A task list that maintains itself
Every task list drifts. Labels go stale, finished items pile up, and yesterday's unfinished tasks quietly slide off the bottom of the screen. Keeping a list tidy is real work, and it's the kind of work you skip on exactly the days you most need the list to hold together. Beck's automation engine is built to do that upkeep for you, so the list you open in the morning is already in order. Automation is part of Beck Pro.
How a rule is built
Every rule has three parts: a trigger (when something happens), optional conditions (only if certain things are true), and one or more actions (what Beck does in response). Read one aloud and it sounds like plain English: "When a task is added to Work and it has no due date, add the label #followup." Small pieces, combined, cover a surprising amount of daily routine.
What actions can do
Actions are where the upkeep happens. Beck can auto-tag tasks so they land in the right context, reschedule them, roll unfinished tasks forward to today so nothing silently disappears, and archive completed ones so your active list stays lean. Because rules run as things change — not on a schedule you have to remember — the organizing happens continuously instead of in a weekly cleanup you keep meaning to do.
Start from a recipe
You don't have to design rules from a blank screen. Beck ships with ready-made recipes — common automations you can switch on and adjust. Turn one on, tweak the trigger or swap a label, and you have a working rule in under a minute. It's also the fastest way to learn what the engine can do: start from something that already works and change one piece at a time.
A few rules worth stealing
- Roll over: move any unfinished task from yesterday onto today automatically, so nothing gets stranded in the past.
- Auto-tag by list: anything added to a given project picks up its context label without you typing it.
- Tidy up: archive completed tasks on a short delay — out of sight, but not gone.
- Catch the untriaged: flag tasks that arrive with no due date or priority so they don't slip through unnoticed.
Why automate instead of doing it by hand
The value isn't the few seconds saved on any single action. It's that the system stays consistent even on the days you don't have the energy to keep it tidy. A list that maintains itself is a list you keep trusting — and a list you trust is one you actually use, instead of one you abandon after a rough week.