▲ ▼ Getting things done at individual level
I spend much of my time browsing Reddit, YC-HackerNews and looks like needgap is going to be on that list. I'm not sure whether this is social network addiction, as none of the sites I mentioned is a social network. But, I spend inordinate amount of time on them and on other stuff without getting the tasks which I had in my mind done.
At the end of the day my tasks lists are full, get postponed, more tasks get added the next day, this cycle repeats. This undone task lists depresses me every night, but I don't do much about it the next day and hence the cycle.
I want something which helps me focus and gets things done. I'm sure, I'm not the only one with this issue.
I believe the source of the problem is that when you are procrastinating you won't truly realize how much impact you could create if you would work on what's important. If your task list is full of things that won't motivate you I recommend you to use a prioritization framework like the Eisenhower Matrix to get more clarity about what you should focus on. Then dedicate 2 hours each day when you are most productive to focus on the truly important ones. If you manage to get the most important tasks in those 2 hours you are already making more progress than most of the people and you will feel satisfied.
Please see this Reddit post on my concept of how you could use the Eisenhower matrix inside a calendar to focus on the important:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AppIdeas/comments/r2rnx2/nextgeneration_task_management_what_if_the/
I hope that helps.
I came across a to-don't app, As the name implies it's a list of things to not do. I feel this can inversely help getting things done too, As time saved by not doing things we don't want is something which we can use for getting things done?
Hello everybody 👋 We've built a simple minimalistic app to organize your life.
It's called Organize Your Life (OYL) 👉🏾 https://oylapp.com
The idea behind the app is to have it all in one place with a modular approach:
- Calendar
- Notes
- Todo list
- Meal planning
- Journal
- Routines & Goals
- Movie & Series List
- Book List
Those are the initial modules but we may add more in the future.
We build each module so you can share notes, tasks, meal planning, etc with other "circles" like your spouse or friends.
There is one main view where you can see all you have to do that day. The idea is to hide everything that can wait so you can focus on today.
I know there are tons of productivity apps out there, however, I couldn't find one that had all things that we needed and a minimalistic approach.
We would love to have your feedback.. and feel free to join the waiting list if you like it!
Ignasi
Hey, OYL seems like a very innovative approach to address this problem. I will be checking it out.
You might like ActivityRecommender, which quantitatively measures and optimizes your happiness, motivation and efficiency:
1. Record what you've accomplished; reflect later
2. See what's correlated with future motivation
3. Check the graphs of time spent. Are you getting more motivated?
4. Run an efficiency experiment: agree to several tasks to do now. One is chosen randomly for you to do. In the future you'll do another one. The ratio of the time spent is an unbiased estimate of the ratio of your efficiency at these times. Compete against yourself!
5. Write down partial ideas to revisit later. Lazily sort them whenever you want, like a tournament. Turn them into ToDos when they're ready
6. See what's made you most happy/sad recently
7. Reminisce: see a randomly chosen, high-rated comment
8. Feedback! Whenever you do something, you see a positive/negative number, some (usually) encouraging words, and a button for more details
9. Receive suggestions for what's next: even request something Fun and at least as good as the game you're considering
Download: https://github.com/mathjeff/ActivityRecommender/blob/master/README.md
(Disclosure: I'm the developer, of course)
Feedback is super appreciated!
I like the function over form, Quite different from other apps here!
Hi! I want you to try MeTime2, an app that syncs with your iOS calendar to visualize the log of time you spent each day!
The interface is very beautiful and excellent.
https://apps.apple.com/app/metime2/id1557459880
I think that scheduling and logging are effective ways to consciously use your time in your daily life. However, it can be suffocating and tedious to do these things every day.
MeTime2 makes it easy for you to reflect on the balance of your time usage by simply entering your appointments/spent time in the calendar, and to have a sense of control over how you spend your time. You can do these things in a fun and sustainable way, not suffocating.
MeTime2 will help you live a richer life.
I hope you'll give it a try!
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing! Looks neat, I will give it a try.
Hey! We solve this at Amna: https://getamna.com
We solve your social network addiction by giving you a browser just dedicated for a task at a time. It's kind of human nature to try and keep the browser clean, since it now has a purpose.
Amna also gives you some activation energy. Sometimes there are tasks that can be boring, and even if you do just a small bit of it today, it can be hard to come back. With Amna, with just one-click, items can come back. Just right click and move it to the next day.
It's really awesome. Give it a try.
Amna looks very professional, I would suggest reducing the onboard friction and getting the application to the visitors directly on the home page.
You can see that there's no dearth of task managers from this thread, So I think the email -> filling up the form -> then download is going to turn away lot of visitors.
