Show HN: I built a task manager that separates "do" and "due" dates

Posted by zesfy 10/23/2024

Show HN: I built a task manager that separates "do" and "due" dates(apps.apple.com)

Hi HN,

I’m the founder of Zesfy, a productivity app that I’ve been developing over the past few years. It’s designed to seamlessly integrate your tasks with your calendar, allowing you to transform your to-do lists into actionable events in just seconds. Here are some of its key features:

  - Task Progress: Automatically update your progress based on subtasks completed
  - Step: Create step-by-step breakdown of the subtask
  - Target: Organize tasks with due date
  - Session: Insert multiple tasks to calendar event
  - Space: Filter event from specific sets of calendars

I recently introduced new features that often missing from other productivity apps: the ability to set both “Do” and “Due” dates. With these features, you can effortlessly plan your tasks for the day while keeping track the upcoming due dates. What makes Zesfy unique is it separates tasks you’ve planned and those that are already scheduled in your calendar, giving you a more organized and flexible workflow.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zesfy-planner-calendar/id64799...

160 points | 82 commentspage 2

dogmayor 10/24/2024|

Looks interesting. Always looking at apps in this space, but I've found a good rhythm using 2do [https://www.2doapp.com/]. It allows you to set a "due" date, a "start" date, or a duration for a task. I also use the "snooze" feature a ton because it allows me to repeat a notification in 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, etc if I cannot complete it at the originally set time.

I also use Things as others have mentioned but for more ad hoc tasks and reminders. 2do is great for my daily routine tasks and others that are recurring.

Brajeshwar 10/24/2024||

Personal Opinion—This is not for me as I follow a different pattern after learning from many others. However, here is my feedback from your landing page and the app screenshots.

I believe you should try to have case studies or some sort of Customer Archetype/Profile on the landing page.

Who is this App for?

The interface (from the screenshots) does look clean, but in my experience, apps/software that help people “get things done” are better off with more contrast colors, prominent design differences between modules, etc. The low-contrast Pantone-blushed neomorphic-ish design becomes a slippery, harder target to hit when used in tools that should do their job and get out of the way.

rubymamis 10/24/2024||

What am I looking in a to-do app?

- GTD, so I can keep track of Projects' tasks, and what I can work on next.

- Index

- Goals with due dates

  - Projects with due dates

   - Hierarchical Tasks with due dates

 - Today with Time Blocking

- Timeline to visualize progress

The Today's time blocking and timeline visualization are critical, imo.

But I couldn't find an app that integrate all of that. I made a mockup of something I might build in the future: https://i.imgur.com/h0zDdOy.png

zie 10/23/2024||

For todos anymore, I just create issues in my VCS UX of choice(self-hosted Forgejo for me), but Github, Gitlab, Gitea, etc all do the same sorts of things. I think they do basically everything on the above list, with the exception of calendar exporting. Though I'm sure one could write that fairly easily if they wanted.

I just keep a private repo called 'mylife' and everything goes in it, my private notes/journals/etc are just text file git commits in the same repo.

That said, if I was looking for a new system, outside of my control, I'd def. check this out.

zesfy 10/24/2024|

Thanks. It’s interesting to see how you leverage tools you already use. I’m curious about how you review your tasks for the day. Do you go through your text files one by one and pick out the most important tasks to focus on?

I developed Zesfy because I needed a mobile app to manage all my work, but I couldn’t find one that met my needs. What the review process look like if you're on mobile? Are you using a specific app?

zie 10/24/2024|||

Sorry, no, the text files are just notes(Obsidian's git plugin syncs there).

I use the actual issues system in the forgejo UX(or github.com or whatever VCS UI).

So in my forgejo instance, where most of my code is, I add projects for things even without code, if they will be a long-running project. For instance lets say I have a fabric arts(knitting,etc) hobby, I'll have a repo just for fabric arts. Issues/tasks/things I want to do will be issues in the knitting repo. I might or might not have many if any files in the git repo.

For instance, I was helping a friend with a home improvement project earlier this year, so I created a repo, gave them access to it and I documented what I was doing, etc. They could follow along or not as they saw fit and I didn't have to do anything other than document my work like I usually do.

I used to use Fossil-SCM for these things, but it's just annoying enough to setup when you have 100 fossil repo's and you can't easily tie them together with a global list,etc, so I recently moved to forgejo.

As for what I want to do today, they have due dates, so they will sort those due soon towards the top of the global issues assigned to me list. Likewise within each project. But I generally try to organize my life such that due dates for things are rare, and I can just work on whatever floats my boat that particular day. Hence why my Calendar app gets very little use.

zie 10/24/2024|||

Oh I realize I didn't answer you about mobile. So they all have Mobile apps, which I have installed. They also work fine over the Web UI even on mobile.

Most of what I need the mobile apps are good enough. I don't do a LOT of mobile compute though. Mostly it's just seeing the latest errands/grocery issue(s) from my Forgejo instance while I'm in town.

If I think I'll need offline or something, I can use a git client and download repo's, but that's a very rare thing.

layer8 10/23/2024||

Is “do date” the same as what is commonly called a “start date”? The latter is the most useful date IMO, in conjunction with being able to hide all tasks whose start date hasn’t been reached yet.

mch82 10/24/2024||

Excited to try this out. Will the app edit my iOS calendar, or is it isolated off?

I love that you’re treating tasks as calendar events. Tasks take time, so that’s how it should be.

mstudio 10/23/2024||

Looks great! Cool idea and a very clean interface. One note on the website: the "Calendar / Todo / Project" nav buttons throw 404 errors when clicked.

zesfy 10/23/2024|

Thanks for the kind words and for pointing that out. I'll get that fixed right away.

koliber 10/23/2024||

I’m wondering if there are any apps that combine the functionality of a todo list and a calendar with the concept of a daily agenda. I use Notion to do this but it requires manual work.

