Attention widget (Home)

The Attention widget puts Attention on your Home dashboard. One widget holds everything that needs you: your to-dos, things waiting for your review, people waiting for a reply, dated work coming up, what you finished this week and desks that have gone quiet. Small icons along its top switch between these sections, and you can close, snooze or open an item right from the widget.

Use it when you want to start the day from a list you can work down, or when you want what needs you in the corner of your eye without opening the Attention page. Every item stays where it lives, on its desk and in Attention. The widget shows those same items; it is not a second list to keep up.

Before you start

• The Attention widget is available on every plan.
• It works on your Home dashboard and also on Office Home, People Home and Brain Home. Each dashboard can hold one Attention widget.
• Items reach Attention when you capture them or when Plexii files them for you. See Capture something into Attention Coming soon.

Add the Attention widget

1. Open your Home dashboard: click Home in the side menu.
2. Click Customize at the top right of the page. The widgets show an outline and the greeting fades back.
3. Click Add widget. The widget gallery opens over the page.
4. Click the Smart chip, or type attention in Search widgets.
5. Click Attention. Its page shows a live preview of the widget with your own items.
6. Choose a size with the arrows either side of the preview, or with the dots under it. The size name shows underneath: Small, Medium or Large. Medium is chosen to start with.
7. Click Add widget. The widget appears at the end of the board and glows for a moment so you can find it.
8. Drag the widget to where you want it. The other widgets move aside to make room.
9. Click Done.

If the Attention card in the gallery has a tick and says Already on your home, this dashboard already has an Attention widget.

Choose a size

The size decides how many items you see at once.

• Small shows two items. Each item shows a coloured status dot instead of the full status, to save room.
• Medium shows four items, with each item's status and a short reason such as Due tomorrow or Suggested by Plexii under its title.
• Large shows seven items, laid out the same way as Medium.

The number beside the section name always counts every item in that section, not only the ones that fit. To see the rest, click the section name to open the Attention page, or make the widget bigger.

To change the size later, click Customize, then click the size button on the widget's top-right corner. It shows the current size (SM, MD or LG), and each click moves to the next size.

Switch between sections

The row of small icons along the top of the widget picks what it shows. Rest the pointer on an icon to see its name. The section you are in is highlighted, and its name and count appear on the line below the icons.

• All shows every open item that needs you. Items with a due date come first, then the newest. Snoozed items and system notices are left out.
• To Do shows your open to-dos, soonest due first.
• Review shows items waiting for your judgment or sign-off, soonest due first.
• Coming up shows open items that have a due date, plus items in the Meet queue, soonest first.
• Respond shows items where someone is waiting for a reply from you, soonest due first.
• Completed shows what you closed or archived in the last seven days, newest first.
• Stale desks shows open desks where nothing has changed for seven days or more, the quietest first. See Stale desks below.
• System shows notices the app raised for you, rather than items you or Plexii captured. They are kept out of All and out of your headline Attention count.

Items in the Decide, Meet, Discuss, Remember and Know queues do not have a section of their own here. They appear under All, and Meet items also appear under Coming up. To see one queue on its own, open the Attention page. See Queues, closing verbs and grouping Coming soon.

The widget remembers the section you picked last, on this computer. The Attention tab in the Plexii panel keeps its own choice, so changing one does not change the other.

When a section is empty, the widget says so in a short line, such as No reviews waiting. or Every open desk has a pulse.

Work through an item

Each item in the widget is a small card:

• a coloured stripe down its left edge, in the colour of its queue
• an empty circle you click to close it
• its title
• its due date, if it has one, which turns red once it is overdue (the item's details also say overdue)
• its status: a pill at Medium and Large size, a dot at Small size

Close an item

Click the circle at the left of the item to close it. Rest the pointer on the circle first to see the word it closes with, because each queue closes with its own word:

• To Do: Done
• Review: Reviewed
• Decide: Decided
• Respond: Responded
• Meet: Scheduled
• Discuss: Discussed
• Remember: Let it go
• Know: Got it

Two questions can follow:

• If the item has open subtasks, Close its subtasks too? asks what to do. Choose Close all with it (the button shows the number of subtasks), Just this one — subtasks stay open, or Cancel.
• If it was the last open item on a desk that is still open, Desk complete? offers Mark the desk done or Leave it as is. Nothing changes on the desk unless you choose to mark it done.

Closed items move to the Completed section, where they show a green tick. Items you close with Let it go are not listed there.

Change an item's status

1. Click the status pill on the item (at Small size, click the item first to show the pill).
2. Choose Not started, In progress, Waiting, Blocked or Delegated. The last choice in the list is the queue's own closing word, which closes the item the same way the circle does.

