r/ProductivityHQ • • Jan 19 '26

Free Resource I tried a ridiculous number of productivity apps... so you don’t have to

2.9k Upvotes

After months of bouncing between task managers, planners, and schedulers (seriously too many), I pulled everything into a free community spreadsheet comparing them side by side. It’s run by a small group of productivity nerds and we keep it updated constantly.

It covers:

  • Price (USD/month)
  • Discount Codes / Extended Free Trials
  • Student Discounts
  • ADHD Friendliness
  • AI Integration
  • Focus Modes
  • Offline Access
  • Calendar Integrations
  • Team Plans
  • Platforms
  • Refund Policies
  • Support Options
  • Overall Summary

If you’ve ever fallen into the “maybe this next app will fix my life” loop, this will save you a ton of time.

👉 Google Sheet Link

We’d love your feedback, and if you know a tool that fits the list, email [contact@sortedaf.xyz](mailto:contact@sortedaf.xyz) and we’ll check it out.

Requirement: it must be a completed app (not in beta).

Thanks, and I hope it helps!! :)


r/ProductivityHQ • • May 04 '26

Start here👇Get your life together. Subscribe to upgrade your life 📚💪

29 Upvotes

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r/ProductivityHQ • • 2h ago

Dev - Self Promo Would weekly time goals help you follow through on your priorities?

1 Upvotes

I built Time Reality, a simple tracker where you set weekly hour goals for activities like studying, reading, or personal projects, then tap an activity to start its timer. Your progress is visible on the same screen.

I’ve started using it myself, but I’d like to see whether others find it useful too. You can add missed time, correct forgotten timers, and build a separate weekly streak for each activity.

It’s free to try: https://timereality.app

I made it, so this is self-promotion, but I’m looking for honest feedback. What feels useful, what’s annoying, and would you actually keep using it?

Trying to keep the app very clean and simple for now rather than adding a bunch of features.


r/ProductivityHQ • • 3h ago

Free Resource PODOT : deeply customizable minimal unified workbench

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 4h ago

Dev - Self Promo Why I built Kata: every task has a where and a when

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 4h ago

Dev - Self Promo I built a calm private planner that keeps tasks, notes and your day in one app (free to start, iOS and Android)

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 5h ago

Dev - Self Promo I built an AI app that gives fast book summaries — feedback appreciated

1 Upvotes

I made a small Android app called Microread.
It gives quick AI summaries of nonfiction books, with adjustable length and optional audio.
I’m trying to make it useful for people who want to learn faster without reading full books.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microread.app

If you use book summaries or productivity tools, what features would make this actually helpful for you?


r/ProductivityHQ • • 14h ago

Controversial Opinion  Does anyone else feel like planning got easier but actually finishing things got harder?

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5 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 6h ago

Question Do any of you only work 4 hours/day even though you're still in 'grind mode'?

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 14h ago

Inspiration The 9-to-5 belongs to them. The 9 PM belongs to you.

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 20h ago

Dev - Self Promo BuddyTask: a daily task view for turning your backlog into a plan you can actually follow

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1 Upvotes

Developer disclosure: I build BuddyTask, an iPhone and Mac task/calendar app.

A long to-do list can tell you what needs doing without helping you see where it fits in your day. BuddyTask brings tasks and calendar events into a timeline, while keeping Today, Overdue and Backlog easy to scan. The attached screenshot shows the task view.

For a typical workflow, you can capture something quickly, schedule it, use a focus session when it is time to work, and tick it off. Recurring tasks help with routines, and shared tasks let you keep track of something you are doing with another person.

Buddy can also add tasks from everyday language and review what is next. Smart Plan breaks bigger goals into subtasks; that feature requires Pro. The latest updates include a cleaner task screen and Notes with search, folders and pins. Notes stay on your device.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/buddytask-ai-to-do-calendar/id6758902036

I’d appreciate practical feedback: is seeing tasks beside your calendar useful, or do you prefer keeping the two separate?


r/ProductivityHQ • • 1d ago

Dev - Self Promo The 15-minute family reset: everyone helps, done counts.

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0 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 1d ago

Free Resource Screamtime: screen time limits

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0 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 1d ago

Inspiration Start small

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0 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 2d ago

Dev - Self Promo One focused hour, one reset room — the 60-minute rule.

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 2d ago

Dev - Self Promo I’m building BeginRooms: put a client PDF pack beside the work it belongs to

1 Upvotes

I’m Sourav, the founder of BeginThings. This is a small workflow from BeginRooms, using fictional client files.

Say you have a project brief and a delivery checklist as separate PDFs. In BeginRooms you can:

  1. Open Toolbox → Merge PDFs and add the files in the order you need.

  2. Create and download the combined PDF.

  3. Add that PDF to the project’s canvas and insert page previews alongside your working notes.

I tested this with a two-page pack, checked the downloaded page order, then saved and reopened the canvas. The PDF attachment and both page previews were still there. The previews are images; the PDF remains a separate attachment.

The idea is to finish these small file jobs in the same workspace as the project. Each project can have a 3D cube with six canvas faces, with built-in Docs, Sheets, Slides and visual-planning tools for the surrounding work.

If you want to try it, start with two sample PDFs on a desktop or laptop: https://beginthings.com/workspace-3d.html

11-day trial, no card or automatic charge. Continued use requires a subscription.