Amna is neat! Unfortunately when I try adding browser it results in 'Error: Failed to load extension from: . Manifest file is missing or unreadable', after dismissing that error couple of times, the browser does open but seems to be independent of the application and so does nothing inside the Amna.
uh oh Shinzo. I haven’t heard that happening. What OS are you on?
Alternatively we provide a very dumb browser, go to settings and turn off the Chrome Preference, and it will fall back to our own browser.
Thanks for coming back Ravi, I'm on Linux (Lubuntu and Chromium). The default browser opens fine, but it too closed with a JavaScript error in Web Component.
Hey there!
We've launched a premium habit tracker iOS app called DoHabits - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dohabits/id1527967950
DoHabits helps you create healthy routines by helping you set goals, tracking your progress, and then motivating you with streaks. Unlike so many other habit apps, DoHabits lets you set a goal and track it MULTIPLE times a day, not just one time per day.
You can create and track unlimited amount of goals and habits. And no annoying subscriptions!
Hey interface of your app is neat, thanks for sharing. Only if there was a trial option I would have given it a try, as you can see I've invested in so many habit tracking apps recently!
We created a tickler file app to address this needgap: You can get it here: https://www.fortythree.me
In essence it helps because:
1. It Lets You Focus on One or Few Tasks at A Time
2. It Prevents You from Being Overwhelmed by Too Many ‘To-Dos’
3. It Helps You Structure What Needs to Be Done
4. It Gives you a Feeling of Achievement & Accomplishment
5. It’s A Tool for Self-Accountability
6. It’s An Effective Reminder for Deadlines
I wrote a little more how we help to solve the procrastination trap here:
https://fortythree.me/stop-procrastinating-how-a-tickler-file-can-help-you-stop-putting-it-off/
Hey, thanks for sharing. So this tickler system, like pomodoro technique is another productivity improvement system?
But I had a hard time figuring out what the actual 43/tickler system does and had to follow couple of links from the one you have given here to find what it is.
I think it would be great if you can add a simple 3 line steps how this 43 system helps for others who don't know like me.
Thanks for the remark. Here's how a tickler file works:
The system consists of two types of folders: dayly for in the running month and monthly folders for the year.
You can place all short-term items into the appropriate daily folder to schedule them for the current month. Items which need attention in a future month are put in the corresponding monthly folder. This makes the fortythree folders one of the easiest to use follow up systems.
Every day, you can focus on those items, that you have commited yourself to for that specific day. At the end of the day you can enjoy the feeling of achievment, when everything is done. Open tasks move to the next day.
In more detail, you can find it here: https://fortythree.me/how-to-build-a-working-tickler-file/
Hey! One of the ways I became super productive was to start using the pomodoro technique, this led me to use the app forest which punishes users who use their phone when the timer is on. I really enjoyed using it however the reward system was different tree species which in my opinion is extremely boring.
So I thought to myself, why not make an app similar but instead of trees I give them real rewards like mystery boxes and not only that but give the user an avatar they can give experience to. So in essence you start the "game" as a baby and as you finish pomodoro sessions you gain experience and coins. You go from baby to kid to adult. You use coins to buy accessories for your avatar and mystery boxes. Just like in forest if you leave the app you lose are warned and then penalized. As you work hard and grow as an individual so is does your avatar.
That is how FocusByte was born! I started development 2 months ago and it is almost complete! I would appreciate it so much if you were to sign up to be notified at
http://focusbyte.io
when it goes live! If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to message me. Thank you, stay safe, and most importantly never stop getting better.
A pomodoro tamagotchi app! I will definitely check it out when it's available.
Hi there! Just wanted to share the app I've built that can help :) I read over 20 books on productivity (including Getting Things Done, Eat That Frog and Willpower) and tried all the methodologies. Then arrived at precisely your results.
So I decided to try to experiment with building my own methodology from the system blocks provided by the books and following the most recent research on cognitive psychology. I ended up combining and simplifying the productivity methodologies, I took away everything that hurts productivity (pretty counter-intuitive, but I removed the concept of "projects") and left everything that matters.
As a result, I explained my way of achieving top productivity in my article: https://medium.com/@nikitakolmogorov/how-i-launched-7-products-in-1-year-efe542b1f8b6 .
I then also launched the todorant.com app (available on web, iOS and Android) which is basically the same thing but automated :)
Hope it helps!
Hi, both the article and the website for your product is not accessible; has it been removed?
Weird! Looks like Medium links are getting broken here :) Here's the shortened link to the article that should work: https://bit.ly/2WqR5fm. Todorant should be accessible at https://todorant.com.
Your blog content was nice, it's great that you set out to create an app to implement what you learnt.
But, I have couple of issues with your app.
1. I tried the web app, the signup required account from other platforms and not a simple email signup.
2. So I downloaded the app on my iPad, Had to subscribe for trying out the app, besides the app looks very bland; some UI elements(settings icon) had conflicts with the label. Was this made with flutter?
