Brain · Productivity · Free
Somewhere to put a thought the moment it arrives, and a few minutes later on to decide what it was.
Get a thought out of your head in a few words, then decide later whether it is a task, a journal entry, a highlight or nothing.
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Caught in a lineType or dictate into "What's on your mind?". Today, Sprint and Close day all drop their stray thoughts here too.
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Sorted one at a time"Review" shows each capture with "WHAT IS THIS?": a task, a journal entry, a highlight, a goal, a snooze or the bin.
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Back on its dayA snoozed capture leaves the inbox and returns on the day you chose, counted each time you put it off.
Your first week with Brain
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Empty your head once
Open Brain and type every open loop into "What's on your mind?", one capture each. Don't sort anything yet.
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Capture as you go
When a thought interrupts you, put it in Brain from Today's quick capture and go back to what you were doing.
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Review at the end of the day
Open "Review" from the ⋯ menu and give each capture one answer. "Snooze" what isn't ready, and "Delete" what no longer matters.
Every step, in detail
- 1 Open Brain and type into "What's on your mind?", or tap the microphone to dictate. Tap the arrow to save it.
- 2 Your captures stack up below the box, newest first, and the header counts how many are left, such as "5 to process".
- 3 Tap a capture to open it. Under "WHAT IS THIS?", choose "Task", "Someday", "Journal", "Highlight", "Learning" or "Snooze".
- 4 Tap "More — Goal, Habit, Project, Wisdom, Secure Box…" for the other destinations, or "Delete" if you no longer need it.
Sort the inbox, one capture at a time
“Review” in the ⋯ menu takes the captures waiting in Brain, newest first, and asks of each one “WHAT IS THIS?”. Try it on six from a Tuesday morning. Each choice files the capture where it belongs; nothing here is saved.
Sample · six captures, Tuesday, Oct 20 · try it
Renew passport before March #admin
Captured Tue, Oct 20, 7:55 AMWHAT IS THIS?
Quick Snooze
Brain cleared.
Where they went
- Nothing sorted yet.
“Next” leaves a capture in Brain, but the closing tally still counts it among the items processed. A task made in Review is due in a week; from a capture’s own page it has no date. A delete in Review is final, where the capture’s page sends it to Trash.
Many ways in, one inbox, a dozen ways out
Brain is where the rest of HourLife drops a stray thought. Each way out makes a real record in another module; the tag on the right is how Insights counts it afterwards.
Into Brain
- Brain itself“What’s on your mind?”, typed or dictated, or the + button’s full-screen “Capture”.
- TodayThe quick capture box, and Capture mode.
- The quick-add panelOne field, wherever it opens.
- SprintIts capture box, while “Show Brain capture in Sprint” is on.
- Close day“CLEAR YOUR MIND”: each line becomes its own capture for the morning.
- The shutdown routineThe step that empties your head before you stop.
Brain5 to process
en.wikipedia.org
Read up on the spacing effect
Maya mentioned she wants a tea set for her birthday
✦ Gift idea for Maya?- A link shows the site it is on. HourLife does not fetch the page’s title.
- #tags move to the foot: two, then “+1” for the rest.
- People you @mention sit as monograms, up to three.
- How long it has waited: now, 40m, 3h, 2d, 3w, 5mo.
- With “Smart suggestions” on, a gift or a birthday next to a name from People offers to save it to that person.
Out of Brain
- TaskA task, no date (due in a week from Review)Tasks
- GoalA goalGoals
- SomedayAn item on your Someday listNotes
- JournalA journal entryNotes
- HighlightA suggestion that waits in HighlightsNotes
- LearningAn article on your learning listNotes
- Habit, Project, WisdomA new one of eachNotes
- Secure BoxEncrypted, and kept on this deviceNotes
- SnoozeBack in Brain on the day you pickinbox
Brain syncs through iCloud like the rest of HourLife. A capture sent to Secure Box does not: the box is kept on the device that holds its key. Weekly Review also checks Brain, and lists captures older than seven days.
Not today: snooze it to a day
A snoozed capture leaves the inbox and waits under “Snoozed” in the ⋯ menu. On its day it comes back to be sorted. Here are the four quick snoozes from Tuesday, Oct 20, and what the Snoozed list looks like that morning.
Sample · snoozed on Tuesday, Oct 20
- 20 today Tuesday, October 20
- 21 Tomorrow Wednesday, October 21
- 23 In 3 days Friday, October 23
- 24 weekend Saturday, October 24
- 25 weekend Sunday, October 25
- 27 Next week Tuesday, October 27
- 31 month end Saturday, October 31
- 19 Next month Thursday, November 19
Each quick snooze lands at the start of its day. “Or pick a date” takes any other: “Return to Brain”, then “Snooze to selected date”.
Snoozed
THIS WEEKEND
- Plan a route for Sunday's hikeSat, Oct 24Snoozed 1×
END OF MONTH
- Cancel the streaming trialSat, Oct 31Snoozed 2×
LATER
- Look into a standing deskTue, Oct 27Snoozed 1×
- Sort out the garage shelvesThu, Nov 19Snoozed 3×
TODAY
- Reply to the book club emailReturning nowSnoozed 1×
“Snoozed 3×” turns teal: a capture you keep putting off may want “Someday” or “Delete” instead.
