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Sift tracks your tasks, assignments, and todos—with due dates, priorities, and smart scheduling to help you stay on top of everything.

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What You Can Ask

"Create a task to finish my essay by Friday"
"Add a todo to buy groceries"
"What tasks do I have this week?"
"Mark my homework as done"
"Delete the gym task"
"Break down my research paper" (Premium)

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Task Types

Assignments

Academic work with due dates—essays, problem sets, projects. Imported automatically from Canvas if connected.

Exams

Tests and quizzes. Sift treats these differently when scheduling study time.

Todos

Simple one-off items without complex scheduling needs.

Projects

Larger work that spans multiple sessions.

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Creating Tasks

Be specific for best results:
  • Include the due date: “due Friday” or “due December 15”
  • Estimate time needed: “about 3 hours” or “a quick 15 minute task”
  • Set priority if important: “high priority” or “this is urgent”
"Create a task for my chemistry lab report due Thursday, should take about 2 hours"
"Add a high priority todo to email my advisor by end of day"
"I have an exam next Thursday for calculus"

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Managing Tasks

ActionWhat to say
List tasks”Show my tasks” or “What’s due this week?”
Complete”Mark my essay as done”
Update”Update my essay—it’s now due Monday”
Delete”Delete the groceries task”

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Task Decomposition (Premium)

For big assignments, Sift can break them into manageable pieces with phases and milestones.
“Help me plan my 10-page research paper due in 2 weeks”
Sift creates:
  • Phase 1: Research & outline (days 1-3)
  • Phase 2: First draft (days 4-7)
  • Phase 3: Revisions (days 8-10)
  • Phase 4: Final polish (days 11-14)
Each phase becomes schedulable work blocks.

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Workspaces

Tasks can belong to workspaces (courses, projects, or categories). Canvas courses automatically create workspaces.
  • Free: 10 workspaces
  • Premium: Unlimited + custom instructions per workspace

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Free vs Premium

FeatureFreePremium
Create/update/delete tasksUnlimitedUnlimited
Task decompositionNoFull

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Tips

  • Let Canvas sync handle assignments — Don’t duplicate manually
  • Use todos for quick items, tasks for substantial work
  • Add time estimates to help Sift schedule accurately
  • Review decomposed tasks and adjust phases as needed