Core Concepts

Understanding a few core concepts will help you get the most out of Align. Whether you're new to time blocking or just new to Align, this guide explains the fundamental ideas that make the app work.

What Is Time Blocking?

Time blocking is a time management method where you divide your day into blocks of time, with each block dedicated to accomplishing a specific task or group of tasks.

Instead of keeping an open-ended to-do list and working on whatever feels urgent, you decide in advance what you'll work on and when. You're essentially making appointments with yourself to get things done.

Why it works: Time blocking transforms your intentions into concrete plans. When you allocate specific time to a task, you're much more likely to actually do it. You also get a realistic picture of what you can accomplish in a day, helping you avoid overcommitting.

How Align helps: Align visualizes your time blocks on a timeline, making it easy to see your entire day at a glance, identify conflicts, and adjust your schedule as your day unfolds.

Time Blocks: The Building Blocks of Your Day

In Align, everything revolves around time blocks—visual representations of tasks and activities on your timeline.

What Makes a Time Block

Each time block has:

• A title describing what you'll do (like "Morning Workout" or "Client Presentation")
• A start time and end time defining when the activity happens
• Visual customization with colors and icons to make your schedule easy to scan
• Optional recurrence for tasks that repeat daily, weekly, or on a custom schedule

Types of Time Blocks

Tasks you create: These are activities you add directly in Align—your workouts, focus time, errands, meals, or any commitment you want to schedule.

Calendar events: Align can sync with your device's calendars, showing your meetings, appointments, and events alongside your planned tasks. This gives you one complete view of your day.

Recurring blocks: Whether it's a daily meditation, weekly team meeting, or monthly review, you can set time blocks to repeat automatically, building consistent routines into your schedule.

The Timeline: Your Visual Schedule

The timeline is your home screen in Align—a vertical view of your entire day where all your time blocks live.

How It Works

Time runs top to bottom: Morning activities appear at the top, evening activities at the bottom. Scroll to see your whole day from wake-up to bedtime.

Visual hierarchy: Different colors and icons help you quickly distinguish between work tasks, personal time, health activities, and social commitments.

Real-time view: Your timeline shows exactly what's happening now, what's coming up next, and what you've already completed.

Why It Matters

The timeline transforms abstract plans into something concrete and visual. Instead of wondering "When will I have time to exercise today?", you can see exactly where that 45-minute workout fits between your morning meeting and lunch.

This visual representation helps you:

• See your whole day at once without flipping between lists and calendars
• Identify conflicts when two things are scheduled for the same time
• Find gaps where you have unscheduled time for breaks or unexpected tasks
• Stay realistic about what you can actually accomplish in a day

Calendar Integration

Align doesn't replace your existing calendars—it works with them to give you a complete picture of your time.

How It Works

Sync your calendars: Connect Align to the calendars on your device (iCloud, Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.)

Unified view: All your calendar events appear as time blocks on your timeline, right alongside the tasks you create in Align.

Two-way sync: Changes you make in Align can sync back to your calendars (for calendars that allow editing), and updates in your calendar apps appear in Align.

Calendar Permissions

Editable calendars: For calendars where you have edit permissions, you can create, modify, move, and delete time blocks directly in Align.

Read-only calendars: Some calendars (like shared work calendars or subscribed calendars) don't allow modifications. Events from these calendars appear in Align but are automatically locked to prevent accidental changes.

Duration and Flexibility

Time blocks in Align are flexible—they adapt as your day unfolds.

Adjusting Your Schedule

Resizing: Drag the edges of a time block to make it longer or shorter when plans change.

Drag and drop: Move time blocks to different times by dragging them to a new position on the timeline.

Locking: Protect important appointments from accidental changes by locking them in place.

Overlap avoidance: Let Align automatically reorganize your schedule when you make changes, or disable it when you need more manual control.

Planning vs. Reality

Your timeline isn't meant to be rigid. It's a living plan that adapts to reality:

Morning planning: Start your day by reviewing and adjusting your time blocks to reflect your priorities and energy levels.

Mid-day adjustments: When a task takes longer than expected or something urgent comes up, resize and rearrange your blocks to accommodate the change.

Evening reflection: At the end of the day, adjust your time blocks to reflect what actually happened. This helps you learn how long tasks really take and plan more accurately in the future.

Recurring Time Blocks: Building Habits

Recurring time blocks are the foundation of building consistent habits and routines.

Why Recurring Blocks Matter

Some activities benefit from happening at the same time regularly:

• Morning routines like meditation, exercise, or journaling
• Work blocks like focused coding sessions or email processing
• Health habits like meals at consistent times or evening wind-down routines
• Regular commitments like team meetings, classes, or social activities

By making these blocks recur automatically, you don't have to recreate them every day. They become the stable framework around which you plan the rest of your schedule.

Types of Recurrence

Daily: Activities that happen every day or every weekday (like morning workout or daily standup)

Weekly: Tasks that repeat on specific days each week (like yoga on Tuesday and Thursday)

Custom: More complex patterns for activities that repeat less frequently

Notifications: Staying on Track

Align helps you stick to your schedule with timely notifications.

Task reminders: Get notified when it's time to start a time block, so you can transition smoothly from one activity to the next.

Customizable timing: Set notifications to appear right when a task starts, or a few minutes before to give yourself transition time.

Smart defaults: Align learns from your notification preferences to suggest appropriate settings for new time blocks.

Notifications transform your visual timeline into an active system that keeps you on track throughout the day.

Visual Organization

Align gives you powerful tools to make your schedule easy to understand at a glance.

Colors

Different colors help you categorize time blocks:

• Work might be blue
• Personal might be green
• Health & fitness might be orange
• Social might be purple

Choose colors that make sense to you—there's no right or wrong system. The goal is to make your timeline scannable so you can quickly assess your day's balance.

Icons

Icons add another layer of visual information. A running icon for your morning jog, a coffee cup for your afternoon break, or a laptop for focused work time.

Icon suggestions: Align can automatically suggest relevant icons based on your time block titles, making it faster to build a visually rich timeline.

Getting Started with These Concepts

Now that you understand the core concepts, you're ready to dive into Align:

1. Start with today: Create a few time blocks for your main activities today
2. Add some color: Customize your blocks with colors and icons that make sense to you
3. Set up recurring blocks: Add your regular commitments so they appear automatically
4. Connect your calendars: Sync your existing calendars to see everything in one place
5. Practice flexibility: Adjust your time blocks as the day unfolds—your timeline should serve you, not constrain you

The beauty of Align is that you can start simple and gradually incorporate more features as you become comfortable with the basics.

Need More Help?

Ready to put these concepts into practice? Check out the Quick Start Guide for step-by-step instructions.

Have questions about specific features? Browse the Features & How-Tos section or contact us directly.