Time Flow Benefits

The Time Flow board is a kanban-style project management tool designed to give you a realistic, calendar-based view of your work. Unlike traditional kanban boards that simply track status, Time Flow treats your tasks like appointments in your calendar—helping you understand not just what needs to be done, but when you're actually going to do it.

One of Time Flow's most powerful features is how it handles work that hasn't been started yet. The board clearly shows you all tasks with a "to-do" status where the start date has already passed.

This is your reality check.

Here's the key insight: you cannot go back in time to start work. Unless you own a time machine, that task with a start date of last Tuesday cannot be started last Tuesday—it needs to be rescheduled to when you'll actually begin it.

When you see work in the "Not Started" section, you need to move it to either:

Think of this exactly like rescheduling a calendar meeting. You wouldn't leave a missed meeting on last week's calendar—you'd move it to a new time slot. The same principle applies to your tasks.

The "Today and Future Date" columns function as your diary of scheduled work. This section shows:

This creates a clear pipeline of what you need to focus on and when. As soon as you start working on a task, it automatically moves from "the date in the future" to "In Progress, and start date of today", giving you an accurate snapshot of your current workload. As you take on future work, this helps update your capacity.

Time Flow gives you four essential columns that work together to create complete visibility:

Not Started shows you the planning failures—tasks that were supposed to begin but never did. This is your prompt to be realistic and reschedule.

Future Work is your commitment calendar—what you've promised to start today and in the future. This keeps your pipeline visible and manageable.

In Progress reveals your current workload—everything actively being worked on. This prevents the common problem of having too many things "in flight" at once.

Overdue is your accountability column—work that has blown past its deadline. This creates urgency and ensures nothing gets forgotten just because it's late.

Together, these four views create powerful transparency:

This combination means you always know the full story: what got missed, what's planned, what's happening now, and what's already late. No task can hide, and no excuse can mask reality.

For Time Flow's capacity features to work effectively, every task must have three pieces of information:

Let's look at why you need all three elements with a practical example:

Example 1: The Incomplete Picture

Without a start date, you don't know if this is starting Monday (giving you the whole week) or Thursday (leaving you just one day). The capacity calculation can't accurately distribute the workload across your week.

Example 2: The Complete Picture

Now the system knows you have 8 hours of work spread across 5 days. If you work 8-hour days, that's approximately 1.6 hours per day—a manageable load that can be balanced against other tasks.

Example 3: Understanding Daily Load Imagine you have three tasks all starting Monday:

Your capacity view shows you need 9 hours of work on Monday—immediately revealing you're over capacity for a standard 8-hour day. This allows you to make informed decisions about rescheduling before you're buried in overdue work.

Here's a critical concept: capacity is calculated based on today's reality.

All overdue work is treated as needing to be completed today. If a task was due yesterday with 4 hours remaining, those 4 hours are added to today's capacity requirement. This creates urgency and prevents overdue work from disappearing into the background. (You can turn this off in the board settings).

Work currently in progress contributes to today's capacity based on remaining hours and the current due date. If you're halfway through an 8-hour task due tomorrow, you have approximately 4 hours of capacity allocated today and 4 tomorrow.

You can look ahead to see what a future day might look like if everything stays the same—but understand this is a snapshot, not a guarantee. Here's why:

Think of future capacity as a weather forecast—useful for planning, but expect things to change as you get closer to the actual date.

Your most accurate capacity view is always today. This is where planning meets reality. Your today view shows:

This daily focus keeps you grounded in what's actually achievable right now, rather than getting lost in theoretical future planning.

Let's walk through a realistic scenario:

Monday Morning:

Your workflow:

Tuesday Morning: Yesterday's incomplete work is now contributing to today's capacity. Any tasks that missed their due date yesterday have moved to "Overdue." Your "Coming Up" column shows what's scheduled to start. You make adjustments based on Monday's reality and plan Tuesday accordingly.

This approach creates several powerful advantages:

Honesty about workload - You can't hide overdue or missed work; it's visible and demands attention

Realistic planning - By forcing start date decisions, you commit to when work will actually happen

Capacity awareness - You see the hours required each day, preventing overcommitment

Clear priorities - Today's work is always front and center, with future work properly queued

Accountability - The board shows what got missed, what's in progress, what's coming, and what's overdue—creating transparency for teams

The Time Flow board succeeds because it aligns your project management with how time actually works. You can't start work in the past, capacity is always about today's reality, and effective planning requires knowing when work starts, when it's due, and how long it takes.

By treating your tasks like calendar appointments and requiring complete capacity information, Time Flow transforms your board from a simple status tracker into a powerful time management and capacity planning tool. You'll always know what needs your attention now, what's coming next, whether you have the capacity to take it on, and what's overdue and demanding immediate action.