What your assistant can do

Once Diurnal is connected, talk to your assistant the way you would to someone who can see your list. You never name a tool or a setting; any wording works.

See your tasksCopy Anchor Link

Your assistant can look at today, any day, a week, everything on your Write pad, All Time, or what's overdue. It can also search your titles, notes and tags, and read a task's notes in full.

• "What's on my plate today?"
• "What did I leave overdue?"
• "Find anything about the passport."

Add tasksCopy Anchor Link

Add a task with or without a date. A task with no date lands on your Write pad, a time becomes a reminder, and a task can go in a week, in All Time, under tags, or in a project you already have.

• "Add 'send the invoice' for Friday at 4pm."
• "Add these: call the bank, renew the passport, book a dentist."
• "Put 'draft the launch post' in my Launch project for this week."

Change and finish tasksCopy Anchor Link

Rename a task, rewrite its notes, move it to another day, change its tags or project, or mark it open, in progress or done.

• "Move the dentist to Monday at 10am."
• "Mark the invoice task done."
• "Take 'old idea' out of the Launch project."

Recurring tasksCopy Anchor Link

Recurring tasks show up on each day they repeat. Your assistant can tick one day off, reopen it, or skip just that day. Creating or changing the repeat itself happens in the Mac app.

• "Tick off today's 'water the plants'."
• "Skip Thursday's standup prep."

Tags and projectsCopy Anchor Link

Your assistant can see your tags, so it reuses yours instead of inventing new ones, and your active projects with their deadlines and how much is done. It never creates a project; do that in the Mac app.

• "How far along is the Launch project?"
• "What tags do I use?"

Your calendarCopy Anchor Link

If you connected Google Calendar in the Mac app, your assistant can read your events, up to a month at a time, to plan around them. It can never add, move or delete an event. See Google Calendar.

• "What meetings do I have tomorrow?"
• "Find a two-hour gap this week for the report, and add it as a task then."

DeletingCopy Anchor Link

Your assistant can delete a task, which removes it from every Mac you use. Your AI app is told this is the one destructive action, so it can check with you first. If you only want a task off your list, ask for it to be marked done instead.

Things to knowCopy Anchor Link

• Dates follow your time zone. If a date comes out a day off, tell your assistant where you are.
• Changes show up on your Mac within moments, and most are marked as made by an AI assistant in the task's History.
• If something can't be done, such as a project that doesn't exist, your assistant is told why and what to do instead.