Show HN: I built a goal-oriented task manager

[cstaudenmeyer]

Hello HN!

I've been working on a task manager (https://plocs.com) that combines a todo list with project management.

Unlike most task managers, Plocs supports task dependencies and makes working with them easy.

Thanks to dependencies Plocs is better in two important ways:

1.) You can plan in a goal-oriented way. Start with your goal and then plan the steps you need to get there. 2.) You can tell very easily which tasks you can work on: the ones that don't depend on other tasks are shown in a list to the left of the screen.

Would love to get your feedback!

PS: If you click on "Start demo" you can try it in the browser without registering.

Thanks, Christian Staudenmeyer

[xavdid]

Oooh, this could be neat! It hits at least a few of the features I touch on in my perfect task app wishlist: https://xavd.id/blog/post/my-perfect-task-app/

Some feedback:

  - on the web, the slow animations make every action feel clunky. I'm not sure you need animations at all, honestly
  - similarly, growing elements on the page as I click on them makes me feel like I'm chasing my tasks around the screen. Would be nice if they stayed put (/under my pointer)
  - showing a task in 2 places is interesting. I feel like I'd rather see a more complex graph than have nodes duplicated, but I realize that can be a big technical lift
  - lastly, information on your current (or future) monetization plans would be great.

Good luck!

[HereBeBeasties]

Have a look at https://fibery.io

You might be able to build your perfect todo app with it.

Don't like workflows? Don't add a workflow field.

Just you and no team? Don't add an assignees field, etc.

Want unlimited nesting? Set up a relationship that lets you do that.

Need recurring tasks? Set up an automation that reopens or clones tasks with a recurring field you've added, every week or day or whatever.

Want to know which tasks are "available"? Set up a formula field for that which looks at start date, the task statuses of any blockers, and whatever else you like (time of day even).

It's very cool.

[cstaudenmeyer]

Lots of great points in your blog post!

- I agree the animations should be faster, and we'll experiment if they are needed at all.

- We decided to duplicate tasks sometimes so we can order the next tasks on the left chronologically.

- Our monetization plan is to have a paid plan for business customers eventually.

[Minor49er]

I noticed a couple of oddities:

I managed to connect a successor to itself. Then I deleted the child which animated the parent, but both are still around and I can't interact with them.

I also completed a task but it disappeared into the archive. When I tried to mark it as not complete, it marked a child as complete. A second attempt worked as intended though

I kind of wish this was more like Linear or Trello where, when adding a new card, I could just make changes inline without having to have the card go fullscreen. Working inline is helpful for jotting down some high-level ideas quickly without having to provide formal details right then and there

It would be nice to be able to drag and drop the cards around to reorder and organize them too, if possible

I think the last piece of feedback is that, while the animations are nice, they could probably benefit from being faster. It can make the interactions feel more immediate without sacrificing the style and user feedback that they provide

That said, I like the various features that are here and the overall structure. I might have to give this a try for a project at some point

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks for your bug reports!

Having an inline editor is something multiple people mentioned here, we are definitely considering it.

Drag and drop is also something we have been thinking about, but I always considered it a bit tricky to implement well.

Hope you give Plocs a try some time!

[e40]

I won't use a walled garden for task management again.

I use org-mode in Emacs, which syncs to an iCloud folder, which the beorg app on my iPhone reads. It's 2-way read-write, but I mostly read on the iPhone.

I used to use RTM, web and Android, but it had bugs on Android they could not reproduce, so they couldn't fix them (making a new task had a 66% chance of disappearing).

[DataGata]

Some of the controls are a bit disorienting. All observations below are from the demo:

1) When I create a goal, theres no obvious way that the goal is "created". I just press the back button? The send-comment button was where I initially tried to confirm that a goal had been created.

2) When I create a subtask, and then exit the subtask menu to get to the first task, it gives me a blank page.

I really really like the idea, but the demo is a bit too buggy

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks, great observations.

1) Right now the back button saves the Ploc. You're completely right that the comment button looks like it might do that. We did not consider that this when we moved the comment button there...

2) This is a bug in the demo, unfortunately. I'm working on it!

