topic Thunderbird task management improvements in Discussions

Thunderbird task management improvements

Rekursivs — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 21:56:25 GMT

Task management is an important productivity tool.
In Thunderbird, it is not fully effective, and here are the first few improvements that are quite obvious once I first tried to use Tasks in Thunderbird.

Task priorities must be available for setting with a keyboard shortcut. Right-clicking and navigating through cascading popup menus is contrary to fast task-oriented work approach. Therefore single key tagging (just as star marking and numeric keys work on emails) is highly important for tasks!
Task categories not available for setting with keyboard shortcut. The same as priorities, but more extended, as there might be many categories. Should be a very fast and effective way for selecting a category. An idea would be:
1. firstly invoke a dropdown combo menu with a keyboard shortcut
2. then start typing the category in a dropdown, which automatically filters the necessary one
3. then press enter, and the category is set. DONE
Task categories list not editable. Sorry if I'm wrong, but I could not find a way to delete the whole bunch of default task categories. Adding my own category in such a long list, where the current list is already complex and the selection process is already tedious - that doesn't justify the effort. Therefore the default list may be as an example, but it must be editable and fully customizable by the user.
Task priority and category setting with a single mouse click. Clicking in a task list, on the proper cell where the category information is displayed, should invoke a dropdown for fast category selection. Same applies to priority setting, but as the priority column is very narrow, it might take more steps to plan how it will work. Clicking on such a narrow column might be not an easy task.
Task ordering. There should be a way to select the order of tasks. Priorities are good, but what about the particular order? If I have multiple tasks, I still want to work on this one first, and the other one later. So if I could move the task to the top of the list, that would be very much appreciated. Should that be conflicting with current priorities paradigm, I would even suggest dropping the 1-2-3 priority approach and move towards arbitrary numbering of priorities. One may choose numbers 1-2-3 for his priorities and use sorting as before. Or one may use numbers -99999..99999 and use advanced sorting, dragging&sorting and other things much easier.
Sub-tasking and indentation. This sounds like a bigger improvement that would involve more technical planning. But indentation and subtasking is a very important feature for effective task management. The more limitless the subtasking, the better. Should it be with unlimited number of sublevels, that would be perfect. Otherwise, just a 2 to 3 level indentation would be a huge improvement, anyway.

Re: Thunderbird task management improvements

Raviyeejoshi — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:04:23 GMT

Thank you for bringing this up and itemizing your suggestions as I agree. To emphasize or expand on something you suggested:

1) it would be amazing to be able to, with one keystroke, copy an email into a task item, with a link back to the email, so as follow up you could click on the email link and reply. This allows the original email to be archived (away from view) and returned to seamlessly when you're ready to take action.

2) I will also add the ability to set filtered lists of tasks: like "All tasks that do not have a headline set," or "High priority items from X inbox".

3) Showing tasks in different layouts so you can drag and drop them by category.

Finally, I would like to say that this would be a game-changer for Thunderbird in terms of value and appeal. A truly cross-platform and open solution for managing tasks and emails as fluidly as described doesn't exist. The closest I can find is Apple Mail (not cross platform), maybe MS Outlook... Todoist is fantastic but doesn't handle emails well in my opinion (you can't just click and reply).

This is uniquely Thunderbird's opportunity and role! Thank you for listening.

Re: Thunderbird task management improvements

Arcti — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 15:23:07 GMT

I one hundred percent agree with all your points. These improvements would make tasking in Thunderbird feel proper and complete. Currently it is rather cumbersome to use the tasking features. I came upon this as I was searching for answers regarding tagging multiple tasks at the same time. And so I will add to this list that if I select multiple tasks by shift- or ctrl-clicking and then select a tag, it should tag all selected items. Currently it only tags the most recently selected (active) item in the list. I do not care if there is another way to tag multiple tasks at the same time, this is the most platform consistent and intuitive method of doing multiple selection actions.

As for your third point, it is possible to change the default list of tags. In Settings > Calendar > Categories (last item).