ZoneIn AI — User Guide

Brain dump in. Focused action plan out. Here's everything the app can do.

1 · Your first brain dump

ZoneIn AI starts with one big text box. Don't organize anything — that's the app's job. You can capture in three ways:

• Type a messy list, full sentences, fragments, anything.
• Dictate with the microphone button and just talk.
• Scan a paper list, whiteboard, or sticky notes with your camera — the AI reads your handwriting. Tick Batch sticky-notes mode when photographing several notes at once.

Hit Organize My Week ⚡ and the AI splits your dump into individual tasks, detects deadlines, and sorts everything into four zones.

2 · The four zones

ZoneIn uses the proven urgent/important method — but the AI does the thinking for you:

Deadline chips (like "before Thursday") appear automatically when the AI spots one in your wording.

3 · Action plans — AI-built or your own

Tap any task and ZoneIn builds a step-by-step execution roadmap — each step starts with a verb and carries a time estimate, so "Rework the investor deck" becomes four concrete moves totalling ~50 minutes. Check steps off as you go; tap Generate extra step if you need one more. AI plan generation is a premium feature — see section 7.

Writing your own steps is always free. Tap "or write your own" on any task (or open an existing plan) and use the add-step box — type it or dictate it with the mic. End a step with a duration like 15 min and it feeds the plan's time total. The ✎ icon beside any step lets you edit, reorder (↑↓), or delete it — including steps the AI wrote. Perfect for capturing new action items straight after a meeting.

When a step outgrows its task: open its ✎ menu and tap the ↗ button — the step becomes its own full task in the same zone, with its own plan, rollover counter, and completion. (Completed steps can't be promoted — done work is a record, not a new job.)

When the situation changes (premium): real projects evolve mid-week — a meeting moves, a supplier declines, new requirements land. Open the plan and tap Update this plan (AI), then type or dictate what changed in plain language ("Vendor said no — need a new supplier. Site visit added for Thursday."). ZoneIn merges the update into your remaining steps: obsolete ones drop, changed ones adjust, new ones slot in. Steps you've already completed are never rewritten, renumbered away, or deleted — your finished work stays on the plan exactly as you did it, always.

4 · Everyday use

Daily affirmation

Each morning the matrix opens with one short note grounded in your own numbers — tasks closed last week, strategic time protected, momentum built. On a heavy week it changes register honestly: rollovers are treated as information, not failure. It's generated entirely on your device (nothing is sent anywhere) and stays available all day: the chevron collapses it to a slim "Today's note" strip you can reopen anytime, the ✕ removes it until tomorrow, and it can be switched off permanently right on the card or in Settings → Accessibility.

Projects, roles & deliverables (tags)

Open any task and tap Add to a project / role to tag it — create tags for your projects ("Ajax"), your hats ("CEO", "QM"), or your core deliverables. Each tag gets its own colour, a task can carry several tags, and scanned tasks with a "Project:" prefix offer a one-tap tag suggestion. Once tags exist, a filter bar appears above the matrix: tap a tag to see only that project or role across all four zones, with a coverage strip showing how much is done and in play. Status report builds a professional, boss-ready memo for the selected project — a SUMMARY, the COMPLETED list, then every open item grouped by priority zone under its zone description (Critical & Immediate first), with completion percentages, target dates, past-due flags, and your working notes carried in as status notes. It opens in an editable preview first: adjust any wording, then Copy or Share — your edits go into the message only, never back into your tasks. The sort control switches between Priority (ranked by each task's urgency + importance within its zone — the most critical items rise to the top), Date, and Project/Role ordering. Each day opens in the Project/Role view; change the sort and it stays as you set it for the rest of the day. Tags sync across your devices. And once a tag exists, it's recognized automatically: next week's scan (or a quick-add) of "YourProject: anything" tags itself — your groupings persist week after week with zero re-tagging.

Managing tags: tap a tag in the filter bar to open its coverage strip — from there you can Rename it (renaming to an existing tag's name merges the two, moving all tasks under the survivor — handy when a scan creates a near-duplicate), pick a new colour from the eight-dot palette so every project stays visually distinct, or Delete tag. Deleting a tag only removes the label — every task keeps living, along with any other tags it carries.

Progress you can see

Task and step circles cycle with a tap: blank (not started) → part-filled green (in progress) → checked (done). Tasks with action plans fill automatically as their steps complete — a multi-day task shows exactly how far along it is instead of sitting untouched. Each zone header carries a slim green bar showing the whole zone's progress, so you can watch your week fill up. When every step is done, the task offers "All steps done — mark complete?" — finishing is always your call.

Working notes

Open any task and tap Add a note to park your context — "Waiting on Mark's reply — resume at step 3." Notes make switching between tasks during the day safe: the thread of where you left off is right there when you come back. Notes sync across your devices.