I had not tested the demo extensively yet so this obvious bug slipped through unfortunately. It should work in the actual application / app in case you want to try it.

[RussianCow]

> I had not tested the demo extensively yet

A bit of unsolicited advice: Your demo is a potential user's first impression of the app, which means that you should give it just as much care as you do the full application. If the demo is buggy, people will assume the real app will be just as buggy because there is no reason to assume otherwise, which can ruin any chance of converting them.

[cstaudenmeyer]

The bug when exiting the subtask menu in the demo should be fixed now.

[codazoda]

The page is impossible to read on iPhone for me. Text is white and page is wider than the screen with a white background (making 1/2 the text unreadable).

I scrolled about then bailed.

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks for letting me know, that seems to be a problem with some screen sizes. Currently trying to figure it out.

[falcolas]

Not thrilled at how hidden the business model is. There's no paid option, just targeted ads (as noted in the privacy policy about how your information is used).

Unfortunately, this means that it's not for me. For whatever that's worth. :)

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks for the feedback. We are planning to add a paid version for business customers in the long term.

Not planning to have ads targeted or otherwise. I will remove this from the privacy policy.

[lkbm]

I think this hits on one key thing that's missing from many TODO lists I've tried: dependencies are important.

But the UI feels big and slow and cumbersome. Entering all my sub-tasks is tedious in a way that a simple bullet list is not.

I just want to type in "Reproduce bug => Fix bug => Post PR => Deploy fix". The big main goal might have a deadline and title and description, but the level of granularity I want means that I don't have time/need to do that for each item. I don't need these animations and full-screen data entry pages. Even the fact that I have to use the mouse with each item is too much friction for me.

I also think the overall TODO list view is missing the key purpose: at a glance, I want to see the specific "what should I do right now" item(s). The big flowchart distracts me from the immediate focus.

Obviously, you probably don't want to fully rewrite the UI for my idiosyncrasies, but I would recommend making adding small, simple tasks very quick and easy. Maybe just tab/shift-tab to add a "next" and "before" tasks without jerking me into a separate view or forcing me to switch from keyboard to mouse.

[cstaudenmeyer]

Being able to quickly add a series of tasks would be great, I agree. Adding keyboard shortcuts + an inline editor could work, I think.

I agree that the flowchart view can be distracting when you just want to look at the next actions. Would a view/option that hides all successors be a solution for this?

[rish1_2]

The concept of sub-tasks makes sense as it breaks down bigger tasks into small. I actually made my own app based on goals oriented habits, tasks and sub-tasks until I pivoted. I also added async social accountability by sharing snaps of whatever you're doing. I still have the code in the current version but I'm no longer targeting that audience anymore. It's part of something bigger. Shameless plug -> https://atomiclife.app. Still working on version 2 (technically version 4 as I pivoted 2x) and I build in public, you can follow me on twitter: https://twitter.com/rish1_2

[petemir]

Hey, I love the idea! I actually wanted to make something like this myself, to try to keep tasks meaningful for me and to remember why I want/need/should do them.

That said, I suggest you fix the legal notice! I wanted to check how my data would be used, and couldn't :).

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks! I just fixed the error on the legal notice. If you want to check the privacy policy, you can view it on the register page https://plocs.com/register

[pessimizer]

This is exactly something that I have been trying to design in my spare time recently, and I want to suggest a feature. Building off the "Postpone Tasks" ability: postponing tasks is a bit of a reverse spaced repetition, isn't it? A task comes up that you asked to be reminded of, and you can dismiss it by asking to be reminded again later. That's a lot like being shown a flashcard in spaced repetition software, and after review deciding whether you want to be shown it again quickly, in the near future, or in the distant future.

An element in spaced repetition that usually isn't treated well in software UI is how you deal with a card other than by setting a new time on it. When you're reviewing the card, you might decide that card is bad, and you need to delete it; you might decide that the card is badly worded, and you might want to correct it; or you might decide that the card is too complex, and you want to break it down into multiple, simpler cards.

