An AI Assistant for Your To-Do List That Keeps the Plan

You ask a chatbot to plan your week, and it writes a lovely, sensible list. You copy half of it somewhere, and by Wednesday the plan exists only in a chat you will never scroll back to.

The list was never the hard part. Keeping it is: giving each thing a day, finding it again when you sit down to work, moving it when Tuesday falls apart, and ticking it off. That is the job of an AI assistant for your to-do list, and it is what Ranya's chat is built for.

Can a chatbot manage my to-do list?

Chatbots are ordinary now. In 2025 the Pew Research Center found that about a third of U.S. adults had used ChatGPT, and most adults under 30 had. So it is natural to ask one to plan your week.

A chatbot is good at the writing part. Ask for a week and you get a tidy one, with the hard thing early and the gym spread out. The trouble starts after that. A list that lives in a conversation does not appear on your calendar, cannot be moved when a meeting lands on top of it, and cannot be ticked off. That is how plans written in chats get lost.

So you become the courier, copying lines from the chat to wherever you actually plan. The lines you skip are the ones that slip. The useful question is not whether a chatbot can write your list. It is whether the assistant can keep it.

What is the difference between a chatbot and an assistant that can act?

A chatbot answers in words. An assistant that can act also changes things for you: it creates the task, moves it to tomorrow, ticks it off. You type the same sentence; what happens next is different.

Acting is also where an assistant can get it wrong. A misread name or the wrong Tuesday is a task in the wrong place. So an assistant that changes your list should show you the change first, and wait. In Ranya's chat, every change to your tasks, notes and goals waits as a card, and nothing happens until you approve it. Cancel it, and nothing changes. If trust is your main question, why Ranya asks first goes deeper.

Why a plan needs a when and a where

Deciding to do something is not the same as doing it. A review of 47 experimental tests found that a medium to large change in what people intended led to only a small to medium change in what they did.

What closes some of that gap is deciding when and where. Psychologists call it an implementation intention: not "go to the gym more", but "gym on Monday at 6". A meta-analysis of 94 tests found it helped people reach their goals.

That is the real case for an assistant over a chat that only writes. It can give each item its when, on the calendar you already look at, instead of leaving it as a line you meant to copy.

Can a chat assistant add things to my calendar?

In Ranya, yes. Every task with a date is on your calendar automatically. Type "call the bank on Tuesday at 10", approve the card, and the call sits on Tuesday at 10. There is nothing to copy across.

When you do not know where something fits, ask for time. Type "find me an hour for the tax return this week", and Ranya looks at your calendar, meetings and timed tasks included, and offers an open slot, such as Wednesday, October 14, 9 to 10am. Reply yes, approve the card, and it is there. For more on giving every task a time, see how to put your tasks on your calendar.

How Ranya's chat works

Open a chat and type the way you would talk. Behind it are the same tools as a call, so anything you can say to Ranya on a call you can type instead. Web search is on by default (the globe beside the message box, or the Web search switch on a phone), so chat can also look up things that are not in your account. The features page has a short tour of chat, notes and email.

• Questions run on their own. Ask what is on today or how your goals are going, and she looks it up and tells you. You see a small note of what she checked, and nothing to approve.
• Changes wait for you. Adding, moving or finishing a task, logging a habit, updating a goal: each one is a card you approve or cancel (Skip, on a phone), and nothing changes until you do.
• Several at once come back as one. "Mark the proposal, the bank call and the tax return as done." is one card, Complete 3 tasks, and one tap. Three new tasks arrive as a group you can approve together.
• She remembers what matters. Tell her something lasting, like when you plan your week, and she brings it into every chat, call and daily brief. You can read, edit or delete every note, or type "forget that".

How to use an AI assistant for your to-do list, step by step

Five things to type, from an empty week to one you can see.

1. Type your week

   Press ⌘UCommand U for a new chat beside the page you are on, or open Chat in the sidebar (the Chat tab on a phone). Type the week the way you would say it, with a when wherever you know one: "Plan my week: the proposal on Thursday morning, the gym three times, and call the bank on Tuesday."

   Ranya proposes each task as a card with its day. Check them, then approve them together (Create All on a computer, Add all on a phone), or cancel them all and nothing is added. If a day or time is wrong, cancel and type what you want instead.

   You: Plan my week: the proposal on Thursday morning, the gym three times, and call the bank on Tuesday.

   Ranya: Here is a start: the proposal on Thursday from 9:30 to 11, the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6, and the bank on Tuesday at 10.

   Create 3 Tasks3 pending

   Finish the proposal

   Oct 15

   Gym

   TodayWeekly

   Call the bank

   Tomorrow

   Cancel AllCreate All

   Example chat, typed on Monday, October 12. You type: Plan my week: the proposal on Thursday morning, the gym three times, and call the bank on Tuesday. Ranya answers: Here is a start: the proposal on Thursday from 9:30 to 11, the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6, and the bank on Tuesday at 10. Below, a group titled Create 3 Tasks, 3 pending: Finish the proposal on October 15, Gym today and repeating weekly, and Call the bank tomorrow, with Cancel All and Create All buttons.

2. Ask for time

   "Find me an hour for the tax return this week." She offers an open slot around your meetings and tasks. Reply yes, approve the card, and it is on your calendar. If you are deciding what deserves those slots in the first place, start with how to plan your day when everything feels urgent.

3. Ask instead of searching

   "How are my goals going?" She looks at your goals and habits and tells you what is behind. There is nothing to approve, because nothing changes.

4. Tidy up with one message

   When a few things are done, say so in one line: "Mark the proposal, the bank call and the tax return as done." You get one card, Complete 3 tasks, and one tap on Complete ticks all three.

5. Tell her what to keep in mind

   "Remember I plan my week on Sunday evenings." Ranya saves it as a short note about you, without a card, and brings it into later chats and calls.

   You: Remember I plan my week on Sunday evenings.

   Remember · Remembered

   Ranya: Noted. I will keep Sunday evenings in mind when we plan.

   Example chat. You type: Remember I plan my week on Sunday evenings. A small note reads Remember, Remembered, and Ranya answers: Noted. I will keep Sunday evenings in mind when we plan.

   To change or remove one, open Settings, then Memory, where every note has Edit memory and Forget memory. More on how to see, edit or delete what she remembers.

Should I type or talk to Ranya?

Whichever suits the moment. Chat and calls run the same tools, so anything you can say on a call you can type, and everything also works by tap and type in the app itself.

Typing suits a quiet office, a list you want to paste, or a plan you want to read over before you approve it. Talking suits a walk or the kitchen, when the plan is in your head and your hands are busy. On a call she reads each change back and waits for your yes, and the whole call is saved to your chats as a written transcript, so both end up in the same place. More on that in planning your day out loud.