Most tools show you the same interface whether you slept nine hours or three. Onward's adaptive interface doesn't. It changes how much you see based on your capacity, without ever changing the data underneath.
The control lives in the app header on desktop, and in the header tools sheet on mobile. It has four settings: Rest, Ready, Flow, and Off.
What each mode does
| Mode | Tasks shown at once | Density | Columns | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rest | 1 | Roomy, larger text | Most columns hidden — project, tags, assignee, priority, effort and more | Low-energy days, illness, post-crunch recovery |
| Ready | 5 | Default | All columns | An ordinary working day |
| Flow | No cap | Tight rows, smaller text | All columns | Deep work, catching up, high-energy stretches |
| Off | No cap | Default | All columns | Turning the whole behaviour off |
Rest is the mode people underestimate. Hiding ten columns and every task but one isn't decoration — on a day when the full list would make you close the laptop, seeing exactly one thing is the difference between doing something and doing nothing.
Nothing is deleted
This is the most important thing to understand: capping the list does not touch your tasks. Tasks beyond the cap wait in the backlog, and Onward says so directly in the list:
- On Rest: "Your other tasks are waiting in the backlog — no stress. One at a time; you've got this."
- On Ready: "Remaining tasks are resting in the backlog."
Due dates, assignees, projects, and completion state are all unchanged. Switch to Flow or Off and the full list is immediately back. Teammates see their own view, not yours.
Skipping past a task
While a cap is active, the Skip arrow on a row temporarily hides that task from the visible slice so a different open task can surface. It's for the case where the one task you can see isn't the one you can do right now. Skips reset once the visible set gets too small, so nothing stays hidden permanently.
How your mode gets chosen
Two inputs, with a clear precedence.
- Your manual override — whatever you select in the header. This always wins.
- Today's logged energy — if you haven't overridden, your energy check-in sets the tier.
Energy is logged on a 1–5 scale in the Energy check-in modal ("Log your energy level for today."), reachable from the mobile tools menu and as part of the morning routine:
| Score | Label | Maps to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Very Low | Rest |
| 2 | Low | Rest |
| 3 | Steady | Ready |
| 4 | High | Flow |
| 5 | Very High | Flow |
You can add an optional note — sleep, stress, caffeine, whatever's relevant. Those notes are what make the correlations in Your Wellness meaningful months later.
Override behaviour
Your manual override is a display preference, stored on the device you set it on. Your logged energy score is real data, saved to your account. That split is deliberate: choosing to see a calmer screen on your laptop shouldn't rewrite your health history, and logging a low-energy day shouldn't lock your phone into Rest.
The override sticks until you change it — including across page loads — so you're not re-selecting Flow every morning.
Turning it off
Select Off. Onward stops adapting the layout entirely and behaves like a conventional task list: no cap, default density, all columns. You can turn it back on any time by picking a mode.
Other things capacity affects
- Navigation gets more compact in Rest.
- Wellness prompts arrive at different intervals — roughly every 45 minutes in Rest, 2 hours in Ready, and 90 minutes in Flow — so a low-capacity day gets checked on more often than a flow state gets interrupted.
Common questions
Does Rest mode hide or delete my tasks?
Neither. It shows one task at a time and leaves everything else in the backlog, untouched. Switching modes brings the full list back instantly.
Will my team see that I'm in Rest mode?
No. The adaptive interface is a personal display setting. What your workspace can see about your wellbeing is governed separately by your sharing level in Settings → Privacy — see Privacy and your data.
Do I have to log energy every day?
No. If you don't log it and don't override, the interface stays at its default. Logging is what lets Onward pick a sensible mode for you and what powers your long-term trends.
Why is my task list suddenly showing only one task?
You're most likely in Rest — either you selected it, or you logged a low energy score this morning. Switch to Ready, Flow, or Off in the header.
Does the override sync across my devices?
No, by design. The override is per-device. Your logged energy score does sync, because it's part of your account data.
Does adaptive mode change what I can do, or just what I see?
Just what you see. Every task remains editable, completable, and searchable regardless of mode — including tasks currently in the backlog, which you can still reach through search.