Show HN: A minimalist Mac app that helps track, allocate, and plan your time

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/effortless/id1368722917

by aracena • 7 years ago

191 104 7 years ago

apps.apple.com

mfatica• 7 years ago

"or are you done your task"

aracena11• 7 years ago

Hey thank you the feedback, can you please let me where did you see the error? thank you

aportnoy2• 7 years ago

Notification in the last screenshot on the app store page.

reaperducer2• 7 years ago

I'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.)

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

Thanks! 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• 7 years ago

If that is a problem, I'd rather have it sync with something like nextcloud instead of just another flavor of untrusted proprietary service.

Fnoord2• 7 years ago

Precisely. 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• 7 years ago

It 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• 7 years ago

For a consumer subscription doesn’t really make sense if there’s no value added with the subscription. Also, such small app as this having a subscription would just be straight up insulting.

Of course it is better for the dev to sell a subscription, but having to pay when new versions releases is for the customer the best option.

izacus• 7 years ago

The software purchase model has worked for years and had made many companies very very rich.

Hint: you can charge for upgrades without forcing them down your users throats.

austhrow743• 7 years ago

But otherwise, why should you get access to all future updates and ongoing work?

Because a norm has been established in software where you can charge for what in physical goods would be considered a defective piece of shit that should be recalled asap. This is beneficial to software developers and is predicated upon the concept of free updates.

jkmcf• 7 years ago

My observation is that most monthly services are priced per year as a single purchase. To me it would make more sense to average that over 2 years. The big problem I see is people constantly clamoring for more, and non-converging, features, but only want to pay once.

If I ever get around to releasing one of the various projects I have, it will probably use a tip jar.

flaque• 7 years ago

I would much rather pay for a product over time.

When you pay upfront, the dev is not incentivized to try and keep you. So the product gets worse and worse until it dies.

If you pay overtime, the whole game is “how can we make this person love the shit out of this thing for as long as possible.”

JustSomeNobody• 7 years ago

I’ll pay for version 1. If version 2 is good I’ll pay for that. If not I own version 1 and will keep using it.

Crinus• 7 years ago

how can we make this person love the shit out of this thing for as long as possible

"I know! Let's add every feature and bullet point under the sun!"

reaperducer2• 7 years ago

When you pay upfront, the dev is not incentivized to try and keep you. So the product gets worse and worse until it dies.

This is not true.

When you pay up front, the developer has an incentive to make the product right the first time; instead of releasing a buggy product because it can always be patched later.

In the pay up front model, if the initial product is crap, then nobody buys the next version. That is the incentive to release a quality program the first time around.

Then the developer has an incentive to make the next version so much better that people who like the first product will buy the new version.

If you pay overtime, the whole game is “how can we make this person love the shit out of this thing for as long as possible.”

No, if you pay over time, the whole game is "how can we keep this sucker on the hook and milk him for monthly payments for bug fixes and things we should have done the first time."

For example, millions of people pay repeatedly for WordPerfect from version to version for decades because it just kept getting better. That's how it was done until very recently, even with operating systems.

xwkd• 7 years ago

This feels less like a "Show HN" and more like an advertisement.

duiker1014• 7 years ago

I mean... aren't all Show HN sort of adverts? How is this different?

sys_64738• 7 years ago

It has a 10$ price tag.

sovande2• 7 years ago

It 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• 7 years ago

Is there a blog post about development process or technologies used?

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

No 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• 7 years ago

I 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).

matchbok• 7 years ago

iOS version planned? I'd love to chip in.

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

It'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• 7 years ago

I would use an iOS app. I like to keep my Mac as clutter free as possible/very minimal.

Happy Birthday.

rusinov• 7 years ago

Mac nerds wouldn’t install an app with icon like this.

paultopia2• 7 years ago

Oh 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.

plufz2• 7 years ago

While 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?

elliekelly• 7 years ago

You can have someone design an icon for you on fiverr for a pretty reasonable price.

tedmiston2• 7 years ago

Eh, if it's a menu bar app, no need to keep it in the Dock or ever see the icon.

YCuN4M00v33odS• 7 years ago

13.99 to show notifications from a list.

