How I stopped losing half my to-do list after realizing "writing it down" isn't the same as "planning it"

I used to feel productive just from writing my notes.

Every morning, same ritual: open my notes app, brain-dump everything I needed to do that day. Felt organized. Felt in control.

I was neither.

Here's the problem I didn't see for way too long:

I was writing tasks down, but never actually blocking time for them. My calendar stayed empty. My notes app got full.

So what happened? Exactly what you'd expect:

• I'd get pulled into meetings and forget to check my notes
• By 3pm I'd have zero memory of half the stuff I wrote at 9am
• Tasks had no checklist, so I couldn't even tell what was done vs just... written
• Important work quietly got bumped, again and again, because nothing was actually protecting time for it

I wasn't planning my day. I was just journaling my intentions and hoping willpower would do the rest.

My first fix was blocking calendar time directly.

Skip the notes, just book slots. Sounds smart, right?

Except it wasn't. Booking calendar events directly meant I lost the thinking part — the messy note where I actually work out what a task even means, what the sub-steps are, what I need before I start. Calendar blocks without context are just... colored rectangles. I'd stare at "Finish report - 2pm" with zero memory of what "finish" even required.

What actually worked was combining both.

I needed to:

1. Write my notes the way I naturally think (messy, unstructured, fast)
2. Automatically pull out the actual action items from that mess
3. Turn those action items into a checklist I could check off during the day
4. Have calendar time auto-blocked for the important ones, so they're not just sitting in a list I forget to open

That loop — note → extracted checklist → calendar block — is the only version of "planning" that's actually stuck for me.

So I built a tool for it (Noteact).

Not pitching it here, genuinely just want to know if this is a real problem for other people too, or if it's just a me thing. The two pieces that mattered most:

• A checklist auto-generated from my notes, so I always know what's pending vs done without re-reading everything
• Calendar events created automatically for the tasks that need protected time, so they don't get silently skipped

It's helped me a lot. But I'd rather hear where this breaks for other workflows before I assume it's universal.

I used ChatGPT Plus, but it still misses details I already explained and sometimes ignores requirements I’ve repeated more than once. I end up spending way too much time correcting it instead of getting the work done.

I’m open to any planner, notes app, or AI tool that can actually keep track of project context and save me time. What are you using, and what makes it better?

My gut tells me that productivity is often misconstrued as lack of direction.

I see productivity as a multi step process of getting to my goals, so: A+B+C = Goal.

This might look, the goal is to read more books because it’s a passion. I will create a book tracker, time block, set a realistic chapter number. I achieved this, that was productive.

I see this a lot (usually with the ‘I have tried every app’ crew): A+B+C(to infinity) = ?.

This usually starts with productivity as the goal and not the process, often fails as the motivational drivers are weak.

To what extent is productivity intrinsic or extrinsic of the process?

What’s helped me is always starting with the goal and a Telos approach for overall direction.

This is just casual, no need for subtle self-promo comments please.

Hi!

I’m Marcin, the founder of Apptorium.

I started the company on July 18, 2011, so we have just turned 15. Every year we celebrate with discounts on our apps, but this time we invited other indie developers to join us too.

Here are our discounted apps:

• SideNotes for Mac — $19.99 → $11.99 (40% off): quick notes that slide in from the edge of your screen, so you can capture something without switching apps.
• SideNotes Mobile — $9.99 → $5.99 (40% off): organized notes, tasks, links, pictures, and snippets on iPhone and iPad, with iCloud sync to the Mac app.
• Workspaces — $19.99 → $9.99 (50% off): a project-based launcher that opens the files, folders, apps, websites, emails, and commands needed for a project.
• Desktop Composer — $19.99 → $9.99 (50% off): appearance profiles that switch your Mac’s wallpaper, system settings, and supported app themes together.
• License Store — $7.99 → $4.99 (37.5% off): a native Mac library for software license keys, license files, invoices, receipts, download links, and expiration dates.
• FiveNotes for Mac — $7.99 → $4.99 (37.5% off): exactly five quick notes in the menu bar, with Markdown, themes, automation, and iCloud sync.
• FiveNotes Mobile — $3.99 → $2.99 (25% off): five focused notes on iPhone and iPad, with an included Apple Watch app.
• Cursor Teleporter — $7.99 → $4.99 (37.5% off): instantly moves the pointer between displays or saved positions on multi-monitor and ultrawide setups.

