Compass

Most days the hard part is not the work, it is deciding which work. You open your task list, see forty things, and the one that actually matters is somewhere in the middle of it.

Compass is the answer to that. It gives you a short recap of what you have been getting done, then names a few things worth doing next and tells you why each one made the list. Nothing more. It is deliberately small, because a second list of everything would not help.

Compass reads. It never changes anything, so you can open it as often as you like.

What you can do

How to open Compass

• Keyboard: ⌘+J on macOS, Ctrl+J on Windows.
• Command palette: ⌘+K (or Ctrl+K), then search for Compass, direction, or recap.
• Change the shortcut: open Settings → Automations → Shortcuts and rebind it to whatever you prefer. See Automations Settings.

Press Escape or choose Maybe later to close it.

How Compass decides what to show you

You are not being asked to trust a black box, so here is the thinking, in order.

Anything overdue comes first, and the longer it has been sitting there, the higher it climbs. Then work due today. Then anything you already have in progress, because finishing something half-done usually beats starting something new. Priority lifts everything, so an important overdue task outranks a trivial one. Finally, work you touched very recently is nudged down, since you have likely just dealt with it.

Anything you have marked complete or closed is left out entirely. Compass never suggests finished work.

The reason for each suggestion is written on it, so you can see whether you agree: how many days overdue something is, that it is due today, or that you already started it.

Checking another space

Spaces in PrimeTask are separate on purpose, which is what makes them useful, but it does mean your day can be split across more than one of them.

Compass lets you look at any of them. Choose a different space from the space selector in Compass and it shows you that space's direction instead: the same suggestions, the same recap, read from that space.

What does not happen matters just as much. You stay exactly where you were in the app, and the space you are working in does not change. Nothing is copied between spaces and nothing is altered. Compass is only looking.

Each space is read entirely on its own terms, so its own statuses and priorities decide what counts as urgent, in progress, or done. A space with a bespoke workflow is judged by that workflow, not by another space's.

When you choose a task from another space, PrimeTask opens it and moves you across to that space so you can work on it. From there the back button takes you to your dashboard, because the screen you came from belongs to the space you just left.

Compass always opens on the space you are actually working in, so the wide view is something you go looking for rather than something that follows you around.

Ways people use it

Starting the day. Open Compass, read the recap, take the top suggestion, close it. You are working on the right thing without having looked at a single list.

Coming back after a few days away. Compass looks back to the last day you actually did something rather than assuming it was yesterday, so a recap after a long weekend still shows real work instead of a row of zeros. The overdue items rise to the top, which is exactly what you need to see first.

A quick check between meetings. Twenty minutes free and no idea what to spend it on. One suggestion, one click.

Running several areas of life. Work in one space, home in another, a side business in a third. Cycle through them in Compass each morning and you have your whole day in front of you in about fifteen seconds.

Looking after a client space. If you keep a client in their own space, you can check what is overdue there without leaving your own work, then jump across only if something needs doing.

End of the day. Open it to see what you finished, which is a better close to the day than an empty list of what you did not.

Things worth knowing

Compass never changes anything

Everything in Compass is a view of work that lives elsewhere. It has no editing, no ticking off, and no bulk actions by design. Choosing a suggestion opens the task where it lives, and that is where you make changes. See Task Details.

The recap follows your last active day

PrimeTask is a desktop app and nobody opens it every single day. Rather than showing you an empty recap because yesterday was a Sunday, Compass looks back over the past week for the most recent day you actually got something done and recaps that instead.

If it finds nothing at all, the figures are left out rather than shown as zeros. A row of noughts reads like a report card, and that is not what this is for.

Streaks are counted per space

Your streak counts consecutive days you completed something. It is counted separately for each space, so viewing another space shows that space's streak, not a combined one.

Focused time comes from Focus Mode

The focused-time figure in the recap comes from sessions you ran in Focus Mode. If you have not used it, that figure simply will not appear. See Focus Mode and Time Tracking.

The CRM figure needs Pro

The recap can include the CRM activity you logged. PrimeCRM is part of the Pro tier, so that figure appears once CRM is available on your licence. See PrimeCRM Overview.

There is a quote, if you want it

Compass offers a short quote each day, the same one all day, and it stays out of the way until you choose to see it. Ignore it entirely and Compass works exactly the same.

Your picture is a button

Click your profile picture in Compass for a short nudge. It is a small thing, and completely optional.

Common questions

Where to go next