Target dates

Every task can carry a target date. Tap the red date chip to edit or remove it, or tap Add date on a task without one. The editor offers three layers, each optional: one-tap chips (Today, Tomorrow, this week's days), a calendar for anything further out, and — only if you ask for it — a time (+ time). Free text always works too ("after lunch", "end of week") — a vague date is a valid date. Tapping a date never triggers the AI; action plans generate only when you tap Tap for AI action plan.

Fixing a task's wording

Scanned handwriting doesn't always transcribe perfectly. Tap the ✎ pencil beside any task title to correct its spelling or rewording in place — Enter saves, Esc cancels. The task keeps its zone, plan, deadline, and history; only the words change, and the fix syncs to your other devices.

Quick add

The input at the top of your Workspace adds a single task straight into any zone — no AI pass needed.

Adding more later

Add to Matrix & Re-Prioritize (AI) runs a new brain dump. Choose Merge & Re-prioritize to add to what's there, or Start Fresh to rebuild the board from scratch.

Moving a task to another zone

Disagree with where the AI placed something? Tap the ⇄ icon on any task and choose its new zone — your judgment always wins. (Tell us when you move things; it helps tune the AI.)

Completing and removing

Tap the circle to complete a task (it feeds your weekly stats), or the bin icon to delete it. Deleted by accident? Nothing is destroyed on a tap: deleted tasks go to the Bin — a "Bin" row appears at the bottom of your Workspace whenever it holds something (it's also in Settings → Data), and tasks wait there for 7 days. Restore one and it comes back with everything intact — plan, tags, notes, and dates — on all your devices. After 7 days the bin empties itself.

5 · The weekly rhythm

ZoneIn treats your week as an operating cycle. When a week ends, press Start New Week:

1. Completed tasks are archived as that week's achievements.
2. Unfinished tasks roll forward — with a counter, so nothing silently slips.
3. A task that rolls over 3+ weeks triggers the procrastination audit: break it down, delegate it, drop it, or consciously keep it.
4. Export your weekly wins to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Keep, or email before you roll.

The Mastery Log tab shows where your completed effort actually went each week — the goal is watching your Zone 2 percentage climb.

6 · Sync across your devices

The app works fully without any account — your data stays on your device. To use it on several devices, open Settings → Cloud Sync and sign in once:

• Sign in with Google — one tap (recommended: it's instant and can't get lost in a spam folder), or
• Any email address — we email you a sign-in link. No password, no new account. If the link doesn't arrive within a minute, check your spam folder, then tap Resend (available after a short cooldown) — or tap Use a different email, or switch to Google right from the same screen.

Changes then appear on your other devices within seconds. Your data is private to your sign-in — nobody else can read it.

7 · Free vs Premium

Free forever: unlimited AI sorting into your matrix, quick add, the weekly cycle, and 3 camera scans.

Premium unlocks unlimited AI action plans and unlimited scanning: Monthly $4.99 · Annual $29.99 (7-day free trial — just $2.50/mo) · Lifetime $69.99, launch window only (first 90 days or 500 passes — when it's gone, it's gone). Cancel any time in one click.

8 · Make it yours

• Install it like an app: on your phone, use your browser's Add to Home Screen. It works offline.
• Light / Dark / System theme: Settings → Appearance.
• Text size, calmer motion, easier-reading font: Settings → Accessibility — three text sizes, a toggle that stops looping animations, and the Atkinson Hyperlegible font for clearer letterforms.
• Focus view: feeling overwhelmed? The Focus on what matters button above your zones shows only Zone 1 and the top of Zone 2 until you're ready for the full board.
• Print your week: Print this week on the Workspace prints the full color-coded sheet — or any single zone — with checkboxes you tick with a pen. Use "Save as PDF" in the print dialog to email it instead.
• Reduced motion: if your device's accessibility settings ask for less animation, ZoneIn respects that automatically.

9 · Your data & privacy

ZoneIn is deliberately one of the most private apps in its category:

• Local-first: your tasks live on your device; no account is needed for any core feature.
• No trackers: zero analytics or advertising SDKs, no ads, no cross-app tracking, no data sale.
• AI that doesn't train on you: sorting runs on Google Cloud Vertex AI through our own private server — under Google Cloud's terms your content is not used to train AI models, and no AI credentials exist inside the app.
• Sync only you can read: if you sign in, your encrypted cloud record is locked to your login by server-side rules.
• Erase anytime: Settings → Data → Erase all data.

The full plain-language version lives at Privacy & Data Security.

10 · Troubleshooting

• Scanning or sorting says the AI is busy: the service occasionally has a rough minute — your photos stay attached; just tap Organize again a few seconds later.
• A task landed in the wrong zone: tap the ⇄ icon on the task and move it — and tell us; it tunes the AI.
• Sync says "Signed out": open Settings → Cloud Sync and sign in again.
• Something looks stuck: refresh the page — your data is saved continuously, locally and (when signed in) in the cloud.

Found a bug or have an idea? Tell the person who invited you — alpha feedback shapes the product directly.