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Pinwork Guide

Natural language

Write the task the way it comes to mind. Pinwork can recognize useful details in the text, apply them to the task, and keep the final title clean.

For example:

Review pitch deck Friday at 2pm #startup

Pinwork can turn that into a task called Review pitch deck, scheduled for Friday at 2:00 PM, with the startup tag.

Type one sentence. Pinwork keeps the clean title, schedules it for Friday at 2:00 PM, and applies the startup tag.

Where natural language works

Section titled “Where natural language works”

Natural language is parsed in:

  • in-app Quick Add
  • the iPhone scheduling sheet
  • Apple Pencil and Scribble capture
  • Mac menu bar Quick Add
  • Siri Quick Add
  • Shortcuts Quick Add
  • Action Button Quick Add
  • pinwork://quickadd
  • AppleScript quick add
  • supported task title edit paths
  • Apple Watch capture, with Watch-specific field limits

Natural language is not parsed in:

  • Share Extension

The Share Extension keeps shared title and note text as supplied. Siri, Shortcuts, and Action Button Quick Add queue the sentence and the main app parses it later using the date, calendar, and time zone captured when the shortcut ran.

Dates and times

Section titled “Dates and times”

Pinwork can recognize common date and time phrases, including:

  • today
  • tomorrow
  • Monday
  • next Friday
  • at 2pm
  • time ranges such as 5pm to 6pm

When Pinwork recognizes a normal date or time phrase, it sets the task’s When date.

Deadlines

Section titled “Deadlines”

Put a Deadline marker immediately before a supported date phrase:

  • by
  • due
  • due by
  • due on
  • deadline
  • deadline on

This lets one sentence contain both the time you plan to work and the time the task is actually due:

Prepare slides tomorrow at 10am by next Monday at 5pm

Pinwork creates Prepare slides, sets When to tomorrow at 10:00 AM, and sets Deadline to next Monday at 5:00 PM.

The marker must be followed immediately by a date Pinwork understands. Ordinary phrases such as Send it by email, Stop by the pharmacy, and Written by John stay in the title. Pinwork does not guess from a later date elsewhere in the sentence.

If a recognized Deadline clause contains an invalid or ambiguous date or time, Pinwork shows an error and does not save a partial interpretation.

Tags

Section titled “Tags”

Use # to add tags.

Buy paint tomorrow #home #errands

Pinwork removes the tag tokens from the final title and applies the tags to the task.

Projects

Section titled “Projects”

Use > to assign a task to a project.

Outline launch plan >Marketing

For project names with spaces, use quotes.

Review contract >"Client Work"

If Pinwork cannot find a matching project, it keeps the project text in the task title instead of guessing.

Estimates and durations

Section titled “Estimates and durations”

Use short duration phrases when you want to estimate how long a task will take.

Examples:

  • ~30min
  • 2h
  • 1 hour

Pinwork can apply the estimate and remove the estimate text from the final title.

Recurrence

Section titled “Recurrence”

Pinwork can recognize recurring phrases such as:

  • daily
  • every day
  • everyday, when used as a complete scheduling phrase
  • weekly
  • monthly
  • yearly
  • every weekday
  • every 2 weeks
  • every 3 days
  • weekday-specific repeats

Recurrence needs a When date. If you want to fine-tune the recurrence rule, open the task and use the Recurrence control.

Pinwork treats everyday as recurrence only when the rest of the phrase is clearly scheduling information. For example, Feed the dog everyday at 7pm 15min creates a daily task, while Buy everyday shoes stays ordinary title text.

Calendar commands

Section titled “Calendar commands”

In supported parsed capture paths, you can include a calendar command.

Supported calendar phrases include:

  • add to calendar
  • add to cal
  • schedule on calendar
  • schedule in calendar
  • calendar it
  • calendar this
calendar it team lunch tomorrow

When calendar linking is available and permission is granted, Pinwork can create a linked Apple Calendar event from the task.

See Calendar for permissions, linked-event behavior, editing, and removing calendar links.

Examples

Section titled “Examples”

Schedule a task

Call mom tomorrow at 2pm

Pinwork creates Call mom, scheduled tomorrow at 2:00 PM.

Add tags

Review PR #code #urgent

Pinwork creates Review PR, tagged code and urgent.

Repeat a task

Team standup every weekday at 9am

Pinwork creates a weekday recurring task at 9:00 AM.

Set When and Deadline together

Prepare slides tomorrow at 10am by next Monday at 5pm

Pinwork schedules Prepare slides for tomorrow at 10:00 AM and gives it a Deadline of next Monday at 5:00 PM.

Use everyday as recurrence

Feed the dog everyday at 7pm 15min

Pinwork creates Feed the dog as a daily task at 7:00 PM with a 15-minute estimate.

Assign a project

Submit report >Marketing

Pinwork creates Submit report in the Marketing project.

Add an estimate

Plan sprint Monday ~1h

Pinwork creates Plan sprint, scheduled Monday with a one-hour estimate.

Create a Calendar event

Add to calendar dentist tomorrow at 5pm

Pinwork creates dentist, scheduled tomorrow at 5:00 PM, and can create a linked Apple Calendar event when Calendar access is available.

Use the shorter Calendar command

Add to cal pay rent tomorrow

Pinwork creates pay rent, scheduled tomorrow, and can create a linked Apple Calendar event when Calendar access is available.

Editing and scheduling existing tasks

Section titled “Editing and scheduling existing tasks”

Natural language can also run when you rename an existing task in supported edit paths.

To avoid accidental changes, Pinwork protects fields you already set:

  • It can add tags.
  • It can set a When date if the task does not already have one.
  • It does not overwrite an existing When date, Deadline, or estimate during a normal rename.
  • It applies recurrence only if the task is not already recurring.
  • If a project token cannot be resolved, the project token stays in the title.

To intentionally change a date, deadline, estimate, recurrence, project, or tags, use the task’s detail controls.

On iPhone, the scheduling sheet also includes a natural-language field for changing a task’s When date. That scheduling field is intentional schedule input, so phrases such as Friday 2pm can move an existing task.

Apple Watch limits

Section titled “Apple Watch limits”

Apple Watch capture uses natural language, but it applies a smaller set of fields.

Apple Watch capture applies:

  • title
  • When date
  • Deadline if supplied by the parser
  • tags

It does not apply parsed project, recurrence, estimate, or calendar command metadata.

If the parser removes too much

Section titled “If the parser removes too much”

If everything you typed is recognized as metadata, Pinwork keeps your original input as the title. That way you do not end up with an empty task.

Section titled “Related”
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