Guide

How actions, time and routines fit together in the desktop app.

An action is something to do. An event represents something happening at a particular time. Subroutine brings them into the same plan, while keeping flexible work distinct from fixed commitments.

Timeline

The Timeline shows scheduled work against time. Actions can have a start and a duration; pinning an action keeps it in place when the scheduler moves flexible work. Time-blocking events reserve space too. Non-blocking events do not.

You can move and resize items directly. The Timeline is a view of the current plan, not a separate copy of your tasks.

Upcoming and the Queue

The Queue is the set of unfinished actions you have committed to doing. Queueing an action asks the scheduler to find a slot using its duration, existing scheduled work and fixed blockers.

Upcoming is the current name of the agenda view. It brings queued actions and events together so you can review what is ahead.

Use an explicit refresh to move overdue, flexible actions forward. This is not continuous background optimization: the scheduler works with the times and constraints you provide, not predictions about your intentions or energy.

Unqueued and Unscheduled

These are two different libraries:

  • Unqueued: unfinished actions outside the queue. This is the closest match to the “Backlog” described in earlier blog posts.
  • Unscheduled: queued actions that do not have a start date or time.

Queue membership and having a scheduled time are separate properties. An action can be worth keeping without needing a place in today's plan.

Focus

Focus mode narrows the view to eligible queued actions: due actions, date-only actions for today or earlier, and unscheduled queued actions. Future scheduled actions wait until they are due.

You can move between actions, and completing one lets the view advance. An active or imminent event can take precedence over action suggestions; an Events mode is also available. This is a way to follow the plan, not a claim that the app knows the best thing for you to do.

Routines and Saved Items

A routine is an ordered set of steps with durations. Edit the steps, then start the routine to create actions from that sequence.

Saved items are reusable action and event templates. Keep a definition here when you want to use it again without rebuilding the same item each time.

A small planning workflow

  1. Add a fixed appointment as a time-blocking event.
  2. Capture a few actions and give them realistic durations. Leave work you are not committing to in Unqueued.
  3. Queue the actions you intend to do, then review their placement in Timeline or Upcoming. Pin only what needs to stay fixed.
  4. Follow the plan in Focus mode. If work runs late, explicitly refresh and review the revised schedule.

What is still changing

The desktop app is an alpha, and navigation and scheduling behavior are still evolving. Dependency-aware ordering and suggestions based on location, tools or personal capacity remain future directions, not features this guide asks you to rely on.

See Project for development links and feedback, or Download for current availability and source-build information.