How Float works
Float is a single list of todos. There are no projects, no folders, nothing nested inside anything else, and no priority fields. Instead, where something sits in the list is what it means. New todos go in at the bottom, next to the box you typed them in. Anything you want higher, you move up yourself. Finish one and everything below it moves up.
That is the whole idea. Everything else in Float is a way of working with that one list.
What you are looking at
The screen looks like water seen from the side: light at the top, getting darker as you go down. Things near the top are what you have decided matter. Things far down are new, things you have never moved, or things you have anchored until their day.
That darkness is useful information rather than decoration. A todo sitting deep and dark is one you dropped in and never came back to, and Float would rather show you that than tidy it away.
Nothing rearranges itself. A todo is never moved, re-sorted or re-scored while you are not looking. If something is in the wrong place, you move it, and it stays where you put it.
Four ways to move something
There are exactly four, and they are covered in Float, surface, sink, anchor.
| Move | Where it goes | What you mean by it |
|---|---|---|
| Float | The very top of the list | "Don't let me lose this." It stays there, and shows in Today, until you say otherwise. |
| Surface | The top, above the ordinary todos | "Bring this up." It stays up until you move something else there. |
| Sink | The bottom of the ordinary todos | "Not now." |
| Anchor | The very bottom of Everything, until its date | "Not until it's due." Only for a todo whose due date is still ahead; on that day it comes back into Today. |
Two ways to look at the list
Today shows only what needs you now: anything you floated, anything due today, and anything overdue. Everything shows the whole list. See Today and Everything.
Two ways off the list
Complete it and it goes to Done; Move to Trash and it goes to the Trash. Both are through the Done row at the bottom of Everything, where you can look at it later or put it back on the list.
Moving a todo to the Trash does not ask you to confirm, because you can always undo it. The few things in Float you cannot undo, such as deleting something for good, always ask first.
Two screens Float can send you to
These are the two full-screen views in Float, and they do quite different jobs:
- Low Tide is a weekly review. It gathers the todos without a date that you have not touched in a while and shows them to you one at a time, so you can decide what to do with each.
- When a reminder arrives is what you see if you tap a reminder's notification. It shows the one todo the alarm was about, and lets you put it off.
The introduction
The first time you open Float on a device with nothing in it, it introduces itself: five short pages over the sky, covering how one list works, the four ways to move something, Low Tide, and what Float costs. It opens on its own. Continue moves you on, the last page says Start my free trial, and the dots along the bottom show where you are. Nothing it shows is added to your list.
One page has switches on it: notifications and live weather. Those are the real settings, the same ones on the Settings pages, so whatever you leave them at is already set when you arrive.
If you leave notifications on, moving on from that page is when your iPhone or Mac asks whether Float may send them. Continue waits for your answer, and if you say no, the page stays put so you can read where to turn them on later.
When you are done, the water comes back in and you are looking at your list.
It plays once per device, and there is no way to play it again. If a device already has todos on it the introduction does not run at all, so signing in on a second Mac or phone takes you straight to your list. Nothing it covers is only in there; every switch it offers is on the Settings pages, and everything it explains is in this help.