Today · Core · Free
One page to start the day, work through it, and close it.
The screen HourLife opens on. Plan the morning, capture thoughts, switch into Sprint or Deep Work, and close the day.
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The week in 168 hoursUnder the greeting, one mark for every hour of the week. The hours behind you are inked, and the tall mark is now.
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Yours to arrangeTen sections, from Quick capture to Gratitude & wisdom. "Edit Today" turns each one on or off and drags them into your own order.
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A start and a close"Start your day →" asks for your energy and three priorities. "Close day" keeps what went well, clears your mind and sets tomorrow.
Your first day on Today
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Tap "Start your day →"
Before 10:00 AM it sits at the top of Today. Log your energy from 1 to 10, write up to three priorities under "Plan Your Day", and tap "Start day".
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Keep your One Thing in view
Star a task and the first open one shows under "ONE THING". Tap "Today's overview" whenever you want to see what is overdue and due.
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Close the day
From 8:00 PM, tap "Begin ritual" on "Close the day?". Answer "What went well today?", give your evening energy, and tap "Close day".
Every step, in detail
- 1 Open Today. Under the greeting, a row of 168 small marks is your week, one per hour, and the tall one is now. Tap "Today's overview" to see what is overdue and due today.
- 2 Before 10:00 AM, tap "Start your day →". Pick how you are arriving, log your energy, and write up to three priorities under "Plan Your Day". Then tap "Start day".
- 3 Type into "What's on your mind?" whenever a thought turns up. It goes to your Brain inbox and you stay on Today.
- 4 Tap the mode name at the top right to open the switcher. Use "Jump to" for Sprint, Deep Work, Rest or Capture, and the back arrow to return.
- 5 In the evening, tap "Begin ritual" on the "Close the day?" card, or the "Wind down — open Evening →" highlight, then tap "Close day".
Your week, 168 hours wide
Under the greeting, Today draws your week as one mark for every hour, Monday to Sunday. The hours behind you are inked, and the tall mark is the hour you are in. It moves on by itself every minute.
Sample · Tuesday, 2 PM
- Hours behind you
- Now
- Still ahead
- Tallest: a new day · middle: every six hours
What stays at the top
Whatever sections you keep below, these hold the top of the page.
- ONE THING
- The first open task you have starred, with a circle to tick it off and “Change” to pick another.
- Today’s overview
- While anything is overdue or due, this row opens “Today Summary”. When nothing is left it says so: “A clear day. Add what matters most.”
- Highlights
- One at a time, each one dismissible: “Start your day →” before 10:00 AM, “Wind down — open Evening →” from 8:00 PM, and “Weekly review — ready when you are →” on Sundays.
- Running timers
- Any quick timer you have started, counting down where you can see it.
OVERDUE
Renew passport photosOct 17
TODAY
Send the draft to PriyaOct 20
Book the dentistOct 20
HABITS
Read 20 pagesScheduled for today
ROUTINES
Weekly resetDue
From Start day to Close day
Today opens the day and closes it, and you can leave it for a mode whenever the work asks for one. Here is one Tuesday, with what each end of the day keeps.
Sample day · HourLife does not record which mode was on screen
- Today
- Sprint
- Deep Work
- Rest
- Capture
Start day
A sheet over Today, from “Start your day →” or the “Set today’s plan” card. It keeps your morning energy and up to three priorities. The energy step is skipped when you have logged one already.
CHECK IN
How are you arriving today?
ENERGY · 7/10
PLAN
Plan Your Day
1Send the draft to Priya
2Two hours on the chapter outline
3Walk at lunch
Close day
A sheet over Today, from the “Close the day?” card or “Wind down”. It opens on what the day added up to.
- tasks done
- 6
- habits
- 9
- focus
- 75m
Then it sets tomorrow and asks three things. When you tap “Close day”, each answer goes somewhere you will meet it again:
- “What went well today?”A highlight, and the day’s summary
- Your evening energy, 1 to 10An evening energy log
- Each line under “Clear your mind”A Brain item for tomorrow
- Tomorrow’s three slotsTomorrow’s priorities
“The day in a few lines” is written from what you did, not by AI: tasks done, habits logged, timed events and what slipped.
Ten sections, in your order
Below the top, Today is ten sections. “Edit Today”, at the foot of the mode switcher, turns each one on or off and lets you drag them into place. A section you keep on still stays out of sight on a day it has nothing for you.
Sections · default order · sample switches
- Quick captureBrain dump field
- Quick timerPresets and running quick timers
- Day recapQuiet recap after you close the day
- DirectionNorth Star, week priorities, quarter theme
- Check-insActive workout, morning mood check-in
- Daily planToday’s plan and seasonal cards
- RemindersRoutines, Close Day, countdowns, meals, nudges
- Dependents & sobrietyDependents’ activities and sobriety goals
- Habits & tasksEnergy, habits, tasks, mood and energy logs
- Gratitude & wisdomDaily gratitude and a wisdom quote
Quick timer
A preset or a recent label starts a timer in one tap. Up to ten run at once, from one second to three hours. They show on your other devices and ring on the one that started them.
Pages of your own
For a different home, build a page from module widgets under Settings, “Your Day”, “Custom Today pages”. It joins Today, Week and Month in the switcher.
Birthdays, in Reminders
With People on, a birthday gets a card in Reminders two weeks ahead, with up to two gift ideas you starred. In the last three days it reads “No gift logged yet.” with “Ideas ready”, and on the day it offers “Log what you gave” and “Mark wished ✓”, while the line at the top of Today names whose birthday it is. Another occasion follows its own two alerts, 14 and 3 days ahead unless you change them.
Pages and modes
Tap the mode name at the top right of Today to open the switcher. Each page puts a different job in front of the same day.
