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One Thing – Put a single task or goal in your menu bar
- FredPret 4y agoI love this! Focusing on one thing at a time feels like a super-power, and this forces me to: * think about what that is * get a visual reminder of the one thing
- st3ve445678 4y agoShouldn't the product page have a picture of the product? Strange not to include that so people can quickly see what this looks like.
- albert_e 4y agoAgreed very much! I googled and found this tweet with a screenshot seemingly by OP when this was launched in Jan 2022: https://twitter.com/sindresorhus/status/1481312807287427075 https://twitter.com/sindresorhus/status/1481312807287427075 This is a tweet thread that also has some more updates, screenshots and GIFs that show the tool in action. Satisfied my itch to know how the product looks/works (I dont have any iOS device so I am not going to use it in any way myself)
- fluidcruft 4y agoOr follow the link to the App Store and look at the screenshots there.
- 0ct4via 4y agoIndeed -- while it's surprising to find them not even present on the site, the App Store[1] will always have screenshots. [1] https://apps.apple.com/app/id1604176982 https://apps.apple.com/app/id1604176982
- albert_e 4y agoWell, speaking for myself -- I dont use any iOS device I so never had the need/habit to visit AppStore links to learn about apps, so I probably didn't have the learned neural pathway to click on it to satisfy my curiosity. In fact I just clicked on it now on my PC and it's taking forever to load -- probably blocked by uBlock Origin / uMatrix by default. Also, the original page seems to have since been upated to show screenshots. So everyone should be happy including me :)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mofle 4y agoI recently rewrote my website and product screenshots is still a todo. Just follow the App Store button for screenshots.
- bonestamp2 4y agoYou may not be a visual person, but many people are. Add this tag and you'll have a screenshot on your site. <img src="https://is3-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Purple126/v4/51/a7/1b/51a71b50-e279-da38-5639-14e27d87d6b3/e2815674-63ef-4fbb-8f99-3b089dc2a307_screenshot2.png/626x0w.webp"/> https://is3-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Purple126/v4/51/a7/...
- bonestamp2 4y agoLack of screenshots is so common with cool stuff that is posted on Hacker News. I am a very visual person, so it completely blows my mind that someone wouldn't include one single screenshot for something they spent so much time building. But, I have come to believe that most Hacker News users are NOT visual people -- they get that warm an fuzzy feeling about an idea simply from reading about it. That's great, but I'm writing this comment so they realize that there are other people who only get about half way there by reading about it and that screenshots are very important for the other half of the population that they're trying to get interested in their project.
- foreverCarlos 4y agoIn this case one doesn’t even need to be a visual person. I can’t even understand what this app does without a screenshot.
- satvikpendem 4y agoAs I said in another comment, not sure what you mean, the landing page has a screenshot: https://sindresorhus.com/apps/one-thing/screenshot1.jpg https://sindresorhus.com/apps/one-thing/screenshot1.jpg Are you perhaps blocking external images from loading, perhaps via an ad blocker?
- toxik 4y agoIronically, this app is almost surely the product of procrastination. I had the idea to make this once, then I realized a) just do the thing, b) a literal post-it note solves this and more.
- junon 4y agoIt's made by Sindre Sorhus, who certainly does not procrastinate when it comes to OSS. This was definitely made out of a need for efficiency or self improvement. Everything he builds has self-utility.
- yakshaving_jgt 4y agoWriting code, compiling it, and fiddling with it until it’s sufficiently robust to handle most typical edge cases when rendering text in a menu bar is more efficient than writing on a Post-it note? Really? I think I would have gone with the Post-it. Or a file on my desktop. Even the data in the Post-it note is persisted in the event of power failure!
- lalopalota 4y ago> Writing code, compiling it, and fiddling with it until it’s sufficiently robust to handle most typical edge cases when rendering text in a menu bar + distributing it for others to use is WAY more efficient than send post-it notes and a pen to every user who is looking for a way to stay on task.
- yakshaving_jgt 4y agoAh, yes. Distribution is an interesting challenge to solve. It’d be useful if we had some form of electronic mail. If only.
- Dylan16807 4y agoDid you read the whole comment you replied to? If you have a way to send someone post-its in an email that they can attach to their screen, please share.
- guilamu 4y agoAny android or windows equivalent? Please and thank you.
- hoyd 4y agoI sometimes choose a password that writes out as a thing I want to remind myself of. Then every time I write it, i get reminded of it.
- drdrey 4y agoThat’s actually a cool hack 1Password becomes One Thing if your password is your thing
- zhte415 4y agoHave a piece of paper on your desk. Write down what needs to be done. Specific stuff. Use it for impromptu note taking or work breakdown through the day. Tick off or cross out whatever's done. If you end up writing down something that's worth keeping around, keep it around in whatever medium suits it best. Then throw the paper away at the end of the day. If there are things not done, you can write them on tomorrow's paper if you remember them.
