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One thing now widget

See the single most pressing open desk on your dashboard, picked by urgency, importance and due date, and open it with Start. No list, just one thing.

All plansUpdated

The One thing now widget answers one question: what should I work on next? It looks at every open desk, picks the single most pressing one and shows it with a Start button. It is deliberately not a list. When that desk is done, the next one takes its place.

Use it when choosing where to begin is the hard part. Open Home, read one name, click Start.

Before you start

  • The One thing now widget is available on every plan.
  • It needs no AI. It works from details you give your desks: Urgency, Importance and the due date. You set these in the New desk window when you create a desk. See Create a desk.
  • The widget works on your Home dashboard and also on Office Home, People Home and Brain Home. Each dashboard can hold one One thing now widget.

Add the One thing now widget

  1. Open your Home dashboard. Click Home in the side menu, or click the Desk tab.
  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 one thing in Search widgets.
  5. Click One thing now. Its page shows a live preview of the widget with your own desks.
  6. Choose a size with the arrows either side of the preview, or with the dots under it. The size name shows underneath: 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 One thing now card in the gallery has a tick and says Already on your home, this dashboard already has the widget.

What the widget shows

  • The desk's name, in large type.
  • Where it lives and when it is due, on the line underneath: the room it is in and its due date, such as due followed by the date. A desk at the top level with no due date shows Picked by urgency and importance instead.
  • Start, which opens the desk.

When every desk is done or archived, the widget says No open desks. Enjoy it.

Medium and Large show the same thing. Large gives the name more room on a wide board.

How it picks the one thing

The widget looks at every desk that is not marked Done and is not archived. That includes desks that are To do, In progress or Parked. It also includes the tasks on your desks: the ones you add in a desk's Tasks widget and the ones you create with A task on this desk. For a task, the line under the name shows the desk it belongs to.

It then ranks them in this order:

  1. Urgency plus importance. It adds the desk's Urgency and Importance together. Each runs from one to five dots. A desk without them counts as the middle of each scale, which is also where the New desk window starts. The highest total wins.
  2. Due date. If two desks have the same total, the one due soonest wins. A desk with a due date comes before one without.
  3. Most recently changed. If they are still level, the desk that changed most recently wins.

The widget updates by itself as your desks change. Mark a desk done, and the next one appears.

Start the one thing

  1. Read the desk's name and where it lives.
  2. Click Start. The desk opens.

Start only opens the desk. It does not change the desk's status or start a timer. To mark the desk as in progress, click Start in the desk's own header. See Track a desk's status and time.

Steer what it picks

  • Give new desks an Urgency and an Importance. Click the dots in the New desk window. A desk you leave in the middle on both will rank level with every other desk you left in the middle.
  • Add due dates. Among desks that rank level, the soonest due date wins.
  • Mark desks done when they are finished. In a desk's header, the status button reads Done while the desk is in progress. A done desk drops out of the widget.
  • Put away desks you have set aside. Parked desks still count. Archive a desk you do not want picked. See Archive, trash and restore rooms and desks.

Change, resize or remove the widget

Click Customize first. Each widget then shows small buttons on its top-right corner.

  • Change the size. Click the size button. It shows the current size, MD or LG, and each click moves to the next one.
  • Move it. Drag the widget to a new place on the board.
  • Remove it. Click the × button (its tooltip says Remove One thing now). Your desks are not changed.

Click Done when you have finished. See Customize your Home dashboard.

Good ways to use it

  • Start the day on one thing. Put it at the top of Home, open the app, click Start.
  • Pair it with a timer. Put a Focus timer widget beside it: click Start here, then start a five-minute focus session there.
  • Come back after an interruption. Keep a Where was I widget next to it. Where was I takes you back to what you were doing; One thing now tells you what matters most.
  • Catch what has stopped. A Stalled desk widget shows the in-progress desk that has gone quiet longest.

Common questions

Why did it pick this desk and not another? Compare the two desks' Urgency and Importance. The widget adds them together, then uses the due date, then the most recent change. Remember that Parked desks and the tasks on your desks count too.

Can I skip to the next one? There is no skip button. The widget always shows the desk that ranks first. Marking it Done, or archiving it, brings the next one up.

Does it look at my tasks and my Attention items? It looks at your desks and the tasks on them, including tasks in a desk's Tasks widget. Items in Attention are not included. For those, use the Attention widget.

It says "No open desks. Enjoy it." but I have desks. Every desk you have is either marked Done or archived. Create a new desk, or reopen one with Reopen in its header.

Still need help? Contact support at [email protected].