Nean Project

I didn’t set out to build “a task management tool”.
I set out to stop quietly panicking every time I opened my backlog.

My setup used to look like this:

• Mind maps for ideas

• A task app for execution

• A notes app for “thinking”

• A random doc for “strategy”

Everything existed. Somehow connected. I’d brainstorm an amazing mind map on Sunday, feel like a genius… and then, on Monday morning, open a flat to-do list that had nothing to do with it.

It wasn’t a productivity problem. It was a structure problem.

The Moment I Realised My Brain Wanted a Tree

One night I was trying to plan a launch. I had:

• A mind map called Launch v2

• A doc called Launch Plan

• A task list called Launch TODO

Same project, three different brains. At some point I caught myself drawing a tree on paper:

• Launch v2

  • Pre-launch

  • Launch week

  • Post-launch

Then under each branch, I wrote tasks. And for the first time, I didn’t feel overwhelmed. It wasn’t magic. It was just:

“Oh. This is how my brain already sees it.”

It hit me:
my mind maps felt right, my task lists felt useful,
but I never had a single place where the tree in my head matched the tasks on my screen.

Why Mind Maps Alone Weren’t Enough

Mind maps are perfect for exploring:

• “What could we build?”

• “What are all the channels?”

• “What’s everything in my head about this problem?”

But whenever I tried to run a project from a mind map, it broke down:

• No sense of “what’s next”

• No owners

• No status

• Everything equally important and equally vague

So I’d export parts of it into a task manager… and lose the structure that made the mind map feel good in the first place.

Two tools. Two models. One brain trying to translate between them every day.

Task Trees: When the Map Grows a Spine

What finally clicked for me was this:

• A mind map is great for What’s going on here?

• A task tree is great for What do I do next?

Same branches, same nodes — but with a few extra rules:

• Each node can be a goal, project, task or subtask

• You can go as deep as you want (unlimited task nesting)

• You can attach notes, docs, links directly onto the relevant task in the tree

• You can collapse everything you don’t care about right now

It still feels like thinking in a map. But it behaves like a plan.

That was the core idea behind Nean Project: start like a mind map, finish like a roadmap.

Building Nean Project as an Indie Hacker Tool (Not Enterprise Software)

I didn’t want another monster app with 200 features and an onboarding course. My constraints were simple:

• Must work for a solo indie hacker at 1AM

• Must also work when you add a freelancer or co-founder

• Must reduce that “I’m drowning in half-started things” feeling

So in Nean Project you:

1. Create a real project: “Launch v1”, “How to implement this idea”

2. Break it into branches: product, marketing, ops, learning

3. Turn projects into actionable tasks / subtasks

4. Attach the thinking (notes, docs, links) directly to the tree

Collapse everything except “today’s tasks” and just execute

Hey Indie Hackers 👋

I'm the founder of Nean Project, a platform I'm currently building with my team to solve my core problem: actually implementing ideas and goals. All the existing apps I tried didn’t give me a clear structure or visual plan where I could see all the projects and tasks that have to be done.

I kept noticing the same issues in my own projects:

• Big ideas, but no clear breakdown

• Project views that didn’t match the way my brain works. It needs a clear and visible structure

So I built Nean Project around one core idea:

The workspace should fit your mind, not the other way around. It means:

• turn “this is huge” into smaller, manageable steps

• gently unload everything from my head instead of juggling it

• clearly see where to start and what might be in the way

• notice real progress, not just rely on a vague feeling

Nean Project is an AI-powered project planner with a few things I haven’t found together in one place:

• ✅ Intuitive tree view of tasks – break big goals into branches and sub-tasks that actually make sense visually.

• ✅ Quick task creation – capture tasks in seconds, then rearrange them in the tree without friction.

• ✅ Personalised visual task map – tweak colors, fonts, and highlights so your workspace feels natural for your brain and keeps you focused..

• ✅ Progress tracking – see how far you’ve gone through a branch or project at a glance.

• ✅ Built-in AI assistant – turn a rough idea into a structured project, suggest missing steps, and help refine task descriptions.

Right now I’m looking for a small group of founders/indie hackers who are willing to:

• Use Nean Project on one-two real project

• Give honest feedback (what sucks, what’s confusing, what’s surprisingly good)

In return, you’ll get 3 months of premium access, including full use of the AI assistant, early access to new features, and direct contact with me while I’m shaping the product.

Product info: neanproject.com

You can apply for Beta here: neanproject.com/beta

Right now, one of the top ideas on the Indie Hackers Idea Board is: AI business planner that converts goals into actions.

When I saw it on the leaderboard, I smiled, because this is exactly what we’ve been building at Nean Project.

The pattern is simple: founders don’t struggle to set goals. We struggle to turn “Launch in 3 months” or “Hit $1k MRR this year” into concrete steps we can execute this week. Then real life hits, client work, context switching, endless “research” and the big goals stay big and vague.

With Nean Project, I’m trying to remove that gap. You tell the platform your goal and it turns that into an ordered set of tasks you can actually do. Not a 10-page strategy doc. Just the full, structured visual tree of tasks.

Seeing the same idea show up as a top-voted Indie Hackers concept is strong validation. It tells me other founders feel this pain too, not “planning is hard” in general, but “please, someone just turn my goal into a plan I can follow.”

We haven’t nailed it yet. I’m still learning what level of detail helps, and where AI should decide vs. where the founder should stay in control.

If this resonates, I’d love feedback from other Indie Hackers: what would your ideal “AI planner that turns goals into actionable steps” look like for you as a founder?

neanproject.com