Roast my app: Planrow, a personal productivity tool I built for myself as a solo indie developer.

So I was a little skeptical at first, but then I clicked on your link and wow. The design is really good, both of the website and of the application itself: clean, simple and not cluttered.

May I ask, did you use a UI kit / framework for your design; if so would you mind sharing your process / resources?

This immediately hooked me into wanting to sign up which I'm about to do; great work!

I read your 'obtuse and long-winded' blog article, nodding my head in agreement with the points that you were making every step of the way.

I'm thinking of giving Planrow at least a try.

I've been down similar roads before, namely trying to use a tool to better organize my efforts, including focusing on high-priority, actionable items so that I can actually complete them and move on to the next (and the next and the next).

In the past that has not worked well for me, because somehow the expected benefits from using the tool did not overcome the inertia that prevented me from using the tool - and so I've always reverted to simple stream-of-consciousness text files and hand-written notes on blank 4x6-inch index cards (which is also unmanageable and unsatisfactory).

Will Planrow be the magic bullet that I've been looking for? I don't know. But the simplicity of use that is evident from viewing the overview is attractive, and so I'm willing to take the next step and try it out.

Am I actually going to map things out by calendar (even if that calendar is more 'aspirational' than 'concrete')? I'm not sure yet. I may just try it as a way of organizing my near-term to-do list. Will that short-circuit the potential benefits and productivity gains from using the tool? I guess that I will find out.

Hi IHers!

The first thing you should probably roast me for is that it took me three years to launch. No kidding. A whole pandemic came and went and I still hadn't launched.

Planrow is a multi-platform personal productivity app for your notes, tasks and plans. This was an app I built for myself as an indie software dev where I require a particular workflow, so I've been using it personally and iterating on it during that period.

I plan my time in increasing granularity, across the coming year (most abstract/general), quarter, month, week and day (most detailed/specific). This progressive approach allows my effort across time to be:

• Synergistic instead of haphazard.
• Focused on execution.
• Meaningfully moving the needle.

The existing app market tries to solve personal productivity in two broad categories. First, note taking apps allow you to catalog your thoughts, but using one quickly spirals into a tangled, botttomless inactionable mess. Next, to-do list apps help you track and check off tasks to be done, but they are hard to use for working on anything more complex than a grocery list.

So I designed Planrow to be the best of both worlds. For starters, it has a selection mode where you can manipulate your data as tasks, and an editing mode where the very same data can be worked on like regular notes.

It's seen many other changes in that time, including that it's now free to use, indefinitely. You only need to pay if you want to sync across devices. Critique of the business model is also most welcome!

After taking three years to launch, guess what: the iOS version isn't even ready yet! I've ran into some issues with App Store Connect, so I now need to wait for their engineers to fix it before Apple can complete App Review. The app is currently only available on web, Android, macOS and Windows.

I've also written more about how productivity is the most important thing for us indies (warning: it's rather obtuse and long-winded) on my blog, if you're interested.

Yeah so have a look at it and let me know what you think!

Thank you :)
Guan

Hi 😁 the product it self looks cool, the only thing that comes to my head is the pricing, I think you need to rethink about the features you get on pro version.