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Show HN: A minimalist Mac app that helps track, allocate, and plan your time
- Dextro 7y agoIt would be pretty cool if there was a way to add tasks straight from Alfred
- jpulgarin 7y agoThere's a quick add functionality which allows you to add a task with a keyboard shortcut. Would Alfred integration still seem useful to you?
- Dextro 7y agoI usually forget my shortcuts and rely heavily in tools like alfred (or the Jetbrains find action shortcut). It reduces the amount of shortcuts I need to remember. It also reduces the likelihood of shortcuts conflicting if I only need a couple of them :)
- mfatica 7y ago"or are you done your task"
- aracena 7y agoHey thank you the feedback, can you please let me where did you see the error? thank you
- reaperducer 7y agoI'm not in the market for this kind of app, but thank you for making it a straight $9.99 purchase, instead of a $4.99/month SaaS (rental) scheme. Or some bogus in-app purchase that gets negated somewhere along the way when the app auto-updates and the previous in-app purchase is no longer available. I can't tell if it syncs data with my other Apple devices, but if it does, it would be great if it had the option of doing it through iCloud instead of through some proprietary untrusted service that I have to create yet another account for. (I' looking at you, Panic and Junecloud.)
- jpulgarin 7y agoThanks! We considered a subscription service with some added features but decided instead to focus on simplicity. Right now there is no syncing, but we will definitely consider using iCloud if we implement it in the future (and once it's back up).
- dejaime 7y agoIf that is a problem, I'd rather have it sync with something like nextcloud instead of just another flavor of untrusted proprietary service.
- Fnoord 7y agoPrecisely. Not everyone who's using a Mac is using the entire Apple ecosystem. I use Macs, Android, and Linux, and I am not going to use any Windows/Linux/Mac-specific protocol.
- oiasdjfoiasd 7y agoIt depends. If it's a piece of software that never updates, a one time purchase makes sense. But otherwise, why should you get access to all future updates and ongoing work? I think Sketch has a good system - you pay once and you only have access to that version forever (bugs and all). In order to update/get new features, you need to pay again or have an ongoing subscription.
- asutekku 7y ago
- xwkd 7y agoThis feels less like a "Show HN" and more like an advertisement.
- duiker101 7y agoI mean... aren't all Show HN sort of adverts? How is this different?
- sys_64738 7y agoIt has a 10$ price tag.
- duiker101 7y agoAnd? It doesn't matter how simple it is, if it's FOSS or not. OP made something and they are showing it to HN. Let's not forget that HN is part of YC, who's sole purpose is to fund companies to make money, not charities.
- sovande 7y agoIt links directly to the Mac App Store which open MAS on my Mac. It's kind of rude. Their web-page does not contain any text describing the product, there is a simple video which could be linked instead. The product is at least 1 year old, judging from comments in the App Store. Usually a Show HN thing is a bit fresher. I agree with OP, this feels less like a Show HN and more like "oh by the way, we should post a Show HN the buy button".
- hu3 7y agoIs there a blog post about development process or technologies used?
- jpulgarin 7y agoNo blog post yet but I'm happy to answer any specific questions here. Effortless is a fairly simple app although there were some tricky edge cases to handle like when the task name is too long for the menu bar (especially when dealing with multiple monitors), and how to update the current task in the menu bar when making large edits to the task list. Making the app simple to use and cutting down the list of features to the bare essentials was also a process that involved a lot of iterations and talking with early users. I learned Swift and native Mac app development in order to develop Effortless and have since fallen in love with Swift. It has replaced Python as my language of choice for many tasks.
- shibel 7y agoI for one would love to hear more about your transition as someone who’s been with Python for a while now but struggling to make Swift stick (last attempt was with SwiftUI, which is awesome but very young).
- jpulgarin 7y agoDefinitely! I got lucky in the sense that wanting to create Effortless forced me to learn Swift. I wanted much more control than something like Electron or BitBar could give me, and I wanted to make this app a reality. I had also been working professionally with Python for the last few years, and the codebase at my previous company was so large that I started to miss working in a statically typed language. I didn't do anything that special to learn it. I gave the The Swift Programming Language book (1) a read and then started to get my hands dirty, using Google when needed. I had done some iOS development a long time ago, which also helped. I almost immediately found it just as easy to write as Python (and in some respects easier) but with a stronger type system. It also has a lot of great tooling like Playgrounds. So I guess my advice would be to give yourself a project which you want to use Swift for, ideally where you have no other alternatives. I've also tinkered around with using Vapor to create web servers using Swift, so that might be another option. 1. https://docs.swift.org/swift-book/ https://docs.swift.org/swift-book/
- matchbok 7y agoiOS version planned? I'd love to chip in.
