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How it goes, what the keys do, and where your work lives.
How it goes
Four things, and the app is built around them happening in this order — though nobody has to live it in sequence.
- Write it down. A project for anything that takes more than an afternoon; one line each for the rest. Things with no project land in the Inbox.
- Break it down. Open a task into the steps it really takes. A task is done when its steps are, so you tick the steps and the task follows.
- Plan it. Drag tasks into the week. The length of the block you draw is how long you are giving it.
- Do it, with a timer running if you want one. That is what lets the next estimate come from your own history instead of a guess.
Projects, tasks and steps
Tasks nest as deep as the work goes. To open one up, use Add a step in the row’s “…” menu — or press Enter for a new row and Tab to tuck it under the one above.
A task with steps has no checkbox of its own. It is done when its steps are, so its box reports rather than asks. To finish all of them at once, use Mark every step done in the same menu.
Progress counts the smallest steps, not the headings — a project at 60 % has really done 60 % of the work it has described. Finished tasks sink to the bottom of their level, because a done task is a record, not work left.
Writing a task in one line
Quick add reads a single line. Everything it recognises is taken out of the title, so what is left is the name of the thing.
| Type | Does |
|---|---|
| @name | Put it in that project |
| #tag | Give it a tag |
| 45m, 1h 30m | Estimate — a unit is required, so “Episode 12” keeps its number |
| today, tomorrow | Plan it for that day |
Planning into the week
A block is a task on a day. One task can have several — an hour before lunch and another after it — but never a day plan and a timed block on the same day, because one says “sometime today” and the other says “at three”.
Dragging snaps to five minutes, or to the minute with Alt held. For an exact length, click a block and type it: 22m, 1h 20m, 1:30 or 90.
Time blocked out is the estimate. Deciding “two hours on Tuesday” is a more considered answer than a number typed into a field, and it moves when the plan moves. Only timed blocks count; a day plan’s length is a placeholder.
Keys
Anywhere
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| ⌘K / Ctrl K | Quick add |
| ⌘Z / Ctrl Z | Undo — except while typing in a field |
In a task row
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| Enter | A new row below |
| Tab / ⇧Tab | Tuck under the row above / lift back out |
| ⌘Enter | Finish it — or finish every step, if it has them |
| ↑ / ↓ | The row above or below |
| Backspace | Remove the row, when it is empty |
| ⇧⌘U | Take it off the calendar |
| Escape | Leave the field |
On a block in the week
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| ← / → | Another day |
| ↑ / ↓ | Move it by a quarter hour |
| ⇧↑ / ⇧↓ | Make it a quarter hour longer or shorter |
| Enter | Open it, to type an exact length |
| Delete / U | Take it off the calendar |
| Escape | Abandon a drag half-way |
Every one of these has a way round it that needs no keyboard — look in the “…” menu on a row, or drag a block with a finger.
Time
One timer runs at a time, and it is wall-clock: it survives a reload, a closed tab and a sleeping laptop. Time can also be entered by hand afterwards.
After three finished steps that had both an estimate and tracked time, the app can say how your pace compares. Below three it says so instead of showing a number, because three is not a pattern.
Your work, and where it is
Everything lives in this browser and works offline. Signing in is optional and adds one thing: the same work on your other devices.
Settings holds a full export — a readable file with every row, the trash and the history — and an import that shows you what it would change before it does it. Deleting a project puts it in the trash, where it can be restored.