Our discounted apps are one-time purchases, paid once per major version. There are no subscriptions, and minor updates within the purchased major version are included.

We also included two free Mac utilities, LiquidFetch and WindowKeys.

Fourteen other developers joined the anniversary page with their own offers:

• Setapp — 20% off the Mac plan
• iStat Menus — 20% off
• MindNode — 20% off
• Nova — 40% off
• CleanShot — 20% off
• ForkLift — 30% off
• DaisyDisk — 30% off
• Dropzone — 50% off
• Proxyman — 10% off
• PixelSnap — 20% off
• Bike — 20% off
• TaskPaper — 20% off
• TinyShield — 30% off
• TCPViewer — 50% off

The offers run through July 31. The page below contains the complete list, purchase links and coupon codes:

https://www.apptorium.com/15-years

If you have any questions about the apps or the anniversary offers, I'm here :)

I have been struggling with being chronically online for a number of years. At many instances, I feel that the internet is really a hindrance for me to perform basic work tasks which require me to focus. I have tried adding all kinds of apps that blocks websites like Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, etc. None of this worked for me, I'll always end up disabling them. I found that I can be motivated by a community that I know deals with the same issue. I think spending time offline is something that needs practicing, maybe in a progressive overload kind of way. Sharing this work with others is motivational and is helpful for me. I decided I want to build a place where people can share that time when they worked hard to fight the distractions of the internet. It keeps track of your progress, week in and week out.

This place is, ironically, online. It is called theofflineplace.com. This is platform to share with friends the time you spend offline, and to encourage each other be more off the internet. You start a session and it starts a timer. You can have different types of sessions that maybe can be for different projects, or things the internet is keeping you from doing.

If you think this can be useful to you let me know. If you think this can be useful if some changes are made, I am open for feedback.

I really enjoy the Habit Tracker app - the UI is really nice and I love that it’s free! The one thing missing for me is the ability to add friends so that we can see each other’s progress on our own goals and support each other. It seems like you can only have shared habits, but my friend and I are tracking different things.

Is there a similar app that has that functionality? And one that is free and has a simple/aesthetic UI like Habit Tracker?

Hi everyone,

I am the solo developer of HabitHook, a habit tracker app for Android. We are reaching 5,000 users. To say thanks, I am giving away free Pro trial extensions to this community.

What is HabitHook?

A habit tracking app with a social side. Think Strava, but for habits.

- Build and track daily habits

- Add friends and stay accountable together

- Compete on leaderboards

- Keep streaks alive as a group

- Join challenges and earn achievements

See simple, clear progress stats

Want a free Pro trial?

Just comment below. I will send you one while they last.

I would also love your feedback. Tell me what features you want to see next.

Link:

HabitHook

Link to the app is in the comments.

Thank you for supporting an indie developer.

I'm looking for something I can talk to and check in with. Maybe have other mechanisms to help stay accountable.

Does something like this exist?

Does anyone feel the same way?

I've been working on an expense tracker called Spardose and it's at the point where I need other people to use it.

It's manual entry. You type what you spent, you see your balance change. Nothing connects to your bank. I tried a few apps that wanted my bank login and I just didn't want to do that, plus half of them buried the only thing I cared about, which is how much money I have left this month.

What it does:

• Expenses and income with your own categories
• Monthly budgets per category
• Savings goals
• Recurring entries, so you don't retype rent every month
• A breakdown of where your money actually went
• Multiple currencies and languages
• Dark mode
• Export your data whenever

If you want to try it:

Android is in closed testing. Drop me the Gmail you use on the Play Store and I'll add you.

iPhone has no App Store version yet, but it works in the browser: https://www.spardose.app/login
Open it in Safari, hit Share, then Add to Home Screen. You get an icon and it opens fullscreen so it feels like a normal app.