Each morning I create a daily agenda. I pull in my calendar entries. I also pull things I plan on doing from my todo list. I generally work off of my daily agenda.

When the day is over I put everything with doing back to the todo list.

bloopernova 10/23/2024||

It's going to be work to get it set up, but Emacs + org-mode will do those things for you. Example:

  ** PROG [#C] Meeting with Bob and Alice
  SCHEDULED: <2024-10-23 Wed 18:00-18:30>

That's a TODO item in the PROG state (TODO->PROG->DONE, I like 4-letter words to keep the columns aligned) with priority C, and the meeting is scheduled from 1800 to 1830.

Clicking on the date or calling `org-agenda-list` which in my instance is bound to `C-c a a` will show something like this:

  Tuesday    22 October 2024
  Wednesday  23 October 2024
                8:00 ┄┄┄┄┄ ┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄
                10:00 ┄┄┄┄┄ ┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄
                12:00 ┄┄┄┄┄ ┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄
                14:00 ┄┄┄┄┄ ┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄
                16:00 ┄┄┄┄┄ ┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄
                17:13 ┄┄┄┄┄ ◀── now ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
    2024-10-21: 18:00-18:30 Scheduled:  PROG [#C] WAF Updates
                18:00 ┄┄┄┄┄ ┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄
                20:00 ┄┄┄┄┄ ┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄
    2024-10-21: TODO [#D] Issues from deployment
  Thursday   24 October 2024

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) this doesn't sync my work office365 calendar. I can sync Jira tickets though :)

FelipeCortez 10/24/2024|||

Notion supports this without too much manual work. Create a database, have two separate views, one a Board view and the other a Calendar view. To make a todo show up on the calendar, you can either set the date property manually or create a Button property defined to "Button is clicked → Edit `This page` → `Date`: `Date Triggered`. To make it even better, create a View of that database right next to itself, and you can keep both the Board and the Calendar view open simultaneously. Dragging from the Board to the Calendar works to set the dates for that entry/todo/page. I've been using this workflow since January and very happy with it.

koliber 10/24/2024||

I need to try this. Thank you.

bbkane 10/24/2024|||

I do something similar, and I've come to appreciate the manual work. It lets me take a moment and reflect on what's important before I copy it over to/from the endless list.

koliber 10/24/2024||

Sometimes I appreciate it too. At other times I wish I could click a button and everything would fall into place for the next day.

dotancohen 10/23/2024|||

  > I’m wondering if there are any apps that combine the functionality of a todo list and a calendar with the concept of a daily agenda.

Org mode (emacs)

xn 10/24/2024|||

I use remind[1] with wyrd. I have a wyrd template to create reminders that will keep moving to the next (week)day, e.g.

REM Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri SCANFROM [float(2024,10,21)] AT 08:45 MSG %"Complete that thing%"%

where float is: FSET float(y,m,d) trigger(MAX(realtoday(), date(y,m,d)))

When I finish it, I delete it, or replace the floating date with the actual date if I want to keep track of when I completed it.

https://dianne.skoll.ca/projects/remind/

venatiodecorus 10/23/2024|||

Todoist handles this pretty well now with their new calendar view and updated Google Calendar integration. I believe it also handles other calendar services.

trinix912 10/23/2024|||

I remember using Lotus Organizer for this until I switched over to macOS a few years ago. I still haven't found a good alternative that combines it all in one place and is as lightweight. It had all those goodies like automatically moving undone ToDo's to the next day, a lot of options for reminders/due dates, schedule conflict checker etc.

Notion is great, but I too find the extra work distracting and unnecessary.

Scottn1 10/24/2024|||

Check out Twos App (https://www.twosapp.com/). The interface makes it pretty easy to move tasks around, has integrated Calendar and can keep notes/journal as well.

Not affiliated, just been trying it out for a month now. Developer has been very responsive as well.

Terretta 10/24/2024|||

Sunsama is the best at this:

https://www.sunsama.com/blog/time-blocking

More importantly, it offers a guided daily ritual to help through it gently, and make it a habit. This is shown in the second half of the blog post.

rlcintra 10/24/2024|||

I highly recommend you checking Amazing Marvin. I was looking for the same thing and found this app a few months ago (I am not affiliated to them in any way).

https://amazingmarvin.com/

koliber 10/24/2024||

The screenshot on the homepage reminds me of my Notion setup. I will look at this. Thank you.

swah 10/23/2024|||

Around 8... maybe ask on /r/productivity! You just reminded me I'm paying for Skedpal but not using it..

FredPret 10/23/2024||

If you’re an Apple person, consider Things. It’s a classic.

proee 10/23/2024||

NotePlan is my favorite comparable app. It has super nice apps for Mac desktop and iOS. It also syncs your data to your iCloud account in text files so very good for privacy in that you are not storing you data on their servers.

woodglyst 10/27/2024||

I was looking for something like Noteplan as well. The subscription model and the price was a deterrent to me and I went with Agenda [0]

[0] https://agenda.com/

thenaturalist 10/23/2024||

It's absolute bonkers to me that anyone would pay 8-10 USD per month in this day and age for an app like this.

Not saying all SaaS = bad, but for the functionality it provides, there are boatloads of cheaper options out there.

Value is relative, so maybe I'm also just too poor.

mulderc 10/23/2024|

Interesting, might recommend this to some others that use a calendar in this way but feel like Omnifocus can already essentially do this with forecast view.

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