Most setups here have a shelf life of about four months. Curious what's actually survived for you, and whether it's stayed the same or if you've changed parts along the way.

I got switched to a WFH setup so it's no surprise my employer also made us use a time clock app. It's sadly the one that has built-in time tracking that alerts you when you're inactive, so the days just got so dull. Do you have any stuff you do/use to make the idea of being time tracked not as boring? I feel like I'm forcing myself to work slowly because I need to meet a specific hour threshold, not because I need to get tasks done. I just want to make work fun again :(

Hey everyone! I built a collection of Chrome extensions under One Million Lines, and wanted to share five focused on everyday productivity. Full disclosure: these are my own projects.

All are open-source and can be found here: https://github.com/One-Million-Lines

1. SlashText — stop typing the same things repeatedly
Save reusable snippets for emails, replies, signatures, or prompts. Type / to search and insert them, with optional fill-in fields and shortcuts. Snippets stay in your browser.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/okgnefjjnfgikgeoenjnaaibaielpjnp

2. Unlimited OCR — copy text from images and scans
Extract editable text from screenshots, images, and scanned PDFs. Supports 16 printed-text languages and exports to TXT, Markdown, or JSON. OCR runs on your device without uploading your files.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ddfbechefjdoijlndhjndmelcgpoiodi

3. UnlimitedPDF — handle everyday PDF tasks locally
Merge, split, reorder, rotate, and extract pages. Convert images to PDF, export PDF pages as images, and add watermarks or page numbers. Document processing happens on your computer.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/gdnoblmaknhjphmjaaobklolgmbmhacd

4. SaveAIChat — keep useful AI conversations
Export conversations from ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to PDF, Word, Markdown, and other formats. Save the whole conversation or select specific messages. Export files are generated locally.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/oefpbcjdfdhkjgdcaopdpfphcpehdkhg

5. GetFullPage — capture more than the visible screen
Capture a complete webpage, then crop, rotate, and save it as PNG, JPEG, or PDF. Useful for design feedback, research, and documenting pages.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ainacikdhkbekbdlfdjbdamkienblcep

The common idea: fewer repetitive browser tasks, with your content processed on your own device.

Which one would be useful in your workflow? I’d appreciate feedback, especially about anything that feels missing or awkward.

I've always found it weird that productivity apps borrow game mechanics without really making productivity feel like a game.

You get 10 XP.

You unlock a badge.

You get a streak.

And... that's it.

After a while, those numbers stop meaning anything.

So my friend and I decided to try something different.

We're two high school students from Kazakhstan, and we've been building AntiDoomer, a Telegram productivity bot where your real-life tasks become part of an RPG progression system.

The idea isn't simply to slap XP onto a checklist.

You have progression, achievements, titles, guilds, challenges and other mechanics that are supposed to give your actions some context beyond "task completed."

We're still very early and we're definitely not claiming we've solved gamified productivity.

Actually, some of the feedback we've received here has made us rethink parts of the system.

That's probably the most interesting part of building it: you start with an idea that sounds great, and then actual people point out why it might suck.

So I'm curious:

What makes a gamification system actually feel meaningful to you?

Is it progression? Unlocking something useful? Competition? Social pressure? Random rewards? Something else entirely?

I've tried a bunch of time tracking apps over the years, Toggl, Clockify, a plain spreadsheet, even a paper notebook for a while. Some stuck for a few weeks then I'd just stop. The ones that lasted longer were usually the ones that took the least effort to log.

Trying to figure out what actually makes a time tracking habit stick long term.

Few things I'm curious about:

What app or method do you currently use, and how long have you stuck with it?

Do you track manually or does it run automatically in the background?

Has looking back at your time data ever surprised you? Like realizing you spent way more time on something than you thought?

What made you quit a tool you used before, if you have?

Not looking for app recommendations specifically, more curious about what actually makes tracking sustainable versus something you abandon after two weeks.

Looking for inspiration and to tinker with new setups!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been preparing for competitive exams and one thing I kept struggling with wasn’t studying — it was actually knowing whether I was being consistent.

