---
title: "Start date"
description: "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."
canonical: https://taskpocket.io/glossary/start-date/
lastUpdated: 2026-09-01
---
1. [Home](https://taskpocket.io/)
2. [Glossary](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/)
3. Start date

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

## 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](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/defer-date/) instead.

## What it is not

It is not a [deadline](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/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

1. [Todoist — Does Todoist support start dates? (a scheduling date that does not defer)](https://www.todoist.com/help/articles/does-todoist-support-start-dates-qhqlgZhk) checked 2026-09-01
2. [Cultured Code — Things 3 calls the same field “When”](https://culturedcode.com/things/support/articles/6378414/) checked 2026-09-01

## Related reading

- [Defer date](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/defer-date/) — A date that hides a task until it arrives, rather than only scheduling it. Also called a start date. Most task apps do not have one, and several say so plainly.
- [Deadline](https://taskpocket.io/glossary/deadline/) — 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.
- [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.