I’ll admit it: I’m addicted to planning.
It’s a sick sort of psychosis, I know. But oh, it be true: For whatever reason, I take a certain pinch of perverse pleasure in finding interesting new ways to map out my days and stay on top of my various tasks and obligations.
Hey, if there’s one good way to procrastinate actually doing stuff, it’s planning out how much stuff you’re gonna do!
Today’s tool is all about trying to fix that mindset—to eliminate all the counterproductive complexity around planning and make it as focused and minimal as can be. It’s an effective framework for organizing your to-do list without any frills, distractions, or unnecessary layers.
And, as an added bonus, you can relish in the sheer joy of thinking about it now instead of actually tackling that first real task.
Psst: If you love these types of tools as much as I do, check out my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. You’ll be the first to find all sorts of simple tech treasures!
Planning, simplified
Most to-do apps are complicated by nature. You’ve got layers upon layers of lists, priority levels, tags—all sorts of options and adjustments to obsess over. And that’s not even getting into all the AI-associated flapdoodle of the moment.
By the time everything is said and done, organizing your to-do list practically requires an item on your to-do list to accomplish.
➜ Today’s tool turns that type of thinking on its head. It’s a simple-as-can-be task planner with an absolutely incredible name: focus.txt.
⌚ It’ll take you 20 seconds to figure out and start using. It really is that simple:
- Open the focus.txt website in any browser, on whatever device you’ve got in front of you. No downloads, no sign-ins, no hassles whatsoever.
- Type any tasks on your mind into the #tasks section of the screen.
- Type any notes in your noggin into the #notes section above it.
And, well—that’s pretty much it.
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 underlining, respectively).
On any device, you can type %date% to auto-insert the current date, %time% to auto-insert the current time, and %check% to insert a checkmark anywhere in your text.
And those are pretty much the only real “features” of note here. The entire point of focus.txt is what it doesn’t do—and that’s complicate your planning. You just open up your browser, type out what’s on your mind, and move on with your day.
The site automatically saves your info locally, within your own browser—no syncing, no signing in, and no data collection of any sort. Your list just pops back up anytime you open the focus.txt page within that same browser.
If you want to download and save your list, you can hit the Download button in the site’s lower-right corner. It’ll 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 home page in about seven seconds on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or most any other browser—in both the mobile and the desktop versions.)
But mostly, it works by simply staying out of your way and allowing you to focus on your actual to-do items instead of obsessing over the organization of your to-do list.
A novel concept, even for the mushy-minded organization obsessives among us—wouldn’t ya say?!
- 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 info only locally—no data collection, no account creation, no privacy compromises of any sort.
Want even more productivity-boosting goodness? Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for an instant introduction to an AI-powered supertool that transcribes your brain—and another off-the-beaten-path gem every Wednesday!
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