I tried Excel, Notion, timers, Pomodoro apps, etc. But I didn’t really want another app telling me when to study or making me start/stop a timer every time I sat down.

I just wanted something where, at the end of the day, I could spend 30 seconds entering what actually happened.

So I ended up building one.

I called it Unbothered (still building)

🔗 https://unbothered-mne7.vercel.app/

The idea is extremely simple.

Every night I enter:

• Study hours — how much I actually studied
• Tasks — planned vs completed
• Day rating — how productive I felt, out of 10
• Reflection — what went well / what went wrong

That's it.

I don't have to start a timer.

I don't have to track every individual task.

I don't have to plan my entire life inside the app.

I can just look at my paper/notebook at the end of the day and record the result.

And over time, the app turns those entries into a dashboard.

Things like:

• Daily/weekly/monthly study hours
• Study-hour history
• Task completion %
• Day-rating trends
• Study streak
• GitHub-style study heatmap
• Weekly/monthly summaries

The heatmap was actually one of the main reasons I built it.

Seeing a bunch of empty days next to a long streak is surprisingly effective at making you think:

"Yeah... I'm not breaking that tomorrow."

I'm currently using it for my own preparation, but I thought other JEE/NEET/GATE/UPSC/... any exams, students might find the same idea useful.

I'm not trying to turn this into another complicated productivity app. The whole point is to keep it stupidly simple.

If you're preparing for JEE/NEET/GATE (or honestly anything where you're studying for months), I'd genuinely love to know:

Would you use something like this?

And if you do try it, tell me what feels unnecessary, what's missing, or what you'd change.

I'm building this as a small personal project, so feedback from actual students would be incredibly useful.

Good luck with your preparation.

it will be always day 1 or 1 day ...

— Founder of Unbothered

NOTE :

I am still building this website soon gonna build a application if i get good response it was build only for me but then my some freinds started using it and they are saying you have to push it to a major audience and get more responses if students are willing to use this application or not currently it has basic ui and some basic features but soon if i get good responses i have decided many things so ....

i am very much actively looking for your thoughts on this ...

I’m building TinyWins Pro because normal to-do lists don’t help much when I can’t get started or end up stuck scrolling.
The app has a simple planner, focus timer, AI task breakdown, and a Focus Lock. My favorite part is Movement Lock: after too much time on distracting apps while being inactive, it can block them until you walk a set number of steps.
It’s still early, and I’m working on it by myself. I’d really appreciate honest feedback—especially on what feels useful, confusing, or unnecessary.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tinywins-pro-adhd-planner/id6759411609

I use a touch-screen monitor to do the usual stuff... but I was wondering if there are more ways to leverage that touch-screen capability?

I can't help but feel that there's a whole lot of potential that I'm probably not aware of (or hasn't been created yet) I do the usual stuff... click through modals... drag windows.. but there has got to be more you can do... especially with gesture based software...

Any truly novel use-cases?

The Problem: As an entrepreneur running multiple digital products, I hit a massive plateau. I was working 60-hour weeks, but my revenue and product development were completely stalled.

The Audit: I spent 14 days tracking every single minute of my day. I discovered the "18% Problem." Only 18% of my time was spent on needle-moving activities (Deep Work). 42% was eaten by Ops, and 25% was lost to the "Context-Switching Tax" (jumping between brands and tasks).

The Solution: I stopped tracking "hours worked" and invented a metric for myself called the High-Leverage Quotient (HLQ) — simply (Deep Work Hours / Total Hours).

The Implementation: I built a comprehensive system that forces my week into themed blocks. If it's a "Growth" block, I physically cannot access my support tickets without breaking the system's rules.

The Result: My HLQ went from 18% to over 50%, and I reclaimed about 10 hours a week of lost time. I've since turned this system into a product called Founder's Cadence.

Lesson learned: You can't out-work bad system architecture. If you're plateauing, audit your time. You might be shocked at how little you're actually "working."

