How do I plan my day with Today's three?
Each morning a Plan your day card lets you pick up to three tasks, hardest first, say when you will start, and note what might get in the way.
Each morning the Tasks page can show a Plan your day card. Pick up to three tasks, hardest one first, say when you will start the first, write one line for what might get in the way, and press Start my day. The three become Today’s three, the cards at the top of your list.
#When the card appears
The card sits above the list in the List view. It appears when all of these are true.
- Planning in Settings → Assistant and tasks is Top 3 or Time boxes. The third choice, Go with the flow, shows no planning cards.
- It is before 5:00 PM and you have at least one open task.
- You have not saved a plan for today and have not closed the card with Not today.
Close the card three mornings in a row and the app asks once, “Switch to Go with the flow?”, with the buttons Switch and Keep them. After that the card waits behind a quiet Plan my day button that you press when you want it.
#Plan the day
- Read the greeting, such as “Good morning, Emily. Plan today?”. If tasks from earlier days are still open, the card lists them under From yesterday or From earlier. Choose Keep, Move or Let go for each. Move asks for a day, and Let go puts the task in Someday. Nothing is deleted.
- Under Today’s three, click the tasks that matter most today. The card says “Pick up to three. Hardest one first.” A fourth click gets “That is the most. Take one off first.”
- Under “When will you start the first one?”, click a time such as “After lunch, 1:00 PM”, or use Pick a time. With Time boxes, the card asks “Give each of the three a time” instead, with a start and a length for each.
- Under “Anything likely to get in the way?” you can fill the line “If ..., then I will ....” Fill both halves or leave both empty. Then press Start my day.
The card says “Your day is set.” with an Undo, and Today’s three appear above the list as numbered cards. The first task has the start time you chose, unless it already had a time of its own, which is kept. With Remind me when a task’s time comes on, which is the default, it also has a reminder at that time.
#Star a task yourself
Hover a task and click its star to make it one of today’s three. Click the star again to take it off. Finished cards stay among the three and read, for example, “Done at 10:35 AM”. Click a card to open the task.
When you add a task for today while all three are set, the box asks “Today already has your three. Add this to today, or after your three?” After my three files it under This evening, and Add to today adds it to Today. It asks once in a session of the app.
#On Mondays
On Monday the first card is Plan your week. You write what is on your mind, one thing per line, place each thing under This week, Later or Someday, pick the three that matter most this week, add the same If and then line, and press Start the week. When you plan a day, the week’s three are offered first. A quiet See last week button on the card opens the week report.
#When it does not work
Today already has its three. Take one off first.Why: Three tasks already hold a star, and a fourth cannot join until one comes off.
Fix: Click the star on one of the three to take it off, then star the new one.
Fill both halves, or leave both empty.Why: Only one half of the If and then line has words.
Fix: Finish the other half, or clear the first.
Today’s three holds three and no more, and a Someday task cannot be one of them: move it to To do first. The card does not appear after 5:00 PM. A reminder is never one of the three.