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A comment on Ask HN: What are you working on?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by cookiengineer on Friday January 15, 2021 @01:05AM (#25787567)
The issue that most productivity apps ignore is context.

Lots of them don't account for real life events. Having to go to the doctor, going shopping, cleaning the household, spending time with your loved ones and doing sports aren't necessarily unproductive.

Most productivity happens for me when I have an idea and am able to start working on it immediately while keeping the focus on it without external distractions... It would be amazing if a productivity app out there is able to "juggle around" all the necessities of the day while respecting external dependencies (like an appointment at the doctor) that cannot be rescheduled.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by radley on Friday January 15, 2021 @02:01AM (#25787846)
I'm working on something that. It's reactive instead of proactive (it asks what you did instead of what you're planning to do). Just jot something down for now and deal with your todo apps at the end of your day.

It can do Pomodoro sessions, but I'm adding a couple of variant timers (alarms, actually) that are designed to eventually work around your schedule:

https://radleymarx.com/2021/time-journal-wireframes-round-tw...

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Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by hooande on Friday January 15, 2021 @02:04PM (#25794797)
if I have to enter something into an app, I will eventually forget to do it. and if I miss entering too many appointments I'll eventually have to declare bankruptcy

not trying to be negative about your idea. but the best app is one that will know automatically what's on my schedule, without me having to enter it explicitly. that way I can't forget. I have no idea how to do this, it doesn't really sound possible. Just trying to convey my experience with projects like you described

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Re:Ask HN: What are you working on? by radley on Friday January 15, 2021 @03:13PM (#25795743)
You won't have to enter your schedule - there's APIs for Calendars. You'd just have to determine which calendars are considered "busy".

As for upkeep, I found that the app is self-motivating. It's not measuring anything so if you miss an hour or a month it doesn't matter, there's no overwhelming guilt. The only thing you miss is being able to review what you worked on.

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