Imagine that in a task manager. You just type a stray goal to yourself, and throw it into a short-term, medium-term, or long-term bucket. Maybe into a priority bucket, that starts off in the medium-term and with every dismissal gets a shorter and shorter reminder period; and a ideas bucket, that starts off the same as a priority, but backs off instead of becoming more urgent over time. Imagine easy controls to turn these stray ideas and priorities into tasks, and to further divide those tasks into subtasks.

Eventually you'd have so much stuff floating around in there that you might be able to ask the task manager what you could be doing when you have downtime, and it will start bringing up things that you are interested in, and that fit into the time you have and your location. In the morning, when you first open it up, you'd have your scheduled appointments, but you'd also have a bunch of (your own, previously deferred) suggestions for things you could add.

In that way, you can help people create tasks and goals by encouraging them to type stray thoughts and ideas in, to be reminded about them later for expansion into tasks or for scheduling.

[cstaudenmeyer]

Definitely an interesting idea! There's some tasks I keep postponing over and over and there could be some smarter logic for that, I think.

[rkagerer]

I like the hierarchical dependancy structure, but judging from the screenshots this tool lacks anything close to the information density I want. I need to see way more of my content per screen.

As other(s) have commented an option to nix any animations would also be a must.

[cstaudenmeyer]

It would definitely be possible to reduce the height of tasks when they don't much text. Something we'll consider for the next version.

[bobleeswagger]

I need a tool that helps me deal with the overwhelming nature of task management. I feel like I have the energy but it all melts away as soon as things get detailed.

[eddieroger]

Same here for the longest time. It seems so easy - maybe because it's every new framework's tutorial - but the reality is it's much harder if you want anything more than a simple list. I want one I can share with my wife and attach comments to for tracking, but then also with due dates, and also recursion for some tasks and sometimes regardless of if the original one was finished... It gets big fast.

[layer8]

I love the idea, but this needs to be usable locally without an account (on mobile devices). Or on Apple devices, just sync via iCloud.

[cstaudenmeyer]

Great feedback, an offline version is something we've been thinking about.

[v3d2]

I like it and will try organizing next week in it.

Feature request during 1st 2 mins of use :): option to change date layout to European (DD/MM/YY).

[cassianoleal]

The world is bigger than US and Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks a ton for trying it out. Feel feel to contact me at chris (at) plocs.com if you run into any issues.

I'll add a separate setting for the date format.

[bachmeier]

Looks nice, but wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a project-oriented task manager - at least based on the landing page. You'd need an extra step for it to be goal-oriented, where projects point to goals. (It is entirely possible that I don't understand your product, in which case ignore this comment.)

[cstaudenmeyer]

It's true that most of the time these goals are intermediate or short term goals, and not long-term goals. It's worth considering if it would be useful to add information about long-term goals to tasks.

[sc__]

I use Todoist heavily, but I wish it was more focused on long-term goals. E.g., it doesn't support visualizations or a task having multiple dependencies. These are nice features of Plocs - I wish you success with this!

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks a lot!

[ausudhz]

The website is not responsive (seems to be just the homepage that is broken)

[cstaudenmeyer]

It seems to work for me right now.

[nikkey80]

Interesting, today in Show HN: hit two task managers yours and https://tweek.so :-)

[AN0708]

Hey, looks pretty great I think it can come in handy!

One thing I'd change is maybe add an option to disable/speed up animations.

[cstaudenmeyer]

Good idea, I think I'll add a setting for speeding them up.

[Ladyady]

Not working for me in Duck Duck Go or Chrome:

net::ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH

[themoonisachees]

Very nice. A phone app would be ideal but other than that fantastic

[cstaudenmeyer]

We have an app, too. Search for "Plocs" on the app store or click the link on the website if you scroll down a bit.

[thecatspaw]

for me the blog throws a german error page about having no content, and the Legal notice in the footer leads me to another error page with a Runtime Error.

[tabtab]

Looks like an "Expert System" builder.

[jasonjmcghee]

Friendly note: the landing page, looks like you intended it to be mobile-friendly, but the images don't properly scale to the screen size, screwing up the layout a bit.

[cstaudenmeyer]

Thanks for the hint! Will try to fix it.