- jpulgarin 7y agoIt's definitely something we're thinking about. There have been many times when I'm not at my computer that I'd wished I had access to my task list, or had something like Effortless on my phone to keep me focused on some manual task. Right now we're focused on improving the Mac version though as an iOS version would also require us to write a backend to handle accounts/syncing, etc...
- jason_slack 7y agoI would use an iOS app. I like to keep my Mac as clutter free as possible/very minimal. Happy Birthday.
- rusinov 7y agoMac nerds wouldn’t install an app with icon like this.
- paultopia 7y agoOh man, that's sad but true. I've been working on a couple of small (hopefully) useful Mac apps myself, but can't draw or anything like that, and this fact has seriously kept me from putting them on the app store altogether.
- plufz 7y agoWhile I feel for you not feeling able to publish, is it really that sad that we like good icons? Isn’t one of the important things about the platform that we have high ui demands?
- paultopia 7y agoI'd argue that UI is different from prettiness of icon. The skill of drawing and the skill of understanding how to make an application easy to use are different.
- Redoubts 7y agoWhile true, this icon has some obvious flaws that could have been fixed with "draw polygon; sides: 3" in any free or premium editor.
- plufz 7y agoWe are affected by aesthetics. Humans like things that look good, use those objects more, find the objects easier to use, has a lower cognitive load on us, etc. Atleast that is the results of the cognitive studies I know of (like those 1990s studies from Hitatchi).
- aracena 7y agoI agree with you, I decided to keep it simple (may be too simple lol) so we could ship as fast as possible but I will work on that in the future, thank you for your feedback!
- YCuN4M00v33odS 7y ago13.99 to show notifications from a list. Come on
- modzu 7y agoit's the prototypical app to build after "hello world"
- therockhead 7y agoIf it helps some folks focus on tasks, it worth a lot more than a few dollars.
- pizza 7y agoYou’d probably have an opportunity cost of more than that to recreate it, though.
- toxik 7y agoI feel like if you really believed in this, having an egg timer might be better: existing solution, not bound to the computer, etc. The key addition is the label, I guess. I actually do use an egg timer when I need to
- duiker101 7y agoIt's worth what people are willing to pay. Seems like there's quite a few people here happy with the price.
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- sovande 7y agoThe app had a ranking of 50 in the productivity category June 8 and was out of the MAS US list June 11. Thats all for the last 365 days. So I guess not many is willing to pay. I salute the attempt fight the race to the bottom which the App Store has become, but I agree with OP, this app is probably not the standard-bearer. 9.99 for a TODO list (and judging from the video not very good) is too much. I mean, iStat Menus is 9.99 although amputated on the MAS.
- IloveHN84 7y agoNo Linux or Windows version?
- aracena 7y agoNot yet, sorry, but hopefully in the future
- jpulgarin 7y agoHey HN! My name is Julian, and I made Effortless with aracena to solve a problem we were both having: how to focus on exactly one thing at a time. Effortless displays my current task, and a countdown timer in the menu bar, and although it sounds silly, it means that I have a constant visual reminder of what I should be working on. Effortless was also a great excuse to learn Swift and native Mac app development. I'm happy to answer any questions about the app or the development process, although it's my birthday so I might be a little slow to respond. If you have any feedback or want a trial code to test Effortless out feel free to write me at julian@effortless.app . Thanks!
- aportnoy 7y agoFantastic app, thank you for posting! Is there a way to get the current task name to show in full length in the menu bar, similar to what you have in the video? I see a truncated name instead (i.e. instead of "do task number bajillion 30:00" I see "do task num... 30:00").
- jpulgarin 7y agoThe task name is truncated any time the app notices that the full name wouldn't fit in the space available in the menu bar. If new menu bar space becomes available I haven't yet found a way to get notified of that, so instead I try "expanding" it once every minute to see if it will fit. If after a minute of waiting you notice the task name still hasn't expanded please let me know as it's definitely a bug.
- mjlee 7y agoFor those wondering how they can make more space available - https://www.macbartender.com/ https://www.macbartender.com/ is a good choice.
- karanbhangui 7y agoDoes your app support iCloud sync or is everything stored locally? Are there any plans for an iOS app?
- simongr3dal 7y agoA bit Off topic but, why does the mac app store open automatically, is there any way to turn that off? No other kind of link in safari is allowed to open an app like that without confirming it each time.
- _underfl0w_ 7y agoI wonder how hard Apple has fuzzed that "feature"
- j-pb 7y agoWould love that for iOs, or an iPad Os widget. <3 I'm actually sad I do all my dev stuff via blink.sh now :(
- aracena 7y agoHopefully, we will have it in the future
- IBCNU 7y agoCounterpoint: These apps never work, calendars are time prisons, we already have advanced technology for managing time: our brains.
