Commit to a plan, or keep your options open

Promise yourself a short list and finish it, or choose as you go from what’s possible. Today’s Plan has a part for each, so you can do both.

There are two ways to plan a day:

Commit: in the morning you decide what today holds, close the list, and finish it. People call it a closed list or a will-do list.
Keep your options open: you keep a pool of what you could do, and choose in the moment. An open list, or a might-do list.

What each is good at

Committing gives you a finish line and a real “done for today”. You decide once, and anything new waits for tomorrow instead of taking over today. But it breaks when the day changes, and a plan that’s too full leaves you feeling behind.

Keeping your options open bends with the day: you match the task to your energy, time and place, and there’s nothing to fail. But the list is never finished, and it’s easy to keep picking the easy tasks while the important, hard one waits.

Ring List does both

Today’s Plan has two parts.

Today's Plan marked Ready on a phone: six tasks under The plan for today, one of them finished, and three under If there's time

Set up both

Open Today’s Plan. Add the few things you must do today: + beside a task under Good options for the plan, or edit a task in its list and choose ☀️, then Today. See Make your plan for today.
Add what you’d do if there’s time: drag tasks below the If there’s time heading, or edit a task in its list and choose ☀️, then If there’s time today.
Tap Ready. The plan is closed: + at the top now adds a task for tomorrow. Tap Ready again to change the plan.
Finish the plan. Anything left under If there’s time is an option again tomorrow, by itself. A plan task left unfinished waits under From your last plan, for you to add again or not.

Only one or the other

Commit only: make the plan, tap Ready, and leave If there’s time empty.
Options only: don’t tap Ready. Put what you might do under If there’s time, or work from All Lists › Top Priorities.

How much to commit

Fewer than you think. If you carry tasks over most days, commit to fewer and put the rest under If there’s time. With AI on, the morning plan asks whether yesterday’s plan was Too much, About right or Too little, and sizes the next one to match.