What this template is for
Long-term goals create anxiety when they appear alongside daily tasks. A certification due in June should not compete for your attention in February. This template uses start dates to keep future goals quiet until you can actually act on them, then lets Klara's urgency calculation handle the rest.
It is for anyone managing quarterly or multi-month goals alongside shorter-term work.
Example tasks
| Task | Importance | Effort | Deadline | Start date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draft Q2 strategy presentation | 5 | Weeks | March 31 | March 17 |
| Complete online certification course | 4 | Months | June 30 | April 1 |
| Write annual self-review | 5 | Days | March 15 | March 8 |
| Research new tools for team workflow | 3 | Days | April 30 | April 15 |
| Prepare budget proposal | 4 | Weeks | March 31 | March 10 |
How Klara handles these tasks
The key feature here is start dates. Until a task's start date arrives, Klara keeps it dormant -- urgency stays at minimum regardless of the deadline. No amount of importance or tight deadlines can push a pre-start task into your active priorities.
In mid-February, all five tasks sit quietly in "Maybe" or "Skip it." Your project stays clean. You focus on whatever today's actual work is.
On March 8, "Write annual self-review" activates. With a week until its deadline and several days of work ahead, urgency rises immediately. Combined with importance 5, it likely claims "Do now."
On March 10, "Prepare budget proposal" activates. This task requires weeks of effort and has exactly that much time remaining -- there is zero margin. Despite importance 4 versus the self-review's importance 5, the budget proposal's extreme time pressure could push it above the self-review. A task that needs to start immediately to have any chance of finishing on time will outrank one that still has a few days of breathing room, even if the second task is rated as more important.
This is the system working as intended. A weeks-long effort with only weeks remaining genuinely needs to start now, so Klara surfaces it.
The certification course (effort Months, deadline June 30, start date April 1) stays dormant the longest. When it activates, it faces the same zero-margin situation -- months of work with months remaining. But by April 1 the earlier tasks should be completed, so it rises to "Do now" without competing against March deadlines.
Tips for customizing
- Set start dates based on effort level. For Weeks-effort tasks, start at least 3 weeks before the deadline. For Months-effort tasks, start at least 3 months before. This avoids activating a task that is already in crisis.
- Break large goals into sub-tasks with staggered start dates. Instead of one "Complete certification" task, create "Finish Module 1," "Finish Module 2," etc., each with its own start date and deadline.
- Combine with weekly review tasks. Add a recurring "Review goal progress" task to your Friday review so you catch any goals that need their start dates or deadlines adjusted.