Complete and cancel

Completing and canceling both close a to-do, but they record different things, and the difference shows a year later.

Why you'd care#

Most apps have one. Checking something off and deciding not to do it get recorded identically, so your history says you did work you never did. Twos keeps them apart on purpose.

The two#

Both toggle. Pressing the same shortcut again undoes the mark.

On a phone, swiping a thing right completes it by default. See swipe actions.

Going further#

Completion is a date, not a flag. A to-do you finish three weeks after writing it records the day you finished, not the day you wrote it. That is what makes scrolling back through days an honest record rather than a plan.

Cancel is worth using. Deleting a to-do you abandoned erases the decision. Canceling keeps it, and reading back "decided not to" is genuinely useful later.

Only to-dos care. Completing a note does nothing meaningful, because notes never carried over in the first place. See carry-over.

Settings that change this#

• Settings → Lists & things → Show completed things inline keeps completed things in place or collapses them into their own section.
• Settings → Lists & things → Completed things at top puts finished things above rather than below.
• Settings → Appearance & accessibility → Circle checkboxes switches between round and square checkboxes.

Tips#

• Check things off even when nobody is watching. The record is the payoff, not the satisfaction.
• If a to-do has carried for two weeks, cancel it rather than deleting it. You will be glad of the trail.

Related#

• How unfinished to-dos roll forward
• Thing types
• Star, the separate mark for things worth finding again