Resources

• What Timely is and who it’s for

  One planner for your tasks, your calendar and your focus time.

  Article

  Timely keeps your tasks, your calendar and your focus time in one place, on every device you sign in to. It’s for anyone juggling work, study and home who wants one list they trust instead of notes scattered across apps.

  What’s inside

  • Tasks: lists, folders, sections, tags, subtasks, checklists, repeats and reminders.
  • Calendar: your tasks laid out by day, 3 days, week, month or as an agenda.
  • Matrix: sort tasks by how important and how urgent they are.
  • Focus: a Pomodoro timer or a stopwatch tied to the task you’re working on, with a daily goal.
  • Countdowns: count down to a trip or a deadline, or count up from the day something began.
  • Notes for the ideas around your tasks, in Timely on the web for now.

  Your data stays yours

  There’s no Timely account to create, and Timely holds none of your data. Sign in with Apple and your plans live in your own iCloud. Sign in with Google and they live in a hidden Timely folder in your own Google Drive. Timely keeps working offline and catches up when you’re back online, and you can export everything from Settings at any time.

• Get Timely on your devices

  The web, iPhone, iPad, Mac and Windows.

  Article

  In your browser

  Go to www.thetimelyplanner.com and choose Continue with Apple or Continue with Google. That’s all the setup there is.

  On a Mac

  Under Download the app on the front page, choose macOS to open Timely on the App Store. It runs on Macs with Apple silicon.

  On Windows 10 and 11

  Choose Windows under Download the app. Timely then runs in its own window with a Start menu and taskbar icon. There are two ways to get it:

  • Download for Windows: a small installer (about 2 MB) that works whichever browser you use. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info › Run anyway.
  • Install from the website: in Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, choose the install icon at the right end of the address bar, or Install Timely in the browser’s menu.

  On an iPhone or iPad

  Timely is on the App Store as Timely: Planner & Tasks, for iOS and iPadOS 18 or later. On the front page, choose iPhone under Download the app: on a phone it opens the App Store, and on a computer it shows a QR code to scan with your phone’s camera.

  Android

  Marked Coming soon on the site.

  Keeping your devices in step

  Sign in with the same account everywhere and your plans follow you. Apple and Google are separate spaces: tasks you add while signed in with Google won’t appear when you sign in with Apple, and Timely doesn’t move data between the two.

• Your first list, task and reminder

  Create a list, add a task, give it a date and a reminder.

  Tutorial

  1. Make a list

  In the sidebar, find Lists and click +. Type a name such as “Home” and press Return. You don’t need a list to start: tasks without one go to your Inbox.

  2. Add a task

  Click + to open Quick Add and type the task, for example Water the plants tomorrow 9am ~Home. Timely picks up the date, the time and the list as you type. Press Return to save it.

  3. Open it

  Click the task. Its details open beside the list, so you don’t lose your place. Here you can change the List, add Tags, set a Deadline, make it Repeat, and add notes, subtasks and a checklist.

  4. Add a reminder

  Under Reminders, pick a preset such as “at start” or “1 day before”, or set your own time.

  A browser can’t send reminder alerts. Reminders you add on the web are saved and synced, and the Timely app on your Mac (and later your iPhone) alerts you when they’re due.

  5. Finish it

  Tick the circle next to the task when it’s done. If you change your mind, most actions show an Undo for a few seconds, and deleted tasks wait in Trash.

• Quick Add basics

  Type a sentence; Timely fills in the date, time, list, tags and priority.

  Tutorial

  Click + to open Quick Add, then write the task the way you’d say it. Timely highlights each part it understands, and whatever is left becomes the title.

  You type	Timely sets
  tomorrow 3pm, next week, 2–4pm	When you plan to do it
  by Friday	A deadline (separate from when you plan to do it)
  every day, every Mon and Thu, every 15th	A repeat
  after completion	Repeats counted from the day you finish
  #work	A tag
  ~Travel	The list it goes in
  !high, !med, !low	Priority

  Try these

  • Call Alex tomorrow 3pm
  • Pay rent every 1st !high
  • Draft report by Friday #work
  • Gym every Mon and Thu 7am
  • Book flights ~Travel

  Quick Add understands English today.

• A tour of the app

  The sidebar, the tabs and the main views, and where to find each one.

  Tutorial

  The sidebar

  • Search looks through titles, notes, checklists, tags and lists at once.
  • Smart lists fill themselves from your dates: Inbox, Today, Tomorrow, Next 7 Days and All, plus Completed and Trash. Overdue tasks show up in Today.
  • Filters are your own saved views. Use New Filter to make one.
  • Lists and Tags hold everything you’ve organised.
  • Your profile picture opens Settings.

  The tabs

  Switch between Tasks, Calendar, Matrix, Focus and Countdowns. On a wide screen the tabs sit at the top centre; on a phone they move to the bottom. Hide tabs or change their order in Settings › Tab Bar.

  Tasks

  Click a task and it opens beside the list. Use View Options to see a list as a plain list, a board or a timeline. Drag tasks to reorder them, or use a task’s menu.

  Calendar

  Choose Day, 3 Days, Week, Month or Agenda. Arrange lets you drag unscheduled and overdue tasks onto your day, and Plan Today helps you pick today’s priorities and review what carries over.

• Try Demo

  Explore Timely with sample data. Your own tasks aren’t touched.

  Article

  Before you sign in

  On the front page, choose Try Demo. Timely opens with a full set of sample tasks, events, focus sessions and countdowns. Nothing is saved or synced, and every visit starts the same, so click around freely.

  After you sign in

  Go to Settings › Data and turn on Demo Mode. Timely opens a separate sample database next to yours. While it’s on, everything you change, settings included, stays in the sample. Turn it off and your own tasks are back exactly as you left them.

• Tasks

  Lists, sections, tags, subtasks, checklists, repeats and views.

  Guide

  Lists, sections and tags

  • New list: in the sidebar, click + beside Lists, type a name and choose Add.
  • Sections split a list into parts, like “This week” and “Someday”. Use Add Section at the bottom of a list, or in View Options. A section’s … menu lets you rename it, move it up or down, or delete it; deleting a section keeps its tasks in the list.
  • New tag: click + beside Tags in the sidebar. Add tags to a task from its menu (Tags…) or in its details.

  Adding and editing a task

  Click + to open Quick Add (see Quick Add basics in Getting Started). Click a task to open its details beside the list, where you can set:

  • Date: when you plan to do it. Pick a day, all day (or several days), or a start time with a duration.
  • Deadline: when it must be done, with an optional time. A deadline is separate from the planned date, and moving a task on the calendar never changes it.
  • Priority: High, Medium, Low or None, shown as !!!, !! and !.
  • Estimated Time: from 5 minutes to 2 hours, or a number of minutes. Focus and the calendar use it.
  • Description: notes in simple formatting, such as **bold**, - lists and [links](url).

  Subtasks and checklists

  Use Add Subtask from a task’s menu or details for steps that are tasks of their own, with their own dates. Completing the parent completes its open subtasks too. For simple steps, type into Add item in the checklist and press Return.

  Repeating tasks

  In details, choose Repeat: Every day, Every weekday, Every week, Every month, Every year, or Custom…. Custom repeats can skip weekends, fall on chosen weekdays or on “the last Friday of the month”, repeat from when it was last completed, and end after a number of times or on a date.

  Completing a repeating task moves it to its next date and resets its checklist. A repeating task’s menu also offers Skip This Occurrence, End Repeat and Complete Series.

  Views and sorting

  Open View Options (the filter icon at the top of a list) to:

  • Switch between List, Kanban (cards in columns you drag between) and Timeline (bars on a day grid).
  • Group By section, list, date, deadline, priority or tag.
  • Sort By custom order, date, deadline, priority, title, or date created or modified.
  • Show or hide completed tasks.
  • Select Tasks to complete, date, move, tag or delete several at once.

  To reorder by dragging, sort by Custom Order. You can also use Move Up and Move Down in a task’s menu.

  The task menu

  Right-click a task or click its … button for everything at once: Complete, Won’t Do, a date, priority, Move to List…, Tags…, Duplicate, Add Subtask and Delete.

  On the web, files attached to a task can be viewed and downloaded but not added. Add them in the Timely app on your Mac.

• Calendar

  See your tasks and events by day, week or month, and give each task its time.

  Guide

  Views

  Choose Agenda (the next 14 days as a list), Day, 3 Days, Week or Month. Use the arrows to move back and forward, Today to come back, or click the title to jump to another month.

  Scheduling tasks

  • Click an empty slot to add a task at that time.
  • Drag a block to move it, or drag its edge to make it longer or shorter.
  • Prefer not to drag? A block’s ⋯ menu moves it 15 minutes earlier or later, to the previous or next day, or makes it all-day.

  Arrange

  Click Arrange to see tasks that need a time: Unscheduled, Overdue and Due Soon (deadline within 7 days). Drag one onto your day, or use Schedule… to pick a day and time. Its estimated time sets how long the block is. Scheduling never changes a deadline.

  Events

  Click + and choose New Event for things that aren’t tasks, like an appointment. Events can have a location, a link, notes and a colour.

  Calendar settings

  In Settings › Calendar, set your Working Hours (the day and week views open on them), the First Day of Week, and whether blocks are coloured by list, tag or priority.

  Your other calendars (device calendars, Google Calendar, Outlook and subscriptions) appear in the Timely app on your Mac. A browser can’t reach them.

• Plan Today

  A five-step routine to plan your day around your events.

  Guide

  Open the Today list, then choose Plan Today from the … menu. Go through the steps with Next, or Skip one to leave it as it is. Most changes can be undone.

  1. Review Overdue: decide what happens to each task whose date has passed. Move it to today or tomorrow, pick a date, remove the date, mark it Won’t Do, or complete it. Move All to Today does them all at once.
  2. Choose Today’s Priorities: star the tasks that matter most. Three is a good day; five is the limit.
  3. Fit Work Around Events: Suggest Times finds free slots within your working hours. Accept or skip each suggestion, or Apply All.
  4. Leave Room: keep part of your day free (0–50%) and see whether your plan fits. If you’re over, Timely suggests moving your lowest-priority tasks to tomorrow. You can also add a break.
  5. End-of-Day Review: move what’s left to tomorrow, pick another date or complete it, then plan tomorrow if you like.

  Set your working hours in Settings › Calendar first, so Timely knows which times are free.

• Eisenhower Matrix

  Sort tasks by how important and how urgent they are.

  Guide

  The Matrix sorts your open tasks into four boxes:

  Box	Holds tasks that are
  Do first	Important and urgent
  Plan	Important, not urgent
  Delegate or be quick	Urgent, not important
  Later	Neither

  How Timely decides

  • Important comes from priority. By default only High priority counts.
  • Urgent comes from the deadline only: overdue or due today, by default. Planned dates don’t make a task urgent.

  Click Rules to change both: important from High, Medium or Low, and urgent when due today, within 3 days, or within 7 days.

  Moving tasks

  Drag a task to another box, or use Move to… in its menu. Timely changes the priority and deadline only as much as it needs to. Moving a task into an urgent box sets its deadline to today. Moving one out asks whether to move the deadline or remove it.

• Focus

  A Pomodoro timer or a stopwatch, tied to the task you’re working on.

  Guide

  Start a session

  1. Open the Focus tab and choose Pomodoro (counts down, with breaks) or Stopwatch (counts up).
  2. Under Working on…, pick a task (the most pressing ones come first) or choose “No task”.
  3. Click Start. You can pause and resume. When you stop, choose Keep the Time or Discard It.

  A Pomodoro runs Focus, then a Short Break, with a Long Break after every few sessions. If the task has an estimate, Timely shows how long you’ve focused on it, and tells you when you go over.

  Your history

  The Today card shows your total and how close you are to your daily goal. The week card shows each day, marked when you reached the goal; click a day to see its sessions.

  Settings › Focus

  Setting	Default	Range
  Focus	25 min	5–180 min
  Short Break	5 min	1–30 min
  Long Break	15 min	5–60 min
  Long Break After	4 sessions	2–10
  Daily Goal	2 hours	15 min – 12 hours

• Notes

  Quick notes beside your tasks.

  Guide

  Notes are in Timely on the web; the iPhone, iPad and Mac apps don’t show them yet. Open Notes in the sidebar and choose New note. Each note has a title and plain text.

  • Pin a note to keep it at the top.
  • Move to Trash when you’re done with it. You can restore it from Trash.
  • To find a note, search for in:notes plus a word from it.

• Countdowns

  Count down to the dates that matter, or count up from them.

  Guide

  Add a countdown

  In the Countdowns tab, choose + Add Countdown. Give it a title, a kind (Countdown, Anniversary, Birthday or Holiday), a day, and how often it repeats. Under Counts, choose Down to the day, or Up from the day for things like “days since we moved”.

  Deadlines count down by themselves

  Every task with a deadline appears here automatically, and stays in step with the task. To change it, open the task. Deleting that countdown removes the task’s deadline.

  Finding your way

  • Show today, this week, this month, this year, everything, or a custom range.
  • Sort by soonest, priority, or recently added.
  • Colour shows how close each one is: red within a day, amber within a week, green further off, grey once it’s passed. The number of days is always written too.
  • From a countdown’s menu, Pin it to the top, archive it, or delete it.

• Smart Filters

  Build your own views from lists, tags, dates and priorities.

  Guide

  Make a filter

  1. In the sidebar, choose New Filter (or + beside Filters).
  2. Name it, and choose whether tasks must match All conditions or Any condition.
  3. Use Add Condition for each rule. A summary underneath reads it back in plain words.
  4. Choose Save. The filter appears in the sidebar.

  What you can filter by

  • Lists or folders to include or leave out.
  • Tags: any, all or none of them, or tasks with no tags.
  • Priority.
  • Planned date, deadline or either: overdue, today, this week, next 7 days, before, after, between and more.
  • Status: open, completed or won’t do.
  • A word in the title, notes or checklist.
  • Whether it repeats, has subtasks, is a subtask, has reminders or has a time estimate.

  Example: “High priority, deadline in the next 7 days, tagged #work” gives you a weekly work-crunch list. To change a filter later, open it and choose View Options › Edit Filter…

  The built-in lists

  Hide the smart lists you don’t use (Today, Tomorrow, Next 7 Days and so on) in Settings › Smart Lists, or with Edit in the sidebar. The Inbox is always shown.

• Widgets, Siri and Shortcuts

  Timely on your Home Screen and by voice on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

  Coming soon

• Sync, backup and Trash

  How your data moves between devices, how to keep a copy, and how to get things back.

  Guide

  How sync works

  Changes upload about two seconds after you stop typing, when you come back to the tab, and every few minutes. A status line tells you where things stand, such as “Synced just now”, “Syncing…”, or “Offline — changes upload when back”. To sync right away, choose Sync now from the … menu in Tasks.

  Settings › iCloud Sync (or Google Drive Sync) shows when you last synced, anything waiting to upload, and the last error, if there was one.

  Working offline

  Timely works fully offline. Your changes wait and upload when you’re back online. If you sign out while changes are still waiting, Timely warns you first, because they’d be lost.

  Keeping a copy

  Go to Settings › Export Data and choose Create Export, then Download. You get one file with your tasks, lists, tags, events, countdowns, focus history and settings, including what’s in Trash. Attached files aren’t included, but their names and links are.

  Trash

  • Deleting a task or note moves it to Trash, with an Undo for a few seconds.
  • Open Trash in the sidebar to Restore it.
  • Delete forever removes it from every device. This can’t be undone.

• Settings and accessibility

  Make Timely look and work the way you like, by mouse, keyboard or screen reader.

  Guide

  Open Settings from your profile picture.

  Worth setting first

  • Appearance: System, Light or Dark.
  • Time Format: 12-hour or 24-hour.
  • First Day of Week: Sunday, Monday or Saturday.
  • Default List and Default Duration for new tasks.
  • Tab Bar: choose which tabs show and their order (up to five).
  • Calendar and Focus: working hours, colours, timer lengths and your daily goal.

  About Timely › Welcome Tour plays the introduction again.

  Keyboard

  Where	Key	Does
  Quick Add	Return	Saves the task
  Quick Add	Esc	Closes without saving
  A task	Return	Opens it
  A task	Space	Completes it, or reopens it
  A task	Delete	Moves it to Trash
  A task	Shift + F10	Opens its menu
  Calendar slot	Return	Adds a task at that time
  Anywhere	Esc	Closes a menu, sheet or dialog

  Search shortcuts

  In Search, combine words with #errands, !high, is:overdue, has:checklist, ~"Client Projects", in:notes, or -is:completed to leave completed tasks out.

  Accessibility

  • Every control is labelled for screen readers, including the focus timer and goal progress.
  • Meaning never depends on colour alone: overdue tasks say “Overdue”, and priority has its own marks.
  • Text grows with your browser’s font size and zoom.
  • If you’ve asked your system to reduce motion, Timely turns its animations off.
  • Anything you can drag also has a menu or button that does the same.

• Tasking

  Write tasks you can act on: a clear next action instead of a vague goal.

  Open Lesson 1 · Write tasks you can act on →

  21 slides · 30 minutes

  Lesson

• Prioritizing

  • Urgent vs. important
  • Picking your top 3 for the day
  • Saying no

  Open Lesson 2 · Prioritizing →

  22 slides · 30 minutes

  Lesson

• Planning

  • The weekly review
  • Daily planning
  • Time blocking

  Open Lesson 3 · Planning →

  22 slides · 30 minutes

  Lesson

• Focus

  • Deep work
  • The Pomodoro technique
  • Managing distractions

  Open Lesson 4 · Focus →

  22 slides · 30 minutes

  Lesson

• Habits

  • Starting small
  • Habit stacking
  • Getting back on track after a missed day

  Open Lesson 5 · Habits →

  22 slides · 30 minutes

  Lesson

• Avoiding overload

  • Keeping your inbox empty
  • Handling overdue tasks without guilt

  Open Lesson 6 · Avoiding overload →

  22 slides · 30 minutes

  Lesson

• Student

  Classes, assignments and exam countdowns.

  Template

  Your term planner

  Fill in your classes, assignments and exams, like a spreadsheet. Download it as an Excel workbook or a CSV file, or turn it into Quick Add lines you paste into Timely, one line at a time. What you type stays in this browser only.

  Set it up in Timely

  Set this up once at the start of a term, about 15 minutes, then use it every day. The examples use two classes, Biology and History; swap in your own.

  1. One list per class

  In the sidebar, click + beside Lists and add a list for each class, such as “Biology” and “History”. In Quick Add, ~Biology then files a task into that list.

  The name after ~ must match a list you already have. If your list is called “History 210”, type ~History 210; a name Timely doesn’t know stays in the title instead.

  2. Your timetable on the calendar

  Add each class once, as a repeating task at its time:

  You type	Timely sets
  Biology lecture every Monday and Wednesday at 10am ~Biology	Repeats every Monday and Wednesday at 10 am, in Biology
  History seminar every Thursday 2pm ~History	Repeats every Thursday at 2 pm, in History

  The Calendar’s Week view now shows your timetable, with room around it for study.

  3. Assignments: a deadline, then work time

  Give each assignment its real due date with due. That sets the task’s Deadline, which is when it must be handed in, not when you’ll work on it.

  You type	Timely sets
  Lab report due Friday ~Biology #lab	Deadline Friday, in Biology, tagged lab
  Essay draft due Nov 20 !high ~History #essay	Deadline 20 November, high priority, in History, tagged essay
  Write lab report intro tomorrow 2pm for 1h ~Biology #lab	A one-hour work session tomorrow at 2 pm

  Then plan when to do the work. In the Calendar, Arrange lists everything Due Soon (deadline within 7 days); drag an assignment onto a free slot, or use Schedule…. Moving the work time never moves the deadline.

  4. Tags for the kind of work

  Use a few tags across all your classes: #reading, #lab, #essay, #study. Create them once in the sidebar under Tags with +; on the web, Quick Add uses tags you already have. Then make a New Filter for one of them. For example, tag study with a deadline in the next 7 days gives you one revision list across every class.

  5. Exam countdowns

  Add each exam as a task with a deadline: Biology final exam due Dec 14 ~Biology #exam. Every task with a deadline appears in the Countdowns tab by itself, so the exam counts down there and stays in step with the task. Pin the next exam to keep it at the top. For dates that aren’t tasks, like the last day of term, choose + Add Countdown.

  6. Revise in short sessions

  Break each exam into topics, one task each: Revise cell division Saturday 10am for 25 min ~Biology #study. Open the Focus tab, choose Pomodoro, pick the topic under “Working on…”, and start. Tick the topic off when it’s done.

  7. A weekly review

  Add Weekly review every Sunday 6pm. Each Sunday, look at Next 7 Days and anything Overdue in Today, give each assignment its next step and a work time, and check your countdowns.

  Go further

  • Lesson 1 · Write tasks you can act on: turn “Study biology” into a task you can start.
  • Lesson 3 · Planning: the weekly review and time blocking in depth.
  • Lesson 4 · Focus: making a Pomodoro session count.
  • Lesson 6 · Avoiding overload: what to do when assignments slip.

• Work

  Projects, meetings and follow-ups.

  Template

  Your work planner

  Fill in your projects, next actions, meetings and the people you’re waiting on, like a spreadsheet. Download it as an Excel workbook or a CSV file, or turn it into Quick Add lines you paste into Timely, one line at a time. What you type stays in this browser only.

  Set it up in Timely

  About 20 minutes to set up, then a few minutes a day. The examples use a project called “Website relaunch”; swap in your own.

  1. One list per project

  In the sidebar, click + beside Lists and add a list for each active project. Anything that isn’t part of a project can stay in your Inbox. Then, beside Tags, add three tags: meeting, waiting and milestone.

  On the web, Quick Add files into lists and tags you already have. A name after ~ or # that Timely doesn’t know isn’t applied, so make them first.

  2. Next actions, not projects

  A project isn’t something you can do; its next step is. Write each task as an action you could start right now, give it a time to work on it, and put the real due date in its deadline:

  You type	Timely sets
  Draft homepage copy Nov 10 at 9am for 60 min due Nov 14 !high ~Website relaunch	Work time 10 November, 9–10 am; deadline 14 November; high priority; in Website relaunch
  Send budget to finance due Nov 20 !medium	Deadline 20 November, medium priority

  Moving the work time in the calendar never moves the deadline.

  3. Meetings on the calendar

  You type	Timely sets
  Team standup every weekday at 9:30am for 15 min #meeting	Repeats Monday to Friday, 9:30–9:45 am
  Kickoff with design Nov 12 at 2pm for 45 min ~Website relaunch #meeting	One meeting, 12 November, 2–2:45 pm

  4. Follow-ups you’re waiting on

  When you hand something off or ask for something, add a task for the day you’ll check: Follow up with Sam about the contract on Nov 12 #waiting. Then make a New Filter for the tag waiting: one list of everything you’re waiting on, across all projects.

  5. Milestones count down

  Give each project’s key dates a deadline: Website relaunch live due Jan 30 ~Website relaunch #milestone. Every task with a deadline appears in the Countdowns tab by itself, so you can see how long each project has left. Pin the most important one.

  6. Each morning

  • In the Calendar, choose Plan Today to pick today’s priorities and decide what carries over.
  • Use Arrange to drag unscheduled, overdue and Due Soon tasks into the gaps between meetings.
  • Open the Matrix when everything feels urgent: it sorts your tasks into Do first, Plan, Delegate or be quick and Later.
  • For work that needs concentration, start a Focus session on the task.

  7. A weekly review

  Add Weekly review every Friday at 4pm for 30 min. Each Friday, go through every project list and make sure it has a next action, check your waiting filter, and look at Next 7 Days.

  Go further

  • Lesson 1 · Write tasks you can act on: turning a project into its next action.
  • Lesson 2 · Prioritizing: urgent versus important, and saying no.
  • Lesson 3 · Planning: the weekly review and time blocking.
  • Lesson 6 · Avoiding overload: an inbox you can trust, and work that slips.

• Home and family

  Chores, groceries and bills.

  Template

  Your home planner

  Fill in your chores, the shopping list, your bills and the family’s dates, like a spreadsheet. Download it as an Excel workbook or a CSV file, or turn it into Quick Add lines you paste into Timely, one line at a time. What you type stays in this browser only.

  Set it up in Timely

  About 15 minutes to set up. After that, repeating tasks come back by themselves: tick one off and it moves to its next date.

  1. Four lists

  In the sidebar, click + beside Lists and add Home, Groceries, Bills and Family. In Quick Add, ~Home files a task into Home, and so on.

  2. Chores that repeat

  You type	Timely sets
  Take out the bins (Alex) every Thu at 7pm ~Home	Every Thursday at 7 pm
  Change bed sheets every 2 weeks on Sunday ~Home	Every other Sunday
  Clean the fridge every month on the 1st ~Home	The 1st of every month
  Water the plants every day at 8am ~Home	Every day at 8 am

  Write “every 2 weeks on Sunday”, not “every other Sunday”: Timely reads the first and leaves the second in the title.

  Putting a name in brackets, like (Alex), shows at a glance whose turn it is.

  3. A shopping list you tick off

  Add each item to the Groceries list as its own task: Milk (2 litres) ~Groceries. In the shop, open Groceries on your phone’s browser and tick items off as they go in the basket. Things you buy every week can repeat: Bread every Sat ~Groceries comes back each Saturday.

  4. Bills before they’re due

  You type	Timely sets
  Pay rent ($1,200) every month on the 1st ~Bills	The 1st of every month
  Pay water bill every 3 months starting Dec 10 ~Bills	Every three months from 10 December
  Pay car insurance every year on Mar 3 ~Bills	Every 3 March
  Pay council tax due Nov 30 ~Bills	Once, with a deadline of 30 November

  Open a bill and add a reminder such as 1 day before. For bills on autopay, a task like Electricity autopay every month on the 15th ~Bills is a prompt to check the amount.

  Keep account and card numbers out of Timely. The bill’s name and amount are all the plan needs.

  5. The family calendar

  • Appointments: Dentist (Mia) Nov 18 at 3:30pm for 45 min ~Family.
  • Weekly activities: Swimming (Mia) every Tue at 5pm for 45 min ~Family.
  • Birthdays: Mia’s birthday every year on Mar 14 ~Family. For a countdown too, open Countdowns, choose + Add Countdown and pick the kind Birthday.

  The Calendar’s Week view then shows chores, bills and family dates together.

  Timely is a personal planner: lists aren’t shared between people. One person can keep the household plan, or each person can keep their own.

  6. A Sunday reset

  Add Plan the week every Sunday at 6pm for 20 min ~Home. Look at Next 7 Days, write the shopping list, check which bills are coming up, and agree who does what.

  Go further

  • Lesson 3 · Planning: a weekly review that fits real life.
  • Lesson 5 · Habits: making small routines stick.
  • Lesson 6 · Avoiding overload: what to do when chores and bills pile up.

• Personal goals

  Fitness, reading and learning.

  Template

  Your goals planner

  Write down your goals, then the workouts, books, lessons and daily habits that get you there, like a spreadsheet. Download it as an Excel workbook or a CSV file, or turn it into Quick Add lines you paste into Timely, one line at a time. What you type stays in this browser only.

  Set it up in Timely

  About 15 minutes to set up. A goal on its own is a wish; the plan below turns each one into a date, a few repeating sessions in your week, and a small daily habit.

  1. Four lists

  In the sidebar, click + beside Lists and add Goals, Fitness, Reading and Learning. In Quick Add, ~Fitness files a task into Fitness, and so on.

  2. Each goal gets a date

  You type	Timely sets
  Run a 10k due Mar 1 !high ~Goals	A deadline of 1 March, high priority
  Read 12 books due Dec 31 ~Goals	A deadline of 31 December
  Finish Spanish A2 course due Jun 30 ~Goals	A deadline of 30 June

  A task with a deadline shows up in Countdowns by itself, so you can see how many days are left. Open the goal and, under Add description, write why it matters and what “done” looks like.

  Keep it to three goals at a time. More than that and the sessions below won’t fit in a normal week.

  3. Workouts in your week

  You type	Timely sets
  Run (easy 5 km) every Mon, Wed, Fri at 7am for 30 min ~Fitness	Three mornings a week, 30 minutes
  Strength training every Tue, Thu at 6:30pm for 45 min ~Fitness	Two evenings a week, 45 minutes
  Long run every Sun at 8am for 60 min ~Fitness	Sunday mornings, an hour

  Each workout takes its time in the Calendar. Tick it off when it’s done and it moves to the next day on its list.

  4. A reading plan

  Two lines per book: a time to read, and a date to finish by.

  • Read Dune every day at 9pm for 30 min ~Reading
  • Finish Dune due Dec 31 ~Reading

  If a book’s title has a day or a month in it, such as Sunday Morning, Timely may read that word as a date. Click the × on its chip under the Quick Add field to keep it as text.

  5. Learning sessions

  Book short sessions on fixed days: Spanish lesson every Tue, Thu at 8pm for 30 min ~Learning. When a session starts, open Focus, pick the task and start a Pomodoro or Stopwatch. Focus keeps each session under the task’s name, so you can see the time you put in.

  6. Small things every day

  Some goals are built from something small you do every day, like ten pages, a glass of water or a walk. Give each one its own repeating task, and tie it to something you already do (Lesson 5 calls this a cue):

  You type	Timely sets
  Read 10 pages (after dinner) every day at 9pm for 15 min ~Goals	Every evening, 15 minutes
  Walk (after lunch) every weekday at 1pm for 20 min ~Goals	Monday to Friday, 20 minutes
  Drink a glass of water (after brushing teeth) every day ~Goals	Every day, no set time

  Tick it off and it comes back the next day. Keep the small version small: on a bad day, doing it at all counts.

  7. A weekly check-in

  Add Review my goals every Sun at 7pm for 15 min ~Goals. Look at Countdowns for the days left, at Completed for what you got done, and at the week ahead. If you fell behind, move a session or make it smaller; don’t drop the goal.

  Go further

  • Lesson 5 · Habits: making small routines stick.
  • Lesson 3 · Planning: a weekly review that fits real life.
  • Lesson 6 · Avoiding overload: when goals and everything else won’t fit.

• Budget

  Payday, bills, debts and savings goals.

  Template

  Your budget planner

  Set what you plan to spend in each category, note what you actually spent, and the planner works out what’s left. Add your income, bills, debts and savings goals, then download it as an Excel workbook or a CSV file, or turn the dates into Quick Add lines you paste into Timely. What you type stays in this browser only.

  Set it up in Timely

  About 20 minutes to set up. Timely doesn’t connect to your bank or hold any money: the planner above does the sums, and Timely makes sure payday, every bill and every savings transfer turns up on the right day.

  1. Three lists

  In the sidebar, click + beside Lists and add Budget, Bills and Savings. In Quick Add, ~Bills files a task into Bills, and so on.

  2. Your month on one page

  In the planner’s Budget sheet, give each category a type (Needs, Wants or Savings) and what you plan to spend in a month. Last month’s bank statement is the easiest place to start. As the month goes on, fill in Spent; Left and the totals at the bottom work themselves out, here and in the Excel download.

  Type amounts the way you write them, with your currency: $1,200, €85 or 450 lei. Use the same currency throughout one sheet so the totals add up.

  3. Payday

  You type	Timely sets
  Payday: Salary ($2,400) every month on the 25th ~Budget	The 25th of every month
  Payday: Freelance (€450) every 2 weeks starting Nov 13 ~Budget	Every other Friday from 13 November
  Payday: Tips ($120) every Fri ~Budget	Every Friday

  Payday is the moment to pay yourself first: do the savings transfers in step 6 the same day, before the money gets spent.

  4. Bills before they’re due

  You type	Timely sets
  Pay rent ($1,200) every month on the 1st ~Bills	The 1st of every month
  Pay water bill (€60) every 3 months starting Dec 10 ~Bills	Every three months from 10 December
  Pay car insurance (£480) every year on Mar 3 ~Bills	Every 3 March
  Netflix autopay ($15.49) every month on the 3rd ~Bills	The 3rd of every month, a prompt to check the charge

  Open a bill and add a reminder such as 1 day before. Tick it off once it’s paid and it moves to its next date.

  Keep account and card numbers out of Timely. The bill’s name and amount are all the plan needs.

  5. Debts

  Two lines per debt: the monthly payment, and the date you want it gone.

  • Pay credit card (minimum $150) every month on the 20th ~Bills
  • Pay off credit card ($2,300 left) due Dec 31, 2027 !high ~Savings

  The pay-off task has a deadline, so Countdowns shows the days left. Each month, open it and update the amount left in its title.

  6. Savings goals

  You type	Timely sets
  Save for Holiday ($1,500) due Jun 30, 2027 ~Savings	A deadline of 30 June 2027
  Move $150 to Holiday savings every month on the 26th ~Savings	The 26th of every month, the day after payday
  Move $50 to Emergency fund every Fri ~Savings	Every Friday

  The planner’s Savings goals sheet shows how much is still to save for each one. Put the transfer on payday or the day after, so it happens before the month’s spending.

  7. A weekly money check

  Add Check spending every Sun at 7pm for 15 min ~Budget. Fill in Spent in the planner from your banking app, and look at what’s coming up. Once a month, plan the next one: Set next month’s budget every month on the 28th at 8pm for 30 min ~Budget.

  For one view of everything money-related this week, make a Smart Filter: All conditions, list is Bills or Savings, and planned date or deadline in the next 7 days.

  This is a way to organise your own budget, not financial advice. For decisions about debt, savings or investments, talk to a qualified adviser.

  Go further

  • Lesson 3 · Planning: a weekly review that fits real life.
  • Lesson 5 · Habits: making the weekly check stick.
  • Lesson 2 · Prioritizing: deciding what matters when there isn’t enough for everything.

Quick clips · under 60 seconds

• One clip per feature

  Quick Add, Matrix, Focus, Notes, Countdowns, Smart Filters, Widgets.

  Coming soon

Walkthroughs · 5 to 10 minutes

• Plan your week in Timely

  A full weekly review, start to finish.

  Coming soon

Series

• 30 days to a calmer to-do list

  One short lesson a day.

  Coming soon

• Beginner

  The basics, then your first week of planning.

  Coming soon

• Intermediate

  Calendar, Matrix and Focus working together.

  Coming soon

• Power user

  Smart Filters, Shortcuts and setups across several devices.

  Coming soon

• FAQ

  The questions people ask most.

  Reference

  Do I need a Timely account?

  No. You sign in with Apple or with Google, and there is no Timely account or password to create.

  Where are my tasks kept?

  In your own storage, never on a Timely server. Sign in with Apple and they’re in your private iCloud database. Sign in with Google and they’re in a hidden Timely folder in your own Google Drive. A copy is also kept in the browser or app you use, so Timely keeps working offline.

  Which devices can I use?

  • iPhone and iPad with iOS or iPadOS 18 or later: Timely: Planner & Tasks on the App Store.
  • Mac with Apple silicon, from the same App Store listing.
  • Any modern browser at www.thetimelyplanner.com, and Windows 10 and 11 as an installed app.
  • Android is coming soon.

  I signed in with Google and my tasks are missing.

  Apple and Google are separate spaces. Tasks you add while signed in with Apple stay in iCloud, and Timely doesn’t move them to Google Drive, or the other way round. To see them, open Settings with the profile button, choose Sign Out under Account, and sign in with the other account.

  Why don’t reminders alert me in the browser?

  A browser tab can’t schedule notifications. The web shows your reminders, and Timely on your iPhone, iPad and Mac delivers them, with actions to complete or snooze.

  Why can’t I see my iPhone’s calendars on the web?

  A browser has no access to the calendars on your devices, so the web shows only Timely’s own events beside your tasks. Connect your calendars in Timely on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

  Can I share a list with someone?

  Not yet. Timely is a personal planner, so lists aren’t shared between people.

  Can I bring in tasks from another app?

  The web can’t import a file. Type or paste your tasks into Quick Add one line at a time; the planners in Templates above turn a spreadsheet into ready-made Quick Add lines. On the iPhone and iPad, Scan to Tasks in the + menu turns a photographed page into tasks.

  How do I get my data out?

  Open Settings with the profile button at the top right and choose Export Data. You get one JSON file with your tasks, lists, tags, events, countdowns, focus history and settings, including what’s in the Trash.

  Can I try Timely first?

  Yes. On the front page, choose Try Demo to look around with sample data, with no sign-in. Once you’re signed in, Demo Mode in Settings opens a separate sample database; your own tasks are untouched and come back when you turn it off.

  I deleted something by mistake.

  Most changes show a message with Undo for a few seconds. Deleted tasks and notes go to Trash in the sidebar, where you can restore them. Delete forever in the Trash can’t be undone.

  Where are Habits and Notes?

  Notes are in the sidebar of Timely on the web; the iPhone, iPad and Mac apps don’t show them yet. Habits aren’t available yet on any device. Until then, a repeating task does the job: Read 10 pages every day at 9pm ~Goals.

• Keyboard shortcuts

  For Mac and the web.

  Reference

  Timely for Mac

  Keys	What it does	Menu
  ⌘ N	New task (Quick Add)	File
  ⌘ F	Search	Edit
  ⌘ 1 … ⌘ 9	Go to a tab, in your tab bar’s order	View
  ⌘ R	Sync Now with iCloud	File
  ⌘ ,	Settings	Timely
  ⌘ Return	In Quick Add: add the task and open its details
  Esc	In Quick Add: close it

  On an iPad with a keyboard, the same keys work except ⌘ R. Hold ⌘ to see the list.

  Timely on the web and for Windows

  The web has no single-key shortcuts that could fire while you type. Everything can be reached with Tab, and these keys work where you are:

  Where	Keys	What it does
  Quick Add	Return	Add the task
  Quick Add	Esc	Close it
  Quick Add menus	↑ ↓ Home End	Move through a menu’s choices; Esc closes it
  A task in a list	Return	Open its details
  A task in a list	Space	Complete it, or mark it not done
  A task in a list	Delete or Backspace	Move it to the Trash
  A task in a list	Shift F10 or the Menu key	Open its actions menu (date, priority, list and more)
  A day in the Calendar	Return or Space	New event at the start of your working hours
  Dialogs, sheets, menus	Esc	Close

  In the Trash, Delete or Backspace on a task deletes it for good, without asking.

  In the Calendar, each block has a menu for moving and resizing it without dragging. In Timely for Windows, right-click Timely on the taskbar or in the Start menu to jump straight to New Task, Today, Calendar or Focus.

• Troubleshooting

  Common problems and how to fix them.

  Reference

  Sign-in

  Problem	Solution
  Continue with Apple button is missing	Turn off content blockers for this site, check your connection, or try another browser. Still missing: choose Reset Apple sign-in.
  Google sign-in doesn’t finish	Finish signing in in Google’s window. If you closed it, choose Continue with Google again.
  My tasks are missing after signing in	You’re in the other account: Apple and Google are kept separate. Settings › Sign Out, then sign in with the other one.

  Sync

  Message or problem	Meaning and solution
  “Offline — changes upload when back”	No connection. Keep working; changes upload when you’re back online.
  “Sign in again to keep syncing”	Your sign-in expired. Sign in again with the same account; nothing is lost.
  A change doesn’t show on another device	Use the same account on both. Then Settings › iCloud Sync (or Google Drive Sync) › Sync Now. On a Mac: ⌘ R.

  Reminders

  Problem	Solution
  No alerts in the browser	Expected: the web can’t send alerts. The iPhone, iPad and Mac apps do.
  No alerts on iPhone or iPad	iPhone Settings › Notifications › Timely › Allow Notifications.

  Still stuck?

  1. Settings › iCloud Sync (or Google Drive Sync) › Copy Diagnostics. It holds no tasks or personal details.
  2. Write to us from the Support page, with your device, its version and what you did just before. Paste the diagnostics in.