Quietkeep · the routes as of 3.6.1

Every path through Quietkeep

Every way in, every way through, and every way out — each drawn as the steps you take, not as the app is built underneath.

Amber marks the moment you do something. Everything else is the app moving on its own. A path drawn as a single move is a single move — the shape of the diagram is telling you how much there is to it. Nothing here is obliged: the app works if you only ever use the first path on this page.

In

Every way something gets from the world into the app. Only the first is used daily; the rest exist so that nothing has to wait for the right moment to be written down.

Put something down

When a thing arrives in your head and you cannot act on it now.

Type it in the box at the top, in whatever words you thought it in
Press Hold it
It is held, and offered back in the words you wrote No project asked for, no date, no category. That is the whole capture.

What it never doesAsk you to classify a thing before it will keep it. The question that stops you writing it down is the one that loses it.

Four smaller ways in

Each is one move. They exist so that nothing has to wait for the right moment.

Put down something longer

Press More room→a bigger box, and the same Hold it

Nothing else changes. It is the same capture with more space to write in.

Put a thought down without leaving what you are doing

Press +, inside any job→it is held, and you are still where you were

The point is the second half. Leaving a screen to write something down is how the thing you were doing gets lost as well.

Get things in from another app

Run the Shortcut→it opens this address with the text→held

Safari gives web apps no share sheet, so a Shortcut is the way in. That is a browser limit, not a decision made here — Getting things in from somewhere else explains the setup.

Try it on invented work

Add some sample work→a small tidy set, into the store you already have

Make a set to try things on→a file of about fifteen hundred invented things→nothing changes until you import it

The second replaces what is on the device when you import it, so take a copy under Your data first — that is the way back. Most of what it writes is unsorted, because that is what a real store looks like.

Something on your mind that isn't a task

When the thing bothering you is not work and will not become work.

Open Something on your mind that isn't a task?
Say it in your own words. It is not a task and is not treated as one
It must end somewhere — a route, or a park. Nothing is left hanging Parked is a real ending, not a deferral with a countdown attached.
Off your mind, and still in the app if you want it back

What it never doesScore how you feel, guess at a cause, or turn a worry into a task list. The app plots; you are the one who interprets.

Say what you are carrying

When the problem is not the list, it is how much is on you.

Open How you are, and anything weighing on you
Name a weight and say how big it is — a pebble, a rock, a boulder
It shows up on Carrying, as a thing you are holding rather than a thing to do A weight can never carry a clock. Acting on one is a deliberate choice, never an obligation that built up.

What it never doesAsk you to justify it, rank it against anybody else's, or convert it into work.

Through

Every way you meet a thing again and act on it. This is most of the app, and most days it is the first three.

Where do you want to be?

The screen you land on, and the one you come back up to.

A list of doors, each opening one job and saying what is behind it
A door only appears when there is something behind it So the list is short on a quiet day, and nothing ever asks you to remember to go and look somewhere.
Press a door
That job is now the whole screen — one way back, in the same place every time, and a + for putting a thought down without leaving
Press the way back, and you are here again

What it never doesShow you a door to an empty room, or make you check somewhere to find out there was nothing there.

Sort what you put down

When you have a pile and some spare attention. Optional, always.

Open Sort what you put down
It hands you one thing, on its own

Hot or cold?

Only when you put several things down at once, and it is a feel about the handful in front of you — nothing more.

Hotoffered before the cold ones — that is all it does
Coldstill comes back — nothing is ever hidden
Choose where it goesto the sorting question below — no heat recorded
Not this onemoves to the next item

What is this?

Do nowthis one is for today
Next actiona real next step, comes back tomorrow
Waiting forsomeone else owes you this
Somedayonto the Menu, no clock
Referencekeep it, don't act on it
Trashnot a thing after all
Put it under somethingfile it under a project, area or goal
Not this oneskip it, records nothing

and it hands you the next one, until you stop

There is a second way in, for when you want to work through one particular batch rather than everything you have captured: Sort a batch, behind On this page. Same one card at a time, pointed at one import, one project, or whatever matches a word you type.

What it never doesRequire this. Unsorted things are still offered — last, behind anything with a real reason to be asking — so a pile costs you a few taps, never a wall.

Do the next thing

The ordinary path. Most days this is the only screen you need.

Open Next up
It offers one thing, and a short line saying why that one

What do you want to do with it?

Donefinishes it
Not thismoves past it, as often as you like
Start smallerturns it into the first physical step
This one is heavysays it costs more than it looks
That is enough for nowends the sitting, not the work
Just one thingstrips the screen to the offer alone

Not this brings the next one forward, and records nothing at all

What it never doesHand you a list to get through, or keep a count of what you passed over.

Why it offered that one

Read this once and the offer stops being a guess.

The app walks these in order and stops at the first that applies. The card says which rung it stopped on, in these words.

a real date, and it is hereyou gave it a date and the date arrived
⟨the thing before it⟩ is donewhat it was waiting on has finished
you were about to: ⟨your words⟩you were interrupted, in the words you left
ready againa recurring thing has come back round
this one is waitingit is sorted and nothing is blocking it
you put this downnever sorted — offered last, and still offered
⟨something⟩ came roundnothing else asked, so a place you named did

What it never doesRank by importance. There is no priority field, and what you marked as interesting is kept as interest, not as a score.

