---
title: "Deadline"
description: "The day something must be finished, as distinct from the day you plan to start it. In apps that separate the two, a deadline schedules nothing at all."
canonical: https://taskpocket.io/glossary/deadline/
lastUpdated: 2026-09-01
---
1. [Home](https://taskpocket.io/)
2. [Glossary](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/)
3. Deadline

# Deadline

A deadline is the day work must be finished by. In an app with two date fields it schedules nothing — it is a fact about the world rather than a decision about your week.

By [Bohdan Stefaniuk](https://taskpocket.io/about/) Last updated 2026-09-01

## Deadline against due date

Most apps have one date field, call it a due date, and quietly ask it to do two jobs: deciding when the task appears, and standing in for when it is actually due. For most tasks those are the same day and it works.

A deadline is the second field, for the cases where they are not. The tax return is the standard example — due 30 April, started on the 12th. Todoist frames it well: a deadline is “for tasks in which missing the deadline has external consequences”. See [deadline vs due date](https://taskpocket.io/guides/deadline-vs-due-date/).

## Who has one

It is no longer rare. Todoist shipped Deadlines and gates them behind Pro; Things 3 has had a Deadline field alongside When for years; TaskPocket has one as part of Premium. Apple Reminders and TickTick do not — Reminders has a single date field, and TickTick has a due date with an optional duration rather than a separate cutoff.

## The rule worth keeping

Add a deadline only when missing it costs something outside your own head — money, a lapsed renewal, somebody else blocked. If it is only your own intention, that is a [start date](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/start-date/), and dressing it up as a deadline is how the field stops meaning anything.

## Sources

1. [Todoist — Introduction to deadlines, including their own definition and its plan gating](https://www.todoist.com/help/articles/introduction-to-deadlines-uMqbSLM6U) checked 2026-09-01

## Related reading

- [Start date](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/start-date/) — The day you intend to begin something, as opposed to the day it is due. In apps that defer, it also decides when the task becomes visible at all.
- [Deadline vs due date: which one does what](https://taskpocket.io/guides/deadline-vs-due-date/) — A due date schedules work; a deadline records a consequence. Here is what each one is for, a rule for deciding, and which task apps give you both.
- [Start dates and deadlines — two dates, two questions](https://taskpocket.io/features/start-dates-and-deadlines/) — When you plan to start and when it is actually due are different questions. Here is how the two dates work in TaskPocket, and which apps have both.