Come on

modzu• 7 years ago

it's the prototypical app to build after "hello world"

therockhead• 7 years ago

If it helps some folks focus on tasks, it worth a lot more than a few dollars.

pizza• 7 years ago

You’d probably have an opportunity cost of more than that to recreate it, though.

toxik• 7 years ago

I 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

duiker1014• 7 years ago

It's worth what people are willing to pay. Seems like there's quite a few people here happy with the price.

sovande2• 7 years ago

The 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• 7 years ago

No Linux or Windows version?

aracena11• 7 years ago

Not yet, sorry, but hopefully in the future

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

Hey 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!

aportnoy2• 7 years ago

Fantastic 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").

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

The 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.

karanbhangui• 7 years ago

Does your app support iCloud sync or is everything stored locally? Are there any plans for an iOS app?

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

Right now everything is stored locally - we don't even have a server running. An iOS app is definitely something we're thinking about, although we want to focus on improving our current Mac app first. One of the main features in our roadmap is integration with Todoist so that you can pull in tasks from your Todoist list instead of retyping them.

tedmiston2• 7 years ago

Looks interesting. Any plans to offer a trial outside of the MAS?

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

We have no trial version to download right now unfortunately. If you want to try it out feel free to send me an email at julian@effortless.app and I can send you a promo code to download it for free from the app store.

snazz• 7 years ago

Specific question: are the keyboard shortcuts accessible from anywhere? If so, using them would mean I couldn’t close a browser tab or reload a page, because it would be forwarded to Effortless instead, right?

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

There is one global keyboard shortcut that is available everywhere, and that can be changed from the preferences window. You can change this shortcut to be something that doesn't conflict with any of your existing shortcuts. The other shortcuts only work once you've pressed the global shortcut. So for example, if your global shortcut is (the default) ⌘E, to open the task list you would press ⌘E and while still holding down command press F.

Fnoord2• 7 years ago

Could you consider synchronization via Nextcloud?

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

Will definitely look into it!

nihonde• 7 years ago

There’s a word missing in the text of one of the screenshots in the App Store. (I’m in the Japan App Store, if that matters.)

“...are you done your task?”

Also, notifications is spelled incorrectly. Those kinds of mistakes indicate a lack of attention to detail.

emeraldx• 7 years ago

Can confirm. I too noticed these through the Japan App Store.

simongr3dal• 7 years ago

A 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_• 7 years ago

I wonder how hard Apple has fuzzed that "feature"

j-pb• 7 years ago

Would love that for iOs, or an iPad Os widget. <3 I'm actually sad I do all my dev stuff via blink.sh now :(

aracena11• 7 years ago

Hopefully, we will have it in the future

IBCNU• 7 years ago

Counterpoint: These apps never work, calendars are time prisons, we already have advanced technology for managing time: our brains.

adminu2• 7 years ago

Despite 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• 7 years ago

and a pencil to right on the peace of paper with.

kendallpark• 7 years ago

Many 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...

Dextro2• 7 years ago

It would be pretty cool if there was a way to add tasks straight from Alfred

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

There's a quick add functionality which allows you to add a task with a keyboard shortcut. Would Alfred integration still seem useful to you?

Dextro2• 7 years ago

I 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 :)

kleer001• 7 years ago

Hmm, I could probably setup emacs to do something like this.

I'm on Linux these days so can't use it anyways :/

adminu2• 7 years ago

Well, 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 [2] https://orgmode.org/manual/Clocking-commands.html

edejong• 7 years ago

Good (free) alternative, works across OSes and on iOS and Android, has browser integration and a support team:

Toggl.io

tomcam• 7 years ago

Website is now a Godaddy parking page

jen729w• 7 years ago

Looks like they got https://toggl.com

This isn’t the same service at all, BTW. I use and like Toggl but the app shown here serves a different purpose.

I like the idea, OP. I might give it a try when I’m on my Mac.

tobr3• 7 years ago

This 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)

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

Thanks 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• 7 years ago

Big 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.

tobr3• 7 years ago

One 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.

z5h• 7 years ago

I've been wanting something like this. You have my $.

aracena11• 7 years ago

Thank 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• 7 years ago

The 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

Purchased and so far it looks pretty great.

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

Thanks! Let me know if you have any feedback.

matthewhartmans• 7 years ago

This is a neat app! Really simple and straight to the point. Fantastic job Julian!

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

Thanks Matthew!

regnerba• 7 years ago

Looks 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• 7 years ago

Looks nice! I am a huge fan of 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• 7 years ago

can 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?

jpulgarin16• 7 years ago

We're hoping to add analytics in a future update.

binjo• 7 years ago

I used this for a while. I think the free version. Really loved using it. Great job

Show HN: A minimalist Mac app that helps track, allocate, and plan your time

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