NewTwos

Recipes

Run your day in NewTwos

iPhoneiPadAndroidWebMacWindowsLinuxWatchUpdated 2026-08-18

A complete daily rhythm, built only out of features covered elsewhere in these docs.

The scenario

You have work to track, personal things to remember, and no appetite for a system that needs maintaining. You want to open one app, write, and close it, and still not drop anything.

This recipe introduces no new mechanics. Every step links to the page that explains it.

Set it up once

Ten minutes, once, and then never again.

  1. 1

    Make the app open on Today

    Today is where capture lands and where carry-over delivers. Anywhere else is a detour. Set it in Settings Appearance & Accessibility Start on.

  2. 2

    Confirm carry-over is on

    This is the engine of the whole recipe. Settings Lists & <i>Things</i> Carry over unfinished to-dos should be on. See how unfinished to-dos roll forward.

  3. 3

    Decide your default *thing* type

    If most of what you write is to-dos, set Settings Lists & <i>Things</i> Default <i>thing</i> type to a to-do. If most is notes, leave it. Getting this right removes a decision from every capture.

  4. 4

    Put Tag and Move to Tomorrow in your selection bar

    These are the two actions the evening step depends on. Settings Appearance & Accessibility Customize selection actions puts them within reach.

  5. 5

    Make three lists, and no more

    One for each area you genuinely track separately. Most people need fewer than they think, because days already handle this week. See sublists when one outgrows a line.

The daily rhythm

Morning, about thirty seconds. Open the app. Today already has yesterday's unfinished to-dos on it, so there is no planning step. Read down the list once. Delete anything that has been carried for more than a week or two, because it is telling you it is not really a to-do.

All day, a few seconds each time. Write everything into the capture bar as it occurs to you. Do not decide where it goes. Do not tidy it. If a moment genuinely matters, say the time in the sentence and accept the reminder NewTwos offers. See set a reminder.

Evening, about two minutes. Check off what you finished. Then select anything you have decided is actually tomorrow's problem and Move to Tomorrow. Everything else takes care of itself overnight.

That is the whole loop. Capture without deciding, review once a day, and let carry-over do the moving.

Make it yours

  • If your days get long, put a divider between morning and afternoon. It costs nothing and makes a busy day readable.
  • If you keep writing the same kind of thing, set a default add-to list so it stops landing on Today. See Settings Appearance & Accessibility Default add to list.
  • If you want a weekly view, add a Friday reminder that says "look back at this week" and use search by date rather than building a review system.
  • If you share a household or a project, put that one area on a shared list rather than on your days.

What this looks like after a month

Your days become an accurate log of what actually happened, because completed to-dos stay on the day you finished them rather than moving. That turns out to be the part people value most, and it is a side effect rather than a feature you configured.

Your lists stay small, because days absorb anything with a short shelf life. Your unfinished to-do count stabilises, because carrying something five times is an obvious signal to delete it.

And a year from today, this page comes back to you.