I got let go, spent 18 months building a productivity app, and now I'm taking it to Kickstarter
Most productivity apps ask: Did you finish your tasks?
Focuser asks: Do your actions support how you define success?
Nearly two years ago I unwillingly found myself back in the job market, ill-prepared. I was managing the search through Apple Reminders and Notes. I had a checklist for each weekday, one for the week, and various notes and folders. I spent more time manually updating the system than using it. Information got lost, lists fell out of sync, momentum stalled.
So I started building a web app that contained reminders, notes, and these checklists in one place, where the system handled the management, not me. Items automatically migrate between checklists as time passes, moving closer to the present, carrying over if left unfinished. From there the idea expanded, adding Focuses, secondary checklists, effort items, a searchable timeline of events. Focuses are user-defined areas of life that matter most to you: work, health, family, finances, whatever you decide. Every checklist belongs to a Focus, and every item you complete is tracked. Over time, Focuser builds a picture of where your effort actually goes, giving you insight no other productivity app affords. Did the way you spent your time reflect what actually matters to you? Was your life successful — today, last week, over time?
The core app is built and working. Focus Metrics, the analytics layer that shows effort distribution and balance over time, exists in an early form but has a long way to go. The bigger challenge ahead is the mobile experience: getting the app to feel truly native and engaging across every orientation on both phone and tablet, so it doesn't require you to sit at a computer. That alongside third-party integrations is where most of the remaining work lives. I've been building this full time for over a year and a half, funding it myself. Now I'm preparing a Kickstarter campaign to fund me through the remaining development work. That will be the moment of truth.
I'm building this in public from here on out: the Kickstarter campaign, the development of each roadmap feature, and the design decisions behind them — all documented in the Building Focuser blog.
Follow the journey at lifefocuser.com/building-focuser, or join the waitlist at lifefocuser.com while you're there.
What are the areas of life that matter most to you, and how would you structure your timeline around them?
The shift from "did you finish your tasks" to "do your actions match what you say matters" is a much harder question to answer honestly. Most productivity tools avoid it because the answer is usually uncomfortable.
I'm curious about the Kickstarter angle specifically. Software campaigns on Kickstarter have a mixed track record. The ones that work tend to have a very tight demo video showing the before/after in under 90 seconds. Have you mapped out what that looks like yet?
The Focus Metrics layer sounds like the real differentiator here. If you can nail the visualization of "where you think your time goes vs where it actually goes," that's the kind of insight that sells itself. Everything else in productivity is just task management with different paint.
Love the framing "did your actions reflect what matters to you"
One thing I'd flag: the lack of integrations with tools like Notion, Linear, or Google Calendar could be a real barrier. Worth running a quick survey to see how much that matters to your audience.
The honest concern though is timing. 18 months of solo development before public validation is a big bet. The Kickstarter will tell you what earlier user conversations might have. Rooting for a strong launch either way.
Really appreciate the feedback.
Google Calendar and Apple Reminders sync are actually part of what the Kickstarter funds, so those are coming. Notion and Linear are outside the scope for now, but worth tracking.
The timing point is fair, though the context is a little different than it might look. I built Focuser for myself first. I've been my own user the entire time, which means the validation has been happening daily, just privately. The 18 months wasn't building blind; it was building something I actually needed and kept reaching for.
I'll also be honest: it wasn't a straight 18 months. I took a significant break to focus on woodworking during a period of discouragement. Coming back to it with fresh eyes actually made the product better.
The Kickstarter isn't asking people to validate the idea. The idea works. It's funding the final layer of something that already does what it's supposed to do. That's a different bet than most campaigns.
The "Focus Metrics" concept is interesting — showing where effort actually goes vs. where you think it goes. That gap is usually eye-opening.
One thing I'd push back on gently: 18 months of full-time solo development before any paying users is a risky path, especially heading into Kickstarter. The productivity space is brutally competitive and the biggest risk isn't whether you can build it — it's whether people will pay for it over the dozen free/cheap alternatives they already half-use.
Have you tested the core insight (effort distribution tracking) with real users yet? Even a spreadsheet version? The reason I ask is that I build tools for small business owners and the features I was most excited about building were almost never the ones users actually cared about. The thing that got traction was always simpler than I expected.
For Kickstarter specifically, the campaigns that work for software tend to have a very clear before/after story. Not "here's all the features" but "here's your life without this, here's your life with it." The Focus Metrics angle could be that story if you frame it right — "you think you're spending 40% of your time on health, but you're actually spending 8%." That kind of concrete, slightly uncomfortable insight is what makes people pull out their wallet.
Rooting for you — building in public from here is the right call.
Thanks for the thoughtful response. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping building in public would surface.
The app isn't public yet, so it's less "built without validation" and more "built for myself first." I needed a better system and built one. Over time I started to think it might be useful for other people too. If it changes my life and makes me feel like I'm living more successfully because of it, that felt worth building regardless.
Real user testing has been limited. A handful of people through TestFlight, with little to no feedback. Family isn't keen on working for free. It's a gap I'm aware of. I'm hoping to get more feedback from people visiting the site, as well as from users joining post-launch and using the 30-day free trial to determine what's working for them and what isn't.
The before/after point is the one that lands hardest. The truth is I've only been able to use the app properly myself for a few months. There was simply too much left to build before my own backlog was low enough to feel the benefit. But I have noticed a difference. I'm attending to the things I think I should be doing more often than I was before. That's the story. I just haven't told it that way yet, and you're right that I should.
The "you think you're spending 40% on health but you're actually spending 8%" framing is exactly what Focus Metrics is designed to surface. It's about showing which areas of your life are getting too much attention and which are being neglected. That's the insight I need to lead with.