Managing Your Tasks During the Day
The Launchpad and Focus Mode handle the normal flow — you see a task, you tap it, you do it. But real days aren't that tidy. Tasks need editing. Plans change. Some things need to move. This chapter covers everything that happens when the plan meets reality.
Opening a task
Tap any task in your Now list — but don't hold it, which starts the drag-to-reorder. A single tap opens the task detail view, which slides up from the bottom as a full-screen panel.
The task detail view shows you everything about a task in one place: the title at the top, the role it belongs to, your notes, any attached files, and the contact it involves if one was set. Below those is a collapsible "Task details" section — tap it to expand and see the full set of fields: energy, time estimate, time origin, stakes, and due date.
Most of the time you won't need the details section. You'll open a task, read your notes, and tap Start. But when something about a task needs to change, this is where you change it.
Editing a task
Tap "Task details" to expand the full field set. Every field becomes editable inline — tap any of them to change it. The title itself is editable by tapping it at the top of the screen.
Changes save automatically when you dismiss the view. There's no save button and no confirmation. The system assumes you meant what you changed.
The most common edits are:
Title refinement — the concrete action has become clearer since you captured it. "Call attorney" becomes "Call Robert Chen re: I-485 affidavit of support requirements." More specific titles are easier to start. Vague titles are one of the most common reasons a task stalls.
Time estimate correction — after completing similar tasks, you have better calibration. Adjusting the estimate improves how well the fit score matches tasks to your available windows.
Energy adjustment — you thought this was an admin task and it turns out to be deep work. Or vice versa. The energy field determines when the task surfaces, so getting it right matters.
The fit score recalculates the next time the Launchpad renders, picking up any field changes automatically. You don't need to do anything else after editing.
Deferring a task
Deferring is not the same as deleting. It means: this is real, it still matters, but not right now. The task is hidden from your Now list until the time you specify — then it reappears as if it had just been created.
The Defer button is on the task detail view, or you can swipe left on any task row in the Now list. Three options:
Every time you defer a task, the system increments a counter. At three deferrals, something changes — but more on that below. This isn't a judgment about your discipline. It's a diagnostic tool. A task that keeps getting moved has something going on worth understanding.
The "Who Does This Serve?" prompt
When you try to defer a task for the third time, the system pauses before letting you move it again. A prompt appears:
who does this actually serve?
This is a coaching intervention, not an administrative obstacle. It surfaces a pattern that ADHD task management systems almost never address: the tasks that keep getting deferred aren't usually procrastination — they're tasks that were never genuinely committed to. They arrived in the system through obligation, habit, or a moment of enthusiasm that has passed.
The three options lead somewhere specific. "Someone else" prompts: "Is this a real commitment? Do you want to communicate about it, or just remove it?" "Nobody anymore" sends the task to Someday or deletes it with the message: "Good call — letting go of things that aren't real creates space for things that are." "Me" keeps the task active and optionally opens the Activation Interview, which is described next.
The Activation Interview — when a task won't start
Some tasks stall not because they're unimportant but because something is blocking the start. The block is usually one of four things: the task isn't specific enough to know how to begin, it feels too large to cut into, it involves something aversive you'd rather avoid, or something external has to happen first.
The Activation Interview is a brief diagnostic that figures out which one applies and resolves it. You can reach it two ways: it appears as an option when you answer "Me" to the "Who Does This Serve?" prompt, or you can invoke it at any time from the task detail view by tapping "Help me start this." You don't have to defer a task three times to get here — if a task feels stuck, you can open the interview immediately.
The interview asks three questions at most. It never asks all three — it branches based on your answers and stops as soon as it has enough information to help.
What the interview produces
The interview always ends with a concrete change. It never leaves a task in the same stuck state it found it. One of five outcomes:
The Activation Interview is available on any task at any time, not just stuck ones. If you open a task and genuinely aren't sure how to begin — even on the first day — tapping "Help me start this" is the right move. The interview is designed to be fast: most paths resolve in under 60 seconds.
Completing a task without Focus Mode
You don't have to be in Focus Mode to complete a task. Plenty of things get done on a phone call, during a walk, or in the middle of something else. The checkmark button on the task detail view marks a task complete from anywhere.
The same completion sequence runs — the difficulty check and the time prompt — but the time prompt looks slightly different. Instead of showing logged session time, it asks: "How long did that actually take?" with a simple entry. Enter what's honest, tap confirm, and the task is done.
That estimate, even though it's self-reported rather than measured, still feeds your time calibration. The system notes the difference between measured and self-reported time and weights them accordingly.
Changing the order of your Now list
The system orders your Now list. Most of the time it's right. When it isn't — when you know you need to do the third thing before the first thing — you can override it.
Long-press on any task row and a drag handle appears on the right. Drag to reorder. The new sequence holds for the rest of today. Tomorrow, or on the next recalculation, the system quietly resumes control.
A small note appears below the list when manual ordering is active: Custom order — resets tomorrow.
Manual reordering changes the display sequence of tasks that are already in your Now list. It doesn't force a task into the list that didn't qualify — a task below the relevance threshold still won't appear. If a task isn't surfacing when you think it should, the better fix is to open its detail view and adjust its fields rather than trying to override the ordering.
The shape of a managed day
Most tasks don't need any of this. You open them, you start them, you finish them. The editing, deferring, and interview tools are for the minority of tasks that have something going on — and for ADHD, that minority matters more than it does for other people.
A task that keeps drifting costs cognitive energy every day it appears and gets moved. The "Who Does This Serve?" prompt and the Activation Interview exist to resolve those tasks rather than let them accumulate. A task that gets genuinely released, clarified, or decomposed is gone from your mental load. A task that keeps getting deferred just sits there, costing you a small amount of energy every time you look at it.
In the next chapter, we'll close out the day — the Daily Close ritual that resolves open loops, handles incomplete items, and sets up tomorrow before you go to sleep.