- joegahona 4y agoThis is what I do, on an ugly post-it. Encourages me to get rid of it.
- asciii 4y agoI use to do this in school and tbh, should try going back. It was very much adapted from Cal Newport's method. Every morning I wrote all my to-dos on a index card from my Google Calendar. Anything that came up during my day which I could not finish within 5-20 minutes was written on the back to add to my calendar. This way I can focus on finishing the front side of the card and mindful of activities in the back. Now it's easier with the Things app (especially since I can email or have a script to send my todos to it directly). Highly recommend it!
- lylejantzi3rd 4y agoThis is what I do, except I take a photo of the paper with my phone before throwing it away. I now have a timestamped record of what I did every day without having to manage a shelf of old notebooks. I know some people would consider having a shelf of old notebooks to be a perk, but I move around too much to want to lug around boxes of paper. That stuff gets heavy after a while.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- davchana 4y agoI started doing that around in 2017 at my job. It was an office job. For work & personal tasks. I was using any random piece of paper, post it note, scrap paper. Soon I ended up with a bunch of papers held together with paper clips because some of the things were not getting transferred to next day. Then I started using a simple A5 size notebook. As heading, I used to out today's date in dd/mm then a empty square box underneath date, & then the phrase To Do. On page I would do a phrase YYYY-MM-DD DDDD & extend tail of lowercase Y to underline the whole phrase. Then simple blank square box, & the task. When that task is done, I would tick that box, & would write DD/MM on right side of line. When whole page is done, I would check that heading big box, & write DD/MM underneath the box. Soon in few months I came across Bullet Journal concept, & I adapted index page, & Specific Task pages (like Financial To Do, Programming To Do, Travel, In Six Months, Big To Do). It is fun.
- infinityio 4y agoI've separately made use of something similar to this, using Todoist and Wear OS! Todoist exposes a complication to show your 'most urgent' task (priority + due date?), which I like to keep visible on my watch face (and syncs with the cloud, so tasks can be updated from anywhere)
- renewiltord 4y agoVery cool tool. I use Apple Notes and the little hot corner but I like this because it's always staring you in the face.
- kevinzg 4y agoI do a very similar thing with Polybar and a custom script. Polybar runs the script and displays whatever the script prints to stdout. I communicate with the script using rofi and a unix socket. I use this to help me focus on a task and track how much time I'm spending on it.
- herewulf 4y agoI was thinking the same thing, except I pipe shell script output into dzen2. For bonus points, make the text display the currently clocked-in Emacs org-mode task. Of course, this appears in the emacs mode line, so maybe just style it to make it more prominent? Or.. Maybe just permanent text in the bar? "Stop configuring your WM and get some work done" ;)
- andrew_ 4y agobitbar can do the same. I currently use it to display time zones for the folks I work with. have used it in the past for reminders. a lot of what sindre makes isn't novel or unique - it's presented professionally, easy to work with or understand, and is well documented. that's what he's most well-known for in my circles.
- kilroy123 4y agoI do the same with textbar
- ghusto 4y agoI don't have much use for this one in particular, but poked around and found another of his apps called Pure Paste. I've been looking for something like it for a long time. It clears formatting from copy, so you can paste in clear text. Shift+cmd+v doesn't work everywhere, and the countless apps and scripts I've tried are flaky, but this seems to work!
- d3vmax 4y agoIn Windows I just pin the notepad in the 2nd position of my task bar and to achieve the process you did in Mac, it can be done with Ctrl+C, Windows+2, Ctrl+V.
- fraXis 4y agoEasier ways to accomplish this: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20220906-00/?p=107124#:~:text=Sometimes%20you%20just%20want%20to,%2Dbased%20apps%2C%20like%20Teams https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20220906-00/?p=10....
- nick0garvey 4y agoI use the Run window for this same thing
- Cerium 4y agoI used to use the URL bar to clear formatting from copy and paste. Copy, paste to URL bar, copy and then paste to destination.
- d3vmax 4y agoLine Spacing goes away in this method for multiple sentences. This method is good for 1 word / 1 line.
- brnewd 4y agoI paste in the url bar and copy again as clear text.
- hartator 4y ago> You can achieve almost anything in life — as long as you focus on achieving one thing at a time. Oddly I have the reverse issue. I always focus on one thing at the time, and everything else is frozen. E.g., my full day is frozen if I have an appointment with the dentist at 2pmn. It’s a symptom of ADHD. And I have been aiming now to force myself to do the reverse. Parallelizing tasks that can.
- sogen 4y ago1.Start task 2.Finish task 3.Profit
- hartator 4y ago1. Make a plan 2. Procrastinate 3. Forget the Plan https://www.instagram.com/digitallybaffled/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/digitallybaffled/?hl=en is amazing.