In short, the app is not convincing enough to enrol into subscription. Needs better UI/UX to sell the premise of the app.
Thank you for the feedback! I appreciate it :) Got this thing running and stable and now I'll work on the design.
Hi, I recently launched an app that might help. It involves a repeating interval timer where you try to get a task done in a short amount of time.
- you can have task streaks, add quick tasks, unlock items and collect cute animals.
- you can set the interval timer to 1, 5, 10, or 20 minutes.
- Play for 20 consecutive minutes (at any time interval) to get the most rewards.
- Have different themes to motivate you.
http://www.deadlinesapplication.com/
I talk about it more in this post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/fw5l53/another_productivity_timer_app_based_on_short/
If more people get interested I would continually add items, animals and a special adventure mode.
Hey, deadlineapplication looks well built and reminds me of the Habitica. I'll give it a try.
But, I would like to discuss your choice of name; although 'Dead Lines' matches the purpose of a task manager I wonder whether it is appropriate for a cute app like this and I feel some may be put off by the 'Dead' prefix.
I really appreciate the feedback. I will workshop the name. Any other feedback is welcome. The harsher the better.
Looking at the screenshots, the aesthetics of the app is indeed neat. Installed on iPad (9.7" / iOS 13.4), the UI elements seems cut off (so app could be unusable there) and is only portrait. Since, many are using iPad as secondary screen due to native support in macOS you could try optimising for that as well and may be you could attract a niche audience e.g. quick task timer on the secondary screen when working on the something in the main screen.
Ok, I have not optimized it for the ipad. Apple doesn't allow specifically iphone or ipad. I should put a disclaimer in the app store about that. I didn't think there would be anything cut off though. Just the app with black bars around it.
I think your suggestions for ipad use are really good. I have thought about similar uses. I will work on it.
Thank you for the guide, I will review it. And thank you so much for taking the time to try it out and offer suggestions. It really means a lot.
Here is the screenshot on iPad - https://i.imgur.com/h0ESURf.png (Same even when minimised).
The update with iPad compatibility is now live. It works in landscape modes. Currently adjusting to portrait is not available. It will take more code to figure out how to change the position while maintaining proper animation. I have already spent a long time on the app. I don't want to spend any more time if no one is interested.
I appreciate fixing the landscape issue.
Ok, that was very unprofessional of me to launch an app without making sure it 100% worked on ipads as well. I will try to push an update by the end of the night. Thanks for the advice.
I've started working on a productivity tool that might help you out. It's still early days but you can check out the limited preview at https://bulletlist.co
Hi, thanks for sharing. How does it differ from the rest of the tools posted here and how it would solve my problem better?
You can check out Focus Wall as it's meant to solve this problem by optimizing your desktop wallpaper so you never lose track.
https://focuswall.madebyayan.com/
It provides a clean wall to help you stay focused on the things that matter most.
So you can forget about the many to do lists that just keep on piling and then get lost, instead keep all your important things right on your wall so you never lose track of them.
And that's the motivation behind Focus Wall. To provide a single place to keep all your important to-dos. A place that you see everyday whenever you open your computer, your wallpaper! So you're always reminded of the things that you need to focus on.
Focus Wall's design looks great! But price is bit steep especially since there is no trial plan available. I think if it's made a shareware, Many more would be able to try and buy it.
Hey, glad you like the design and thanks for the feedback!
Focus Wall is actually 30% OFF over on itch and gumroad at the moment.
However, if you'd prefer to try it out before buying, there is a Lite version of the app that you can check out here:
https://madebyayan.itch.io/focuswall-lite
Hey! Try out List Impossible
https://listimpossible.com
List Impossible is a to-do list
Create a list and an expiration timer
The list self-destructs when the timer reaches zero
Keep track of your performance
You can only create 1 to-do list at a time so it forces you to focus on the task at hand. The list self-destructs after your timer expires giving you a sense of urgency to complete your tasks.
Yo! i made a productivity tool just for individuals named orsolo https://orsolo.com there is no team features, popups daily emails etc ☺️ i built it as a need for myself and made it public you can create projects amd within project manage kanbans , notes, bookmarks, budget calculator, todos etc :)
Hey, thanks for sharing! It is very interesting to see task management apps go on from just being an individual tool to wanting collaborative team features to being individual tool again.
I had the same problem. I would wind up getting tuck in a couinterproductive loop getting more depressed because of the little failures. The simplest solution helped me in the end. I just broke up my tasks into smaller pieces and put them in a to-do list and focused on the smaller victories. I'm using Tdo (https://tdo.cxjs.io), check it out maybe it suits you as well.
Hi, if you're interested in breaking things into smaller tasks and looking for something new/unique please check out my app that just launched:
http://www.deadlinesapplication.com/
I would love to hear feedback, positive or negative.