Narrow what you are offered

On a train, with ten minutes, or sitting with someone.

Open What's the situation?, under the capture box

Answer any of the three. They compose.

Where you areanything with no place turns up everywhere, so this can never empty the screen
How long you haveanything you never estimated fits every answer
Who is with youanything with nobody named still shows

The offer and the list both narrow, and a line says what was narrowed
Optionally, Recognize this one? names the set
It comes back in one tap — the Tuesday meeting, the free weekend

What it never doesTake anything away. A filter changes what you are looking at and never what the app is holding.

Work on one thing

When you want the rest of it off the screen while you do this.

Press Work on this on any row
Working on — a timer is running, and this is the whole screen

While it runs

Something interruptsthe + catches it without ending the session
A long stretch passesComing up for air checks in, once
You stopStopping for now ends the timer, not the thing

That was a session. — the close of one, stated without a verdict

What it never doesGrade the session, compare it to another, or treat stopping as failing. It says what happened and that is all.

Check the shape is still right

Occasionally, and never because the app asked you to.

Open Worth a look
It names things that are structurally odd, three at a time, with the true count Nothing feeding a goal. A project with no next action. An area where nothing has finished in a month. A thing whose parent is gone.
Fix one, or decide it is fine as it is
It can reach zero, and when it does the screen is gone

What it never doesNag. A surface that can never be empty is a surface you learn to ignore, so this one empties. Rest is legitimate; the question is only whether it is rest.

Five ways of looking

Each shows you the same things, sliced the way a particular question arrives. None of them changes anything.

Find something

Type in the search box above the list→it opens what it finds

Changes nothing, and keeps no record of what you looked for.

See everything you are holding

Every one of them→the complete list, opened in place

Shut to begin with, because on a full store it is longer than everything else put together. Above it stands the line that nothing has gone quiet — the standing proof that nothing was lost. Looking at narrows the list to one branch without hiding anything from the offer, the proof line or search.

What you are carrying rather than doing

Carrying→what you are answerable for, and the weights you named

Work somebody else is executing shows here and never in Next up — being offered the next step of somebody else's job is the fastest way to stop trusting a screen that is supposed to have decided for you.

Who owes you, and what you owe

With other people→both directions, on one screen

It never says how long you have kept anybody waiting. There is no field to hold that, deliberately.

Do something because you want to

The Menu→the list where nothing is asking

No clocks, no dates, no pressure. You put things there and they wait for you. Acting on one is a choice you make, never an obligation that accrued.

Something you planned did not happen

The path the whole app is arranged around.

The date goes by. Nothing is put away, and no screen changes color
It becomes a card asking for a new plan, with what it fed, what is owed and how long is left already assembled

What is true about it now?

Compressthe same thing, in less
Escalateit needs somebody else
Renegotiatethe date was the wrong date
Take the date offnothing has changed except the date — it stays yours and comes back on its own
Not nowonto the Menu, where nothing is owed

It carries on from wherever you put it

And when more than one date has gone by:

One line above the cards offers All ⟨n⟩ at once, naming how many — the true number, not the three on screen
Take the dates off all of them, or put them all on the Menu
Nothing is marked done and nothing is deleted. The one-at-a-time choices are still there underneath, untouched

What it never doesCall it late. There is no such state in the app — not in the words, not in the data underneath. Nothing counts your misses and nothing keeps a run going. And it never makes the all-at-once route the only way through: a bulk gesture that replaced the individual choices would be taking the choice away, on the screen least able to afford it.

Put a thing inside another thing

When two items turn out to be one piece of work.

Open the thing's own panel and use What is this part of?
Pick a place that exists — or type a name that does not, and one tap makes it and files this under it The picker says what kind each option is, so a goal and a project never look alike.
The panel now says Part of ⟨name⟩ — and that line is a button

What it never doesRequire any of it. Nothing needs a place, a person, a project or a goal, and the app works with none of them.

Say where a thing can be done

So that “what can I do while I am at home” has an answer.

Open the thing’s own panel and find Where can this be done?

Two ways, and the first is the one you will use most days.

Tap one you already havethe row under the box is every place you have named — one tap, and nothing to type
Type a name that is newcommas make separate places, so “at home, out, on the phone” is three of them and not one

The panel then lists what this thing carries, and each one is a button that takes itself back off
A place you did not mean to make goes with Something here is not a ⟨place⟩, under the same row — the same control sits under roles, saying role
Under What’s the situation?, Where you are now offers what you named

What it never doesRequire one, or hide anything for the lack of one. Something with no place turns up wherever you are. And saying a label is not a place deletes nothing — it stops being offered and stops narrowing what you see, and the record still says it was there.

Get to the project you just made

The half that was missing until 3.6.0.

Tap Part of ⟨name⟩ at the top of any panel
You are on that thing's own panel, which lists everything under it Each of those is a button too, so the chain walks a step at a time in both directions.

