
> “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”

In Helm we refer to thoughts and to-do's as "steps". So the first thing we need to do is get some steps into Helm.  

## Brain Dump

The easiest way to do this is using the Brain Dump.

Simply type in the box what you want to do and hit the Enter key (or the Return key - either works). You can change the order, or click on an existing step to edit it. They are captured and ready for sorting later.

![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9a6b766886b44beda6e457043ed90c3c.gif)


## What if I have a lot of things to transfer?

If you’re considering Helm, you’re probably busy and the thought of transferring all of your to-dos, tasks and ideas to a new system is overwhelming. 

**Thankfully, Helm is so flexible, it’s not necessary to do everything in one go.**

To start with, only put the things you want to do in the next few days into Helm and start there. Straight away, you will get some of the stress reducing, productivity enhancing, progress making benefits of working with Helm by your side.

As you work, use the Brain Dump to capture new ideas and tasks for later so that they don’t distract you from what your working on right now.

Each day, add a few more steps to build things up gradually.

Once you have got some things into Helm, we can allocate some time to them and get them scheduled.

Next Up: [Allocating time.](/article/5e0f108410be4c0017730d8e)

Where do I start?

**Helm works by taking the things you want to do and mapping them across the time you really have.**

It knows what the priorities are, when your deadlines are when you work and (if you connect your calendar) it knows when you are unavailable or away from work. It can then take all that information and work out a straight forward schedule to get you there.

## The basic process

The basic process for working with Helm boils down to just 4 steps.

### Brain Dump

Most of us have lots of things we need or want to do.

Our minds are great at coming up with ideas but they don’t come to us one at a time, in the right order.  Flashes of inspiration happen at all times of the day and night...

...and then there’s all the stuff other people give you to do.



**Brain Dump gets it out of your head and into the system.**

*You see something that needs dealing with - Brain Dump it.*

*An new idea pops into your head  - Brain Dump it.*

*An email arrives asking you to do something - Brain Dump it.*




**We've kepts the Brain Dump very simple so that it won't distract you from what you were doing.**

Simply type it into the box, and press return. It's captured and won't get forgotten about leaving you free to focus.

![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/271d7b53c7224294aaedfef2695ee45e.gif)



### Organise

Now we’ve got things down where we can see them, we need to get them into some kind of order. 

In Helm we use Streams to rapidly organise and priorities things based on how you think about them. 

You can create as many streams as you like so that no matter how complicated your life is, you can always think about things clearly and make progress.

![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/1621337f00ee4971b4547f01267d7587.gif)


### Plan

This is about as simple as it gets. Press the “Update Plan” button. 

**Helm knows what time you really have, what you have to do, all your priorities and due dates, and will route everything for you.** 

Detailed, realistic, actionable plans for months ahead in seconds.


![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/d48ed8b8190044669696e7ec9ea95d4f.gif)

### Do

You have plan, everything is in hand. Now you switch to the Daily Focus screen and just get going. No matter how busy everything gets, your mind is free to focus your full attention on one step at a time.


![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/a69924aca9e9435493fbc7ee2d933e62.gif)





How does it work?

Streams

Steps

Time allocation is really important in Helm. If you want to get something done, you need to give some of your time to do it.

## Why allocate time?

When adding steps to Helm we also allocate a chunk of time that we think it will take to complete.

With this information, Helm can plan ahead for you, making sure you’re putting your time where it will help the most.

## How do I allocate time?

Time allocation is super simple. Just type it in as you add steps.

When you add a task, allocate time for it by typing a forward slash (/) at the end of the step followed by the number of minutes you’re going to give it.

For example, a ten minute job adding some data to a spreadsheet would simply be:

**Update spreadsheet / 10**

If you want to enter longer times, you can enter time in hours and minutes, just like a digital clock. 

For example, if you had a task to update a website that you think will take 2 1/2 hours you could put:

**Update website / 2.30**

![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/db2b283b80e9408dba0bd414ebafd093.gif)

That’s all there is to it.

It doesn’t take long to get the hang of doing it this way, and once you do it’s easy and very fast. Even long complex projects can be mapped out in seconds.


## What happens if I don’t allocate time?

Often we capture things that we don’t want to allocate time too. Maybe it’s just a note, or something that we need to think about at a future time.

Helm has no problem with that at all. 

When it comes across a step with no time allocated, it simply moves on to the next step in the stream. It stays captured in the Brain Dump or the Stream, ready for you to pick back up when it suits you.


## Changing the time allocated.

To update the time allocated in Brain Dump, simply click on the title, type in the new time and press the enter key.

