TL;DR - Compass now helps you focus on the current task at hand There are two types of people: Those who wing it—working on whatever they feel like Those who plan—working on what they prioritized You’re probably the second type—a busy professional who cares about being productive with your time (same). We’re drawn to goals, plans, and systems. We’re ambitious, organized. But we’re also prone to “procrastiplanning”: spending excessive time planning and organizing instead of taking action on...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
You can already plan your month and week in a lightweight way in Compass Calendar. Now you can also plan your …. day! *John Cena entrance music* #tek It’s a task list next to your agenda. Pretty straightforward, but don’t underestimate the power of simplicity. Showing one day’s worth of tasks/events will help you turn off that monkey brain and lock in on what you need to do today. We also added shortcuts to help manage the tasks, which will keep your mind focused and your hands away from the...
2 months ago • 1 min read
If you want a sleek app that can help you manage your focus and events, and you're on your computer (not mobile), give the updated Compass Calendar another look: https://app.compasscalendar.com We’ve added lots of tweaks to make managing your calendar feel smooth. Dragging an event from Monday to Friday now snaps smoothly into place as you move it. Events make space for each other instead of overlapping. You can right-click to assign a priority to an event. There are more shortcuts. Recurring...
3 months ago • 1 min read
26 months of work, including 461 files, 21,905 lines of code, and 171 tests, is now public at https://github.com/SwitchbackTech/compass! Anyone can read the code, suggest features, fix bugs, or even copy it for profit. I never finished building my dream calendar. But now that the code is public, perhaps someone will be able to build theirs. Sweet, sweet code What does this mean for you as a user? Your data will stay on Compass Calendar’s private databases and will not be accessible by anyone...
over 2 years ago • 1 min read
After 2+ years of coding, I’ve decided to open-source Compass Calendar! What does this actually mean? Anyone will be able to go to my GitHub, read the code, suggest changes, fix bugs, or add new features. Anyone can use the code for profit, too. For example, you could make a copy of the code, change the name to Bob Calendar, launch it on bobcalendar.com, add a few features, and start charging for it. When is this happening? Between Tuesday and Thursday (Sep 26-28). What happens to your data?...
over 2 years ago • 2 min read
Have you ever thought, "I’d like to do X more often. I’ll make a recurring calendar event so I’ll always have time for it."? But then your calendar forces you to assign X to an exact time (eg every Sunday from 2-4pm). You think, "Hmm, it doesn’t have to be at 2pm on Sunday, but sure." You know the time is arbitrary, so you ignore the notification on Sunday, thinking "I’ll do it later this evening". But then something comes up and … you never do X. If this sounds familiar, you’ll like the...
over 2 years ago • 1 min read
The last two weeks have been very productive, thanks to a few factors: (Finally) focusing on # of active users as my primary KPI. I've always tracked it of course, but hyper-focusing on how to increase that number has helped me prioritize more strategically (Finally) committing to a consistent launch cycle: 15th and 30/31st of every month. Whether it's a new feature, bug fix, or maintenance, knowing that something has to go into production at least twice a month is motivating. Getting turned...
over 2 years ago • 1 min read
After pushing the month list feature, I've resisted the urge to keep coding blindly. The app is functional, minimal, and reliable enough. Good enough to pay a subscription for? Based on the # of people who try it and then don't come back, No. But with the right messaging & product tweaks, it could be soon. What exactly to change is TBD. I'm scheduling calls with early adopters to get more clarity on the value Compass can deliver. The question circling my head is, "What is the differentiator...
over 2 years ago • 1 min read
Compass now lets you keep track of monthly tasks in the sidebar! This means that you can organize your tasks based on 3 types of urgency: Urgent with clear date & times: calendar Urgent with semi-clear date/time: week list Not urgent, unclear date/time: month list Here's what that looks like: weekly + monthly lists in sidebar Organizing tasks in this way makes it easy to gradually plan your day. It demands consistent engagement with your schedule, forcing you to get real about what you can...
over 2 years ago • 1 min read