Time Stream help

In Time Stream, the Today view will help you plan, visualise, track, and record the day's workload.

The history behind this screen is that The Pomodoro Technique recommends planning your day out in Pomodoro sessions. These sessions give you a clear plan to work to and an accurate way to ensure you set realistic expectations for what you can achieve in a day.

Use the Today screen at the start of each day to plan your day. You should be visiting this screen throughout the day to track your progress and note down any unplanned tasks that have popped up.

Adding tasks

Here is a user guide for creating tasks directly on the Today screen;

Click the Create a new task button at the top right corner.
Enter a note, estimated Pomodoros, status and tags for this task in the pop-up modal.
Click the Save button to save this task.
Adjust the order of your tasks on the Today screen using the arrows between the Today button and the kebab menu.

You can also plan your day from your Tasks screen. To take a task from your Task list to your Today list, toggle the grey Today button to purple. Then, on the Today screen, you can edit the pomodoro count, status and tags.

Editing tasks

Here is a user guide for editing tasks;

To edit the pomodoro count, click the kebab menu (three vertical dots) to the right of each task, select edit, and estimate your pomodoros. You can also update the task's notes, status, and tags here.
You can quickly alter a task's status by clicking the status button and selecting a different one from the drop-down menu.
Remove a task from the Today view by toggling the purple Today button.

The clock icon indicates the estimated sessions for the task. A grey outline of the clock represents an estimated session, a green solid clock represents a completed estimated session, and a red clock represents a completed unplanned session. So if you estimated three sessions but took five you will see three green clocks and two red clocks.

Starting a session

On the left side of each task is a play button; click it when you are ready to start your session. You will be redirected to the timer page, where the timer has automatically started; this session is linked to the task you started with any notes and tags.

How to improve your daily workflow

Here are some tips and recommended workflows from the Pomodoro Technique to apply to better use Time Stream:

Set your focus

Pick one priority for your day.

Prioritisation is a significant time management technique that ensures your most critical tasks are your focus.

Once you have your to-do list for the day, prioritise the most critical task and estimate the number of Pomodoro sessions required.

Prioritise and estimate everything else

Even though you have prioritised one task for the day, the rest of the list is essential, too. Arrange them in order of priority and estimate the sessions each requires.

Remember, if an estimate is greater than 5-7 Pomodoros, the task might be too complex; it's better to break it down into several smaller tasks.

Monitor progress

The progress bar on the Today page shows your progress throughout the day. It shows how many sessions have been estimated and completed.

As you become more familiar with the technique you should aim for less red sessions (e.g. tasks that you underestimated). By virtue of using the technique you should start to have a clearer understanding of how long things take and this will be reflected in your planning.

Use the progress bar to better understand your days, whether your plans are reasonable and achievable, whether you are achieving as much as possible in a day, and whether you have the capacity for more pomodoros.

Responding to unplanned tasks

We can only sometimes work according to our plan exactly. Unplanned and ad hoc tasks will come up during the day. Record those tasks directly from the Today screen to keep a log of the unplanned tasks you have worked on.

End-of-day reflection

You should return to the Today screen and review your daily progress. Take a moment to reflect on the estimated and actual Pomodoros spent on each task to improve your next estimate. Look at the unplanned activities created today and any internal and external interruptions, observe them, and try to minimise them over time. Spending no more than one Pomodoro at the end of the day reflecting on your tasks can be a powerful tool for process improvement. It's all about being proactive and staying in control of your productivity.

Today

Planning your day