Why another to-do app?
patio was born out of my desire to convert my paper-based to-do system into a more accessible and efficient tool. The paper system I had been using was very simple—take a sheet of paper and brain-dump all of the things I needed to get done onto it. Items I finished would be crossed off, and items that I hadn’t would remain; the next day, my unfinished items from the day before would be already on my list, and I could amend it with more items as needed.
I also kept a second list of what I had been calling “bumps” (now called “shifts” in patio); these items were those which I wasn’t ready to deal with now, but needed to remember for later on, whether that be a day, week, or month from now.
patio is this paper system, re-imagined into a minimalist web app—I can add items, complete items, shift items, using just my browser. My list is available on any machine, and I don’t need to remember to grab my pen and paper when I go out. I can also easily add new to-dos using SMS (a feature that I’ll be launching in a few weeks [hopefully!]).
So, why did I build another to-do app, when the market is already ultra-saturated? Because nothing available fit my needs, so I built something that did. In the spirit of sharing, I decided to open the system up to everyone, just in case someone else finds it as useful as I do.
Kyle
March 8, 2009
