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How Scheduling Works

What the scheduler considers and how to steer it

How Scheduling Works

Samvise automatically places your tasks on your calendar. You don't manage the process — you give it good inputs (tasks, priorities, due dates, time windows, your calendar) and it keeps your schedule up to date. This page explains what the scheduler knows about your day and how to steer it.

What the Scheduler Knows

Your Calendar

If you've connected Google Calendar, Samvise treats your existing events as busy time:

  • Events from your selected calendars block out time — tasks are never scheduled over them
  • When your calendar changes (a new meeting appears), your task schedule adjusts automatically

Your Time Windows

Time windows are strict boundaries:

  • Each task belongs to a time window, and it can only be scheduled inside that window's hours
  • "Work" tasks will never land in your "Personal" evening hours
  • Paused windows are skipped entirely

Your Tasks

For each task, the scheduler considers:

  • Priority — Low, Medium, or High
  • Due date — when it needs to be done by
  • Time estimate — how long it needs
  • Flags — whether it can be split into multiple sessions, and whether auto-scheduling is enabled for it

How Tasks Are Ordered

When placing tasks, the scheduler works through them in this order:

  1. Overdue tasks first — anything past its due date, earliest deadline first
  2. Then by priority — High before Medium before Low
  3. Within the same priority — earlier due dates win
  4. Tasks without due dates — placed after dated tasks of the same priority

So a High-priority task due Friday is placed before a Medium-priority task due tomorrow — priority outranks the deadline once nothing is overdue. If two tasks have the same priority, the sooner deadline goes first.

How Blocks Are Placed

  • Tasks are placed into open time inside their time window, before their due date when possible
  • Blocks are at least 15 minutes long, and at most your maximum block duration (2 hours by default — adjustable in Settings)
  • Longer tasks are split into multiple work sessions — unless you mark the task "do not split," in which case it's kept whole
  • You can add an optional buffer between consecutive blocks in Settings
  • The schedule is planned about two weeks ahead on a rolling basis

What Appears on Your Calendar

  • Scheduled blocks show up in Samvise's calendar view
  • With Google Calendar connected, blocks also appear in a dedicated "App Schedule" calendar, and stay in sync as your schedule changes

When Scheduling Runs

You never need to trigger scheduling manually. It runs automatically shortly after anything relevant changes:

  • Creating, editing, completing, or deleting a task
  • Moving, resizing, or locking a block
  • Your Google Calendar changing
  • Changing time windows or scheduling settings

Rapid consecutive changes are grouped into a single update, so the schedule settles within a few seconds.

You Stay in Control

The scheduler proposes; you decide. You can always override it:

  • Drag and drop — move or resize any block on the calendar
  • Lock blocks — a locked block is never moved by the scheduler. Manually placed blocks are locked so they stay where you put them. Use locks for anything that must happen at a specific time
  • Turn off auto-scheduling per task — a task with auto-scheduling disabled is left alone until you schedule it yourself
  • Ask in chat — "move my writing block to tomorrow morning" or "what would happen if I pushed the report to Friday?" (the assistant can simulate changes without applying them)

When a Task Doesn't Get Scheduled

The scheduler can't create time. A task may go unscheduled if:

  • There's no open slot in its time window before its due date
  • It's marked "do not split" and no single slot is long enough
  • Higher-priority work has taken all the available time
  • Its time window is paused, or auto-scheduling is off for that task

When this happens, Samvise tells you why the task couldn't be placed, so you can fix the actual constraint.

Ways to make room:

  • Extend or add time window hours
  • Break large tasks into smaller ones, or allow splitting
  • Lower the priority of less important work
  • Push out due dates where you can

Best Practices

  • Give honest time estimates — the schedule is only as realistic as your inputs
  • Use the full priority range — if everything is High, nothing is
  • Keep your calendar current — the scheduler can only avoid conflicts it can see
  • Lock what's fixed — appointments and time-specific work should be locked
  • Review daily — drag things around freely; the scheduler works around your changes

Next Steps