I'm mostly after honest reactions. If it's slow somewhere, or you open it and don't get what you're supposed to do, that's what I want to hear.

Hi everyone! I'm currently building Phase, an upcoming self-improvement and productivity app that's centered around the idea that productivity shouldn't feel cold, stressful, or like another checklist. Instead of opening a dashboard full of cards and graphs, you enter a living illustrated room that becomes your personal space. The room changes throughout the day with different lighting, weather, seasons, and animations, while your companion (a beagle mascot) reacts to your progress and grows alongside you. The goal is to create a place that people genuinely want to spend time in—not just because they have work to do, but because the world itself feels comforting, immersive, and alive.

The app includes a variety of self-improvement tools built directly into this world. There are interactive to-do lists, Deep Focus sessions that transform the room into a distraction-free environment, a guided journaling system for reflection and personal growth, habit and challenge systems that encourage consistency, and additional features that all tie back into the room and your companion. Rather than feeling like separate pages, everything is designed to feel like you're interacting with one cohesive world. The room isn't just a background—it responds to your actions, your progress, and eventually your achievements.

Over the past few months we've been designing the app, but recently we've started questioning our visual direction. Our current UI leans toward a cleaner, more polished aesthetic, but the more we've developed Phase, the more we've realized that it may not communicate the personality of the product. We're now exploring a completely different direction inspired by hand-painted illustrations, watercolor, children's storybooks, Studio Ghibli, and handcrafted art. The goal isn't to make the app look "cute," but to make it feel memorable, emotionally warm, and unlike anything else in the productivity space.

Below I've included our current logo and UI (settings, sign-in, pause menu) followed by our new mascot-first logo concepts and several ChatGPT-generated mockups that we're using purely as art direction references. These aren't final designs—they're helping our illustrator explore the feeling we're aiming for before creating original artwork.

I'd really appreciate completely honest feedback.

Some questions I'd love your thoughts on:

• Which direction would make you more likely to download the app?
• Which visual identity feels more memorable?
• Does the illustrated direction better communicate the idea of an immersive productivity world?
• Is there anything about either direction that immediately turns you away?
• If you discovered this app on the App Store, which version would you be more likely to tap on, and why?

Thank you for taking the time to look through everything. At this stage, honest criticism is far more valuable than compliments, so don't hold back. Our goal is to build something that feels genuinely different from the sea of traditional productivity apps, and I'd love to know whether we're moving in the right direction.

Alright, I am posting this in hopes that some of the developers in here find it useful and they incorporate it into their apps so that I can use some of them!!!

I work as an occupational therapist, particularly in brain injury rehab and I do a lot of cognitive remediation work (ie helping folks improve cognitive deficits post-injury). A big thing I teach most of my clients is about the "cognitive triangle".

When thinking about these apps being our "second brain", I began thinking about how using this model is also helpful for these apps as well:

Level 1
First - the information needs to easily go IN to your brain (ie attention). You are never going to be able to work with information that isn't in there. (an example I often give is that you will never remember where your car is parked in a big parking lot if you didn't pay attention to it. You can't remember something that was never in your brain to begin with). This would show up as widgets, quick add hotkeys, etc that allow you to quickly and accurately store the info

Level 2
Next, you have to be able to retrieve that information easily. Once it's stored in your brain, you have to be able to easily find it and pull it out when/as needed. This would probably show up as folders, tags, labels etc

Level 3
Lastly, once you have that information pulled out, this is when you use it - ie do complex processes with it. Prioritize it, act on it, reflect on it, share it, etc. This would look like an eisenhower matrix, kanban boards, filters, time blocking features, etc

The problem is that, just like our brains, we need to be able to do all three of these functions to actually be able to be productive. If you focus only on one level it won't really be that useful. Obviously starting at level 1 is important (as without that you will never be able to do level 2 and 3), but you still need all three to be able to functionally do all of the things you're trying do.

What I've found with YEARS of searching in productivity apps is that there is not one app that does all three well.