![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/57cb1d574c544ea1b74bc919751264dd.gif)

In the streams panel, click on the item you want to update and edit the text in the popup.

![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/f98ac2fd281f470e9edefa429376dac4.gif)

In the plan ahead editor click on the title, edit the time and press enter.


![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/47f64157622248aeb1f1716eabff877f.gif)


Next Up: [Organising with Streams](/article/5e0f10cc10be4c0017730d90).

Allocating Time.

Once you’ve got your tasks all in one place, and you’ve allocated the time you think they’re going to need, the next step is getting things in some kind of order. 

In Helm, we use streams to do this.

## What are streams?

When you think about it, everything we accomplish, even very large achievements, are really just a sequence of small steps taken in a certain order.  So any project, or aspect of your business: marketing, paperwork etc, is ultimately just a stream of actions carried out one after the other. 

So this is how we organise our work in Helm. 

You can think of a Stream as being a bit like a timeline. The first step in the stream is the next thing to do. Once you’ve completed that, you move onto the next step in the stream. Follow along the stream until you get to the end, and you’re done.

This is a really powerful way to work as you are always putting your energy into the most important thing in any particular stream. Everything has a natural priority, and you can alter those priorities by simply dragging things up and down the stream. 

Streams mean you can map out even very complex projects in a way that’s easy to understand, think about and carry out. 

Just create the stream and drag steps from your Brain Dump onto them. Order them logically, and you’re done. 


Organising things

Setting due dates on steps in the stream helps Helm keep track of how urgent everything is and plan your route accordingly. 

You add a due date by clicking on a step in a stream. A window pops up with a bunch of settings for the step. On the right hand side is a “Due on” box which allows you to select a day that this step needs to be completed by.

When you next press the “Update Plan” button Helm will attempt to adjust your schedule to reach this step in the stream by that date. 

If the step with the due date is not the first step on the stream, it will schedule all the steps before it first. 

This is very powerful as it means you can alter the speeds of projects as you go. For example, you might want to get the first part of a project done quickly, and then take your time over the second part. Due dates on the stream will let you do this.

Once you’ve changed the due date, you can close the popup window and then press the “Update Plan” button in the top right of the Helm screen.

If you’ll reach the step by the due date, you will see a little green disc next to the “Due on” date on the step. If it’s not possible to do, it will show a red disc. 

Though Helm will do all it can, it’s not always going to be possible, but at least with Helm, you’ll know in advance when you can do something about it.


How do I set due dates?

## What does the “Importance” slider do?

Some of the things we do don’t have specific due dates, but are still important to us. The importance slider lets you tell Helm that a particular step is more or less important and this will change when the step is scheduled. If the importance is high, it will schedule it sooner. If it is less, this step will wait while other more urgent, or more important steps are completed.

## What is the Hold date for?
The hold dates pause a stream until a certain date.  

The stream waits until that date and only after that date is the next step scheduled in and the stream re-started. 

This is great when you’re waiting for a project to start at a future time, or perhaps you’re waiting on something from another person.

## What is the “Do On” option?

Helm’s organisation is very flexible, but sometimes we need to do things at a specific time. If that is the case you can manually position steps by entering a date and time in the “Do On” option.

If you go past the “Do On” date without marking it done, Helm will try to schedule it in like any other step, so that even if you miss it, it won’t get forgotten about.


What are the other items on the step pop up window?

The Brain Dump is great for capturing passing thoughts, but sometimes we want to plan ahead. 

You can do this by pressing the “Add / Edit Steps” button at the top of the stream. In the large box on the right, add steps by typing them in, including the allocated time. Each step goes on a new line. 

Don’t worry too much about the order; it’s easy to change that later. 

When you’re done, you can press the “Add Steps” button and your new steps will be added to the stream.  

Even long projects can be mapped out very quickly. The interface is clean and simple so that you can focus on your thinking, not Helm.

By default, new steps are added to the bottom of the stream, but you can change that using the “Insert New Steps...” option just above the step entry box.



I want to plan ahead and have a lot of steps to add. Do I need to use the Brain Dump each time?

Though Helm is built around streams, we all have things that don’t really need to be carried out in a particular order. If this is the case, you can switch the stream into a “Pool”. 

To do this, press the “View Stream” button at the top of a stream. This will take you into the stream view. In this screen, in the top left, there is a switch to “Use Pool Mode”. 

When you turn this on, the timeline disappears and the stream displays differently.  

In Pool Mode the order of the steps has no effect and they aren’t scheduled in order.  Helm simply looks at the due dates, the importance and the hold date and schedules accordingly.


What about the things that don’t fit into streams. What about those things that can happen in any order?

There are 2 places in Helm that most users like to work from. 

