The Cockpit and "one thing now"

The Cockpit is the band pinned above your widgets. It never scrolls away, and it exists for one reason: time blindness. When you look up, the answer to "how long until the next thing, and what was I supposed to be doing?" is already on screen — you never have to go looking for it.

What each cell shows

• Today — the date, and the current time.
• Next — your next event with a live countdown ("in 22m"). "Nothing ahead" when the day is clear.
• To-Do — how many tasks you have closed today.
• Energy — your last check-in, and how long ago it was.
• Waiting — open follow-ups from the Waiting on… widget.
• Unread — unread email across your connected mailboxes.
• Weather, Habits (with your streak), Focus (minutes today) and Deadline (the nearest countdown).

Cells only appear when they have something to say, and they read from the same sources as the widgets themselves — the Cockpit is a view, never a second copy of your data.

The energy check-in

Press the Energy cell and answer one question: could you start something demanding? Three answers — "Yes, even a tough one", "Only something small", "Not today".

It is not a mood diary, and nothing judges you for it. It is an input: the next section uses it to avoid handing you a two-hour task on a day you have twenty minutes of brain left.

Taking it slow today

If you answer "Not today", the cell asks whether you'd like to take it slow today (you can also pick it from the line at the bottom of the same question). If you say yes, until midnight:

• the To-Do shows one Big 3 and, of today's things, only the small ones. Nothing is moved, removed or rescheduled: "Show everything" is one tap away;
• One thing now only suggests small things;
• the rest of the board steps back (it goes fainter) but stays where it is. Point at a card and it's back to full.

At midnight everything goes back to normal by itself, or earlier with "Back to normal" in the Energy cell. It follows your account: switched on on your phone, it's on on your computer too.

One thing now

Under the Cockpit sits a single row with a single task, a Start button and a reason.

That pick is deterministic. Ask twice, get the same answer — which is the entire point when you are already stuck, because a suggestion that reshuffles every time is one more decision, not one fewer. It weighs what is overdue, what is in today's Big 3, what fits the gap before your next event, and the energy you just reported.

The reason is always shown, in plain words:

• It's late — and it still matters
• One of today's Big 3
• It fits in the time you have
• It matches the energy you have
• Low energy — go gentle
• A small habit, right now

Your options on the row: Start (begins a focus session on it), Done (ticks it off), and Break it down — which hands the task to the AI and gets back a few steps small enough to actually begin. See AI features.

Stuck?

If the suggested task won't start, tap Stuck? under the badges and pick what's in the way. There are only four answers, and each brings one concrete help with one button:

• It's too big — only the first step exists, for 10 minutes. If there are no steps yet, it breaks the task down for you.
• I don't know where to start — the first step in 5 minutes, or saying out loud the first thing you'd do.
• I have no energy — no task: the lightest thing in your Dopamine Menu.
• I just don't want to — a short ritual with permission to stop: the worst version in 3 minutes, or just 10 minutes.

The timer runs for the ritual's length (your Pomodoro settings don't change) and the sentence to follow stays on the session screen. ← Back returns to the question: a wrong answer costs nothing.

The assistant never overrides this pick. Ask "what should I do now?" and it reports what this row already says, rather than inventing a second opinion.

Session mode

Pressing Start on a demanding task can open session mode: a full-screen view with the timer, the task, and nothing else. It tells you how long you have been in it and warns you when your next commitment is close.

Press Esc to leave. Nothing is lost, and your board comes back exactly as it was — same widgets, same positions.

Under the timer there is Background sound: brown noise, pink noise or rain, generated by your browser (nothing to download, works offline), at the volume you like. It always starts off: your last choice is only underlined, so turning it back on is one tap but it never plays by itself. It keeps going through a pause and fades out gently when the session ends.

Next to it is Work in company: turn it on and you see how many other people are focusing right now, but only when there are at least three. Nobody sees who you are or what you're working on: only an anonymous count is exchanged. You choose it once and it stays on for this device.

The Today strip

Under the Cockpit, a horizontal strip lays out today's commitments in order, with "Now" marking where you are. Click any of them to open it in the calendar.

When your next appointment is within two hours, the strip colours the time you have left until it and marks the last 15 minutes in amber: that's the margin to wrap up what you're doing and switch. It says it in words too, here and in the Cockpit's Next cell: "start wrapping up in 25m", then "time to wrap up". No sounds and no animations: the band simply moves with the clock.

When the day is empty it says so, and adds "Enjoy the open space" — that is not filler. An empty day is a legitimate state, not a gap to fill.