Release Overview

Release 1.10.0 (May 1, 2023) added a new feature to Momentum: the Action Item Catcher.

The action item catcher is a holding area for all those ideas, thoughts, potential projects or tasks, and other snippets that either aren’t fully formed enough to be added to a planner view or that you’re not ready to schedule yet, but you don’t want to lose track of. Think of this as that “dropping off space” inside your front door, or your “someday maybe list,” or the electronic equivalent to that sea of sticky notes all over your monitor/door/wall.

The action item catcher is also the first step toward the full “planning area” we’re developing and will be releasing later in 2023.

Action item catcher basics

The action item catcher can be accessed from the top menu, via the paper clip icon.

Clicking the paper clip icon will open the action item catcher pane, which slides out from the right side of the interface (similar to the archive pane).

The action item catcher has:

  1. A search bar to find specific action items (once you have a big list).
  2. The action item entry area, where you’ll input your various action items (and convert them to specific actionable types — see below).

Using the action item catcher

The action item catcher works similarly to other actionable types in Momentum.

To add an action item: click the + Add Action Item button and type your action item in the description.

Notes on functionality:

  • When entering items from your computer, you can type the description, hit Enter/Return to create the item, and immediately start typing the next item. Good for adding a bunch of action items in a row.
  • The most recent item will appear at the top of the list, the oldest item at the bottom.

Note on descriptions: we recommend the verb-noun task/chunk/project construction for these action items, but it’s not as important here as other places in Momentum. These are still raw notes, after all. You’ll have the opportunity to update them when the item moves from “action item” to some other actionable type (chunk, project, deadline, and so on) via the “Convert” command (see below).

To edit an action item: if you’ve already “saved” the action item, simply create a new action item with the edited description, and delete the incorrect one.

To delete an action item: click the menu (three dots) on the item, and choose Delete.

To find items in your action items list: use the arrows at the bottom of the pane to cycle through your action items list. Each page of the list displays a maximum of eight items. Alternatively, you can use the search bar at the top of the pane to locate a specific item.

Converting action items to other actionable types 

When you’re ready to move an action item from the catcher to your planner, follow these steps.

  1. Click the menu (three dots) on that item, and select “Convert”. 
  2. In the new interface, select from the Type drop-down menu the type of actionable you want to assign to this action item.
  3. If you choose “project,” you’ll also need to select a time horizon for that project (year, quarter, month, or week) from the “Specificity” drop-down menu. 
  4. Update the description as you see fit. Now’s a good time to make sure your actionable has a verb-noun construction (“Write children’s book”, “Launch course,” “Finish post-project CAT work,” etc.)
  5. Use the date picker to select the date you want the actionable to be assigned to. The actionable will be assigned to the appropriate time horizon based on its type:
  • Benchmark or Milestone: will be created in the quarterly view for the date you select (May 1 will put the benchmark in the Quarter 2 view).
  • Deadline: will be created in the daily view for the date you selected.
  • Project: will be created in the appropriate planner view for the project type (yearly project to yearly view, quarterly to quarterly, and so on) based on the date you selected. Example: for the May 1, 2023 date, a monthly project would appear on the monthly view for May 2023.
  • Project Chunk: will be created in the weekly view, on the date you selected.

6. Click the Convert button and your action item will be converted to the actionable you selected, and disappear from the action item catcher interface.