- Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/organizeyou/jbklehanlglahdjcjililkmdmbngffjn
- Edge: https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/dnbgckcbophhohmncbhjphngnnidamjg
- Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/organizeyou/
Journey
Since remote work started, one of the challenges that I personally faced was:
How can I stick to the agenda for the day?
Here's what I tried:
- Started using reminder apps (all of them are nosy and noisy, and they have a snooze button).
- Started writing my agenda for the day on paper → now I needed someone to remind me to look at this list.
- Searched on app stores (Android/Mac) and found multiple app options, but again, apps stay behind so many windows open on my Mac.
The thing about distraction is that you never realize you're distracted. It takes away time from you minute by minute, and at the end of the day all you're left with is a lot of pending work and the guilt of not getting things done.
This gave me enough motivation to find a solution that is:
- Not distracting in itself (reminders/notifications).
- Minimalistic — so it should do just one thing, and should do it well.
I started using Chrome extensions. And oh boy, there are so many of them. However, my goal was very clear: I wanted something minimalistic yet functional. For me, minimalism doesn't mean fewer features — it means less noise and distraction.
I stumbled upon multiple apps that were more or less matching my criteria, but then none of them were what I was looking for:
- Why will I pay for a simple todo app?
- Why are you connecting and sending my data to your servers?
- Why do you need so many permissions on my browser?
After using every app, all I could say was:
Dude! Seriously, get off my personal space!!!
One fine day I decided to write something very simple that would be unlike any of the above apps!
Here is what helped me decide:
- I do need an honest app that does only what it says!
- It should not have any hidden agenda of collecting user data in the name of “helping the user”.
- Should be minimalistic yet functional.
- I'm not going out on weekends (credits to COVID-19), so I have enough time.
- I had recently started learning React as part of project requirements.
- I have never built anything that is publicly available to the community.
- We open a new tab on our browser at least 50 times a day — why do we need reminders explicitly?
- I did not want to re-invent the wheel. So I decided to use many existing open-source components.
These reasons were enough to give me sleepless nights to come up with the simplest requirement possible.
The time couldn't have been better, and OrganizeYou was born. So what is it:
OrganizeYou is a simple browser extension that replaces your new tab and keeps the agenda of the day in front of you.
Here's something that I can boast about this app.
Apps are meant to help people. They shouldn't control our lives. OrganizeYou is one such app, and will remain so.
- No data collection.
- No hidden agenda. No spamming.
- Does only what it says. No bullshit. Period.
App features
- Lets you add tasks for the day.
- Dark mode (like, duh).
- Compact mode to hide tasks.
- Google search.
- No reminders (there are too many app notifications/reminders; OrganizeYou is not going to be another one. EVER!).
So OrganizeYou lets you add tasks with the least number of clicks possible.
It has the simplest settings panel with the most basic features.
Even a minimalist needs dark mode.
What if you don't want tasks thrown at your face all the time? Compact mode to the rescue.
How about adding tasks to some specific dates?
This is all, folks. Hope you liked it.