ToDo Stacker User Guide

Creating a Stack

1. On the Stacks tab, tap the + button in the toolbar
2. Give your Stack a name (e.g. "Work", "Home", "Weekend Project")
3. Tap a Stack card to open it and start adding strips

To rename or delete a Stack, touch and hold its card and choose Rename or Delete. Deleting a Stack removes all of its strips too, so the app asks you to confirm first.

Head start: if you already keep lists in Apple Reminders, you can import them as ready-made Stacks in one tap — see Import from Reminders under the Options tab below.

Creating & Editing Strips

A strip is a single task. Each strip is colour-coded by its task type and status, so a glance at the board tells you what kind of work is waiting and how it's going.

The Strip Editor

When you create or edit a strip you can set:

• Title and description
• Due date — shown on the strip, with clear highlighting when it's overdue
• Planned time — the minutes you expect the task to take
• Task type — the category that drives the strip's colour
• Priority — from 1 to 10, worn as a badge on the strip
• Custom colour — override the type colour if you fancy
• Timer model — Pomodoro or countdown, per strip (see Focus Timers below)

What a Strip Shows

• Title, status badge, and metadata icons in a fixed order: type, priority, sub-task count
• Badges for linked Calendar events, Contacts and Reminders
• Due date, with overdue highlighting
• The play/pause timer control

Tap a strip to expand it; tap again to collapse. The expanded view holds the description, sub-tasks, links and repeat settings.

Drag to Reorder

Press and drag a strip up or down to reorder the Stack. There's no separate "priority sort" to fight with — whatever you put on top is what's next. A little haptic tick confirms each move.

Note: reordering is paused while a filter is active, because dragging within a filtered subset would scramble the real order underneath.

Sub-Tasks

• Sub-tasks nest inside a strip and appear when you expand it
• The collapsed strip shows a count badge so you know there's more inside
• Tap Add sub task in the expanded view to create one
• Each sub-task is a small strip of its own, with its own play button for focus sessions

Linking Calendar Events, Contacts & Reminders

Expand a strip to link it to an Apple Calendar event, a Contact, or a Reminder. Linked items show as badges on the collapsed strip, so "Call Sarah about the quote" carries Sarah's contact card and the meeting it relates to.

The first time you use each of these, iOS asks for permission — in context, only when you actually need it. All three are optional; the app works fine without them.

Repeats & Deferring

Repeat Schedules

Set a repeat on a strip and it comes back on schedule when you complete it. Repeats remember your intent: a task set for the 31st stays anchored to the 31st — it clamps to the end of shorter months and returns to the 31st when the calendar allows, rather than drifting earlier forever.

Deferring

Not ready for a task yet? Defer it to a future date. Deferred strips get out of your way and resurface on their day, back on the board where they belong.

Focus Timers on Strips

Every strip carries its own timer — either a Pomodoro or a straight countdown, defaulted by the strip's task type and changeable per strip in the editor.

Running a Focus Session

1. Tap the play button on a strip — the countdown runs right on the strip
2. Tap again to pause; tap once more to resume
3. Completed sessions feed the Progress tab

Pomodoro Presets

Five presets are ready out of the box:

• Pomodoro Mini: 6 minutes
• Pomodoro Short: 12 minutes
• Pomodoro: 25 minutes (the classic)
• Pomodoro Long: 50 minutes
• Pomodoro Max: 75 minutes

The presets live on the Timers tab and are fully editable — change the times there and your strips pick up the new values. You can also set a custom duration for any strip, and choose your default Pomodoro length in Options.

Live Activities

• Start a focus timer and it appears as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen
• On iPhones with the Dynamic Island, the countdown lives there too
• Tapping the Live Activity takes you straight back to the Stack with your running timer
• No need to keep the app open — the countdown carries on regardless

Setting Alarms

• Create an alarm with a name and a time
• Choose weekday repeats — the strip shows a summary of the days it fires (e.g. Mon Wed Fri)
• Leave the repeat days empty for a one-shot alarm

Arming an Alarm

Flick the toggle on the alarm's strip to arm it. The strip's colour band tells you the state at a glance — green when armed, muted when off.

Pro Access

Alarms use the same Pro gate as Timers: full access during your trial, then an upgrade prompt once the trial lapses.

Subscription

The top row shows your subscription at a glance. Free users see a live countdown of trial days remaining and an Upgrade to Pro button; Pro users see their plan with a crown and a link to subscription management. See Subscription Management below for the full picture.

Appearance

Theme & Appearance lets you pick a colour theme for the whole app, in both light and dark looks. The tab bar, boards and strips all follow your choice.

App Settings

• Manage Stacks: a hub for board housekeeping — tidy up your Stacks in one place
• Language: choose from 10 languages — English (UK), English (US), Afrikaans, Greek, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese (Simplified). The app updates immediately
• Import from Reminders: bring your Apple Reminders lists in as Stacks with one tap. iOS asks for Reminders permission the first time
• Daily Summary: an optional daily notification recapping your day
• Weekly Review: an optional weekly notification that takes you to the Progress tab
• About: app version and credits

Preferences

• Default Pomodoro duration: the fallback length for focus sessions (25 minutes out of the box)
• Strip density and Stack density: how airy or compact the boards feel
• Daily Summary time and Weekly Review day & time: when those notifications arrive

Links

• Product Page: this website
• Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

iCloud Sync Delays

Your Stacks sync automatically through iCloud — there's nothing to switch on. Sync usually takes seconds, but iCloud sometimes takes its time, particularly right after installing on a new device.

• Give it a minute or two on a fresh install — the first import is the slowest
• Check both devices are signed in to the same Apple ID
• Check iOS Settings > [your name] > iCloud has iCloud Drive enabled
• The Stacks tab shows a sync status indicator when something needs attention — "Sync paused" or "iCloud account issue" point you at the fix

Live Activity Not Showing

If you start a timer and nothing appears on the Lock Screen or Dynamic Island:

• Check iOS Settings > ToDo Stacker and make sure Live Activities is switched on
• Check iOS Settings > Face ID & Attention settings — attention-aware features can dim or hide Lock Screen content
• Live Activities have a system time limit; a very long timer may see its Live Activity end before the timer does. The timer itself keeps running in the app

Calendar, Contacts or Reminders Access

These permissions are optional and only requested when you first use the matching feature. If you declined one and have changed your mind, iOS won't re-ask — you grant it manually:

1. Open iOS Settings
2. Scroll to ToDo Stacker
3. Switch on Calendars, Contacts or Reminders as needed

The same applies to Notifications if the Daily Summary or Weekly Review toggles tell you permission was denied.