Task managers tend to grow in one direction. Each request is reasonable on its own: a custom field here, an automation there, a report for the manager. A few years later the tool does everything, and opening a task feels like filling in a form. We started thisflow with the opposite question: what is the smallest set of ideas that lets a person, or a small team, get from a thought to done without friction?

The answer is seven principles. Every feature has to fit them, and when one does not, we leave it out.

The seven principles

One task, one panel

A task opens in the same side panel wherever you meet it: in a list, on the board, in the calendar, in search or from a notification. You learn one place, and it is always the same. Subtasks open in that panel too.

A view is a setting, not a place

List, board and calendar show the same tasks. Switching between them changes how you look at a project, not where its tasks live. Sections are list headings and board columns at the same time, so moving a card to In progress on the board is the same as moving the task under that heading in the list.

Capture first, organise later

Quick add works everywhere, understands English and Swedish, and never asks for a required field. "Call the supplier tomorrow 15:00 p2" gets its date, time and priority from the text. A task without a project goes to the Inbox, and you can sort it later, or let Plan your day help in the morning.

Instant

Every interaction should show its result in under 50 ms. That is why thisflow keeps your tasks in a local database on your device and syncs in the background. In our own test with a 1000-task project, completing, opening and quick add measured about 16 to 48 ms (changelog). We explain how in why thisflow is local-first.

Keyboard first, mouse fine

Everything has a shortcut and can be reached from the command palette (⌘K). C adds a task, J and K move through a list, ⌘↵ completes, ? shows every shortcut. You never need the keyboard, but you never have to leave it either.

Sharing is one button

Share a project by link or by email and pick a role in the same dialog. There are four fixed roles: owner, editor, viewer and guest. Guests work in the project they were invited to without joining the workspace, and they are free. Fixed roles mean nobody has to design a permission scheme before inviting a colleague.

No feature without a home

A new feature has to fit an existing surface: the task panel, a view, or the palette. The focus timer is an example. It has no page of its own; it lives in the task panel, a small pill in the top bar and the palette. If a feature cannot find such a home, it is not built.

What we left out, and why

Calm is as much about what is missing as about what is there. These are things thisflow does not have today. Some are choices, some are simply not yet.

  • Custom fields. Every task has the same fields: title, notes, project and section, due date and time, start date, priority P1 to P4, tags, assignees, duration and subtasks. Custom fields turn a task list into a database you have to design. We will consider them only if people using thisflow ask for them.
  • Automations. Rules that move, assign or change tasks on their own are powerful, and they also make a tool hard to predict. In thisflow nothing moves by itself: Plan your day and Wrap up suggest, and you decide. Automations are not in our first version, and the same rule applies: only if people ask.
  • Reports and dashboards. We have none. A project's ⋯ menu can Summarize status with AI, from the tasks you can see, which covers the weekly status update without a reporting module.
  • Gantt charts. There is a calendar with time blocking, start dates and durations, but no Gantt view or dependencies between tasks. That is project-management territory, and it is not where thisflow is going now.
  • Templates as a separate feature. Instead, a new project can start from any existing project, with its sections and open tasks, and its dates moved to start today.
  • Configurable roles. The four roles are fixed on purpose. You cannot invent a fifth.
  • Many integrations. We connect to Slack, email, calendars, and to AI assistants through an API and an MCP server. We do not connect to Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Notion, GitHub or Zapier.

What is planned

Native apps for iPhone, Apple Watch and Android are planned, in that order. Until then, thisflow is a web app you can install on your phone's home screen, with push notifications, and it works offline.

Choosing less

Leaving things out is not the same as being finished. We add features when they make the daily flow better and fit one of the surfaces above. If you are missing something, tell us: requests from people who use thisflow every day are what decide whether a "not yet" becomes a "yes".

During the beta everything is free; the plans are on the pricing page. The getting started guide shows the whole flow in a few minutes.