thisflow can walk you through a day: a short plan in the morning, time blocks in the calendar, a focus timer on the task you are working on, and a wrap-up in the afternoon. All of it is optional, and nothing moves unless you press a button.

Plan the morning

Between 05:00 and 12:00, Today shows a quiet line at the top: Plan your day, with a summary such as "2 overdue, 3 in the Inbox". Press Plan to open the dialog, or press ⌘K and choose Plan today at any time of day. On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl wherever this guide says ⌘.

The dialog suggests what could be today, in four groups:

  • Overdue: move each to Today or Tomorrow.
  • In the Inbox: put each on Today or in Someday.
  • Coming up in the next days: pull it forward to Today.
  • Important, without a date: priority 1 and 2 tasks that are easy to forget.

A line at the bottom shows what today holds, for example "Today: 5 tasks, 3 h planned", and how many of them have no duration yet. If you have added other calendars under Settings → Calendar → Other calendars, today's events are listed too. Press Start the day when you are done, or close the line in Today with its ✕ (Not today) to put it away until tomorrow.

Give tasks a duration

A duration tells the calendar how long a task is. Set it in the task panel under Duration, or type it in quick add with for in front:

  • Write the proposal tomorrow 9am for 1.5 hours
  • Review budget for half an hour
  • Workshop 14:00-15:30 (a range gives a time and a duration at once)

A duration is between 5 minutes and 12 hours. The full rules are in Quick add: the full grammar.

Block time in the week calendar

Switch Today or a project to Calendar. Under the All day row is an hour grid, and every task with a time is a block as long as its duration (30 minutes when none is set). A red line marks the current time.

  • Drag a block to move it, in 15-minute steps.
  • Drag its bottom edge to make it longer or shorter.
  • Drop it in the All day row to remove its time and keep the date.
  • Click a free time to add a task there.

Events from your other calendars show as grey blocks, so you can plan around meetings. They cannot be opened or moved. On a phone, the week is a list of days; change a task's time from its panel.

Start a focus session

The focus timer runs on a task, so the time ends up where the work is. Start it in any of these ways:

  • Press the timer button in the task panel (Focus on this task).
  • Select a task and press F.
  • Choose Focus on this task in the task's ⋯ menu, which also lets you pick a rhythm.
  • Press ⌘K and choose Start focus for a session without a task.

There are four rhythms:

  • Pomodoro: 25 minutes of focus, then a 5-minute break, with a 15-minute Long break after every four sessions (you can change the number).
  • Deep work: 50 minutes, then 10.
  • Ultradian: 90 minutes, then 20.
  • Flowtime: counts up until you stop, then suggests a break that fits the work: a fifth of the time you worked, at least 5 and at most 30 minutes.

Choose your usual one under Settings → Focus → Default rhythm. Every plain start uses it.

Work, pause and take the break

While a session runs, a small timer sits in the top bar (on a phone, by the tab bar). Click it for Pause, +5 min, Stop and Mark task done. Shift+F pauses and resumes from anywhere. The timer is the same on all your devices.

When the focus time ends you can Start break, Keep going or choose Not now. During a break, thisflow suggests one way to recover: stand up and stretch, rest your eyes with 20-20-20, drink some water, box breathing, or step outside. When the break is over, Start next focus; or end it early with Skip break.

Under Settings → Focus you can also turn on Start breaks automatically, set Long break after for Pomodoro, and choose a Sound when a phase ends and a Notification when a phase ends on each device.

Wrap up the day

From 16:00, Today offers Wrap up the day. Press Wrap up, or choose Wrap up today in ⌘K.

The dialog shows what you got done and, under Focused today, how long you focused and on which tasks. Under Still open for today, each task can be marked Done or moved to Tomorrow, Next week or Someday. Press Close the day when you are finished.

Focus time also stays on the task: its panel shows a Focused row with the total and the number of sessions. New to thisflow? Start with Getting started in 5 minutes.