Forge38

I don’t know about you, but I encounter a lot of distractions throughout the day and it can be hard to figure out WTF you were really trying to get done today. Steven Bristol says it pretty well:

Like Steve, I feel like I am constantly fighting entropy. I don’t think there is any way you can get rid of all the distractions in the day, but I do think you can make it easier to get back to being focused.

Let me give you a little background about my problem. I primarily work as a freelance web developer on client work and I also have a couple products, Nerd Merit Badges and Lose It or Lose It. Each of the projects have things that need to get done and they are stored in all different systems (project management software, ticketing systems, our heads, etc) I often have to say “yeah, that’s great, all these projects have things that need to get done, but what do I need to do today?”.

A few years ago I read Time Management: The Pickle Jar Theory and loved it. The theory is, if you fill your day (jar) with sand (small meaningless stuff) first, you won’t be able to fit larger stones (important things) in at all. However, if you fill the jar with larger stones, then smaller stones, then sand, you get big important meaningful stuff done on a regular basis.

Soon after I read that article, I decided I was going to try to use some of the ideas in it to help me get important things done every day. I started by writing 3-5 things (1-2 words each) on an index card every morning with a sharpie and kept it with me at all times. Anytime I got distracted and needed to figure out what was next, I would look at this index card and it would immediately bring me back to what was important. I would think of it as my personal beacon that always points me in the right direction and gets me back on track when I got distracted.

The index card works great (still does), however, it doesn’t help you keep a queue of “next up” items or things that need to get done on a certain day. I slowly started using my homepage in my Backpack account as my “Daily Jar” and “Next up” queue and Highrise to schedule items that need to get done on a specific day.

This combination has worked great for the last year or two but it is starting to show some weaknesses. First, I have two lists of things that need to get done, one in Backpack and one in Highrise. I’ve also started to add metadata to items in my lists to signify what project it is for and sometimes how complex the task is. I note complexity because it helps me keep moving forward when I know I don’t have enough brain power for something complicated.

I’ve tried really hard not to build a dedicated product around this concept because I just wanted to use it to get other stuff done. Now I’m thinking about it again because I really want to solve some of the weaknesses of my current system. Chris Conley, Jason Tremblay, and I actually built a prototype a couple years ago (yay Rails Rumble!) but I and the others stopped using it pretty quickly. We built it to show what we could do but didn’t spend a lot of time solving actual problems.

You may be thinking “do we really need another to do list app?”, a perfectly valid question. Have I mentioned I am trying really hard not to build this? Yet another to do list app? However, I think mine is different because it attempts to aggregate all your other to do lists. All your other lists live in many different places, this one would belong to YOU. Items in it may correspond to whole to do lists in another tool. The item in this is just there as a note to help keep you focused.

So, now lets talk about what I want to build. It is aptly called… Daily Jar! Here are the features I think it absolutely needs in order to be an improvement on my current system:

Version 1

• Create projects
• Add items to a project
• Move items from a project to your Daily Jar every morning (in a desktop web app)
• Automated emptying (put items back) of your Daily Jar in the wee hours of the morning. This is to make sure you re-prioritize things every morning
• Complete items
• Read-only web-based mobile view of your Daily Jar. This takes the place of the index card and is the thing you look at throughout the day to bring you back to focus.

Version 2

• Create items that will go in your Daily Jar on a certain day
• Create items that will go in your Daily Jar every week on a certain day. (I often create 5-7 to do items for things I always do on Sundays)
• Complete items in mobile app
• Create items with SMS

Future Versions

• Create items in a mobile app
• Move items from a project to your Daily Jar from mobile app
• Share a project with someone else (Say… share a project named “Redo Patio” with my wife)

I’ve also created some simple mockups as a way to solve some of the core problems.

The first one is the desktop version. The use case for this is moving items to your Daily Jar every morning.

The second one is the read-only web-based mobile interface. The use case for this is something to look at to help you stay focused throughout the day.

As I said in a previous post, I try not to build anything anymore that doesn’t have a way to make money from the start. I’ve thought about this quite a bit and I think I could totally charge a flat $5/month with a free trial to see if it helps you.

What do you think? Would something like this help YOU fight entropy and keep moving forward? I know it will help me!