diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 83509b0b4..af1273880 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+## Changes in 3.0.3 (unreleased)
+
+* Fixed Adding activities in retrospect is very hard (issue 627)
+
 ## Changes in 3.0.2
 
 * Switch from deprecated xml2po to itstool for translating help files
diff --git a/src/hamster/edit_activity.py b/src/hamster/edit_activity.py
index 59c2d6f43..725c7faa0 100644
--- a/src/hamster/edit_activity.py
+++ b/src/hamster/edit_activity.py
@@ -99,15 +99,12 @@ def __init__(self, action, fact_id=None):
         else:
             self.fact = Fact(start_time=dt.datetime.now())
 
-        original_fact = self.fact
         # TODO: should use hday, not date.
         self.date = self.fact.date
 
         self.update_fields()
         self.update_cmdline(select=True)
 
-        self.cmdline.original_fact = original_fact
-
         # This signal should be emitted only after a manual modification,
         # not at init time when cmdline might not always be fully parsable.
         self.cmdline.connect("changed", self.on_cmdline_changed)
@@ -135,15 +132,19 @@ def date(self):
 
     @date.setter
     def date(self, value):
-        delta = value - self._date if self._date else None
         self._date = value
         self.cmdline.default_day = value
-        if self.fact and delta:
-            if self.fact.start_time:
-                self.fact.start_time += delta
+
+    def move_to_date(self, new_date):
+        if self.fact.start_time:
+            previous_date = self.fact.start_time.date()
+            delta = new_date - previous_date
+            self.fact.start_time += delta
             if self.fact.end_time:
+                # preserve fact duration
                 self.fact.end_time += delta
-            # self.update_fields() here would enter an infinite loop
+                self.end_date.date = self.fact.end_time
+        self.date = self.fact.date or dt.hday.today()
 
     def on_prev_day_clicked(self, button):
         self.increment_date(-1)
@@ -161,7 +162,7 @@ def get_widget(self, name):
 
     def increment_date(self, days):
         delta = dt.timedelta(days=days)
-        self.date += delta
+        self.move_to_date(self.date + delta)
         self.update_fields()
 
     def show(self):
@@ -196,6 +197,7 @@ def on_cmdline_changed(self, widget):
                 # no change to description here, keep the main one
                 fact.description = self.fact.description
             self.fact = fact
+            self.date = fact.date
             self.update_fields()
 
     def on_cmdline_focus_in_event(self, widget, event):
@@ -240,16 +242,8 @@ def on_end_time_changed(self, widget):
 
     def on_start_date_changed(self, widget):
         if not self.master_is_cmdline:
-            if self.fact.start_time:
-                previous_date = self.fact.start_time.date()
-                new_date = self.start_date.date
-                delta = new_date - previous_date
-                self.fact.start_time += delta
-                if self.fact.end_time:
-                    # preserve fact duration
-                    self.fact.end_time += delta
-                    self.end_date.date = self.fact.end_time
-            self.date = self.fact.date or dt.hday.today()
+            new_date = self.start_date.date
+            self.move_to_date(new_date)
             self.validate_fields()
             self.update_cmdline()
 
diff --git a/src/hamster/widgets/activityentry.py b/src/hamster/widgets/activityentry.py
index 97a3ac02e..28e3a187a 100644
--- a/src/hamster/widgets/activityentry.py
+++ b/src/hamster/widgets/activityentry.py
@@ -44,8 +44,7 @@
 #       Code redundancy to be removed later.
 
 
-def extract_search(text):
-    fact = Fact.parse(text)
+def extract_search(fact):
     search = fact.activity
     if fact.category:
         search += "@%s" % fact.category
@@ -209,9 +208,6 @@ def __init__(self, updating=True, **kwargs):
         # default day for times without date
         self.default_day = None
 
-        # to be set by the caller, if editing an existing fact
-        self.original_fact = None
-
         self.popup = gtk.Window(type = gtk.WindowType.POPUP)
         self.popup.set_type_hint(gdk.WindowTypeHint.COMBO)  # why not
         self.popup.set_attached_to(self)  # attributes
@@ -325,8 +321,8 @@ def load_suggestions(self):
 
     def complete_first(self):
         text = self.get_text()
-        fact = Fact.parse(text)
-        search = extract_search(text)
+        fact = Fact.parse(text, default_day=self.default_day)
+        search = extract_search(fact)
         if not self.complete_tree.rows or not fact.activity:
             return text, None
 
@@ -361,7 +357,7 @@ def update_suggestions(self, text=""):
 
         res = []
 
-        fact = Fact.parse(text)
+        fact = Fact.parse(text, default_day=self.default_day)
         now = dt.datetime.now()
 
         # figure out what we are looking for
@@ -382,7 +378,7 @@ def update_suggestions(self, text=""):
         current_fragment = fragments[-1] if fragments else ""
 
 
-        search = extract_search(text)
+        search = extract_search(fact)
 
         matches = []
         for match, score in self.suggestions: