# How to plan your day in Dayplan

> Select **Plan today** in the sidebar. Review yesterday, pull in what's in play, star your must-dos and move what can wait, give tasks a length and a time on the calendar, then write your plan and select **Get going**.

**Plan today** is a short morning routine that turns a long list into a day you can actually do. It walks you through deciding what matters to you today, making sure it realistically fits in the time you have, and giving the important work a place on the calendar.

## Before you start

**Plan today** is on by default. If it's missing from the sidebar, open **Settings → My day** and turn on **Daily Plan ritual** under **Rituals**.

A connected calendar helps, because your meetings then count against the day, but you don't need one. Calendar sync is part of Dayplan Pro.

## Start planning

Select **Plan today** in the sidebar. The flow has five steps, and you move between them with **Next** and the back arrow. You'll notice that your very first plan skips the first step. That's because there's no yesterday to review yet.

## 1. Review yesterday

The first step, **Yesterday in review**, shows yesterday in two columns: **Worked on** and **Didn't get to**.

- Tick a task's checkbox if you finished it but forgot to mark it done.
- Select **Today** under an unfinished task to bring it into today's plan.
- Select **+ Backlog** to postpone it to the Backlog, Dayplan's shelf for later work.
- Leave a task alone if you're not ready to decide.

Tasks you marked **Continue tomorrow** at last night's shutdown show a **From yesterday** badge. If you wrote a note during that shutdown, it appears above the columns. See What happens to unfinished tasks.

## 2. Pull in what's in play

On **What's in play for today?**, build a broad first version of the day. You'll narrow it next.

- Switch between the **Inbox** and **Backlog** tabs to find existing tasks.
- Hover a task and select **Plan today** to add it to today.
- Type in **Add task** to capture work that isn't written down yet.
- Check **Workday ends** under the list, and change it if today ends earlier or later than usual.

Tasks you postponed a while ago come back to the top of the **Backlog** tab with a "back from" label, so you can decide on them again.

The meter in the corner, for example "Planned 5h 30m of 7h", compares the planned length of today's tasks with the time left until your workday ends. A task without a length counts as 30 minutes until you set one. See Plan a realistic day.

## 3. Decide what matters

**Without which task does today not count?** turns the broad list into a commitment.

1. Select a task's star to make it a **Must do**.
2. Drag work that can wait into **Can be done tomorrow**.
3. Drag less urgent work into **Can wait a week or two**. It goes to the Backlog.
4. Keep going until the meter fits the day you actually have. If you're over, a warning such as "45min overtime!" appears beside **Today**.

By default, Dayplan keeps you to three must-dos a day. You can turn off **Limit Must do tasks to 3 / day** in **Settings → My day**, but a short list is easier to protect. See Priorities and Must do.

## 4. Shape the day

On **Shape the day**, give the remaining work enough structure to be believable.

- Set or correct each task's length.
- Drag a task onto the calendar to reserve a time for it.
- Drag a calendar block back onto the task list to remove its time while keeping the task in the day.
- Add breaks. Open the **Break menu** to pick from your saved breaks (Dayplan offers a time that fits around your calendar), choose one of the greyed-out suggestions, or type your own in **Add a break**. Then drag a break onto the calendar to give it a time.

For more about calendar blocks, read Timeboxing 101 and [Use the calendar and timebox tasks](https://dayplan.do/docs/calendar-and-timeboxing).

## 5. Write the plan

The last step, **Daily plan**, shows your day as a timeline beside two editable cards:

- **Planned for today** is a short draft of what the day is for. Rewrite it in your own words.
- **Setting myself up for success** holds practical notes, such as closing a distracting tab, preparing a file, or protecting lunch.

Select **Get going** to save the plan. You can read it again later in the **Journal**.

## Best practices

- Plan from a complete list, then subtract.
- When the day is over capacity, move work out instead of shrinking estimates you don't believe. See Plan a realistic day.
- Keep must-dos scarce so the star means something.
- Run **Plan today** again if the day changes a lot.

## Frequently asked questions

### Plan today is missing from the sidebar. How do I get it back?

Open **Settings → My day** and turn on **Daily Plan ritual** under **Rituals**.

### My meetings show on the calendar but not in the task list. Why?

Open **Settings → Calendars** and turn on **Show events as tasks**. Synced events then appear as read-only cards next to your tasks and count toward the workload. Calendar sync is part of Dayplan Pro.

### Does "Can be done tomorrow" schedule the task?

Yes. Tasks in **Can be done tomorrow** move to tomorrow. Tasks in **Can wait a week or two** go to the Backlog and come back for a fresh decision later.

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Source: https://dayplan.do/docs/daily-planning