Straight in, or a form first
“Capture conversion” in Brain Settings decides what a tap on “Task” does. Here is the same capture both ways: “Book the car in for its winter tyres #errands”.
Auto-save
Converts immediately with default values.
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Tap “Task”.
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The task is made with the capture as its title, and the capture leaves Brain.
The default. Two taps a capture, and you add dates later in Tasks.
Show create flow Guided
Open the destination form before saving.
CancelNew TaskSave
- TITLE
- Book the car in for its winter tyres #errands
- LINK TO (OPTIONAL)
- Link to goal
- DUE DATE (OPTIONAL)
- None
- NOTES (OPTIONAL)
- Notes
Task, Someday, Goal, Habit, Project, Wisdom
Journal, Highlight, Learning, Secure Box
What you capture, and what it becomes
“Insights” in the ⋯ menu. The cards below are drawn from a sample: eight weeks of captures, most of the older ones sorted, most of this week’s still waiting.
Sample · eight weeks to Tuesday, Oct 20
You’ve captured 84 thoughts.
10 captured in the last 7 days.
Capture · 14 days
10 thoughts captured this week.
Weekly rhythm
Your mind unloads most on Mondays.
- 22 Mon
- 13 Tue
- 16 Wed
- 11 Thu
- 10 Fri
- 4 Sat
- 8 Sun
The weekend’s thoughts tend to arrive on Monday morning.
Processing
You’ve processed 87% of what you captured.
Processed means turned into something else. A capture you snooze or leave with “Next” still counts as in the inbox, and deleted ones drop out of the sums.
What it becomes
Where your captured thoughts end up.
“Notes” gathers everything that is not a task or a goal: Someday, Journal, Highlight, Learning, Habit, Project, Wisdom and Secure Box.
Tips
- When you have more than ten captures and the oldest is over three days old, a "Review" strip appears above the list. Tap it to clear the backlog.
- "Search captures" at the top finds a capture by its text.
- In the evening, each line you type under "CLEAR YOUR MIND" when you close the day becomes its own capture, ready for tomorrow.
- Deleting from a capture's own page sends it to Trash. In Review, "Delete" is for good, and "Confirm before delete" in Brain settings asks first.
- A capture's page has "Edit" and "Copy", for fixing a typo or pasting the text elsewhere before you decide.
Questions
About Brain day to day.
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What happens to a capture when I choose "Task"?
It becomes a task with the capture as its title and leaves Brain. From the capture's own page the task has no date; from Review it is due a week later. With "Show create flow" on, the New Task form opens first.
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Where do snoozed captures go?
Out of the inbox and into "Snoozed" in the ⋯ menu, grouped by when they return. At the start of the chosen day they come back to be sorted, and the list counts how many times each one has been snoozed.
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Is deleting a capture permanent?
From a capture's own page, "Delete" sends it to Trash. In Review, "Delete" removes it for good; turn on "Confirm before delete" in Brain settings to be asked first.
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Do captures sync between my devices?
Yes, through iCloud like the rest of HourLife. A capture you send to Secure Box is the exception. It is encrypted and stays on the device that holds the box's key.
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What does "Smart suggestions" do?
When a capture mentions a gift, a present or a birthday next to the first name of someone in People, it offers "Gift idea for Maya?" and saves the idea to that person when you tap it.
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What counts as processed in Insights?
A capture that became a task, a goal or anything else, such as a journal entry or a Someday item. A capture you snoozed or left with "Next" still counts as in the inbox, and deleted ones drop out of the sums.
Works with
Where Brain hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Today
Quick capture on Today, Capture mode, the Brain capture in Sprint and "CLEAR YOUR MIND" in Close day all save to Brain.
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Tasks
"Task" turns a capture into a task, and the review flow counts how many tasks you added.
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Someday
"Someday" moves a capture out of Brain and onto your Someday list.
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Journal
"Journal" ("Write about this") turns a capture into a journal entry.
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Highlights
"Highlight" offers a capture as a suggestion in Highlights, for you to keep or pass on.
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Compass
Compass flags captures that have waited a week or more, as "3 unprocessed captures" with the age of the oldest. Weekly Review lists them too.
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People
A "Gift idea for …?" suggestion saves a gift idea to that person in People.
Read and try
Books from the library that Brain puts into practice, and something to try on paper or in the browser.
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Building a Second Brain Tiago Forte Forte on capturing ideas outside your head so your mind is free to think. Brain is the inbox.
Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte
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How to Take Smart Notes Sonke Ahrens Ahrens on fleeting notes, written fast and sorted later, which is how Brain asks you to work.
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The Bullet Journal Method Ryder Carroll Carroll's rapid logging, then deciding what each line becomes. Brain makes that decision a tap.
Already have HourLife?
Brain is under Productivity in the module list. The ⋯ menu on the Brain page holds "Review", "Snoozed", "Insights" and Settings.
Brain is in the Library, under Productivity. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules.
What would you like to know?
Ask a question about this feature or tell us what’s missing.