The first is the “Daily Focus” screen. When you’ve got a lot in your streams, it can begin to look a bit overwhelming, but on the Daily Focus screen you only see what’s important for that day. 

Simply complete the step, then press mark done. This does a few different things - so check the “How do I mark things complete” and “How can I track my time in Helm” questions further down.

Others prefer to work from the calendar view on the “Master Plan” screen. When you have completed a step, click on the step on the calendar will pop up the step window, with a “Mark Done” button to mark it complete.

The best place to work from is the one that you find the easiest!


Which is the best screen to work from?

There are two parts to this. The first is the “Time” screen in Helm where you can map out the time you want to work over an average week. The second is by syncing your calendars. 

With these things set up, Helm knows how much time you really have. You can now plan ahead accurately, getting the important things done without over-working, no matter how complicated your life is.


## How do I set up my week?

In the time screen you can map out blocks of time across the week that you want to spend working. Helm will allocate tasks within the blocks that you set here.

This should be your ideal week, one that you can sustain and will enjoy working. 

It can be tempting to map out large time blocks (we’ve seen people put in 16 hours a day) but this is not recommended. If anything, it’s best to under allocate the time you have.

It’s also important to remember that as you can re-schedule in seconds, you can play with this. 

Want to see what only working 4 hours a day, or not working Friday’s would look like? Simply adjust the Time screen and update your plans. You might be pleasantly surprised!
 

## How do I add my calendars?

On the right of the “Time” screen you will find the “Connect A Calendar” button. From here you connect all your online calendars to Helm. 

We use a system called Chronofy to securely access your calendars, and once this is set up, Helm will know when you are busy, when you have time off and will take that into account when it creates your plans. 



How does Helm know when to schedule my streams?

Yes. In the “My Plan” screen pressing the “Send plan to calendar” button lets Helm send your schedule up to your calendar. 

You can choose to send the next 1, 7 or 30 days ahead. You can even set notifications for Helm events if you would like to. 

We send your Helm events immediately to your calendar provider. Within a minute or two (the time varies depending on your calendar provider) all your Helm events appear in your calendar. 

Can I send my Helm schedule back to my calendar?

In the step pop up, or on each step in the “Daily Focus” screen you will find a “Mark Done” button. This is how you mark things complete.

When you press the button a little window pops up which not only checks things as done, but also allows you to track the time you spent it. Over time, this builds into a record of where your time is being spent, which can be extremely useful. 

Sometimes, we spend some time on a step and discover that our time estimate wasn’t quite right. Maybe it went better than expected and it took less time than we thought. Or perhaps, it’s proved to be more complicated than we thought and we’ll need to schedule a bit more time to it. By updating the “Time Remaining” time we can account for this which makes it very easy to keep your streams up-to-date and accurate.


How do I mark things complete?

Time tracking is done using the “Mark Done” button. When you mark something as done,  Helm will create a time log for you which enables you to keep track of where your time is going. 

In each stream view, you have a log panel on the right. In that panel, you can see all the time logs for that stream and at the bottom of the panel, you can see a total of the time spent on a stream.

Sometimes you may want to track other time spent that wasn’t a step. Perhaps you spent time on a call, or put some time into responding to an email. You can do this by pressing the “Log Time” button in the “Daily Focus” page or in one of the “Stream” screens. This will pop up up a window that allows you to enter what it was that you did, and how much time you gave it. 

If you add time from the “Daily Focus” screen, you also get the option to select which stream you would like to allocate this too. 

With just these simple functions, you can keep track of your time and build a useful picture of where your time is really going.


How can I track my time in Helm?

## Helm is like a sat-nav for your work. 

No matter how busy or complicated your life is, it enables you to plan ahead and keep on top of everything. It enables you to take control in ways that would be virtually impossible without Helm by your side.

![text](https://helm-content-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/26d709e4bd0b4e6388743a88ecb018aa.jpg)

### Helm is designed for people who need to divide their time. 

You might have multiple clients, projects, roles, responsibilities - or all of the above.

Whatever, you have a limited amount of time - and lots of plates to keep spinning - and that is exactly what Helm is for.

It holds all the steps, the dates, times, deadlines and priorities, and turns that into a single, easy to follow, step by step route that will get you there. 


### Easy.

And like a sat-nav, when things change or go wrong, it can simply re-route you. No matter what happens, you can adapt, plan ahead and keep rolling.

It's as flexible as you are and leaves you clear to focus where you need to right now. 

...And because you know everything is in hand, you can switch off from work too when you want to as well.

[Tell me how it works > ](/article/5e0b1c4291a1744aa62235d1).


