Today

Overview

Every morning starts with the same question: what was I doing? By now everything in this guide has a place — the day you write into, the labels, the sources, the lenses — and Today is where it comes together: the page Mindnodes opens on, holding exactly what a day asks for. A box to type in, the day's brain dump , the handful of things you chose to keep in front of you, what is closing in, and today's hours down the side.

The box and the dump it writes into are covered on Brain dumps . This page is about the rest: the set you curate, and the parts the world fills in around it.

Top of mind

At any moment there is a handful of things you are actually carrying — the release, the contractor, the friend you keep meaning to call. Not everything on your lists: the four or five that are your current life. Top of mind is that handful, kept in front of you, standing under the box with today's dump at its head. A lens is a question, asked again every time you open it; this is the opposite — a hand-picked set, and the only one in Mindnodes you fill in by hand.

Keep a node in view

Any node can be one, and there are three ways in:

• From its actions — Keep node top of mind leads them, on the node page and in the actions of a row.
• From a list — press Space on the row your pointer is on.
• On a phone — swipe the row left.

See that it is there

A node that is top of mind says so with a small mark at the end of its row, wherever that row appears. Clicking the mark takes it off again — the same click, from anywhere you meet it. Taking a node off changes nothing else about it: it is a note to yourself, not a property of the node.

What takes a row off by itself

Two things do, and both mean the same: the row is no longer waiting on a decision.

• Planning a block for it. Drag the row onto an hour in the day column and it becomes a block on your calendar. The row is hidden while that block is ahead or running — it is no longer waiting on a decision. Delete the block, where you can see what else that hour was up against, and the row comes back; so does the work if the block passes with the task still open.
• Ticking the work off. A task you complete leaves for good. Top of mind is for what still asks something of you.

What the world fills in

Under Top of mind come the two parts of the page you do not curate:

• Deadline approaching — tasks whose deadline is overdue or falls within the next two days. It sits below what you chose on purpose: you open the page at your own day first. A due date is what puts a node there — see Areas & categories .
• The day column — today's events beside the list, down the right on a wide screen and behind the topbar toggle on a narrow one. Drag any row onto an hour and it becomes a block on your calendar, already linked to that node — as long as its duration says, or an hour if it has not said.

Every row on the page can be dragged onto the day, and any of them can be selected together when one decision covers several.

FAQ

Can I make another page my start page?

Not today. If you want a particular set in front of you every morning, keep it as a lens — it sits one row away in the sidebar.

Where did the list of everything go?

To Nodes , which was already the same list — everything by activity, newest first. Two pages answering "what moved" meant this one never ended; without it, the page is one you can work through.

How many things should I keep top of mind?

As few as you can bear. The section is meant to be read at a glance in the morning; a Top of mind of thirty rows is a backlog, and a backlog belongs in a lens .

Is Top of mind shared?

No. It is personal and lives on your account — a note to yourself, and publishing a node never shows what you keep top of mind.

Is today's brain dump kept top of mind?

It leads the section without being kept there — today's day has a row of its own, so it cannot be pinned twice. Yesterday's dump is an ordinary node and can be kept top of mind like anything else.