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Track a desk's status and time

Move a desk through To do, In progress and Done, watch a countdown against your estimate, and add time or finish when the estimate runs out.

All plansUpdated

Every desk has a status, and a desk can also have an estimate of how long it will take. The status button in the header moves a desk along from To do to Done. When a desk with an estimate is In progress, PlexiDesk counts down the time left, and when the time runs out it asks whether you need more.

The four statuses

Status What it means
To do Not started yet. Every new desk starts here.
In progress You are working on it.
Done Finished.
Parked Set aside for now.

You see these names in All desks, on each desk's card and in the Status column of Table view. You can also group and filter All desks by status. See Browse All rooms and All desks.

Change a desk's status

The status button is the first of the desk's quick actions in the header. Its name says what clicking it will do next:

When the desk is The button reads Click it and the desk becomes
To do Start In progress
In progress Done Done
Done Reopen To do
Parked Resume To do
  1. Open the desk.
  2. Rest the pointer on the first button in the quick-actions row to see its name.
  3. Click it. The desk moves to its next status.

Each time a desk moves to In progress, its clock starts from that moment. See Desk quick actions in the header for the rest of the row.

Give a desk an estimate

You give a desk its estimate, called Duration, when you create it.

  1. Click New desk at the top of the side menu. The New Desk window opens.
  2. Type how many minutes you expect the work to take in Duration, from 1 to 1440.
  3. Fill in anything else you need, then click Create Desk.

A desk without a duration still has a status, but no countdown. See Create a desk.

Watch the countdown

  1. Open a desk that has a duration.
  2. Click Start. The desk is now In progress.
  3. The time left appears in the quick-actions row, just after the Meeting button, as minutes and seconds, for example 24:59. It counts down every second.

When the estimate runs out, the time keeps counting, with a minus sign in front to show how far over you are. It turns red so you notice.

When the time is up

When an In progress desk passes its estimate, the Time's up on this task window opens. It appears straight away if you are on the desk, or when you next open it. It shows how long the desk has been running against its estimate.

Choose what to do:

  • +15 min, +30 min or +1 hour adds that much time to the estimate. The countdown carries on with the new total.
  • Snooze 5 min closes the window for five minutes. Pressing Esc does the same. If the desk is still over its estimate after that, the window opens again.
  • Mark done marks the desk Done.

Time you add is kept with the desk, so you can see later how your real time compared with what you planned.

Finish a desk

  1. Click Done in the quick-actions row, or Mark done in the Time's up on this task window.
  2. The desk becomes Done. If it has at least one widget on it, PlexiDesk asks Save this as a template?, so you can start similar work from the same setup next time.
  3. To keep the setup, give the template a name, untick anything you do not want and click Save template. Otherwise click Skip — just close.

PlexiDesk asks only once for each desk while you keep working, even if you reopen it and mark it Done again. See Desk templates.

See how your estimates compare

Once you have finished at least one desk that had a duration, and that you started with Start and finished with Done, the New Desk window shows Your history below Duration and Due:

  • Your history gives your real time as a percentage of your estimates, with the number of finished desks it is based on in brackets. Over 100% means your desks have taken longer than you planned; under 100% means less.
  • Predicted real time appears when you type a duration. It adjusts your estimate by your history.
  • Median Desk takes appears when the duration is empty. It is how long your typical desk takes.

Time you added with +15 min, +30 min or +1 hour counts as part of the estimate here.

Common questions

There is no countdown on my desk

The countdown only appears while the desk is In progress and has a duration. If the button reads Start, click it. If the desk was created without a duration, it has a status but no countdown.

The Time's up window keeps coming back

Snooze 5 min only hides it for five minutes. To stop it, add time with +15 min, +30 min or +1 hour, or click Mark done.

How do I see all the desks I have in progress?

Open All desks from the side menu, then set Filter to In progress, or set Group to Status. See Browse All rooms and All desks.

I reopened a desk. Does its clock start again?

Reopening sets the desk back to To do. When you click Start again, its clock starts from that moment.

Still need help? Contact support at [email protected].