How to have the Agent check in on late tasks

Check in on late tasks has the Agent ask each person about their late tasks each working morning. In a workspace with the Agent Inbox on, each late task arrives as its own card in the person's Inbox, settled with one press. Otherwise the Agent asks in a direct message and changes the task from the reply.

You switch it on from the Agent card on Brain › Automations. See What is the Agent? for the Agent itself.

It replaces the hourly overdue reminder with a question a person can answer in one line. When nobody answers, it tells whoever leads the task instead of asking forever.

Before you start

You need Manage automations on Settings › Permissions to switch it on. Admins hold it by default.

You also need See what the Brain has noticed. Without it, the page shows "Brain access is needed to manage the chat agent." in place of the card.

The Agent must be added and its pill must read On, with When it answers set to When named, per How to add the Agent to chat. Its background check must be on too.

The Automations and Brain modules must both be on, on Settings › Modules, per How to switch parts of Tideswell on and off.

How do you switch it on?

Open Brain › Automations and turn on the Check in on late tasks switch on the Agent card. It starts off in every workspace.

Its hint reads "Each weekday morning it asks the person a late task belongs to whether it's done. It asks once more two working days later, then tells whoever leads the task."

A second line reads "While this is on, it replaces the hourly overdue reminder for tasks up to two weeks late. Tasks later than that keep their usual reminders."

If the switch is on but check-ins cannot run yet, a line under it says why, starting "Waiting:". The reasons it gives are:

• "the agent is switched off"
• "the agent is set to answer nobody"
• "the agent's background work is switched off"
• "the Automations module is off"
• "the Brain module is off"
• "its settings could not be read"

Fix the one it names and the line goes away.

Where does the question arrive?

In the Inbox view of the Agent panel, where your workspace has the Agent Inbox switched on. The Inbox is covered in How to work through your Agent Inbox. Where it is off, the question comes as a direct message from Agent in Chat, and nothing else changes.

Tideswell switches the Agent Inbox on for a workspace. If you are not sure which your workspace uses, wait for the first morning's check-in and see where it lands.

Which tasks does it ask about?

Tasks that have someone assigned, are not finished, and whose due date passed within the last 14 days. The first ask comes on the first working day after the due date. Working days are Monday to Friday.

Asks go out between 9am and noon in the assignee's own time zone, per How to set your time zone. Switch it on in the evening and the first asks go out the next working morning.

In the Inbox, each late task is its own card. By direct message, each person gets at most one message per morning, listing up to 8 tasks. More than that ends with "and 3 more on your task list." and those are asked about on a later morning.

What does an Inbox card say?

Each card carries the task's name and the task as a chip you can point at for its status, assignee and due date. Under the name, a first ask reads:

"Was due Fri 16 Oct. Is it done? Mark it done or pick a new date."

Two buttons settle it:

• Done finishes the task.
• Pick a new date opens a calendar and moves the task's due date to the day you pick.

Each one is the ordinary task change, made as you with your own permissions. If the task is waiting on other open tasks, the card says "This task is waiting on other open tasks." and offers Mark it done anyway.

The second ask brings the same card back to unread, reading "Still open, due Fri 16 Oct. Is it done? If I don't hear back, I'll let whoever runs it know instead of asking again." Changing the task anywhere else in Tideswell clears the card too.

What does the direct message say?

It comes from Agent, in a direct message with that person. For one task, the first ask reads:

"“Send the lab dip approval to Portside Mills” was due Fri 16 Oct. Is it done? You can answer “done”, or “not yet” with a new day, like “not yet, Friday”."

For several tasks, it starts "2 of your tasks are past due:" and numbers each task with its due day. It ends "Are they done? You can answer by number, like “1 done, 2 Friday”."

The second ask reads "Checking again on “Send the lab dip approval to Portside Mills” (due Fri 16 Oct). Is it done? If I don't hear back, I'll let whoever runs it know instead of asking again."

How do you answer a direct message?

Reply in the same direct message, in plain words. "done" marks the task finished, and "not yet, Friday" moves it to Friday. For a numbered list, answer by number, such as "1 done, 2 Friday".

A reply that names @Agent is read as a question for it, not as an answer.

A reply such as "ok" or "thanks" is not an answer either. It gets "I couldn't match that to a task. Answer by number, like “1 done”."

The Agent reads replies within about five minutes, at any hour.

What does it do with your answer?

It changes the task as you, with your own permissions, and replies with what it did. For example, "Marked “Send the lab dip approval to Portside Mills” done." or "Moved “Send the lab dip approval to Portside Mills” to Fri 23 Oct."

The change needs the same Edit tasks permission you would need to make it yourself. Without it, the reply reads "You don't have permission to change that task, so I left it as it is."

If it cannot tell whether a task is done, it leaves the task as it is and tells whoever leads it. "Not yet" with no new day waits for the second ask, and after the second ask it tells whoever leads the task.

How do you undo a change?

On an Inbox card, change the task back on the task itself.

By direct message, reply "undo" within 2 days. It puts back the last change it made from your replies. On a numbered list, "undo 2" puts back the second task.

Every reply that changes a task ends "Reply “undo” in the next 2 days to put the last change back, or change it on the task." After 2 days, change the task by hand.

What happens if nobody answers?

It asks once more two working days after the first ask, and never more than twice about one late task. Two working days after the second ask, it stops asking and tells whoever leads the task.

That is the project's lead, or else the department's leads, or else whoever created the task. In the Inbox, the lead gets a card per task titled with the person's name and the task. By direct message, the lead gets a message that starts "A late task needs you:" with the reason, such as "I asked twice and heard nothing, so I've stopped asking." and a link to the task.

So if Priya Raman's task was due Fri 16 Oct, she is asked Mon 19 Oct and again Wed 21 Oct. Her project's lead hears on Fri 23 Oct. A lead's message never quotes Priya's reply.

What happens to task reminders?

Pushes that read Due soon: carry on as before. The hourly push that reads Overdue: stops for tasks up to two weeks late, because the check-in asks about those instead. Tasks more than two weeks late keep their usual reminders.

See How to control task, stock and order alerts for those reminders.

Can you answer on your phone?

A direct message, yes: it is an ordinary message, so you can reply to it in Chat on the Tideswell iPhone app, per How to use chat and tasks on your phone. Inbox cards are on the web, in the Agent panel, including in a phone browser.