The Basics

This is the best place to start. By the end you’ll know how to add and edit tasks, schedule them, and move between the screens that make up Sonto. Watch the walkthrough below, or read the written steps that follow. Prerequisites: download Sonto and open it. You’ll land on the Day screen.

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Move around your days

The Day screen is home base. Move forward a day with the right arrow, back a day with the left arrow, and jump straight back to today with the curly arrow.

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Add and reorder tasks

Click the purple + to add a task (or press Cmd + N). To reorder your list, pick a task up and drag it where you want it.

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Deal with a late task

A task left over from a past day shows a little sleep icon. Double-click it to open it, then either clear the late status — which schedules it for today — or reschedule it to another day. Nothing slips away quietly; you decide what happens to it. See Overdue tasks.

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Open a task to do more

Double-click a task (or tap it on iPhone) to open it. From here you can:

• Flag it important with the triangle — the checkbox turns red.
• Schedule it using the calendar, or by typing the date straight into the name.
• Type it naturally — write the date, time, project, or tags into the name itself, like tomorrow 3pm #Work @urgent, and Sonto files them for you. See Natural language input.
• Add notes — type anything you like.
• Move it to the inbox (which unschedules it), or into an area or project.
• Mark it in progress from the menu (the icon becomes a play icon), or by long-clicking the icon. Handy for longer tasks.
• Focus it — a full-screen, distraction-free view, great for writing. See Focus.

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The inbox is your holding pen

The inbox is for tasks that aren’t scheduled or filed yet. Empty it regularly — schedule each item, file it in a project or area, or delete it.

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Think in weeks, not just days

Switch to the Week screen and you’ll see your weekly tasks, the days of the week, and your calendar. In Sonto, a week is a real planning unit: you can schedule a task on a week — meaning you want it done sometime this week, but not on a specific day yet. As the week unfolds, you move each task onto the day you’ll actually do it. You can also drag a task straight onto a day, a week, an area, or a project. Drop it on a day or week and it’s scheduled for that day or this week.

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Where to next