- sogen 4y agoFor adhd the “plan” is more like a Rube Goldberg
- layer8 4y agoYou forgot “then a miracle occurs” between steps 1 and 2.
- intelVISA 4y agoWhat if you're spinlocked?
- FullKirby 4y agoWow, I have the same issue that you describe with the dentist appointment thing, but it's the first time I hear someone else describe it. I'm certain I have ADHD, I'm a few months away from professional diagnostic
- canadaduane 4y agoGnome (Linux) equivalent: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5072/one-thing/ https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/5072/one-thing/
- krembo 4y agoI use 4Note on Android to achieve the same goal. It allows me to put simple colorful notes as widgets on the homescreen, and by having 4 small ones like this I always have the top tasks in front of my eyes.
- smm11 4y agoI used to carry around a Stickie note, the physical ones, that I'd write one or two must-do items on. The notes would wear out in my pocket, get wet, that sort of thing, so I had to hurry and get the thing/s done. Completed, I'd then get another new note going.
- newbieuser 4y agoWhat problem exactly is this app to solve? it looks exactly like a producthunt product. a big landing page with long text but you never understand what it does
- nyrulez 4y agoFWIW, I just use a floating sticky note on my Mac for my "current focus". They work really well and are much more flexible in terms of how much information you're comfortable with.
- malshe 4y agoHow do you do that? You don’t mean literal post it notes right?
- sogen 4y agoThe default Stickies app in macOS has a “float” capability for the notes, so they can always be on top
- nyrulez 4y agoNo. Every Mac has the "Stickies" application built in. And it also allows any note to "float on top" so it's always visible. This way you can create your ideal focus reminder that stays on top, anywhere on the screen.
- malshe 4y agoTIL! Looks super useful. I will try it now
- nine_k 4y agoAn app that does one thing, extremely visual. A detailed landing page. No screenshot. Facepalm, frankly.
- schappim 4y agoI think most of the "free sales" will come from the App Store, which already requires a screenshot preview.
- satvikpendem 4y agoNot sure what you mean, the landing page has a screenshot: https://sindresorhus.com/apps/one-thing/screenshot1.jpg https://sindresorhus.com/apps/one-thing/screenshot1.jpg Are you perhaps blocking external images from loading, perhaps via an ad blocker?
- nine_k 4y agoWeird. Yes, I run uBlock Origin with default / relaxed rules. I think that working with a light and widespread ad blocker on is important for a site that promotes something, commercial or not. Even just saying "Please turn off your ad blocker to see key content" is fine with me: I may as well turn it off if the content is worth it. I mostly run an ad blocker because ads tend to be visually intrusive, hog the CPU, and consume bandwidth, slowing down the loading of the actual content. Not because I'm opposed to site owners making a bit of money off my visit.
- satvikpendem 4y agoI run uBO too with stricter rules it sounds like but I still saw the screenshot. I'm on Firefox on Windows.
- schappim 4y agoI just gave it a go, if your "one thing" is extending under the notch, as is the case with my MacBook Air, then it's not able to be accessed again[0]. If the necessary APIs are available, the app should make adjustments and either cut off the content or respond to clicks underneath the notch to display the dialog box once more. [0] I was able to eventually change the content by relaunching the app.
- mofle 4y agomacOS hides menu items if they don't fit and nothing can be behind the notch. Apps have no control over this. The app has a setting for maximum length. You could also move the menu item closer to the right to make sure it's not hidden when there's less space in the menu bar.
- netgusto 4y agoI made for myself something similar, for display in my shell prompt https://github.com/netgusto/tax https://github.com/netgusto/tax
- rcarr 4y agoI wrote a plugin for Omnifocus that allows you to select some tasks and send them to BusyCal or Fantastical for time blocking. If you then use this in conjunction with MeetingBar it will allow you to see what task you currently should be working on in the menu bar and if you click on the MeetingBar section of the menu bar, will display your entire itinerary for the day. It's very cool.
- mmphosis 4y agoXfce Panel right click the menu bar > Panel > Add New Items... Launcher > click Add click Close right click the Launcher icon in the menu bar > Properties Delete the currently selected items Add a new hyperlink type the *One Thing* as the Name type in the URL click Create click the Advanced tab click Show label instead of icon click Close
- sebkomianos 4y agoMake sure to check the other apps from this developer, there's some very cool ones!
- Sujeto 4y agoI use a todo thing I made https://madprops.github.io/Hoff/ https://madprops.github.io/Hoff/ I don't care about due dates, I just write the tasks I have to do in the short term (same day). Then tick them when they're done. It helps me not forget things too since I can add a task when I have an idea. I have a dedicated spot on my monitor to display it.