For years my most important tasks were folders on my desktop. I’d make an empty folder, name it “Send invoice” or “Call the bank”, and leave it there until the thing was done.
- Send invoice
- Call the bank
- Fix login bug
- Renew passport
- Reply to Ana
- Book dentist
- Taxes!!!
- Someday: learn Rust
By any normal standard it was a terrible system, and it worked better than every app I tried. Every time I closed a window, the list was there. There was nothing to open and nothing to sync, and the space on the desktop put a limit on how much I could pretend to get done in a day.
What the folders got right
I never had to remember to check them, because they were always on screen. There were only ever a few. Once the desktop got crowded I’d clean it up, and that forced me to decide what mattered. And deleting a folder when I finished something felt better than ticking a box in an app.
They had problems too. A folder can’t hold a checklist or a few lines of notes. And everything I’d left for later sat next to what I needed today, so the desktop slowly filled up with things I felt bad about.
Two lists
Notestaking keeps what worked and fixes the rest. It has two tabs. Today is what you’re doing now. Someday is everything else.
Most task apps give you projects, tags, priorities, due dates and areas, and then you spend part of your morning looking after them. I don’t think a working day needs that much structure. It needs an answer to one question: what am I doing today? Everything else goes to Someday, out of sight and one click away.
Moving a card is a drag. Grab it by its title and drop it on the other tab. When a Someday thing becomes a today thing, drag it back.
Today
- Send the invoice
- Call the bank before 4
Plan the team offsite
Dates, budget, two venue options.
Keeping Today small
A few habits that work for me:
- Start the day by moving two or three cards from Someday to Today.
- Delete cards when they’re done.
- If a card has sat in Today for a week, it belongs in Someday.
Most of what lands in Today is short-lived anyway, which is why I treat most notes as temporary.
The menu bar icon shows how many of today’s tasks are still open, the way the folders used to stare at me from the desktop. When everything’s ticked off, the number disappears.