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Lists & Reference

Momentum is where your actions live. Some lists are actions you work through; others are reference you keep and look things up in. They want different homes, and telling them apart keeps the system short and honest.

Lists you work through: a checklist

A grocery list is a list of things to do at the store. That's an action, so it belongs in Momentum: make one task, "Groceries", open it, and add each item to its checklist. Tick them off in the aisle.

Shop every week? Set the task to repeat weekly. When you complete it, the next one arrives with the same checklist, all unticked.

Lists you keep: reference, linked

A packing list, a guest list, a recipe: you don't finish these, you consult them, and they change over time. That's reference material. Keep it where your documents already live (Notes, Pages, Google Docs, Obsidian) and put a link to it on the task that uses it. "Pack for Hawaii" holds the action; the packing list it links to holds the detail, and stays up to date in one place.

The test: if you'll tick it off and be done, it's a checklist. If you'll come back to it next time, it's reference: link it.

On the Mac: double-click the task to open it, click the link button in the row of controls at the bottom, paste the address and, if you like, give it a title. If the address is on your clipboard, it's already filled in.

On iPhone and iPad: open the task, scroll to Links, and tap Add Link….

Links show under the task's notes, and open with a click or a tap. In the list, a task with a link shows a small link icon. A project can carry links too: put them in the project's outcome notes.

Web pages, email addresses, and links copied from other apps, like a shared Google Doc or an Obsidian note link. (Apple Notes has no plain "copy link" for a note; its Share link invites collaborators, so check its access setting first.) A link is stored as text in the task's notes, written as [Packing list](https://…), so you can also just paste a link straight into the notes. That's also why links sync to every device, and why links already in notes you imported from Things or OmniFocus show up on their own.