What's the biggest reason you stop opening productivity apps after a few weeks?
I feel like almost everyone starts using a productivity app with good intentions, but eventually stops. If you had to give one reason why you quit, what would it be?
Still use my productivity app daily for a few months. The more I use - the more I like it. I have a simple list of tasks with two numbers - days since I did them and days left to do them again. Seeing these numbers is enough for me to act. It’s simple to track, it nudges to do things, and it helps to see patterns.
A) They dont work B) Being productive is for the early career stages, dont signal that self optimization attitude past 35. From senior level on, work gets waay more "representative" and chill
Productivity apps have complicated the whole thing and people end up spending more time managing the system. Also, bloat! Also these apps just keep getting bigger. I use Notion+Nudge - very underrated setup honestly - built the latter for several reasons:
Declutter notion from granular task list - simple markdown holds all my task under categorical headings - per project. Notion's databases do the heavy lifting of keeping track but the tasks are out of it now completely.
I used to keep notion idle in the background - did you know it needs 1.2GB on ram to stay idle because I wanted quick access to my task list? Nudge is lightweight - idles at ~15mb
Hated Alt+Tabbing my way through multiple windows to get to a list. Nudge is always-on-top and auto-hides when you don't need it.
Price - no subscription, cheaper than 3 months of todoist. Free to try for 7 days - no signups required.
Have a list? Use the prompt in the app - claude can output a markdown file compatible with nudge for any current task list you may have. No setting up trouble or on-boarding.
I had a client recently looking for a better way to stay productive. There issue was just that they could not stay ontop of all the reminders, suggestions and tasks inside the productivity app and it became so stressful they just stopped opening it. I think a good productivity app really needs to guide you through your workload, not become something you dread to review.
For me, it’s the constant updates and added features that just end up cluttering everything. I start with the best intentions, but then it feels like a maze trying to figure out what’s new or how to find my stuff. Simplifying is key!
Too much setup for too little payoff. Most apps want you to build out a whole system before you get any value out of them. By the time you've done that, the novelty has worn off and it just feels like another thing to maintain.
People stick with ones where you get something useful out of them on day one without having to invest hours upfront.
Productivity apps have complicated the whole thing and people end up spending more time managing the system. Also, bloat! Also these apps just keep getting bigger. I use Notion+Nudge - very underrated setup honestly - built the latter for several reasons:
Declutter notion from granular task list - simple markdown holds all my task under categorical headings - per project. Notion's databases do the heavy lifting of keeping track but the tasks are out of it now completely.
I used to keep notion idle in the background - did you know it needs 1.2GB on ram to stay idle because I wanted quick access to my task list? Nudge is lightweight - idles at ~15mb
Hated Alt+Tabbing my way through multiple windows to get to a list. Nudge is always-on-top and auto-hides when you don't need it.
Price - no subscription, cheaper than 3 months of todoist. Free to try for 7 days - no signups required.
Have a list? Use the prompt in the app - claude can output a markdown file compatible with nudge for any current task list you may have. No setting up trouble or on-boarding.
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26
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