See the details without leaving Home

1. Click the item's title. It opens in place, inside the widget.
2. Read what is there. Depending on the item, you may see:
   • its notes and the reason it is in your list
   • its priority and due date
   • the plan and the desk it belongs to, which you can click to open
   • where it came from, such as a meeting or a message
   • the desks, plans, rooms and people it mentions, and its tags
   • for a meeting invitation, when and where it is, a button to join, and Yes, Maybe and No to reply
   • how many of its subtasks are closed
3. Use the small buttons along the bottom of the open item. Rest the pointer on each one to see what it does:
   • When the item has a source, the first button opens it: the spoken moment in a meeting, the message in its conversation, or the web page the item came from.
   • Open the whole desk it came from: takes you to the item's desk.
   • Start it with Plexii: opens the Plexii panel with a message about the item ready in the message box. If the item belongs to a desk, that desk opens first so Plexii has its context.
   • Snooze until tomorrow morning: hides the item from All, To Do, Review and Respond until 9:00 the next morning.
   • Archive: keeps the item but moves it out of the way. It goes to the Archived shelf on the Attention page.
   • Open the item: opens the full item, right where you are.
   • Open the Attention page: the bell at the right end.
4. Click the title again to fold the item away.

Open the full item

Double-click an item to open the full item over the page you are on, where you can edit it. Close it to return to the widget. See Close, snooze, archive and edit an item Coming soon.

Stale desks

The Stale desks section lists open desks that have gone seven days or more with no changes to the desk or its widgets and nothing new in its activity. Desks marked done, and archived desks, are not included. Each row shows the desk's name and how long it has been quiet, for example Quiet for 9 days. Click a row to open that desk.

Use this section as a weekly check. Open the quiet desk and either pick it up, or mark it done so it stops showing here. See Desk status and time.

Open the Attention page

Click the section name, the line under the icons, to open the Attention page. There you can see every item, group them, filter by tag and capture new ones. See Attention: everything that needs you Coming soon.

To narrow the Attention page to what you are looking for, click the arrow beside Attention in the side menu and choose Open, Due today, Overdue, In progress, Waiting or Closed 7d. See Filter Attention Coming soon.

Move, resize or remove the widget

1. Click Customize at the top of the dashboard.
2. Do any of these:
   • Move it. Press and drag the widget to a new place.
   • Resize it. Click the size button on its top-right corner.
   • Remove it. Click the × on its top-right corner. Your Attention items are not affected.
   • Replace it. Click the widget to select it, then click Add widget and pick the widget to put in its place.
3. Click Done.

Press Esc to step back out of Customize one layer at a time. Reset layout appears in Customize once you have changed the board, and puts the dashboard back to how it started. The Attention widget is not part of the starting layout on any dashboard, so you will need to add it again afterwards. See Customise your Home dashboard.

Your layout is saved on this computer, and each dashboard keeps its own.

Good ways to use it

• Morning triage. Keep a Medium widget on All near the top of Home. Close what is done, snooze what can wait until tomorrow, and open the rest.
• Work down a list. Make the widget Large, switch to To Do and close each item with the circle as you finish it.
• Clear your replies. Switch to Respond when you have a few minutes between meetings.
• Look ahead. Use Coming up at the start of the week to see what is dated.
• Weekly review. Check Completed to see what you closed, then Stale desks to pick up anything that has gone quiet.

Common questions

The widget is empty. Check that the Attention layer is on (see the note at the top). If it is, there may simply be nothing in that section: try All. Snoozed items stay hidden from All until their snooze ends.

The count says 12 but I can only see 4 items. The widget shows as many items as its size allows. Click the section name to see them all on the Attention page, or make the widget Large.

I cannot add a second Attention widget. Each dashboard holds one. You can add another to Office Home, People Home or Brain Home.

Where are the This desk and All buttons? Those belong to the Attention widget you add to a desk, which can show just that desk's items. See Attention widget.

The widget disappeared after I clicked Reset layout. Reset layout returns the dashboard to its starting widgets, which do not include Attention. Add it again from Customize > Add widget.

Will my layout appear on my other computer? No. The layout is saved on each computer separately, so you can arrange each one to suit how you use it.

Can I see Attention without going to Home? Yes. The Plexii panel has an Attention tab with the same sections, showing every item and a + to capture a new one. See Open, move and resize the Plexii panel.

Related tasks

• The Home dashboard
• Customise your Home dashboard
• Attention: everything that needs you Coming soon
• Turn Attention on or off Coming soon
• Capture something into Attention Coming soon
• Close, snooze, archive and edit an item Coming soon
• Attention widget on a desk
• Overdue radar widget
• Stalled desk widget