Planning & Scheduling

Planning and scheduling in Routine is how you move tasks from captured ideas into committed time. Routine gives you several distinct ways to plan work — from assigning a task to a specific day, to blocking time on your calendar, to pushing work to a future week when priorities shift. Understanding the difference between these actions is key to building a workflow that keeps you in control without overwhelming your calendar.

✍️ The three planning actions

Routine distinguishes between three related but distinct planning concepts:

1. Scheduling — assigning a task to a day

Scheduling a task means telling Routine which day you intend to work on it. The task appears under that day in your agenda and upcoming views, but it doesn't block time on your calendar.

• Use scheduling when you know which day a task belongs to but don't need to reserve a specific time slot

• Scheduled tasks appear in the task list beneath the relevant day in the Calendar view

• A task can be rescheduled to any day at any time

To schedule a task:

• Select or open any task and press CMD/CTRL+L

• Or click the calendar icon on the task

• Or drag the task to a day in the Calendar view

• Pick a date from the date picker

2. Time blocking — allocating a task to the calendar

Allocating a task means dragging it directly into a time slot on your calendar, creating a visual block of reserved time. This is different from scheduling — it commits a specific window of time, not just a day.

• Use time blocking when a task needs dedicated, uninterrupted focus time

• Allocations appear on the calendar as distinct blocks, visually separate from regular events

• A task can have multiple allocations across different days and time slots

• Allocations can be resized and moved like calendar events

To time-block a task:

• Drag the task from the task list directly into a time slot on the Calendar view

• Resize the block to set the duration

• Hold Option/Alt and drag again to create a second allocation for the same task

3. Postponing — pushing to a later date

Postponing removes a task from your current view and pushes it to a future date for reconsideration. Use this when a task isn't relevant now but you don't want to discard it.

• Use postponing to keep your current view clean without losing track of the task

• Postponed tasks resurface on the date you specify

• Postponing is different from scheduling — it's a deliberate act of deferral, not commitment

To postpone a task:

• Select or open any task and press CMD/CTRL+P

• Or click the postpone icon on the task

• Choose a future date or time period

🎙️ How planning fits into your workflow

A healthy planning workflow in Routine typically looks like this:

At the start of the week:

1. Open the Calendar view to see all events and tasks for the week

2. Review unscheduled tasks in the task list on the left

3. Schedule important tasks to specific days by dragging or using CMD/CTRL+L

4. Time-block your most critical tasks to protect focus time

5. Postpone anything that isn't relevant this week

At the start of each day:

1. Open the Agenda to see today's events and scheduled tasks

2. Pick 1–3 tasks you're committing to completing today

3. Allocate time for the most important ones by dragging into the calendar

4. Postpone anything that won't realistically get done today

Throughout the day:

1. Use the Console (CMD/CTRL+SPACE) to check upcoming events and today's tasks without switching apps

2. Reschedule or reallocate as priorities shift

3. Mark tasks complete as you finish them

⌨️ Planning keyboard shortcuts

💡 Planning tips

• Don't over-schedule — leave buffer time between tasks and events for unexpected work

• Use time blocking sparingly — reserve it for deep work that needs protected focus time

• Process your inbox regularly — scheduling works best when your inbox is clean and decisions are made intentionally

• Let the AI help — ask the assistant to schedule tasks, find gaps in your calendar, or suggest the best time to work on something based on your existing commitments

• Use postpone freely — deferring a task is not failure. It's a deliberate choice to focus on what matters now

🗣️ Use cases

• Deep work sessions — time-block 2–3 hours for focused work on your most important task

• Deadline management — schedule tasks backwards from a deadline to ensure everything gets done

• Weekly planning — schedule all tasks for the week on Monday morning so your agenda is intentional

• Daily triage — use the Agenda each morning to commit to the day's priorities

• Flexible planning — use scheduling for soft commitments and time blocking for hard ones

• AI-assisted planning — ask the assistant "find me two hours this week to work on the Q3 report" and let it schedule based on your calendar availability

Planning and scheduling are the bridge between capturing work and actually doing it — the most important habit you can build in Routine.