Or, for the whole shape at once: Your projects, areas and goals, under What you are holding Called How it hangs together until 3.6.1. The old name described the shape; it never said the thing it holds, so nobody looking for a project could see that is where they are.
Every row says what it is — Goal, Project, Area, Outcome — with plain tasks left unmarked and indented under what holds them Those four are every kind that can hold something else. An outcome is a result you are working toward; a project is work with steps.

What it never doesMake you walk the tree to plan a day. It is a way of seeing, never the screen you land on.

Something that comes round again

The bins, the filter, the call you make every fortnight.

On the thing's panel, under Make it repeat, say how often
Give it an interval, and a window of how long you are comfortable leaving it
It goes quiet. Inside the window it asks nothing at all
Past the window the pressure rises, gradually, and the card says ready again
You do it, and mark it done
The clock starts from when you actually did it

What it never doesTurn red, keep a streak, or hold two weeks of missed repeats against you. One rise, from when it was last done.

Come back after a while away

The designed path, not the failure path.

You open the app after a gap. It measures the gap before anything else runs
Welcome back says what came round while you were gone — bounded, never the backlog

If a lot of dates went by

Move them all to the Menuin one go, where nothing is asking
Or leave themand take them one at a time

Nothing deleted, nothing marked done, all of it retrievable

What it never doesGreet you with everything at once, or treat the gap as something to explain. Rest is a legitimate thing to have done.

Out

Every way a thing leaves — whether it leaves what you are holding, or leaves the device altogether. The second kind only ever happens because you asked for it.

Four ways a thing stops asking

None of them is deletion, and none of them is a verdict.

Finish it

Done→off the list, and in the record

On something that repeats, this is also what starts the next clock — from when you actually did it, not from when it was due.

Let it go

Trash→not a thing after all

It goes to Trash, which you can open and read. Deciding something was never really a task is a legitimate outcome, and the app treats it as one.

Take back a promise

Release it→the undertaking goes, the work stays

The control is on the thing’s own row in With other people. That split is the whole point. You are no longer telling somebody you will do it; you have not thrown away the thing itself.

Stop it asking, without finishing it

Put it on The Menu→held, with no clock and nothing asking

This is the one Welcome back offers in bulk after a long gap. Nothing is deleted and nothing is marked done — it is all retrievable.

Tell someone where things are

Before the meeting where you are asked what is going on.

Open Telling someone where things are, under Things you can do
It writes up what has changed since you last told anyone, plus what is still outstanding
Press Show me — and choose what goes in it

Then take it however you need it

Copy itstraight into a message
Save as Markdowna text file
Save as a spreadsheetfor somebody who wants columns
Print iton paper

What it never doesSend it. Nothing leaves on the app's initiative, and you read the whole thing before deciding it should go.

Take a copy out, or bring one in

Moving in, moving on, or keeping a copy.

Open Your data, behind Elsewhere in the app

Which direction?

Exporteverything as one file, yours to keep
Importread a file back in

On an import it reads the file first and tells you what it found, before anything changes
It starts a fresh store and never merges — so an import cannot half-happen Projects and what sits inside them come across, with dates and notes. The tags you wrote arrive as places, in your words.
It comes back on Welcome back, saying everything is here

What it never doesBring in work you already finished — that history belongs to the app it happened in, and the file still holds it. It says how many before you press the button.

Two ways off the device

The app has no reminders of its own and never sends anything by itself. These are how something reaches you somewhere else.

Send one thing to your calendar

Send to my calendar→one event, in your own calendar

The calendar is what reaches you. That is deliberate: an app with its own notifications is another thing to manage, and you already have one that works.

Today, on paper

Print today→one page — what is next, what else is ready, what is with other people, what is coming

It builds the page at the moment of printing and empties the area afterwards, so there is never a stale sheet sitting in the app.

When something is wrong

Two paths that are not about your work at all — they are about the app itself.

The report the app writes about itself

When something looks wrong and you want to hand somebody a fact.

Open the ⓘ and find If something is wrong — or tap the version stamp at the bottom of any screen, which goes to the same place
Press Show me the report
It opens with what is actually wrong, if anything is, in plain sentences Work no copy holds yet. A version that has not finished installing. Storage the browser has not agreed to keep.
Then the shape of the store — counts and states, and nothing you wrote No titles, no names, no notes, no journal text. You can read the whole thing before deciding to send it.
Optionally Copy it or Save it as a file
Nothing has gone anywhere unless you sent it

What it never doesPhone home. There is no telemetry and nothing reports itself — which is also why this screen has to exist.

A new version is waiting

The app is offline-first, so a new version cannot simply appear.

A new version downloads in the background and then waits It does not take over underneath the page you are reading. Half-old, half-new is the one state worth refusing outright.
A standing strip tells you it is there, in words, and stays until you deal with it
Press it when you are ready
The new version loads, whole

What it never doesReload you mid-sentence. An app that caches itself cannot notice it has gone stale — that is what caching means — so being told is the only way you would ever know.