• I love Amazing Marvin in the ways that I can manipulate the information I save in there (level 3) to plan my day and choose my priorities, but getting the information in there is a PAIN (ie. level 1 sucks)
• I love google keep as it's so easy to enter information in quickly on my android, but it lacks the ability to really easily find and USE the information (ie level 1 is good, but level 2 and 3 is not great)
• I so badly want to use capacities, but every time I've tried I've had to stop because getting it in there is a pain, as well as using it to find stuff while on mobile (level 3 is great, but level 1 and 2 are not)
• Obsidian is what I'm using now, but it is slooooooow to build to get it to do all three. I've been building my vault slowly over the last few months and still only on level 2.

I don't have the time or capacity to build my own app, but I am sharing this here in hopes that others who are working on apps would find this useful and maybe think about this when designing an app. If you are thinking about this or found it useful, let me know. I am still searching for my app, and maybe yours will be it??

Also, I've thought about, at times, making a big spreadsheet of all the big apps that are out there and ranking how well they are able to do all three of these functions. Would be an interesting comparison I think.

Edit: If you reply with a suggestion of an app, please include what platforms it on (iOS, android etc) and if it is your app. My biggest pet peeve on this and other subreddits is other people promoting their own apps but not disclosing that they made it. An easy google search can show us if it is.

Keeping my calendar up to date has always felt more manual than it should be.

I built EventFlow, an Android app that extracts calendar events from photos, screenshots, flyers, messages, and typed text, with voice input coming next.

The GIF shows what I think is the most useful workflow: taking an image, extracting the events, and opening them directly in Android Calendar for review before saving.

I'm mainly interested in honest feedback rather than downloads.

Would something like this become part of your workflow, or would you still create calendar events manually?

The app is completely free during closed testing.

If you'd like to try it, EventFlow is currently in Google Play Closed Testing.

1. Join the testing group

https://groups.google.com/a/norsula.com/g/eventflow

2. Become a tester (web)

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/eventflow.norsula.com

3. Install from Google Play (Android devices)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eventflow.norsula.com

I’m building a habit game that combines ideas from Mini Habits with Stardew Valley style gameplay.

I built it because I’m frustrated with the habit trackers in the App Store. They’re all good at logging habits, but none of them actually help me develop habits the right way.

This is still an MVP, and there’s a lot of major work to be done, but the basic functionality and gameplay are in place. Right now it’s only a web app, but it will definitely become a mobile app in the future.

If you’re interested in the technical side, I built it using Flutter and the Flame engine.

If you would like, try it out and roast it as hard as you can 😅

Sign up link is here: https://tinyvillehabit.com

or you can just skip all that and jump straight into the app, use this link: https://app.tinyvillehabit.com/#/hooray-you-are-officially-invited-to-tiny-ville

Task Bloom: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smartfamily.studentplanner

I'm developing a note-taking app and wanted a way for users to quickly understand where they are in a document, see its overall structure, and jump to another section.

Most apps solve this with a dedicated Table of Contents (TOC). But I found them not ideal because:

1. They need a dedicated section/panel and take up space.
2. The TOC is visually different from the document itself, so users have to mentally map each entry to the actual content.

So I implemented an 'Overview Mode'. When enabled, the content of the page gets simplified (showing only the titles) and by clicking on a content it will disable the mode and shows the actual content instantly without any jump or scrolling.

The video shows an example. I'd like to know what you guys think about this approach.

P.S. This is implemented in Daftak.

I track my habits on the HabitHook app. Firstly, it allows you to create a circle with whom you can connect, either your friends or anyone from the public feed of HabitHook.

I've been using the app since last year. This feature is one of the best for me to date because I know who's doing better than me, plus how much they're helping the community as well.

I'm sharing my experience, because other habit tracker seems just personal this one is collaborative, kinda like Strava for habits.

I built my own (model agnostic) version of cowork/codex.

The way I use cowork is really not that complicated. I use it for things like email drafting, doc analysis and synthesis, sometimes to review and schedule cqalendar events, etc…

I built something that allows me to more deeply integrate my gmail, calendar, drive, files, slack, etc…directly into the chat experience. That way I just drag emails/slacks in as context and get agent responses back. It also lets me test different models more easily side by side, store versioned copies of all my skills, etc…all in one place.