Your dayIn the switcher, under “Your day”.
- Today
- The default page: the greeting, the week's 168 hours, your One Thing, "Today's overview" and the sections you keep on.
- Week
- This week's number and dates, a habits/tasks/must-dos glance, an intention line and three must-dos, each due sometime this week. The "Review" chip opens the weekly review.
- Month
- A theme for the month and three must-dos, each due sometime this month, with a recap of how last month's must-dos went.
- Custom pages
- Pages you build from widgets in Settings. They appear under "Your day" in the switcher, beside Today, Week and Month.
Jump toThe four tiles under “Jump to”. They hide the tab bar until you tap back.
- Sprint
- A short list to get through: today's focus, tasks with a "New task…" field, habits split into Now and Others, and routines. A floating + button captures to Brain, and a long press starts voice capture.
- Deep Work
- Pick one task under "Current focus" and tap "Begin session" to start the Focus timer on it. Tap the session length to change it before you start.
- Rest
- A rest timer of 5, 10 or 30 minutes or an hour, a "How do you feel?" mood check, what you are reading or watching, a reflection prompt with "Write in journal", and a two-minute breathing exercise.
- Capture
- One field, "What's on your mind?", with voice input and mentions. It saves to your Brain inbox and lists today's captures.
Over TodaySheets, opened from Today’s own highlights and cards.
- Start day
- The morning check-in, a sheet over Today opened from the "Start your day →" highlight or the "Set today's plan" card. You can reorder or turn off its steps.
- Close day
- The evening wrap-up, a sheet over Today opened from the "Close the day?" card or the "Wind down — open Evening →" highlight. Ends with "Day closed. Rest well."
The weekly review
On Sundays, “Weekly review — ready when you are →” appears at the top of Today, and the “Review” chip on Week opens it any day. It reads the week back before it asks you to score it.
- “Day by day”: each day’s count, Monday to yesterday.
- Last week’s plan, habits, tasks, goals and the inbox.
- Energy and mood, then “What was the most important thing you did this week?”
- Up to three must-dos for next week, each then due sometime that week unless it already has a day in it, then “Finish Review”.
Prefer a gesture? Swipe in from the right edge of the screen to open Sprint, or the mode you pick under “Right-edge swipe” in Settings.
Tips
- The morning and evening highlights appear on their own: Start day before 10:00 AM, Evening from 8:00 PM. Change both times, or turn either page off, in Settings under "Your Day".
- In Settings, "Start day process" and "Close day process" let you reorder or turn off steps such as Wisdom, Habits and Experiments.
- Whatever you write under "What went well today?" when you close the day is saved as a highlight. You do not need to log it a second time.
- Up past midnight? "Day starts at", under "Your Day" in Settings, counts late check-offs toward the day before.
- The calendar icon beside the mode switcher opens today's timeline in Calendar.
Questions
About Today day to day.
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Can I change what Today shows, and in what order?
Yes. Open the mode switcher and tap "Edit Today", or go to Settings, "Your Day", "Edit Today page". Turn each of the ten sections on or off and drag them into order. A section you keep on still hides itself on a day it has nothing to show. "Reset to default" puts the original order back.
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When do the Start day and Wind down prompts appear?
"Start your day →" shows before 10:00 AM until you start the day, and "Wind down — open Evening →" from 8:00 PM. Change either time, or turn either prompt off, in Settings under "Your Day".
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What does closing the day save?
Your answer to "What went well today?" becomes the day's summary and a highlight, your evening energy is logged, each line under "Clear your mind" becomes a Brain item for tomorrow, and tomorrow's priorities are kept for the morning.
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I stay up past midnight. Which day do late check-offs count for?
Set "Day starts at" in Settings, under "Your Day". Anything you complete before that hour counts toward the day before.
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What are the 168 small marks under the greeting?
Your week, one mark per hour from Monday to Sunday. Hours already past are inked, the day letters mark each day with today's picked out, and the tall mark is the hour you are in. It moves on by itself every minute.
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Can I run more than one timer from Today?
Yes. Keep the Quick timer section on and tap a preset or a recent label. Up to ten timers run at once, from one second to three hours. They show on your other devices, and ring only on the one that started them.
Works with
Where Today hands off to the rest of HourLife.
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Brain
Quick capture, Capture mode, the Sprint + button and the Close day "Clear your mind" box all add items to the Brain inbox.
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Focus
Deep Work starts a Focus timer session on the task you pick, and Close day counts the minutes you focused.
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Highlights
Your Close day answer to "What went well today?" is saved as a highlight.
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Energy
The energy scores from Start day and Close day are saved as morning and evening energy logs.
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Mood
The faces under "How do you feel?" in Rest log your mood for today.
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Calendar
The timeline button in Today's header opens Calendar on today's date.
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Goals
A goal you pin as your North Star shows as a card on Today, at the start of each week unless you choose another schedule under "North Star on Today".
Read and try
Books from the library that Today puts into practice, and something to try on paper or in the browser.
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Make Time Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky Choose one Highlight for the day and make time for it first. Today's morning plan asks for the same thing.
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What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast Laura Vanderkam Vanderkam on spending the morning on what matters before the day fills up. Start day is that hour.
What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings--and Life
Laura Vanderkam
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Manage Your Day-to-Day Jocelyn K. Glei Short essays on building a daily routine and protecting creative time, the day Today is built around.
Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind
Jocelyn K. Glei
Already have HourLife?
Today opens with HourLife, and it reaches into the rest of it. Deep Work starts a Focus session, Rest logs your mood, and "Clear your mind" sends each line to your Brain inbox. Settings, under "Your Day", holds the times, the steps and the custom pages.
Today is in the Library, under Core. If it isn’t there, turn it on in Settings → Look & Feel → Modules.
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