When it comes to task and project management, I'm never able to understand how the due date relates to today's date. Maybe it's because I don't always know which day it is, or because sometimes the date is too far in the future. So, I like to come up with formulas to help me out. Here's one I built for one of my upcoming templates (see the "Lateness" property to the right).

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This formula takes the "Status" and "Deadline" properties as input and provides a visual representation of the lateness of tasks as output. In case you're interested, here's the formula I used:

if(empty(prop("Deadline")) == true, "", if(prop("Status") == "Completed", "🟢", if(prop("Days between (F)") == 0, "🟠 Last day", if(prop("Days between (F)") < 0, "🟡 " + format(prop("Days between (F)") * -1) + " day(s) left", "🔴 " + format(prop("Days between (F)")) + " day(s) late"))))

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Josh Redd came up with another visual representation, which I also liked a lot. He uses checkboxes instead of status, but the principle is the same.

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He uses the following formula:

if(prop("Done"), "✔️", if(empty(prop("Due")), "📆", if(divide(dateBetween(prop("Due"), now(), "hours"), 24) < -3, "🚨", if(divide(dateBetween(prop("Due"), now(), "hours"), 24) < -1, "🔴", if(divide(dateBetween(prop("Due"), now(), "hours"), 24) < 0, "🟡", "🟢")))))

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What's particularly clever is that he used a great hack to make his column slimmer. To replicate it, follow these steps:

1. Transform your Formula property into a Checkbox property.
2. Resize the column to the minimum.
3. Transform your column back into a Formula property.

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This will ensure that your column stays as wide as the checkboxes ones🪄