Now

Start here — the five-minute version

Five things. If you only ever learn these, the app works.

1Capture anything. Type whatever's in your head into the box on Now — a task, an appointment with a time, a stray thought. You don't have to format it or sort it. Sorting is the app's job.

2Answer the cards. Sometimes the app asks one short question — "is this new, or was it about what you're already doing?" Answer it, or ignore it. Declining never escalates anything, and nothing about your day changes behind your back.

3Start and finish. Press Start on a task and a timer runs. Press Done when it's done. If you wander off, press Detour instead of pretending you didn't — the detour gets timed and logged, no judgment attached.

4Arrange all. When the list feels like a pile, Arrange all sorts it into a plan for today — buckets, priorities, time guesses, a slot for each. It's a proposal. Read it, remove anything you don't like, approve it. One Undo reverses the whole plan.

5Body double. Stuck starting? Open Body Double, say what the next small bit is, and start the session. A quiet companion sits with you; you tap a button when the bit is done or when you drift. Drifting is logged the same as finishing — it's information, not a grade.

The full guide

Now

Your current task, big and in front. Under it, the capture box. The example chips under the box fill it in so you can see what kinds of things you can type: an appointment with a time ("dentist tomorrow 3pm"), a status ("I'm stuck", "I'm done"), a detour ("side quest: emails"). The quick chips do one job each: park a thought on Hold, start a Detour, note that the Day changed, ask for Something easy, or turn on Leave me alone (quiet mode — nothing pops up for 30 minutes).

Tasks

Everything, grouped by bucket (work, home, health, and so on — the app guesses from the words). Priorities are Must, Should, Could, and Someday. A star means "today matters". Open any task to add steps, a time guess, a note about where you got to, and a reward. Statuses: unsorted, planned, active, paused, done, held, parked.

Calendar

Today as a timeline. It only shows this app's own tasks. Fixed appointments are solid amber blocks. Flexible tasks are dashed and sized by their time guess.

Detours

Unplanned work you jumped to. Timing it turns "where did the afternoon go" into an answer. Your top task stays visible while you're detouring, so finding your way back is one tap.

Routines

Recurring reminders at set times. Edit by deleting and re-adding — yes, this version kept that, and yes, it's on the fix list for the real one. A routine with Nag on will re-ask if dismissed; the interval and the maximum number of nags live in Advanced settings.

Tools

Brain dump turns a pasted mess into separate tasks, with a preview before import. Break it down cuts a big task into starter steps, with a slider for smaller steps when the first cut still feels too big.

The rules you can't see

• Fixed appointments never move. If it has a clock time, the planner walks around it. Nothing — not Arrange all, not a detour, not a bad day — moves it.
• Proposals, not decisions. Arrange all changes nothing until you approve it, and the whole approval is a single Undo.
• Nags are opt-in. Per task, per routine. Off means off. The maximum number of nags is capped in Advanced settings.
• Snooze has a limit (also in Advanced settings). When you hit it, the card stops asking — it doesn't shout louder.
• Declining never escalates. Saying no, ignoring a card, or pressing Leave me alone never makes the app try harder.
• Inferred "done" always confirms first. If the app thinks you finished something, it asks. It never quietly marks your work complete.
• No praise, no pep talks, no guilt. The app reports what happened. That's all.