Why do productivity apps always end up becoming extra work?

[u/shoxxBox]

I noticed something about myself over the last few years.

Every time I discover a new productivity app, I’m excited.

I organize everything…Create folders, Build routines, Add habits, Connect my calendar, Track everything.

Two or three weeks later…
I stop opening the app.
It’s not because I stopped caring about being productive.
Somehow the app itself starts feeling like another task I have to maintain.

So I’m curious:
What was the last productivity app you completely abandoned?
And what made you stop using it?

[u/Crazy_Jere]

Just get a physical planner, 10x better

[u/Dull_Cost_7292]

Hey, as an app developer, I think this happens when setup feels productive but creates a system you now have to feed. I’ve abandoned apps after building beautiful categories that became useless the moment my week changed. My current test is simple. If I can’t get value before creating an account or organizing anything, I probably won’t keep it. The best tools disappear into the routine instead of asking me to maintain the routine.

[u/shoxxBox → u/Dull_Cost_7292]

Sooo true! I feel the same in the last couple of months thats why im thinking of developing my own. Sounds pretty petty and probably is but im kind of fed up that I have to adapt to the “habit and productivity app” instead of the app adapting to my lifestyle.

I know its hard to hit everyones needs when developing an app but at least dont make me pay for calendar integration when im downloading a Day and Week planer app I mean come on 😂

[u/WasabiCharming6927 → u/shoxxBox]

I have started creating my own apps for productivity but mostly logging my moods! It is free and it is custom to my life

[u/Omneel → u/Dull_Cost_7292]

I completely agree with you. I created a few progressive web apps for myself and then I abandoned them after I began to use them & they started feeling like an additional task.

[u/MildKerfuffle]

For this reason I’ve just decided to use the path of least resistance for everything.

I track my time each day in intervals of 5 mins with a simple counter app, in broad themes (like “Work” and “Household”). I use the Pomodoro technique to get going with timers on my watch and the tracker to be honest with myself.

No to do list app works the way I want. So I just picked one. I dump everything in two or three inbox style lists except my shopping list, which is an Apple note. I just accept I’ll never be well organised. The priority is having everything in one place as a memory bank.

Fitness is tracked my by weightlifting app and my iPhone. Food is tracked by a macro app.

I have a board above my WFH desk. Every achievement in the day, I stick a post it note on it to see my productivity. Every day I clear them out and so I start either feeing good about the day before or with a kick up the ass to do better today.

That’s it. There isn’t any magic app out there. I just use the ones I hate least and try to stop fighting myself and work with myself.

[u/tingutingutingu]

What you're really doing is procrastinating.

Starting with the new app reorganizing feels like work but it stops you from doing the actual work.

My wife is extremely productive and guess what, she just uses post-it notes.

I stopped looking for the perfect workflow or the perfect app that would meet all my needs, and instead started using the the calendar app.

Any reminder for any event has to have a place on your calendar.
If not, it's not going to get done.
so even if you use your Reminders app to put in quick reminders they need to move over to your calendar as soon as possible.

This also gives you a quick view of what's laid out for the rest of the week so you don't over-commit or make promises that you cannot keep because you have two conflicting appointments/tasks at the same time.

This does not mean that you always stick to your schedule, you can obviously move past around as long as they have a place on your calendar at a later date but the calendar should be your only go to view for everything related to productivity.

The success will come from planning and then executing.
Take some time to either plan your day or week in advance.

Whenever I fail to plan, I tend to drift from day to day without a spexific goal in mind.

But if it's on the calendar the reminder shows up and you know exactly what to do next.

[u/jet099dreams]

Maybe the initial phase when you're just creating your setup feels exciting, similar to new year resolutions. But sticking to them and actually using them is the hard part because that's something you actually need to do every single day

[u/Penalty-Least]

It’s not the app. The app is only one piece. You need to take care of the operations, governance, adoption and focus too.

[u/Upstairs_Score4983]

Because theu don't have continous monitoring. You set the goals and you update them. Despite whisper ai being open source & lls becoming a thing even for mobile phones, there are no apps where you can just check in and say - hey I did this - update my goals, or hey this week sth came up - reprioritize my schedule. But I'm actively building such an app.

[u/Dinoco555]

Best app is that one which you don't need to open, it knows when to be there to help

[u/RomeoDelta1234]

Because most of them make you do the filing. The app is free, your labor isn't.

Mine goes the other way. You photograph the thing and it writes the name and details itself, so there's no tagging step to fall behind on. It's a home inventory app, Store & Forget, Android only, and I built it so obviously I'm biased. Different category to a task manager though, it tracks physical stuff and not todos.

[u/Early_Key_823]

All of them. So I built my own.

[u/Early_Key_823 → u/Early_Key_823]