🦾Auto-scheduling

For more details about behind-the-scenes, check out this article.

Introduction

Auto-scheduling is Motion’s superpower. Instead of you manually dragging tasks around your calendar, Motion’s AI does the heavy lifting, placing tasks in the best possible time slots based on your priorities, deadlines, and availability. The result? A calendar that adapts as fast as your day changes.

At a Glance

• What auto-scheduling is and why it matters.
• How it works under the hood: deadlines, priorities, and availability all factor in.
• Understand the scheduling hierarchy guideline to see where tasks gets scheduled.
• How to auto-schedule your tasks so they show up in your calendar.
• Ways to customize your schedule (durations, deadlines, priorities) for even smarter results.

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What is auto-scheduling

⭐ Want to understand why Motion schedules work the way it does? The Edge Cases & Limits and Troubleshooting sections walk through the most common scenarios and how Motion handles them.

What is auto-scheduling

Auto-scheduling is Motion’s way of turning your to-do list into a living schedule. Instead of manually slotting tasks into your calendar, Motion automatically finds the best time for each one — balancing deadlines, priorities, and your existing events.

When you create a task, Motion looks at:

• Your availability — what open time you have in your calendar.
• Task duration — how long the task will take.
• Deadlines & priorities — what needs to get done first.
• New events & changes — meetings, reschedules, and conflicts.

The result: your tasks appear directly on your calendar, always in the right place. And when your day shifts, Motion reshuffles automatically so nothing falls through the cracks.

💡 Think of it like this: instead of playing calendar Tetris, you focus on doing the work — while Motion handles the scheduling puzzle.

How auto-scheduling works

How auto-scheduling works

Motion doesn’t just drop tasks randomly onto your calendar — it uses an adaptive system that constantly balances your work against your availability.

Here’s what Motion looks at when scheduling tasks:

• Availability → Motion scans your calendar for open slots, while respecting existing meetings and events.
• Duration → Motion schedules tasks according to their total defined length.

  • Chunking → If you set chunking rules, Motion will break the task into smaller blocks (e.g., a 2-hour task can be worked on in 30-minute chunks). If no chunks are defined, Motion will find a full slot that fits the entire duration.
• Deadlines → Tasks with earlier deadlines in general are prioritized so you finish your tasks on time.
• Priorities → Higher-priority tasks get scheduled before less critical ones.

  • Exception → Recurring tasks (like daily routines) may be scheduled first if they are the only ones that fit into available time slots, even if a one-off task has a higher priority.
  • Note: You will notice that when you set the priority to ASAP, the deadline field greys out. This is because you are telling Motion you want this task to be completed immediately, so the system prioritizes it above all others without requiring a specific deadline.
• Changes → Add a meeting? Move a task? Motion reshuffles automatically so your schedule stays up to date.

The key: Auto-scheduling is dynamic. Your calendar adapts as your day changes, helping you focus on the most important work without worrying about rearranging everything manually.

💡Pro tip: The more details you give Motion (like deadlines and task lengths), the smarter the scheduling becomes.

Scheduling hierarchy guideline

Scheduling hierarchy to see how tasks gets scheduled

Motion’s auto-scheduling doesn’t follow a single linear rule — it balances priority, deadlines, and availability together. But here’s the general hierarchy that guides scheduling:

1. ASAP is a special task state that overrides all other scheduling parameters.

   When a task is marked ASAP, Motion ignores other ordering signals like priority level or due date and schedules the task before everything else, based on your availability.
2. Hard deadlines → Motion ensures tasks with strict deadlines are completed on time.🔒 If no time is available within your normal schedule (e.g., 9–5), Motion will schedule the task outside those hours to meet the deadline.

   1. Example:

      1. Normal schedule: 9 AM – 5 PM
      2. Task: "Submit report" (High priority, Hard deadline today)
      3. Calendar is already full 9–5 → Motion schedules it at 6 PM the same day to make sure the deadline is hit.
3. Deadlines (soft/flexible) → Orders remaining tasks by due date, with sooner deadlines scheduled earlier.
4. Priority → High > Medium > Low. Tasks marked ASAP always come first.
5. Duration → Breaks long tasks into chunks that can fit into available time blocks.
6. Start dates → Prevents tasks from being scheduled before they are actionable.
7. Recurrence → Recurring tasks are placed ahead of one-off tasks to maintain cadence.

Example task ranking

1. An 'ASAP' task.
2. A high-priority task with a hard deadline, due tomorrow.
3. A high-priority task with a soft deadline, due in 2 days.
4. A medium-priority task with a soft deadline, due tomorrow. (I put this above the High priority due in 10 days, bc due in 10 days)
5. A high-priority task with a hard deadline, due in 10 days.
6. A low-priority task, due in 6 months.

Tasks in Motion are ranked using a combination of priority, deadlines, due dates, and duration. Priority always comes first, meaning nothing outranks an ASAP task unless there is no available time to schedule it. After that, hard deadlines take precedence to ensure tasks are completed on time. Next, Motion looks at due dates, generally prioritizing tasks that are due sooner rather than later. Finally, duration is considered, so shorter tasks can be slotted in efficiently; sometimes even ahead of longer tasks with slightly earlier due dates.

Auto-scheduling task live example

How to auto-schedule your tasks (live example)

Let’s see Motion in action with a real scenario: you already have a task on your calendar, then a new meeting pops up. Motion will reshuffle for you—no drag-and-drop required.

