The Tangent: Making Cool Stuff

Welcome to another issue of The Tangent, an occasional side column where I write about personal things and other topics which may or may not have anything to do with ADHD.

If you only want ADHD strategies and topics, you’ll still get those every Tuesday.

You can edit your notifications at extrafocus.com/account to control what you see.

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A few weeks ago I told you about an app I built to track all the projects I’m working on. It’s called Mission Status, and I’m making it available for free as a perk for any paid supporter of Extra Focus.

You can go to the Extra Focus Perks page to get your access code and create your account right away. (I’ve also added a new perk to get a free ePub copy of my book)

Aside: Perks Page?

I’m thinking about this new Extra Focus perks page as sort of a personal product studio. I love building apps and tools that help me do stuff—especially products that work a way that happens to make sense to my brain.

As I build the news tools and apps, I may add free early access to them for members here to get an early sneak peek. If you think like I do, I think you’ll enjoy some of the things I’ve been building.

It’s all a bit of an experiment really, but excited to see how it pans out.

Mission Status

So what is Mission Status exactly?

Well it’s sort of a mix between a bullet journal app (like Workflowy or Obsidian or Roam Research) combined with a project dashboard that shows you the momentum of your progress across all your different projects.

I’ve never really liked habit tracking apps, because they often rely on streaks (i.e. don’t miss a day), but every missed day breaks the streak, so I end up feeling like a complete failure.

But a momentum chart helps me see when things need a bit more attention without a missed day feeling like complete failure.

It’s very specific to a way I like to track things, so it might not be for you. But if you dig it the way I do (or have any ideas for how to improve it), I’d love to hear them!

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Email Things

Another thing I’ve been building is an app to help me manage my email.

We talk a bit about it in episode 86 of the ADHD Founders podcast, and a bit more in episode 87 which should be coming out soon.

I know I’m not the only person thinking about email right now. There are some interesting apps doing all sorts of things like summarizing your emails with AI or trying to take actions or draft new emails on your behalf.

This isn’t that.

I don’t want an app that takes email away from me. I want an app that helps me manage my email with speed and ease. I want to actually find joy (yes, JOY!) in email again.

I originally subscribed to newsletters because I actually want to read them, not so that they would just fill up my inbox in between the spam and notifications.

And now I have a way to do that.

It’s still early and not ready to share with other just yet. But I’ve fully switched over to using it full time as my primary email client. It’s honestly the email app I’ve wanted for years. I can’t wait to share it.

If you have any strong feelings about email, I’d love to hear from you.

— Jesse