The Five Kinds of Things
Tasks, reminders, events, habits, and notes. Where each lives, how each behaves, and when to use which.
Everything on your daily page is one of five kinds of things. They look similar side by side, but they live in different places. Where a thing lives determines how it syncs, how it alerts you, and who else can see it. This is the one concept worth learning early; most "why did it do that?" questions trace back to it.
Simple tasks: your default
Lives in: Finalist, synced between your devices via iCloud.
Your basic to-dos. They're the fastest to create, can carry a time, a duration, notes, color-coded tags, and can send a notification when due. Tap and hold one to turn it into a Heading that organizes the tasks beneath it.
Use for: most things. When in doubt, make it a simple task.
Reminders: when the alert really matters
Lives in: Apple's Reminders app and Finalist, at the same time.
Because reminders belong to your Apple account, they alert on every Apple device you own, including your Watch and devices without Finalist. They also support shared lists, so the grocery list you share with family works in Finalist too.
Use for: things that must not be missed, and anything on a list you share with someone.
Events: the shape of your day
Lives in: your Calendar app.
Appointments with a start and end: meetings, dinners, flights. They structure the day that your tasks fit around. Manage them from Finalist or from Calendar; it's the same thing. Which calendars appear is up to you, in the Calendars configurator.
Use for: commitments involving other people, places, or fixed times.
Habits: the repeating thread
Lives in: Finalist only.
Daily practices you're building, like "Meditate," "Exercise," or "Read." They come back on their own schedule, track streaks, and paint a year-long heatmap. They're deliberately separate from tasks so your list isn't cluttered with the same items every day. See Habits.
Use for: things you do repeatedly where consistency is the point, not completion.
Notes: what you keep, not what you do
Lives in: Finalist, in notebooks. (Requires iOS 18 or later.)
Notes hold reference material: meeting notes, ideas, plans, anything written in markdown. A note can contain its own sub-tasks with checkboxes, so a project note and its action items stay together.
Use for: information you'll come back to. If it's a single action, it's a task; if it's knowledge, it's a note.
The quick rule of thumb
Ask two questions. Does it need to alert me anywhere? Make it a reminder. Does it repeat for consistency? Make it a habit. Does it involve other people at a fixed time? It's an event. Is it information rather than action? It's a note. Everything else, which is most things, is a simple task.
Related: Adding Tasks · Calendar & Reminders · Habits