Example setup

• Task: “Draft Q4 launch email”
• Duration: 90 min
• Deadline: Today, 5:00 PM
• Priority: High

Steps

1. Create the task

   1. Add title, duration, deadline, and priority.
   2. Save it.
   3. What you’ll see: Motion places the task in the first best open block on your calendar.
2. Add a new meeting that conflicts

   1. Schedule a meeting that overlaps the task (e.g., 10:30–11:15 AM). Make sure the event is Busy (default).
3. Watch Motion adapt Motion detects the conflict and automatically moves the task to the next best slot before the deadline.

   1. If there’s a perfect 90-minute block later, the task moves there.
   2. If you’ve enabled chunking, Motion may split the task into two blocks that still finish before the deadline.
4. Tweak if needed (optional) If the new plan doesn’t match your preference, adjust the duration, deadline, or priority—Motion will re-optimize instantly.

Heads-up

Your schedule is adaptive, not fixed. When meetings shift or new events appear, Motion recalculates to keep your most important work on track.

💡 Pro tip: Give Motion clear guardrails—realistic durations, true deadlines, and the right event status (Busy blocks time; Free does not). The clearer your inputs, the smarter the schedule reshuffle.

Customize your schedule

Understanding & customizing your task schedule

Auto-scheduling isn’t one-size-fits-all. You can fine-tune how tasks land on your calendar by customizing the details you give Motion.

Key fields that guide scheduling

• Duration → Defines how long the task should take.

  • Basic use: Enter 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 3 hours.
  • Advanced use: For long projects (like 6 hours), use chunking to split into smaller, more manageable blocks (e.g., 3 × 2 hours).
• Deadline → Tells Motion when the task must be completed.

  • Basic use: Deadlines are automatically added so tasks don’t get left behind.
  • Advanced use: Use relative deadlines in your project template (e.g., finish 2 days before delivery) to give yourself buffer time.
• Start date → Sets the earliest date a task can be scheduled.

  • Basic use: Prevent tasks from showing up before they’re actionable.
  • Advanced use: Use start dates to stagger multi-stage projects (e.g., “Start design review next week”).
• Priority → Determines how Motion weighs a task against others.

  • Basic use: Mark tasks as ASAP, High, Medium, or Low.
  • Advanced use: Combine priority with deadlines for nuance. For example, a Medium task due tomorrow may rank above a High task due next month.
• Recurrence → Defines whether a task repeats on a set schedule.

  • Basic use: Set a task to repeat daily, weekly, or monthly (e.g., “Team standup every weekday”).
  • Advanced use: Choose specific days or custom recurrence rules. Motion auto-schedules recurring tasks ahead of one-off tasks with lower priority to ensure they always fit.

Custom schedules

You can also set custom working hours so Motion knows your preferred focus times. For instance:

• Morning → deep work sessions.
• Afternoons → meetings and lighter tasks.

Motion adapts tasks into these windows (auto-schedules in your tasks in the set custom schedules), while still respecting deadlines and priorities.

💡 Pro tip: Think of these settings tasks' parameters as giving Motion “guardrails.” The clearer you are about duration, deadlines, and priorities, the better Motion can optimize your schedule — and adapt when your day changes.

Flexible Hours: Adjust Your Availability for a Single Day

Flexible hours

Flexible Hours let you temporarily change your availability without modifying your default schedule. Use it when your day changes and you need Motion to know you’re unavailable for tasks during specific times.

What Flexible Hours Do

• Override your working hours for one day only
• Reduce or shift the time Motion can use for auto-scheduling
• Block specific time ranges or the entire day
• Automatically trigger a recalculation of your task schedule

This feature is meant for one-off changes, not recurring schedule adjustments.

How to Use Flexible Hours

1. On your Calendar view, look at the top of today.
2. Click the clock icon ⏰ on the right side of today's date.
3. Choose one of the available options for that day:

   1. Start tasks later: Set the earliest time Motion can schedule tasks.
   2. Stop tasks early: Set the latest time tasks can be scheduled.
   3. Block out hours: Select specific time ranges where task scheduling should be prevented.
   4. Block out whole day: Mark the entire day as unavailable for task scheduling.

Example: If your normal schedule is 9 AM–5 PM and you have an appointment from 2–3 PM, block that hour. Motion will reschedule tasks into the remaining available time.

What Happens After You Adjust Hours

Once you adjust your flexible hours for a day:

• Motion recalculates automatically: Your task list is reorganized to fit the updated availability.
• Task timing may shift: Lower-priority tasks may move later in the week if there's not enough time.
• Calendar visuals update: Blocked periods display diagonal grey shading to indicate unavailable time

💡 Pro tip: Use flexible hours for one-off changes. If you regularly work different hours on certain days, consider setting up a custom schedule instead.

How to Remove Applied Flexible Hours

If you've applied flexible hours to a day and want to restore your normal schedule:

1. Open the Calendar.
2. Click the clock icon ⏰ on the day with adjustments.
3. Select Reset hours at the bottom of the popup.
4. Motion restores your default schedule and recalculates task placement.

When to use flexible hours vs custom schedules vs new events

Situation	Use flexible hours	Use custom schedule	Use free/busy events
One unexpected change today	✅	❌	❌
Regular pattern (e.g., Fridays off early)	❌	✅	❌
Specific meeting or appointment	⚠️ Optional (use only if the event isn’t enough to block tasks)	❌	✅ Yes (mark as Free or Busy)
Short-term project sprint (temporary increased or decreased capacity)	✅ Yes (adjust daily)	⚠️ Maybe (only if predictable)	❌
Prevent event conflicts from a Booking Link	❌	✅	✅