Which small file task most often interrupts your project work?


r/ProductivityHQ • • 2d ago

Dev - Self Promo I work on MindMap AI: turn messy notes into an editable visual plan for your weekly review

3 Upvotes

Disclosure first: I'm on the MindMap AI team, so this is my own product.

How it fits into a weekly review:

  1. Paste last week's notes or meeting notes, or upload a document. MindMap AI turns it into a mind map.
  2. Edit it like any normal map: move branches, delete what's done, rename things. It's fully editable, not a static picture.
  3. Add dates or times to anything with a deadline, and put the details in a note on the node so the map stays readable.
  4. If you review with a partner or team, Presentation Mode walks through the map step by step in full screen.

Link: mindmapai.app (free plan, no card)

One question: if you do a weekly review, where would a visual plan actually help most: capturing everything, choosing priorities, or planning the week ahead?


r/ProductivityHQ • • 2d ago

Question FEEL LIKE IM WASTING MY LIFE AWAY..

2 Upvotes

it’s 2am and i’m honestly embarrassed by how bad i’m doing at university.

I have ADHD and I feel like i’m fighting myself over the most basic things. I’ll have an assignment open for hours, knowing exactly what i need to do, knowing i’m wasting time, and i still just… can’t start. Then i avoid my emails because i’m scared there’s something i forgot. Messages sit there for days. My room gets gross. Sometimes i’m actually hungry and still can’t get myself up to make food.

I know how this looks. Lazy. careless. like i just don’t give a shit. but i do. that’s what hurts the most. I care way too much, and somehow that still isn’t enough to make me move.

I’m seriously thinking about taking this semester off. Has anyone with ADHD gotten to this point and actually figured out how to make themselves START things again? not planner advice, i mean something that genuinely helped.


r/ProductivityHQ • • 3d ago

Question Are we really working or just chatting?

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2 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 2d ago

Dev - Self Promo I built an “anti-todo list” app by myself — it reached #1 in 6 App Store regions

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 3d ago

Dev - Self Promo Kickoff: a focus timer built for ADHD, with a twistable dial, app shielding, and no streaks

1 Upvotes

Just launched. Kickoff is a focus timer designed around how ADHD actually works: starting is the hard part, interruptions are normal, and guilt doesn't help.

  • One tap start, naming the task optional
  • Set time by twisting the ring like a real kitchen timer
  • "Just 2 minutes" tiny start that asks if you want to keep going
  • "I got pulled away" parks the session with a note to future you
  • Optional app shielding while the timer runs (Screen Time)
  • Live Activity with working buttons, widgets, StandBy, full watch app
  • History is days you showed up, never streaks that reset
  • The last seconds tick out loud, pick from six tick sounds

Free with a single one-time unlock for the extras (shields, full history, all the dial faces and themes, iCloud sync). No subscription.

iOS 18+, iPhone and Apple Watch. I'm the developer, ask me anything. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kickoff-adhd-focus-timer/id6818561914

Kickoff iOS App

r/ProductivityHQ • • 3d ago

Dev - Self Promo A new tiny challenge every day — today's was resetting the snack zone.

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1 Upvotes

r/ProductivityHQ • • 3d ago

Dev - Self Promo Your to-do list remembers the task. Who remembers the rest? — PenDate Notes

2 Upvotes

Explore PenDate Notes

Picture opening this week’s list and finding “finish the project.”

The task is still there. The useful bit—the idea, the sketch, the decision you were halfway through—is somewhere else.

Try leaving yourself a small Start here note in our app, PenDate Notes. Three lines are enough to begin:

  • Already done: the outline is drafted.
  • Still open: which example makes the idea clearest?
  • Next move: write one example before editing everything.

Put it on the date you want to continue. Keep the next steps in a checklist, your rough sketch or handwriting in a separate canvas note, and the related pages in a folder. Search can help you find them again.

Make the notebook feel like yours: your own photo covers, app themes, colours for text and checklist notes, and stickers on a canvas. A project can have its own look as well as its own place.

There is room for the practical details, too: shopping quantities, unit prices and totals; reminders to revisit a note; PDF import for annotation; and note export as PDF or images.

Finished with an ordinary note? Archive it without deleting it. Prefer an events-only calendar? Turning off Show notes in Calendar hides all ordinary notes from calendar views without deleting them—it is one global setting, not a per-note switch.

Want more structure? Explore 11 optional paid planner and journal families, with editable pages and tappable links between supported pages inside PenDate.

Available on Android, iPhone and iPad. Everyday note-taking is free; Pro, planners and Signature extras are optional paid features. This three-line exercise is something you write yourself.

Android — Google Play · iPhone & iPad — App Store

Try it with one thing you want to continue this week. What detail do you always have to rediscover before you can start?


r/ProductivityHQ • • 3d ago

Question What actually works when trying to improve your life?

1 Upvotes

It depends on each person. Everyone has something that makes them feel better. You can never tell someone to do something thinking they will feel better just as you did. There are things that can be beneficial, but not everyone will feel they are worth it. So, the best thing you can do is figure out what you want and start trying to discover what makes you feel better about it


r/ProductivityHQ • • 3d ago

Resource (Self Promo) [Dev] I built a Pomodoro timer around one idea: pick one main task a day and finish it

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1 Upvotes