I built this with myself in mind, but open to feedback on if others would try something like this. (Also happy to give a few people access and maybe ~$50 in token credits to give me feedback). I think more people testing it would help me make the harness and tools better. 

📚 My Story
I was always late to work because of snoozing. I looked up on other mission-based alarm apps. But, they all asked me to pay up to $60.

$60, for me, was ridiculous. So I made my own app that does exactly the same.

My friends wanted the app as well. So I published. No subscriptions. Lifetime, at a price that I would actually willingly spend.

🔔 What's inside:

• Mission Alarms — choose from, smile scanning, math problems, barcode scanning, toilet scanning, and more to turn your alarm off.

• Wakeup Time Tracker - Track your wake up time.

*The morning routine feature in the video has not been applied. Will be updated soon.

💸 Price Disclaimer (Lifetime)

• Price: $3.99

• Refund Policy: 100% Refundable within 7 days

🔗 Here's the Link: Wakey (AppStore)

Let me know what you guys think.

Hey everyone - as of this week Anythings now has a MCP, so your AI chat can work with you on your to-do list without having to leave the chat. I've been testing it this week and its been a game changer for me in getting things done / feeling like I have someone to tell me exactly what to do next on top of the order Anythings already keeps your to-do list in.

What the connector can do (so far, but looking for feedback on what else it should be able to do):

• Capture: "add all of this to my list" turns a whole planning conversation into tasks: split, dated from natural language, ranked against your priorities that you have set up in the app
• List: "what should I work on today?" returns your to-do list in the app's actual order
• Complete: "mark the dentist thing done." Recurring tasks auto spawn the next occurrence
• Reschedule: "push the report to Friday" / "snooze the groceries a few days."
• Attach: "draft an outline and attach it to the task" links the doc on the task with a link to the Claude artifact, Google drive link, etc. This is the one I've been using the most, as it feels like the AI tool can actually complete my asks for me
• Stats: completion streaks, biggest brain dump, on-time rate, etc.

Setup: paste https://www.anythings.app/api/mcp into your AI tool's connector settings, sign in, approve. It uses just normal/standard OAuth so it never sees your password. It also cannot delete tasks or touch account settings by design.

Works in any AI tool that supports MCP - super curious for feedback here and if there are other use cases or features I should think about adding to the MCP?

Hey all. So, a focus timer isn’t exactly a new idea, and there are already a hundred of them out there. I wasn’t trying to reinvent that part.

The thing I actually wanted didn’t quite exist though: focusing that feels quietly shared with other people. So I built LoFly, a web-based focus app where each session becomes a flight in a shared sky.

You pick a destination and aircraft, and that becomes your focus session, with its own duration. After takeoff, there's jet engine background noise and the occasional ATC fictional chatter for a bit of cinematic texture.

The session ends when you land, hopefully with your work done or at least some real progress made.

Hope you give it a try and would love to hear what you think.

Live at: https://lofly.app/

Im looking for apps (app store or play store idc) that can help you learn about topics like humanities something on the go.

Ty

Hi everyone!

I built my first desktop to-do app using Python and PyQt5

It's a lightweight Windows application that stores tasks locally, so there's no account or cloud sync required.

Current features:

- Add and delete tasks

- Mark tasks as completed

-Automatic saving

- dark mode

I'd really appreciate any feedback or ideas for future versions!

Github:

https://github.com/MasaWorks/TrackTasks

Download:
https://github.com/MasaWorks/TrackTasks/releases/tag/v1.0.0

I'm looking for a Pomodoro application that takes into account that your tasks don't all take 25 minutes, some only need 5 minutes.

My goal is 2 fold

• track how much time I spend on each category of task per week. Units could be time ( you spend 3 hours writing notes this week) or pomodoros ( your completed 7.2 pomodoros writing notes this week )
• get a reminder to take a break after X minutes ( currently 25 ) so that I don't good too long without a break.

My current app lets me end a pomodoro early, but then doesn't log a partial one if I do.

It might be that pomodoros just aren't for me, and I need to try different apps like toggle of clockify as found in this thread in the productivity subreddit ( ie right here!)

Ideas are welcome, recommending an app you wrote is not.