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Comment by reactordev | Hacker News Reader

The problem with todo apps for procrastinators is that they forget or procrastinate on using a todo app to assist in their procrastination.

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I was going to say, the main reason todo apps fail is because they are specifically about doing what people don't want to do.

If there were a generic way to unfuck your life on the other side of it, I could see it being wildly popular. Like a linear progression in weights, or a fasting diet, or a spaced repetition scheme, but for unwinding the effects of avoidant behaviours, with progress and results, that would be valuable.

I certainly wouldn't claim NowDo is a silver bullet, but I think it does a better job than any other todo app at avoiding the pitfalls procrastinators fall into. For the past 2 years I've been using a prototype of NowDo on i3/Linux that I cobbled together and it had a big impact on my productivity.

tell me more about spaced repetition please

Here's a fairly in-depth exploration of spaced repetition, if that's the style you prefer - https://gwern.net/spaced-repetition

True, forgetting is the reason NowDo is always-on-top on the desktop, it's a constant but unobtrusive reminder of what you should be doing.

You're also right about todo apps assisting in their procrastination. That's why I kept NowDo so simple, there are no superfluous features to tinker with like labels, due dates, or categories.

Speaking as a chronic procrastinator, I think GP is more referring to the difficulty that comes with actually /adding/ items that need to be done. At least, that's always been one of the difficulties for me.

Absolutely - with NowDo you just hit Ctrl+Opt+A (from any app) and type the task, hit enter - and then you can safely forget about it and get back to what you were doing. Making it as easy and non-interruptive as possible to add tasks was a key design goal for exactly the reason you mentioned.

Just need to install the Resolve.app in conjunction with NowDo.app ;)

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