Can I change my daily outcome mid-day?

Yes. The outcome field is editable throughout the day. If circumstances change materially, updating the outcome is more honest than treating an outdated outcome as still valid.

What if I have multiple equally important priorities?

Pick one. The constraint is the point — if everything is a priority, nothing is. The other items can be secondary blocks in your daily plan, but only one outcome anchors the day.

How does the outcome relate to time blocks?

The outcome is your anchor; blocks are your schedule. You'd typically create at least one block specifically for work that serves the outcome and mark focus sessions within it as outcome-linked.

Is the outcome visible in the weekly review?

Yes. The weekly rollup shows each day's outcome, its completion status, and the completion timestamp so you can review your weekly directional accuracy.

Set one outcome per day and anchor everything to it

today's daily outcome is your most important result for the day. Every focus session can link to it, every commitment can serve it. One outcome. Full commitment.

The power of committing to one daily outcome

Most productivity frameworks give you a top-three or top-five priority list. today gives you one. A single daily outcome is a forcing function: you must decide what actually matters most today, not create a hedge list of things that matter somewhat. Gary Keller's 'The One Thing' popularized this idea in business contexts; today implements it at the daily level. When your day ends, you can answer yes or no: did the most important thing happen? That clarity makes daily planning easier (everything else is secondary to the outcome), focus decisions faster (does this session serve the outcome?), and daily reflection more honest (the main question is already answered).

How focus sessions connect to the daily outcome

When you start a focus session in today, there's a toggle: 'linked to today's outcome.' This connection makes the session data meaningful beyond time-tracking. At the end of the day, you can see what percentage of your focus sessions were outcome-linked versus maintenance work versus reactive work. If you had five sessions and zero were linked to your outcome, something went wrong with your planning or execution — that's worth noting in your reflection. If four of five sessions were outcome-linked, you know the day was directionally correct even if you didn't complete everything you planned.

When to set your daily outcome

The daily outcome should be set during your morning planning — before blocks, before checking email, before anything reactive. The sequence matters: setting the outcome first frames the rest of your planning. Once you know the most important thing, the blocks naturally organize around protecting time for it. In today, the outcome card is prominent in the day view and serves as a constant reference point throughout the day. Some users write their outcome as a question ('Did I finish the technical spec?') so end-of-day evaluation is a straightforward yes/no rather than a vague assessment.

Outcome completion rate as a weekly health signal

Over a week, your outcome completion rate tells you something important about your planning accuracy and execution quality. A 100% rate might mean you're setting outcomes that are too easy. A 40% rate likely means your outcomes are too ambitious or your days are too reactive. The sweet spot for most knowledge workers is 70–80% — ambitious enough to create directional pull, realistic enough to be achievable on normal days. today's weekly stats track this rate. Adjusting your outcome scope based on the data (rather than just feeling like you should do more or less) is one of the highest-leverage uses of daily planning data.

Frequently asked questions