# 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. Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-one-thing-now Section: Home dashboard > Home widgets Plans: All plans Updated: 2026-10-10 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-create). - 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. > **Tip:** > **Set up with Plexii**, at the top of the dashboard, can add the widget for you. It may include One thing now when you answer **Straight into one thing** to **How do you like to start the day?**, or **Making things** to **What does your work mostly look like?** See [Set up a dashboard with Plexii](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-setup-wizard). ## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/widget-tasks) 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-status-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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-archive-trash). ## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-customize). ## 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-focus-timer) beside it: click **Start** here, then start a five-minute focus session there. - **Come back after an interruption.** Keep a [Where was I widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-where-was-i) 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-stalled-desk) 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](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-attention). **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. ## Related tasks - [The Home dashboard](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-dashboard) - [Customize your Home dashboard](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-customize) - [Create a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-create) - [Track a desk's status and time](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-status-time) - [Where was I widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-where-was-i) - [Stalled desk widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-stalled-desk) - [Standup widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-standup) - [Transcribe widget](https://plexiidesk.com/help/home-widget-transcribe)