Low Tide
Left alone, any list turns into a place where things quietly go to be forgotten. Low Tide is Float's answer to that. Once a week it collects the todos without a date that you have not touched in a while and walks you through them, one at a time, so you can decide what to do with each.
Touching a todo means doing something to it: editing its title, writing in its note, adding a tag, setting a date, floating it, moving it. Reading one does not count, and neither does opening it to look at the note you already wrote; otherwise checking on something would be enough to hide it from the review that exists to find it.
Only todos without a date are included. A todo with a due date is never part of Low Tide, whether it is overdue, anchored or repeating, because its date already brings it back: on its day it turns up in Today, and an overdue one is waiting there already, in red. Low Tide is for the todos that have nothing else to bring them back.
It shows up because it is the day you picked, not because anything judged your list.
How it starts
On the day you set, at 9:00 in the morning, a card appears in Today: Low Tide uncovered 7 todos. Tap it to start.
You do not have to. The card gives you two other choices:
- Skip this week: it goes away until next week.
- Defer until tomorrow: same time, next day.
If you asked to be notified, a notification arrives at the same moment telling you how many are waiting.
The first time you go in, Float explains what it is about to ask and waits for you to press Begin. After that it goes straight to the first todo.
What you see
The water drains away and the screen turns to sand. It looks different from the rest of Float on purpose, because the job is different: you are not adding or arranging anything, just answering questions about things you have been putting off.
One todo at a time, in the middle of the screen, with a count in the corner: 3 of 7. The set is fixed the moment you start, so answering one cannot shuffle or drop the ones still to come.
Each card shows the title, and below it the two things you need in order to decide:
- How long you have left it: untouched 34 days, or kept at the last Low Tide if this is the second time it has come round.
- How far down it had got: sank to 148, its actual position in your list. It shows only once your list holds 20 todos or more, because on a shorter list every position is near the top.
It also shows any tags, which the list normally shows only as small icons. Here there is one todo and a whole screen, so there is room, and a tag is often what tells you whether a nine-month-old todo is dead or just waiting on something.
The six choices
The two that move a todo up or down sit above and below it, in the direction they send it.
| Choice | Where it is | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Surface | Above the card | Sends it to the top. On iPhone you can also drag the card up to it. |
| Sink | Below the card | Sends it to the bottom. On iPhone, drag the card down. |
| Complete | The circle at the top-left of the card | Marks it done. |
| Float | The life-ring at the top-right | Pins it to the top, same as anywhere else in Float. If the todo is already floated, the ring says Unfloat and lets go of it, which sends it to the top of the ordinary list, again the same as anywhere else. |
| Leave it | The filled button underneath | Changes nothing. You looked, and it stays put. |
| Move to Trash | The red-lettered button beside it | Takes it off the list. You can get it back from the Trash. |
Whichever you pick, the card leaves the screen in the direction you sent it and the next one comes in. That movement is how Float confirms what you chose, since nothing else does.
Step back, at the bottom, undoes the choice you just made and brings the card back. Press it again and it goes back through the choices before that, all the way to the first card, for as long as Low Tide is open, which is what makes it safe to go through these quickly.
On iPhone, as you drag a card toward Surface or Sink, that label gets stronger, so you can see which one you have armed before you let go.
Leaving
Back to your list closes Low Tide whenever you like: on iPhone it is the down arrow at the bottom, at the other end from step back, and on a Mac it is at the top of the window, or press Esc. On an iPhone Duo, folded or opened out on its side, the down arrow stands at the bottom of the column down the right-hand edge, and step back moves to the middle. Anything you have already answered is already saved: Float saves each choice as you make it, not when you leave, so stopping halfway never loses your work.
Get through them all and Float tells you the tide is back in, with a Done button to leave.
Settings
Settings → Low Tide:
- Low Tide weekly review: on or off.
- Day: which day it shows up. Monday to begin with.
It always comes at 9:00 in the morning, and it always gathers the undated todos you have not touched in the last 14 days. Neither of those is a setting: they are the two numbers that make Low Tide what it is, and picking them yourself would mean guessing at something your list cannot tell you. A threshold set too short raises everything you own, one set too long raises nothing at all, and neither mistake announces itself.
Whether a notification comes with it is Settings → Notifications → Low Tide reviews, set on each device. Low Tide appears in Today either way.
These settings follow you to your other devices when iCloud sync is on.