Heatmap View
Review a year of task activity, completion patterns, overdue work, streaks, and filtered Calendar results from one Calendar view.
Heatmap View is the Calendar's year-at-a-glance activity review. It helps you see which dates had task activity, which periods were productive, where overdue work gathered, and how your current Calendar filters change the picture.
Use Heatmap when you want patterns, not scheduling. If you need to create or move tasks, click a date to open Day View or switch to Month, Week, Day, or Day Planner.
Heatmap is for task activity
It summarizes PrimeTask task data, not Apple Calendar events.
What you can do
Review a full year
of task activity by due date
Switch metrics
between Tasks, Completed, and Overdue
Compare all tasks with filtered tasks
when Calendar filters are active
Choose another year
from Heatmap View
Open a date in Day View
by clicking a day
Preview a date
to see task counts and a few task names
Review productivity insights
including current streak, longest streak, completion rate, average tasks per active day, busiest day, and most productive month
Use keyboard shortcuts
6 for Heatmap from the Calendar page, or use the plain left and right arrow keys to move through Calendar viewsHow to open Heatmap View
- Calendar page: Open Calendar, then choose Heatmap from the view controls.
- Keyboard shortcut: Open Calendar, then press
6. - Arrow keys: Use the plain left and right arrow keys to move through Calendar views until you reach Heatmap.
- Command palette: Press ⌘+K (or Ctrl+K) and search for Calendar, then choose Heatmap after the Calendar opens.
Choosing the year
Heatmap follows the Calendar's selected year. Use the year selector in Heatmap or the Calendar date navigation to move to another year.
When Heatmap is active, previous and next move by year. Use this when you want to compare this year with past or upcoming planning periods.
Review one Space at a time
Heatmap follows the active Space, which helps you compare work contexts separately.
Reading the metrics
Heatmap has three metric modes:
| Metric | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Tasks | Tasks due on each date |
| Completed | Tasks due on each date that are complete |
| Overdue | Incomplete tasks due on each date that are overdue |
Use Tasks to see workload. Use Completed to review consistency. Use Overdue to find periods where work fell behind.
Combine metrics with filters
Use filtered tasks when you want to understand a specific status, priority, tag, or recurring workload.
All tasks and filtered tasks
Heatmap can compare all Calendar tasks with the currently filtered task set.
Use All Tasks when you want the full activity picture for the active Space. Use Filtered when you want Heatmap to respect the Calendar filters you have set, such as status, priority, tags, recurring task mode, completed work, or archived project tasks.
The filtered option is available when Calendar filters are active. See Calendar Filters.
Opening a date
Click any date in Heatmap to open that date in Day View. This is the fastest way to move from a yearly pattern into the actual tasks and events for one day.
Use Day View to inspect the date in detail, or switch to Month View if you want to review nearby dates.
Date clicks open Day View
Use Day View after Heatmap when you need to inspect or adjust a specific date.
Productivity insights
Heatmap includes a yearly summary below the activity view:
- Current streak - consecutive recent days with at least one completed task
- Longest streak - the longest completed-task streak in the selected year
- Completion rate - completed tasks compared with total tasks in the selected year
- Average per active day - average task count on days that had activity
- Monthly activity - task and completion totals by month
- Busiest day - day of the week with the most task activity
- Most productive month - month with the most completed tasks
Use these insights during weekly reviews, yearly reviews, or when you are trying to understand whether your planning system is realistic.
What Heatmap counts
Heatmap is based on task due dates. A task needs a due date to appear in Heatmap.
If a task has a start date but no due date, it can appear in other Calendar views such as Agenda, Day Planner, Week, or Day, but it will not contribute to Heatmap until it has a due date.
Heatmap and Apple Calendar events
Heatmap is task-focused. Apple Calendar events can appear in other Calendar views, but Heatmap measures PrimeTask task activity.
If an Apple Calendar event should count as work in PrimeTask, convert it into a task from a Calendar view that supports event conversion. See Apple Calendar Integration.
Heatmap is not a full schedule audit
It does not count Apple Calendar events, so use Calendar views when meetings and external events matter.
Things worth knowing
Heatmap is for review
Heatmap does not replace Agenda, Month, Week, Day, or Day Planner. Use it to find patterns, then open another view when you need to schedule or edit work.
Due dates matter
Heatmap uses due dates so activity has a clear date. If a task is missing from Heatmap, check whether it has a due date and whether filters are removing it from view.
Future dates can appear quieter
Future dates usually have less completed work because that work has not happened yet. Use Heatmap mainly for reviewing past and current patterns.
Filters can change the story
Filtered Heatmap results can look very different from All Tasks. For example, a priority filter can reveal whether high-priority work is concentrated in certain weeks.
Common questions
"Why is a task missing from Heatmap?"
Check whether the task has a due date. Heatmap counts tasks by due date. Also check Calendar filters if you are using the filtered task option.
"Can I schedule tasks in Heatmap?"
No. Heatmap is for yearly review. Click a date to open Day View, or switch to Month, Week, Day, or Day Planner to schedule work.
"Can I see completed work only?"
Yes. Choose the Completed metric to focus on completed tasks in the selected year.
"Can I find overdue patterns?"
Yes. Choose the Overdue metric to review where overdue work collected across the year.
"Does Heatmap include Apple Calendar events?"
No. Heatmap is focused on PrimeTask task activity. Convert an Apple Calendar event into a task if it should be tracked as PrimeTask work.
"What happens when I click a date?"
PrimeTask opens that date in Day View so you can inspect the day's scheduled work.
Where to go next
| If you want to… | Read this |
|---|---|
| Understand all Calendar views | Calendar Views |
| Review upcoming work as a list | Agenda View |
| Open a monthly planning view | Month View |
| Review a clicked date in detail | Week and Day Views |
| Time-block a day | Day Planner View |
| Filter Heatmap results | Calendar Filters |
| Review broader reports | Reports Overview |
| See Calendar shortcuts | Keyboard Shortcuts |