The board has three stages. Ideas holds meals you might make, Planned is what's on this week with a date on each one, and Cooked keeps a record of what you made. Start a timer when you start cooking and you'll know how long each dish really takes.
What's in the template
A project made from Meal Plan starts with these fields. You can rename, remove or add fields before you create it, or later.
- Title
- The name of each task.
- Status
- Ideas, Planned and Cooked. Moving a task to Cooked completes it.
- Date
- A date, with a time, alert or repeat if you want one.
- Task Type
- Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.Suggests Snack while you set it up.
- Recipe
- Free text.
- Tags
- Quick and Vegetarian.Suggests High Protein, Make Ahead and Family Favorites while you set it up.
- Attachments
- Photos and files.
- Priority
- High, Medium and Low.
- Subtasks
- Smaller steps inside a task.
- Time Tracking
- Timers and time added by hand.
Create it in Tasks
- On iPhone, tap + at the bottom of the Home screen and choose Project. On Mac, press ⌥⌘N, or click + at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Project.
- Type a name, pick a colour and an icon, then tap the checkmark.
- Under Project Template, tap Meal Plan. The stages change to Ideas, Planned and Cooked. Tap Next.
- Check the fields the template brings, add anything else you want on every task, then tap the checkmark to create the project.
The projects guide shows each step with screenshots.
Download it
You can also download the template as a file and import it into Tasks. There are two versions. One is the board above with its 14 example tasks, so you can see how it works. The other is empty and ready for your own work. Both have every stage, field and tag, including the ones the app only suggests, and time tracking on every task.
- Download with the example tasks (Meal-Plan.tasks)
- Download the empty template (Meal-Plan-Template.tasks)
- Download one of the files on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
- Tap the file, in your downloads or in Files. It opens in Tasks.
- Import Data? tells you what it will add. Tap Import, and the project appears on the Home screen.
If tapping the file doesn't open Tasks, open Settings in Tasks, scroll down to Import Data under Data & Integrations, tap it and pick the file. The example dates are made up, so move them to your own schedule. The backup and import guide has more on importing.
Make it yours
Task Type starts with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. To plan snacks as well, tap Task Type on the Fields step while you set up the project, then tap Snack under Suggested Tags. Tags works the same way, with High Protein, Make Ahead and Family Favorites waiting there. Both downloads below already include them.
If a meal comes round every week, like Friday pizza, open its Date and set Repeat to Weekly. When you finish it, it moves on to the next Friday. The recurring tasks guide covers custom repeats.
To plan with the people you cook for, share the project from its menu with Invite people, so everyone sees the same week and can add ideas. The sharing guide covers invites and roles.
Questions
Is the meal planner template free?
Yes. Every template is in the free version of Tasks. The first two projects are free, and more projects need Tasks Plus.
Can I keep the recipe with the meal?
Yes. Every meal has a Recipe field for the ingredients or method, and an Attachments field for a photo of a cookbook page or a saved file.
Can my family use the same meal plan?
Yes. Share the project from its menu with Invite people, and everyone works from the same plan on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Only the person sharing needs Tasks Plus.
