Core concepts¶

Empi is not a to-do list with a calendar bolted on. It schedules real work into real time, so a handful of words carry more weight than usual. Learn these nine ideas and the rest of the app explains itself.

Tasks and notes¶

A task is work that takes time and is expected to be finished. It has an estimate, a due date, a status, and eventually a block of calendar time reserved for it.

A note is a captured thought: an idea, a meeting scribble, a checklist, a voice memo, a drawing. It has no time and no deadline, and Empi never schedules it.

Capture first, decide later. When a note turns out to be work, convert it to a task (optionally keeping the original note). See Notes and Tasks.

Estimate and due date¶

The two properties that make a task schedulable.

• Estimate: how long the task takes. Without it, the planner does not know how much time to book.
• Due date: when it must be done. Without it, the planner does not know by when to book it.

The planner needs both. A task missing either one cannot be scheduled and is listed under Not planned yet on the Planner, with the reason (for example "Needs an estimate"). This is deliberate: a task with no size and no deadline is a wish, not a plan. See Task properties.

Time slots¶

A time slot is a named kind of time with weekly windows: Work hours, Spare time, and any slot you create. The windows say when that kind of activity can happen, for example Work hours Monday to Friday 09:00 to 18:00.

Time slots are the outer boundary of the planner. It never books work outside them, which is what stops your job from eating your evenings. See Working hours and focus hours.

Agendas¶

An agenda is a connected calendar (Google, Microsoft, Apple, CalDAV, or the built-in Empi Calendar). Each one is configured to either:

• count toward your load, meaning its events consume the capacity Empi has to give away, or
• simply block you as busy, meaning Empi will not book on top of the event but does not count it as your work either.

That single switch is why a personal calendar full of family events does not make you look overworked, while your team meetings do. See Which agendas count.

Capacity and load¶

Capacity is the free focus time a day actually has, after your meetings, your commutes and your breaks are taken out of your time slot windows. It is what is left, not what is on paper.

Load is how much work is booked against that capacity.

Everything capacity-first follows from the comparison. When load exceeds capacity, Empi says the day is over capacity rather than silently overbooking it. You then have exactly three real options: move a task, cut its estimate, or accept it will slip. See How Empi schedules your work and Today.

Reservations¶

A reservation (also: a block, a slot) is real calendar time booked for a task. It is not a soft intention. It exists on a calendar, it makes you busy, and if your agenda is synced, your colleagues see it.

There are four ways a reservation comes to exist:

On the task itself, a slot carries an origin badge reading either Planner or Smart reserve, which tells you whether the planner is free to move it. The planner may move or drop what it created; it respects what you pinned or booked by hand. See Reserving time.

Deep and shallow focus¶

Each task is marked Deep or Shallow: whether it needs peak concentration or can survive a fragmented, tired hour.

Peak focus hours are the windows in which you do your best deep work. The planner places deep-focus tasks inside those windows first and keeps shallow work out of them. It is a soft preference: it never delays a task or misses a due date just to protect a peak. Set your peak hours in Working hours and focus hours.

Areas and projects¶

Projects group tasks that share an outcome ("Website redesign"). Areas group projects that share a context ("Work", "Home").

Areas and projects exist so that filtering, reporting and the sidebar tree map onto how you actually think. They do not affect scheduling: the planner cares about estimates, due dates and windows, not folders.

Labels, priority and status¶

Labels are free-form tags you attach to any task, for the cross-cutting things a project tree cannot express ("waiting on legal", "quick win"). A task can have as many as you want.

Priority runs P1 (highest) to P4 (lowest). It is a tiebreaker: when two tasks compete for the same slot, the planner prefers the more important one. Priority does not override a due date.

Status is where the task is in its life. There are six:

Full detail on all three, plus every other property, in Task properties.