- adminu 7y agoDespite the downvotes, I somewhat agree with you: It is not about the app you use, but THAT YOU USE IT. It does take some commitment and I think, people tend to hop from app to app instead of building the nessecary mindset. In fact, a clock and a peace of paper can do the job just fine, if yout want it to.
- dalacv 7y agoand a pencil to right on the peace of paper with.
- kendallpark 7y agoMany years back, a coworker and I were talking about how we wished pomodoro apps had a "snooze" button. One of the limitations of using the pomodoro technique with programming is that it can break you out of flow. I wonder if there would be a way to pair this with an app like Cold Turkey...
- kleer001 7y agoHmm, I could probably setup emacs to do something like this. I'm on Linux these days so can't use it anyways :/
- adminu 7y agoWell, that would be org-mode. If you set an time estimate [1] it will give you a desktop notifiction when your time is over. Thanks to clocking in and out [2] you can record your time. And, well, it's org-mode, you can do basically everything if your are willing to learn it ;) And at the end of the day you can generate a nice table that shows you, how much time you spend with what. [1] https://orgmode.org/manual/Effort-estimates.html https://orgmode.org/manual/Effort-estimates.html [2] https://orgmode.org/manual/Clocking-commands.html https://orgmode.org/manual/Clocking-commands.html
- edejong 7y agoGood (free) alternative, works across OSes and on iOS and Android, has browser integration and a support team: Toggl.io
- tobr 7y agoThis looks brilliant in its simplicity. I’ve been using Tyke.app for a few weeks as a task list, and it’s perhaps the first that seems to work for me. Getting timers + fast task entry seems like a useful addition. Bought it, the price is perfect. Some feedback. Starting the task automatically when it’s added feels stressful. Same when I restart the app - it starts ticking. Not sure how to reset it either. Would like to be able to add tasks without specifying a time too, and switch to it without having a timer start - just as a reminder of what to focus on. Can I turn off the active task somehow, and show the icon again? (i.e. have access to the list from the menu, without explicitly selecting which one I’m working on atm)
- jpulgarin 7y agoThanks a lot. We focused a lot on simplicity so I'm glad that shines through. Your feedback is super useful to us. The ability to turn off the active task is probably something we will incorporate in the next release. Having the ability to add tasks without a timer needs to be thought through a bit more by us since many users use their Effortless task list as a sort of notepad. Please let me know if you have any more feedback!
- Terretta 7y agoBig fan of the auto start and countdown stuff you’re doing — there’s a lot of value in the “pomodoro method” which this could approach or help automate. It’s not for everyone, but the idea is to trigger a kind of competitiveness/relentlessness with your todos that helps focus and flow.
- tobr 7y agoOne more thing - maybe I’m imagining this but I wonder if you might have a bug that causes the alert sound to go off sometimes even when the tasks are paused? I’ve heard an occasional ping from two different computers since installing the app yesterday, and I can’t figure out what else would be causing the sound.
- aracena 7y ago
- z5h 7y agoI've been wanting something like this. You have my $.
- aracena 7y agoThank you so much!!! It means a lot to us, if you have any feedback or any question please write me to h@effortless.app
- brandall10 7y agoThe concept is similar to an app I used years ago called Zonebox. I loved the idea but it was buggy and appeared to be abandoned by the developer. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zonebox/id597870795?mt=12 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zonebox/id597870795?mt=12 Purchased and so far it looks pretty great.
- jpulgarin 7y agoThanks! Let me know if you have any feedback.
- matthewhartmans 7y agoThis is a neat app! Really simple and straight to the point. Fantastic job Julian!
- jpulgarin 7y agoThanks Matthew!
- regnerba 7y agoLooks nice and simple. I recently went looking for a ToDo list app and landed on TickTick. So far it has been really good. Specifically it is very focused on lists, not notes, has a global keyboard shortcut for adding new items, and just lots of nice little features to help make managing a bunch of lists easier.
- n1000 7y agoLooks nice! I am a huge fan of https://noteplan.co https://noteplan.co. They do many things right such as using iCloud for syncing with iOS and markdown seems like a natural choice to me. What I am missing is just what you offer. A focused task with a pomodoro timer... Maybe you should work together?
- rvn1045 7y agocan i look at stats? how much time ive spend working on various tasks and also the visualization of the time periods i have spent working?
- jpulgarin 7y agoWe're hoping to add analytics in a future update.
- binjo 7y agoI used this for a while. I think the free version. Really loved using it. Great job