Frequently Asked Questions

1. Isn't this just another task app?

Chronos differs from traditional task apps:

  1. Local-first. Chronos is desktop software. No browsers, logins, and works entirely offline. Your data is private and your own. There are no subscription fees, just a one-time license fee that includes free Chronos updates for a year.
  2. Estimates Oriented. Enter estimates in the form of hours, days or weeks and Chronos will sum estimates and show completion dates. Chronos will reactively update the calendar as you add, remove and reorder tasks. Tasks are "checked off" using estimates producing a perfect history of your on-task time.

Read the announcement post to learn more.

2. Where is the mobile app?

Chronos is producer-focused app, akin to a developer IDE — although for personal task management instead of software code. As such, we don't presently offer a mobile app, although we reserve the right to do so in the future.

3. How do I check off a task?

Chronos tasks are checked off by recording the actual time spent on the task and keeping tasks ordered such that completed tasks sit before uncompleted tasks. This process is explained thoroughly in How to Check Off Tasks.

In certain cases, we may wish to have a plan in which we "check off" tasks regardless of their task order and plan settings. Useful in certain pragmatic cases, there is a "checklist cheat" which allows for this.

4. What if I'm working on a task, but need to switch to another?

In the real world, task interruptions occur all the time. How to Interrupt a Task explains how to manage interrupted tasks in Chronos.

5. How do I reorder tasks?

Holding Shift and pressing K or J will reorder the focused task up and down respectively. Similarly, Shift+Up Arrow and Shift+Down Arrow will also do the job.

You can also right-click on any task and select Move Task Up or Move Task Down, respectively.

6. How should I configure Hours per day?

Hours per day is a configurable value in your plan settings. It defaults to six hours.

You want to set this to the rough average of your on-task hours per day. When you estimate a task in number of hours (e.g., 3h), Chronos will use this value to project on-task and completion days for your task.

Your true on-task time will inevitably vary from day to day, this value should reflect a reasonable average.

7. Where is my Chronos data?

Chronos data is frequently backed up (to ~/.chronos) by default and data can be explicitly exported (and imported) at anytime. Read more about Import, Export and Backups.

8. Where do I report feature requests?

Send feature requests to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you.

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