Help / Getting started

Your first day

From an empty Today to a plan you can keep, in five minutes.

Contents
Guide

Billine opens on an empty Today. Here’s how to fill it with a day that fits.

1. Set your capacity

  1. Open Settings: the gear at the top of Today, or ⌘, on the Mac.
  2. In Your day, set Daily capacity to the hours of real focus you have. Four is a good start.

2. Capture what’s on your mind

  1. Tap Capture a task… above the tab bar on iPhone, or press ⌘N on iPad and Mac.
  2. Type a task with an estimate, and press Return. The sheet stays open for the next one.
write the project update ~45m

Saved as write the project update

  • 45m
  1. Add a few more. Give each an estimate with ~, and a day with words like today or friday if it has one. Tasks with no day go to the Inbox.

3. Plan your day

  1. On Today, tap Plan my day.
  2. Tap the tasks you’ll really do today. The track fills as you pick, and says so if you go over.
  3. Tap Commit. Those tasks move above the fold.
Plan my day with one task too many: the track shows 4h 10m of 4h, 10m over

4. Work through it

Tap the circle beside a task to complete it. If the day changes, move a task below the fold with the arrow on its row; it stays there, ready for another day.

Tip

Turn on Subtract calendar busy time in Settings › Calendar, and your meetings come off the day’s capacity by themselves.

  • Set your daily capacity Tell Billine how many hours of real focus you have in a day, and let your calendar take out the meetings.
  • Capture a task Get a task out of your head and into Billine in a few seconds, on iPhone, iPad or Mac.
  • Plan my day Choose what you'll actually do today from below the fold, while the track shows whether it fits.

Checked against Billine 1.0