💡 New script: tasks-weekly-triage (automated Google Tasks hygiene & overdue management)

[github-actions[bot]]

Summary

A Google Apps Script that performs weekly automated triage on Google Tasks: flags overdue tasks with a configurable grace period, archives completed tasks to a Sheets history log for accountability tracking, surfaces tasks approaching their due date, and sends a "task health check" email summary. Addresses the fact that Google Tasks has zero built-in automation or hygiene capabilities, leaving stale tasks to accumulate invisibly.

Market Signal

Google Tasks has ~500M+ users (bundled with Gmail/Calendar) but offers no automation API integrations, no overdue notifications, and no archival capabilities. Todoist, Asana, and ClickUp all offer overdue detection and task hygiene features as part of their premium tiers. The "task debt" problem — where stale tasks accumulate and erode trust in the system — is well-documented in productivity methodology literature (GTD, PARA, Building a Second Brain). No open-source GAS tool addresses Google Tasks lifecycle management. Google Workspace Studio flows can interact with Tasks but no pre-built triage template exists.

User Signal

Existing idea #473 (tasks-to-sheets) covers sync but not lifecycle management — it moves data to Sheets without acting on it. The suite's target users (personal productivity enthusiasts using Google Workspace) are likely Google Tasks users who lack the automation tools available to Todoist/Asana users. The gmail-ai-classifier precedent shows appetite for intelligent automation that acts on user data rather than just syncing it.

Technical Opportunity

Google Tasks API is available as an Advanced Service in Apps Script. The Sheets archival pattern is proven across the suite (calendar-to-sheets logs events, this would log completed tasks). Email output via MailApp is standard. The logic is straightforward date comparison and list management — high testability, low external dependency. Could integrate with cross-app-weekly-review (proposed in #516) as a data source for the tasks section, creating a composable script ecosystem.

Assessment

Dimension	Score	Rationale
Feasibility	high	Tasks API available as Advanced Service; logic is simple date math; Sheets/email patterns proven
Impact	med	Fills genuine automation gap for Google Tasks users; Sheets archive adds unique long-term value
Urgency	med	No direct competitor in the GAS space; Google Tasks' lack of automation is a stable gap

Adversarial Review

Strongest objection: Google Tasks is often criticized as too simple — serious task managers use Todoist or Asana. Is the audience (Google Tasks users who also care about task hygiene) large enough to justify a dedicated script?

Rebuttal: The simplicity of Google Tasks is exactly why it needs external automation — there's no built-in way to manage task lifecycle. Users who chose Tasks over Todoist/Asana did so because they wanted simplicity and free Workspace integration. This script adds the automation layer those users are missing without requiring them to switch tools. The Sheets archive also creates a record that Tasks itself cannot provide, valuable for personal accountability and quarterly reviews.

Suggested Next Step

Create src/tasks-weekly-triage/ with TDD implementation. MVP scope: List all tasks across task lists, identify overdue items (with configurable grace period), archive completed tasks to a Sheets log with completion date, send weekly email summary with overdue count, approaching-deadline items, and completed-this-week stats. Phase 2: Add configurable notification thresholds, "stale task" detection (tasks untouched for N days), and integration with cross-app-weekly-review.