Show HN: Amna - a information manager that helps get work done | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Amna - a information manager that helps get work done

getamna.com

Hey HN. I'm Ravi - maker behind Amna. I built Amna because I found myself pulled in a lot directions. At work, I was a PM - so always juggling multiple projects. At home, I would be working on amna and attending local meetups. On the side, I would volunteer as a TA to teach CS. It wasn't that the work in each area was super challenging, but keeping up everything was. Sharepoint at work, Google Drive at Home. A work computer, a personal computer. It was super frustrating to keep up with everything.

What I really wanted was a better personal management tool that helped me stay on top and squash my tasks. I also didn't want to convince my entire team or company to use it. So whatever I built, it had to be private and local-first. Didn't want to stream sensitive work things to the cloud.

Amna works like a personal todo-list. You deep dive into a task and are provided the tools to get the task done in one place. For now, it provides a browser and text editor. A built-in browser is awesome, it works just like Chrome, and is sufficient for research, paying bills and filling forms. For example, I just created a task called "Launch Amna to Online Forums", and am using the built-in editor in the space to type this out, and the browser to submit this post. I can simply keep monitoring this task for updates, rather than it getting lost in a sea of tabs. If I have an idea for work, I simply have to flip to my "Work" headspace and jump into a task there. Switching and resuming tasks are seamless. When you dive into a task, it serves a kind of context lock and helps you focus on the task at hand. After I complete a task, I can search for it again if I need it. I also wrote up a blog post with some user reseach I did on overall information patterns - take a peek if it sounds interesting.

If you're writing essays, doing research, or hunting for jobs, you should definently try out the beta. It'll just feel organized. Drop your email on the landing page, and I'll get in touch.

Feedback appreciated :)

Hey, looks interesting, kind of like you're building your own chromium-based browser. What's been the hardest part so far?

Thanks for checking it out. The browser is indeed chromium based - and it blends into the larger app as a component.

The most difficult part was actually managing scope creep. I think when building productivity tools, it can be easy to try and optimize everything and be a place for everything. So drawing the line at focus work and really pushing on those items was critical to stay grounded.

How does this compare to a tool like Notion?

Amna is structured more like a todo list and it’s really focused on making it easy to complete the things you work on.

For example, if you have a task that requires you to edit a Notion document, you could do all of your research and edit that document directly within the space Amna provides.

Now let’s say you have 5 tasks that deal with editing Notion documents - you now have a better way to jump between each of those tasks and minimize the friction of keeping up with 5 disparate docs connected in your head.

Since you do the work in Amna, if you have to switch between tasks, all of the context and research for a task will stay preserved. Ultimately, making it easier to context switch more freely

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