Date usage rules

The Data Collection Engine follows special processing rules when collecting data based on date criteria. It uses keywords that specify a date period, including: Today, This week, Next week, User-defined period, etc.

However, there is no general agreement on what the dates on the topic should mean.

To ensure that the result match your expectations, you need to know the Data collection Engine's rules to process dates.

There are five possible date scenarios for a topic.

Both dates are present - Start date and Due date
There are no dates set, but topic represents Task (a Task is a topic with any Progress icon)
Only the Start Date presents
Only the Due Date presents
The user has set the topic as a Roll-up function.

Both dates present: Start date and Due date

The Data Collection Engine assumes that this is an active task daily from the Start date. This task should be completed (reaching Progress 100%) on the Due Date. If not, the data collection engine will consider tasks Overdue.

In MindManager (and in some Add-Ins that act with dates), tasks that you expect to match some period should either have a Start date or a Due date inside this period. A search misses some tasks that should logically match the period. Say you have task that starts on October 4 and ends on October 12. This task is active daily from October 4, and if we initiate a search on October 8, we expect to find all the active tasks for October 8. Our search should work, but MindManager cannot find tasks containing the start date or due date that a user has set to October 8.

Using MultiMaps we can find all the tasks, because it works with dates more clearly.

Keywords that define the data range (Today, This week, Next Month, etc.) will match tasks within a given range. If we are filtering tasks using This month and we are in October, then we may encounter 4 cases:

1) A Task's Date period is inside the keyword range (e.g., its Start date is October 7 and Due date is October 23). This task will match This month and the cascading search This month - Start and This month - End.

2) A Task's Date period is wider than the filter range (e.g., the start date is September 25, and the Due date is November 7), then this task will still match a search using the This month, but won't match the cascading search This month - Start and This month - End.

3) A task has only the Start date set and is within the filter range (e.g., Start date is October 7 and Due date is November 10), then this task will still match This month and will match the cascading search This month - Start.

4) A task has only the Due date set and is within the filter range (e.g., Start date is September 25 and Due date is October 23), then this task will still match This month and will also match the cascading search This month - End.

Tasks without dates

Many tasks do not have any dates set. The topic has a Progress icon but has no dates. Such topics are tasks that can be performed at any reasonable time, starting from today. There's no Due date on this topic, so this task will never be overdue.

These topics can be collected using the No Date or Possible keywords.

In the GTD system, such tasks are called As Soon As Possible, so they are tasks not bound to exact ranges. A user should complete these tasks when they are able.

You may have many such tasks, and you gather them into To-Do lists.

Often you will want to focus on these tasks by setting an action time, setting either a Start date, or Due date.

For example, in February I decided I decided to buy a bicycle this summer. I create a task "Read about bicycles and buy a suitable one". If I set a Progress icon to this task, it will be collected from today and will clutter my current tasks as I do not plan to take action any earlier than April. I don't want to see it before April.

Another example, I need to pay a tax fine that I must pay before August 25. Today is August 10 and I need to pay it at the Tax Office. I don’t have the time to do it today, and I don't know whether I will be able to do it tomorrow. I put it in my to-do list and set the due date to August 25 and I with see it in my collection maps every day until August 25 inclusively.

In these cases, tasks are gathered either by the Start date (buying a bicycle) or by the Due date (paying the penalty).

A Topic has only Start date set

MultiMaps treats this topic as a Task that may start from its Start date. It doesn’t have a Due date, so it never becomes Overdue. MultiMaps collects this topic in two cases:

1. It will match keywords that define date range (Today, This week, Next month, etc.), if the Start date is earlier than the end date of the range.

Example: the user only sets the Start date to October 6. On October 6 you collect tasks active for this week (October 4-10), using the This week keyword. Since the Start date is earlier than October 10, the task will match and will appear in collection map.

If the task's Start date was October 11, it would not appear on the collection map.

2. It will match Possible keyword if its Start date is earlier than the beginning of the range defined in the previous cascade keyword (for example, you have the cascade This week - Possible in your template).

Example: the user only sets the Start date to October 6. On October 14 you collect tasks active for this week (October 14-20). Since this task is set to start earlier and has no Due date, you may do it this week (the due date is in the future). This task will match either This week or This week - Possible.

A Topic has only Due date set

A user can complete this task on any day after today, but it is necessary to complete it on its Due date. If the task's progress is not 100% on the day after its Due date, this task becomes Overdue.

MultiMaps will collect the task in two cases:

1. It will match keywords that define date range (Today, This week, Next month) if its Due date is later that the beginning of the range.

Example: you only set the topic's Due date to October 6. On October 4 you collect tasks for this week (October 4-10), using This week keyword. This task will match, because its Due date, October 6, is later than October 4 (the beginning of the period).

2. It will match the Possible keyword if its Due date is later than the end of the period defined in previous cascade keyword (for example, you have cascade This week - Possible).

Example: you only set the topic's Due date to October 22. In October 14 you collect tasks for this week (October 14-20). Since this task has a Due date later than the end of the period and does not have a Start date, it is possible that it may be done during this week (the Start date assumed to be in the past). It matches This week as well as the cascade This week - Possible.

Calculated dates on the topic (Roll-up function)

A user sets a topic as a MindManager Roll-up Task Info function using the Task Info pane or the Task tab on the Ribbon.

Multimaps does not consider this topic a task, so the Data Collection Engine does not view the summary dates or the Progress calculated on it. MindManager automatically calculates the dates and the progress from tasks linked below the roll-up topic. When a user sets the topic/task as a roll-up, the data engine ignores it and will not collect it even though it does have Dates and Progress information.