YWGSDYou Will Get Stuff Done

Capture and triage

The inbox

Jot it down in three seconds. Tap through them later, in one go.

Things come to you all day, usually when you're in the middle of something else. Jotting one down is hard enough. Sitting down to fill in a duration, a priority and a deadline every single time is worse, so you stop doing it, and the thing you meant to remember is gone. So jotting and deciding are two separate jobs here. During the day, the Inbox wants a title and nothing else. Later, when you've got a minute, you go through the whole lot in one go: the once-over walks you through each one, and it lands on your calendar as a real task. Once a day or once a week works best, and YWGSD will book that time for you (see The once-over books its own slot).

How to use it

Inbox → type into What just came to mind? → Enter, or Add. The field keeps focus, so you can dump five thoughts in a row without touching the mouse. Shift+Enter for a second line. Under the field: "No length, no priority, no deadline. You give it the once-over later, in one go." The number on the Inbox tab is what's still waiting.

Three or more waiting with no review time booked, and the Inbox says so: "This is piling up. We can book you a regular time to go through it in one go." On the web that links to Settings; on the iPhone, Book a time for the once-over opens Settings.

The honest version

An inbox item isn't a task yet, and it stays off your calendar until you've reviewed it. A half-formed thought sitting on the calendar would wreck the one thing that makes the calendar worth trusting.

Capture from your phone without opening anything

Home Screen, Share Sheet, Action Button, Siri or Spotlight — three seconds, one hand.

If you have to open a laptop for it, it isn't really capture.

How to use it

Settings → Quick capture → the Shortcuts button, which opens YWGSD's own page in the Shortcuts app. Add Jot it down to the Home Screen, bind it to the Action Button, or turn on Show in Share Sheet. It also answers to Siri ("Jot this down in Get Stuff Done") and to "Jot it down" typed into Spotlight. Nothing to set up and nothing to copy: the shortcut is an App Intent, so it posts as the account already signed in on the phone.

Dates: every date field is optional unless it says otherwise, and each one gets a Clear button once it holds a value. Dismiss a native picker and it can commit a date you never chose, with no way back out.

The honest version

This is the iPhone. There's no equivalent on a Mac, an iPad without the app, an Android phone, or in an automation like Zapier — on any of those, open the web app and type into the Inbox.

The once-over

One card at a time, three taps each, until the inbox is empty.

Tapping through the inbox is only bearable if it's fast, and fast means obvious rather than clever. One thought on screen. The questions that actually decide where it lands — how long, how important, and which hours it may use — right on the card, and everything optional behind one disclosure. All taps, no typing: three per card.

How to use it

Inbox → Once-over N. Each card, top to bottom:

  1. The captured title, editable in place
  2. How long will it take? — keys for 5m to 1h plus Other for an exact number. Length comes first: it's the one thing nothing can supply for you.
  3. How important is it? — Low to ASAP, left to right; Medium pre-selected
  4. When can this happen? — which set of hours it may use. On the phone this row is hidden until you have more than one schedule, because a picker with one option is a decision nobody has.
  5. Other settings — a disclosure holding Deadline (optional), Hard deadline (which appears once a deadline is set), Start later (optional), and a Repeats tickbox that opens the cadence builder

Then Schedule it — or Set up the repeat, if you ticked Repeats. Later sets it aside for the next once-over, Bin discards it. A progress bar counts the session; Pause leaves it mid-deck. Finishing shows All done. with a tally.

There are no keyboard shortcuts and no gestures. Every choice on the card is a button, and the same buttons at every width.

The honest version

You can set everything a task needs without leaving the deck, repeats included. Templates aren't offered here, though — applying one would overwrite the words you captured, and those are usually the bit you most want to keep.

Three exits, not two: Schedule, Bin and Later. Bin matters as much as Schedule, because half of what lands in an inbox turns out not to be a task, and a deck that can't reach zero is one nobody opens twice.

The once-over books its own slot

The nudge to do your once-over gets a slot on your calendar, so you can't swipe it away and forget.

Pick daily, weekly or monthly and Inbox once-over lands on your calendar in a gap that works, around your meetings. Miss it and it shuffles to the next one. A notification you swipe away is gone; this keeps coming back.

How to use it

The first run asks it on That was easy, wasn't it? — Daily and Weekly are marked Recommended and Weekly is pre-picked; Book my once-over books it, or pick Not now. After that: Settings → The once-over → Never, Daily, Weekly or Monthly → Save changes. Daily and Weekly carry a Recommended pill on the web and read "Daily (recommended)" / "Weekly (recommended)" in the iPhone's picker. It shows up under Repeating in Tasks, where you can move its hours, pause it or edit it like anything else. Never pauses it instead of deleting it, so you keep your history.

We recommend daily or weekly because jotting only works if the tapping through happens. Monthly is there for anyone who wants it, but a month of thoughts is a long deck.

The honest version

Miss a daily review and it just breaks the streak. Weekly and monthly ones roll forward until you do them. If daily rolled forward too, two weeks away would leave you fourteen of them queued up.

Undo a bin

Binned the wrong thing? Undo is right there.

How to use it

Undo shows up above the list. It's there as long as you stay on the page.

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