Start date
A start date is the day you plan to pick something up. In an app that defers, it also decides when the task appears — which is what separates it from a due date.
By Bohdan StefaniukLast updated
Two things called the same name
Worth pinning down, because the term does two different jobs depending on the app.
A scheduling date says when you intend to work on something and puts it in front of you that day. Almost every task app has this, whatever it calls it.
A deferring start date does that and keeps the task out of sight until then. Far fewer apps have it, and the ones that do sometimes call it a defer date instead.
What it is not
It is not a deadline. Collapsing the two is the most common way a list stops being trustworthy: put the deadline in and the task sits in Today going grey for three weeks; put the start date in and the real cutoff lives only in your head.
What different apps call it
Things 3 calls it When. OmniFocus calls the deferring version a defer date. Todoist has a date field that schedules but does not defer, and says so plainly. TaskPocket labels the field When in the app and calls it a start date in writing, because that is the phrase people search for — one field, two words, deliberately.
Sources
- Todoist — Does Todoist support start dates? (a scheduling date that does not defer)checked 2026-09-01
- Cultured Code — Things 3 calls the same field “When”checked 2026-09-01