Quick Task or a Job Task, and by default the original list item is removed once the task exists.

You'll find it under Me → My Lists, in the ⋮ menu on any item.

Capture, then commit

My Lists and your task list do different jobs on purpose.

An item in My Lists costs nothing. It doesn't count toward Performance, doesn't consume capacity, and doesn't appear in any report. It can sit there for a month and nobody is worse off.

A task is a commitment. It has an owner, an effort estimate, and a place in the plan, and it starts showing up in the numbers.

Promoting an item is the moment you cross that line deliberately, rather than waking up with a to-do list you never agreed to.

How to turn a list item into a task

Find the item in My Lists and open its ⋮ menu.
Choose Create Task...
The Create Task drawer opens with the item's name in Title and its description in Description.
Choose Quick Task or Job Task at the top. Quick Task is selected by default.
Fill in the planning details: Service Type, LOE (hours), Due date, and status. New tasks start In Progress.
Set ownership: who it's assigned to, and whether it's Client or Internal work.
On the Job Task path, choose the Job and the Deliverable. Both are required.
Leave Delete list item after creating task on, or turn it off to keep the note.
Create the task.

Nothing is lost in the handoff. The name and description come with it, and everything else is a decision you're making now that you couldn't have made when you first scribbled it down.

Quick Task or Job Task

Quick Task is a standalone commitment. It's real work with a real owner, but it isn't attached to a Job. Internal jobs, admin, one-off favors, the thing a client asked for in passing that isn't in scope yet. Creating Quick Tasks: Fields, Statuses, and Filters covers how they behave afterward.

Job Task ties the work to a Job and one of its Deliverables. That connection is what makes the effort count: time logged against a Job Task rolls up into the Deliverable, and the Deliverable into the Job's performance. Job Tasks: Assignees, Allocations, and Statuses picks up from there.

If the work belongs to something a client is paying for, make it a Job Task. That's the only path where the effort lands where it can be seen against the plan.

Picking the Job and Deliverable

The Job Task path asks for both, and won't let you create the task without them. That's not a form being fussy. A Job Task without a Deliverable has nowhere to roll up to, and effort that has nowhere to roll up to is effort nobody sees until the Job is already over.

The "delete the original" checkbox

Delete list item after creating task is on by default.

Most of the time that's what you want. Once the real task exists, the note in My Lists is a duplicate, and two copies of the same intent in two places is how things get done twice or not at all.

Turn it off when the item is a broader idea and the task is only part of it. The note stays in My Lists, and the new task goes about its business independently. The two aren't linked after creation, so later edits to one don't touch the other.

Removing the list item is permanent. The task keeps the name and description, so nothing is lost, but the original note itself doesn't go to the archive.

After it's created

The new task behaves like any other task in Net Net:

It appears in My Tasks for whoever it's assigned to.
It can accept time immediately, since new tasks start In Progress. Which Tasks Can Accept Time (and Which Cannot) covers the states where that stops being true.
Job Tasks have chat attached, so the conversation stays with the work. Quick Tasks don't.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I turn a list item into a task?

Open the item's ⋮ menu in My Lists and choose Create Task... The Create Task drawer opens with the item's name as the title and its description already filled in.

Does my description carry over?

Yes. The item's name becomes the task title and its description becomes the task description. You don't have to retype anything, and the description is editable in the drawer before you create the task.

What's the difference between a Quick Task and a Job Task here?

A Quick Task is standalone work with no Job attached. A Job Task is tied to a specific Job and Deliverable, so the time you log rolls up into that Job's performance. If a client is paying for the work, choose Job Task.

Why won't it let me create my Job Task?

A Job Task requires both a Job and a Deliverable. If either is empty the drawer will flag it. Without a Deliverable there's nowhere for the effort to roll up to, so the connection is required rather than optional.

Will my list item disappear?

By default, yes. "Delete list item after creating task" is turned on when you promote an item. Uncheck it before creating the task if you want to keep the original note in My Lists.

Can I turn several list items into tasks at once?

No. Promotion happens one item at a time, through that item's ⋮ menu. Each task needs its own planning details, so they're created individually.

Does the task stay connected to the list item?

No. Once the task is created the two are independent. Editing the task later doesn't change the list item, and editing a kept list item doesn't change the task.

Everything here starts in My Lists: The Private Capture Space Only You Can See, which covers capture, folders, and why the space is completely private. If you're still deciding what shape the work should take, Quick Tasks vs Job Tasks vs My Lists: Which to Use compares all three side by side. Once the task exists it lives in My Tasks: Every Task Assigned to You, in One List, and for the Job Task path specifically, Job Tasks: Assignees, Allocations, and Statuses covers how status, effort, and chat behave from that point on.

Updated on: 08/04/2026

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