I also made a post here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/fw5l53/another_productivity_timer_app_based_on_short/
Hi, the markdown support for Tdo is really cool I'll check it out.
Please check out Unidash https://unidash.co which is a personal productivity platform to view actionable work items from Github, Jira, Google Drive, Google Calendar apps in a single place. For example, for Github, you can view PRs to review, pending PRs and assigned issues as actionable cards, as well as the CI status of your and your colleagues' PRs, all in one place. You can also follow the conversation on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/daby2u/unidash_a_personal_dashboard_to_view_all_your/
[Disclaimer: I am the founder of the project]
A task manager for the task managers, Nice. I do see a need gap. Is this aimed towards Business/Office users? If so, a slack and other team communication apps integration could be very useful.
For personal tasks, integration with major personal task managers such as any.do, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar etc. are necessary. I see that you support Google Calendar already, Apple Calendar integration with EventKit should be possible as well; but 3rd party integrations with apps such as any.do wouldn't be easy.
Although an end consumer in me see the need gap for task managers for all task managers, but not as much as the need for business user in me for Unidash.
I had the same problem. Literally. Then I discovered the method of Agile Results. I’ve been using it for 3 years now and it is really effective for me. It is simple and requires to work only on 3 wins a day to produce 1095 right outcomes a year. Really simple yet effective. I want to build an app around that method. I’ll be launching soon on Apple Store. If you feel like giving it a try, here is early sign up form so I could notify you when app is live https://mailchi.mp/ebe570c83d9e/3outcomes
Feedback is appreciated
3Outcomes might be the one I'm looking for! Agile Results sounds exciting, I see in the picture about 3 tasks /day, but also see 3tasks/week, 3 tasks/year so how does it work? I have signed up for the early access BTW.
Happy you excited! I'll do my best to deliver the app asap. You kind of set yourself big goals for the year. And having these goals in your mind, you focus on monthly, weekly and daily tasks more consciously. Giving priority only to those which matter the most and waste less time this way. Easier to see the progress and feel accomplishment.
Congratulations for your product - 3Outcomes. Glad that Agile Results worked great for you and hope that it does for your app users. I like the idea of limiting the number of tasks, to get the tasks done.
How are the pending tasks handled here, say only 2 of the 3 is done on a day; it gets carried over to the next day?
Thank you, your support means a lot! You are right, pending tasks keep carried over till you accomplish or replace it with another.
> carried over till you accomplish or replace it with another.
Is the 3 tasks/day a hard limit? Say, if I have scheduled 3 tasks today and 3 tasks for tomorrow and a task is left over from today. Will tomorrow have 4 tasks?
Actually, really good UX question, thank you for this! I need to test it over but I think now that pending tasks will be placed in special backlog section and you'll be able to reschedule the task again
Welcome to needgap @George , the url seems to have the period attached. We don't edit the comments, so I'm including the correct url here https://mailchi.mp/ebe570c83d9e/3outcomes . You can edit the url in your comment, if you do it within 3 hours.
Guys I made Butt Pomodoro - A butt triggered pomodoro timer, to address the problem of 'reminder to take break when working from home' - https://needgap.com/problems/130-remind-me-to-take-break-when-working-from-home-wfh-activity.
In my usage, I found that it also improves productivity substantially and so I'm sharing it here as it could address this problem as well.
Dude, this is going to be huge if someone builds it commercially because, of all the other products discussed here, this is the only one so far which doesn't need any user action; set it up and forget it while it improves productivity and health!
I will buy one for sure if someone builds it.
Kudos for the premise of needgap, it has proven that it helps people to build what people want.
I have something that may interest you. With two of my friends, we created a Naviko app - habit tracker with a social aspect. It gives you possibility not only to track your daily routines but also to share this progress with your friends and follow their everyday score. If you have the same habit, you can also compete with each other by getting the longest strike.
Available on Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.naviko
Beta version on iOS:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/5Z5s32n0
Enjoy!
Even though Reddit, HN or even needgap may not be social networks; the dopamine shots from these could be just as real, at-least there will be less narcissism I guess!
About this need gap of improving individual productivity, are you a gamer? I've heard good things about 'Habitica'. Habitica helps the users set milestones like in games, which supposedly motivates one to reach all of them like they do in games. I've personally not used it, but comes in as top recommendation in threads on productivity/mental health obviously from gamers.
Habitica looks cool, unfortunately I'm not an avid gamer and even when I play I don't collect all coins or whatever it is needed to get the milestones done. So even Habitica might fail me or I would fail it!
Try out https://orsolo.com ☺️ im also founder if you like etc feel free to Dm on twitter https://twitter.com/iiCe89 amd i can sort you out woth pro accounts for free also