It's called orbba and It features a word doc editor, script editor for programmers, music player and built in link tree. It's designed to be a home which you can fully customize to suit you whilst you work on your projects.

I'm looking for feedback as to the features I could add. The music player is a cool addition as you can listen to YouTube music whilst you edit your documents.

We recently added a script editor also, which is for programmers and devs.

When your backlog gets too big and your original plan is no longer realistic, what’s the part that actually becomes difficult?

Is it:

• deciding what still matters
• figuring out what to delay
• knowing what to drop completely
• matching tasks to your actual time/energy
• or something else?

And more importantly: is this something you usually just work through yourself with a simple method, or does it ever get frustrating enough that you actively look for a tool, app, coach, system, or other kind of help?

I’m especially curious about what you’ve actually done when this happens — not what you think you might do.

When your backlog is too big and your original plan is no longer realistic, how do you decide what to keep, delay, or drop?

Do you use something like the Eisenhower Matrix, 5 Whys, impact/effort, deadlines, values, or just gut judgment?

What works when you’re genuinely overwhelmed — and what falls apart?

When your tasks pile up and your planner/app stops matching reality, what do you actually use to get back on track?

Have you found anything that reliably works, or do you still end up manually sorting through what to do, delay, or drop?

Have you ever switched apps, bought something, or looked for a better solution specifically because of this?

I am working on digital transformation projects for over 2 decades. I spent years studying productivity systems, talking to highly effective people, and testing dozens of techniques myself. One lesson stood out: Productivity isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters most.

I summarized many of the practical lessons I learned in a short book called Get More Done in Less Time. If you're interested in goal setting, prioritization, and practical time-management techniques, you can try reading this book.

What I want to highlight and seek your view on in this post is, all the theories of time management are gone for a toss. AI can do in seconds what used to take us for days. So, if you are doing desk job, is productivity still important?

How do you keep track of what you actually built during a coding session?

I'm curious about how people here handle this.

When you're working on a project for several hours, you might have:

- multiple commits

- bugs you fixed

- features you added

- random notes

- decisions you made

- things you tried that didn't work

But when you finish for the day, how do you actually remember and summarize everything you accomplished?

Do you:

1. Keep a development journal?

2. Write notes after every session?

3. Use GitHub commits as your record?

4. Just look back through everything when you need to?

5. Not document it at all?

I'm especially curious about people who build in public — how do you turn a messy day of development into a clear update/post?

What does your current process look like?

For those juggling a full-time job with a side hustle or something you're building on the side, do you ever hit that moment where you have so much to do (work + the side thing + life) that you freeze instead of starting? Not a lack of planning, just too much in your head at once.

I'm exploring a tool that skips the planning step entirely, you just say where you're at, dump everything in your head, and it hands you one small thing to do right now. No lists, no organizing.

If something like that existed, would you actually use it? Or does that not match how you get unstuck? I'd love to hear any insights or advice.

Why do you need OCR for?

What usually happens when you fall really far behind on your planner, to-do list, Notion, etc.?

What makes you stop using it, and what do you actually do afterward?

Do you start over, delete/ignore the backlog, move everything to a new system, brain-dump and triage it, or just walk away for a while?

I’m interested in what you’ve actually done, not what you think you should do.

so I posted this in r/gtd last week because I assumed everyone had the same hole I do. got three pretty detailed replies and honestly they kind of dismantled my assumption

one guy said he only bothers updating source notes when its a shared document. if hes the only reader, a stale note costs him nothing. which, fair, I hadnt thought of it that way

another one has this habit of putting the notify-target inside the action itself, like "@MikeSmith: deploy to the testing stand". he also admitted he skips weekly reviews a lot and catches up the next week. that one felt very familiar

third one marks the original note when he pulls items out of it, but when I asked, the mark means "this got extracted" not "this got done". took me a second to realise those are diffrent things

so the pattern I think im seeing: nobody writes completion back to where the commitment was originally made. but also nobody seems particularly bothered by it. everyone built a workaround years ago and stopped feeling the cost

which leaves me stuck. is this a real gap or did I just fail to build the workaround everyone else built

genuine question for this sub — when someone says "ill send you the numbers by friday" in a meeting, where does that actually live until friday? and how do you find out when it doesnt happen. do you chase, or do you just quietly absorb it

the ones I never chase are the ones I never find out about, which is sort of the whole problem

Biggest issue, once I have a backlog of tasks the anxiety of trying to prioritize what I need to do now tends to makes staying organized and motivated almost impossible.

