> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.sonto.app/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Sonto Method > Align your days with your long term aspirations Sonto is a planning method with an app wrapped around it. The app makes the method easy to live with; this page is the thinking underneath it. For the mechanics — the Year → Quarter → Week → Day cascade and how a plan turns into a day — see [The big picture](/concepts). ## Four principles **Know who you are.** Work feels meaningful when it serves something you genuinely care about. What that is rarely arrives fully formed — it surfaces through reflection and a little experimentation. The method starts here, not with a longer task list. **Sustainable productivity.** Less rushing, more thought. Do fewer things, better. Progress compounds when you keep a pace you can hold — not when you sprint and stall. **Gentle focus.** Sharp priorities and a plan, held lightly. The point isn't to control every hour; it's to give your days grounding and a few guardrails — then to welcome change when life upends the plan. When it does, you pause and make a new one. **Mindset over toolset.** Sonto is a nudge, not a cure. An app can remind you to plan and keep your goals in front of you, but the intent has to be yours. That's the point, not a limitation: the accomplishment is yours too. These principles set the cadence the app runs on — **an hour a year, thirty minutes a quarter, ten minutes a week, three minutes every morning** — small, repeatable reviews that keep your days pointed at what matters. ## Why I built Sonto As a longtime coach, a recurring theme with the people I work with is how much they struggle to make progress on the things that truly matter to them, yet don't seem to align with their days. I noticed that what most people lack is a habit of reflecting on their life, using those learnings to set goals for their future, and consistently using those long term goals to inform their short term actions. And that's not surprising, since this is a lot if you have a busy life. So I built Sonto. Sonto is designed to help you reflect. To remind you to plan, and guide you to set long term goals. And then to recall those goals when planning your days, weaving your long term aspirations into your everyday tasks.