The Task Freeze effect

“This way of work and organisation that’s so common in modern life, where we have a lot of very varied things that have to be done, all mixed together all at once, really is incompatible with our brain.” – Cal Newport^Source

Todo lists are inhumane. When we see a list of tasks that is long and diverse the planning apparatus of our brain locks up. It can't deal with these 10 or 15 things that all have to be done, so it freezes. No motivation is generated, nothing gets ticked off the todo list, procrastination kicks in.

One Thing at a Time

Instead of a long diverse list, Flowist cuts out the noise and helps you focus on the task at hand. Start it on your phone or a second monitor and have what you're working on always in front of you. One thing, visible and clear. Our brains can do that. Stop the overwhelm and get into flow.

Get Started

Flowist is free and open source. It was built as a solution to a problem I faced and I hope it helps you too. Simply log in with Todoist and get focused.

Open Flowist

Documentation

Flowist is built with simplicity in mind. Still, there are a handful of features to help you hone in on what is important.

Filters

Enter a valid Todoist filter to only work on matching tasks. Only want to dig in on what is really important? Enter p1 and start working on your highest priority tasks.

Sorting

Sort tasks by due date, project or priority through url parameters. The schema is: https://flowist.joschua.io/secure/?sort=[due|proj|prio]:[asc|desc].

• Sort all tasks by priority descending (from p1 to p4):https://flowist.joschua.io/secure/?sort=prio:desc
• Sort all tasks by due date ascending (earliest due date first): https://flowist.joschua.io/secure/?sort=due:asc
• Sorting by multiple values is supported. Sort first by priority, on equal priority sort by projects: https://flowist.joschua.io/secure/?sort=p1:desc,proj:asc

URL scheme

Both filters and sort preferences are stored in the URL. This allows you to combine sorting a filters in a powerful way. Note that all parameters need to be url encoded.

• Show me all tasks due today or overdue, sorted from the highest priority down: https://flowist.joschua.io/secure/?filter=today%7Coverdue&sort=prio:desc (%7 is the encoding for | which stands for "or" in Todoist Filters)
• Display tasks in Inbox, with the most overdue items first: https://flowist.joschua.io/secure/?filter=Inbox&sort=due:desc
• Show me tasks tagged "phone", sorted by priority and then by project: https://flowist.joschua.io/secure/?filter=%40phone&sort=prio:asc,proj:desc

This URL scheme allows for some impactful automations. In your note for a project, put a Flowist link. Whenever you're working on it, jump straight into Focus Mode.

Help

If you encounter any bugs, feel free to mention them in this project's issues. In case you're stuck and need some help, please open an issue as well.

The issues are also the place for feature requests. Since Flowist is an opinionated tool designed to be simple, some features may not be compatible.

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Development

To contribute to Flowist, follow these steps:

1. Use our npm version

nvm is recommended to manage node versions.

nvm install
nvm use

2. Set up a Todoist app

• Go to Todoist Developer Console and create a new app.
• Note down your TODOIST_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID and TODOIST_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET.

3. Environment variables

• Create a .env file in the root of your project.
• See the .env.example file for required values. Replace the placeholders with your actual credentials.

4. Install dependencies

• Make sure to have bun installed (Check via bun -v) to our nvm environment.
• Install dependencies:

  bun install

5. Local development

• Start the development server:

  bun run dev

Conventions

This repository follows Conventional Commits. Please mark your changes with the appropriate type.

See also

• Nuxt, the framework used in Flowist
• Nuxt Auth Utils, utilities for Authentification
• Todoist Developer Documentation