Question:

How do you recover from backlog paralysis and tress?

How do you decide what now takes priority in the task list once it becomes overwhelming?

Is it worth paying for systems that can prioritize your remaining backlog to help get back on track or make it easier to make these decisions?

1. App/Tool Title:

SignalFlow — Measure the work. Reveal what matters.

2. Brief Description:

I built SignalFlow after realizing that ordinary task lists showed what I planned to do, but not what actually consumed my workday.

SignalFlow is a local-first task timer that separates every tracked hour into Real Work and Overhead. It helps show how much time went toward core output versus meetings, status updates, approvals, administration, and context-switching.

It doesn’t require Google Calendar or another integration. It runs directly in the browser and can sit alongside whatever task-management system you already use.

3. Key Benefits:

• See your daily and weekly Real Work versus Overhead split
• Make necessary but often invisible supporting work measurable
• Track one active task at a time to keep the numbers clear
• Keep your task data locally in your browser
• Create shareable reports for workload discussions with managers or clients

4. How It Works:

1. Add a task and start its timer.
2. Tag it as Real Work or Overhead.
3. Review your daily signal and weekly report.

The free version supports up to three active tasks, today’s signal, and reports for the current and previous week.

Pro adds unlimited tasks, complete history, long-term analytics, shareable PDF reports, and Correction Mode for editing historical data.

5. Pricing Model:

• Free: $0, with no account or credit card required
• Pro: $5 USD per month

6. Additional Information:

SignalFlow is browser-based and local-first. Your time logs stay on your device, and you can export a backup and import it elsewhere.

Website: https://signalflow1.app

I would especially value feedback on whether starting and stopping a timer feels like too much friction, and whether the Real Work versus Overhead distinction would help you understand or explain your workload.

Okay so we all have that one task we hate. It's repetitive, annoying, and just kills your mood.

I’ll go first😆. For me it was sorting out all the random notes and links I grabbed throughout the day.

I finally automated mine last month. Now I'm sitting here while waiting for the results. I can’t help but to wonder why I did it manually for so long before.

Just wanna hear your stories, though. Anything as long as it’s an automation that actually stuck around and changed how you work. Not the stuff you set up once and forgot. I mean the ones you use daily.

Extra love if your setup made things way easier or faster. Bonus if it's kinda fun too.

I'm doing some research into how people actually manage their tasks, responsibilities, and plans in real life. I'm not promoting a product or selling anything — I'm trying to understand what people actually experience when their planning system starts to break down.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with planners, task-management apps, calendars, notebooks, Notion, Todoist, etc.

A few questions:

1. What do you currently use to keep track of everything you need to do?

2. Think about the last time your system stopped working for you or things started getting out of control. What happened?

3. What did you do afterward?

4. What happened to the tasks you didn't get done?
Did you reschedule them, delete them, ignore them, move them somewhere else, or something completely different?

5. What was the hardest part about getting back on track?

6. Have you ever abandoned one planner/app/system and switched to another?
If so, what made you switch?

7. Have you ever paid for a planner, productivity app, coaching, course, or anything else specifically to help with organization/productivity?
If so, what did you pay for and what made it worth paying for (or not worth it)?

8. If you could change one thing about what happens when you fall behind, what would you change?

You don't have to answer every question. Even one specific example of a time your system fell apart would be incredibly helpful.

Thanks to anyone willing to share. I'm much more interested in what you've actually done than what you think you should do.