I’ll admit it: I’m addicted to planning.
It’s a sick kind of psychosis, I know. But oh, it’s true: For whatever reason, I take a bit of perverse joy in finding new and interesting ways to map out my days and stay on top of my various tasks and commitments.
Hey, if there’s one good way to actually undo things to do things, it plans how much things you will do!
Today’s tool is about trying to fix that mindset—getting rid of all the counter-complexity around planning and making it more focused and minimal. It’s an effective framework for organizing your outdoor to-do list anywhere frills, distractions, or unnecessary layers.
And, as an added bonus, you can enjoy the great pleasure of thinking about it now instead of tackling that first real job.
Psst: If you like these types of tools as much as I do, check out mine for free Cool tools newsletter from Intelligence. You will be the first to discover all kinds of simple technological treasures!
Editing, made easy
Most synthetic applications are complex in nature. You have layers upon layers of lists, priority levels, tags—all kinds of options and adjustments to consider. And that’s not the case to find out for all the AI-related flapdoodles yet.
When all is said and done, organizing your to-do list requires an item on your to-do list to accomplish.
➜ Today’s tool turns that kind of thinking on its head. It’s a program as simple as possible with an unbelievable name: focus.txt.
⌚ It will take you 20 seconds understand and start using. It really is that simple:
- Open the focus.txt website in any browser, on any device you have in front of you. No downloads, no logins, no problems.
- Type any tasks in your mind into #jobs part of the screen.
- Type any notes on your noggin in #notes the part above it.
And, well—that’s great.
If you’re on a computer, you can use commands like Ctrl-B, Ctrl-I, and Ctrl-U to apply basic text formatting (bold, italics, and underline, respectively).
Opened anywhere device, you can type %date% automatically enter the current date, %time% to automatically enter the current time, too %check% inserting a check mark anywhere in your text.
And those are the only real “features” noted here. The whole point of focus.txt is what it is this is not the case do—and that makes your planning difficult. You just open your browser, type what you think, and go about your day.
The site automatically stores your information locally, within your browser—no syncing, no logging, and no data collection of any kind. Your list is automatically backed up whenever you open the focus.txt page within that same browser.
If you want to download and save your list, you can press the download button in the lower right corner of the site. It will then be saved as a simple plain text file called—yup, you guessed it—focus.txt.
The site works brilliantly as a custom new tab page for your browser. (You can set it as your default homepage in about seven seconds in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or any other browser—both mobile. again desktop versions.)
But mostly, it works by simply getting out of your own way and allowing you to focus on what you can actually do things instead of focusing too much on your to-do list list.
A novel concept, even a mushy-minded organization that is deeply entrenched among us—can’t you tell?!
- Focus.txt is completely web-based; you just open the site. in any browser, on any device, to use it.
- It’s 100% free.
- And it stores all your information locally—no data collection, no account creation, no privacy compromise of any kind.
Looking for more productivity-enhancing beauty? Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for a quick introduction to the AI-powered supertool that records your brain—and another off-the-beaten-track gem every Wednesday!
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