Stories from our community

I bike to the library most days and I really don't like carrying my laptop with me. For a while I was using Google Docs on the library computers, but honestly it was annoying — logging into my Google account every time, logging out when I'm done, and always worrying I forgot to sign out and left my whole account exposed on a public machine.

With Merge Planner I just open the website on whatever computer is free, scan the QR code with my phone, and I'm in. No typing passwords on a shared keyboard. All my notes, tasks, and exam goals are right there, synced from my phone. And even if I forget to log out, I can just check active sessions on my phone and sign out remotely whenever I want. That peace of mind alone was worth the switch.

It's honestly changed how I study. I break my exam prep into weekly goals, check things off as I go, and I can see exactly where I stand. Everything lives in one place instead of being scattered across five different apps.

I always thought I was pretty consistent with my habits. I go to the gym, I oil my hair a couple times a week, I meditate before bed. If you'd asked me, I would've told you I was doing great — felt like I was hitting the gym all the time and keeping up with everything else too.

Then I started tracking all of it with Streaks. After the first month I looked at the numbers and honestly it was a bit of a wake-up call. I'd been to the gym maybe 8 times the whole month — way less than I thought. Meditation was even worse, like twice a week at best. It's funny how your brain tricks you into thinking you're doing more than you are.

But that's what got me to actually commit. By the second month I was checking off streaks every day and trying not to break the chain. I went from 8 gym sessions to 18. Meditation went from random to almost every night. Just seeing the streaks build up made me want to keep going. Sometimes you just need to see the truth before you can change it.

Running a startup means my to-do list is basically endless. I used to have everything in one giant list — investor follow-ups mixed in with "book anniversary dinner." It was a mess and honestly my wife was not impressed when I kept forgetting things.

Spaces fixed that for me. I have one space for the startup where I can see what everyone on the team is working on, check progress, and make sure nothing is slipping. Then I switch to my personal space and it's a completely different world — date nights, trips we're planning, stuff around the house. No work tasks bleeding in, no stress.

It sounds simple but having that clean separation made a huge difference. When I'm in work mode I'm fully in it, and when I close that space and open the personal one, my brain actually switches off from work. My wife even started adding things to our shared space which is honestly the best part.

With ADHD my brain is all over the place, and for the longest time my apps were too. I had one app for tasks, another for notes, a separate one for grocery lists, a habit tracker, a calendar thing — you get the idea. Half the time I couldn't even remember which app I put something in. The irony of needing an app to manage all my apps was not lost on me.

A friend told me to try Merge Planner and honestly I was skeptical because I'd tried "all-in-one" apps before and they were always bloated and overwhelming. But this one just clicked. Tasks, notes, grocery lists, goals, streaks — it's all there but it doesn't feel like too much. I open the app and I know exactly where everything is.

For someone whose brain fights them on organization every single day, having one place to go instead of six is genuinely life-changing. I'm not exaggerating. I actually follow through on things now because the friction of switching between apps used to be enough to make me give up entirely.

This is going to sound small but the daily quote thing actually got me. I open the app every morning and there's a quote waiting for me. Some days it's exactly what I needed to hear, some days I just read it and move on. But it became this little ritual that sets the tone for my day before I even look at my tasks.

From there I usually check my grocery list — I like to plan what I'm cooking for the week on Sunday nights and just check things off when I shop. Then I'll flip through my notes because I tend to jot down random ideas throughout the day and I like reviewing them in the morning with fresh eyes. Half of them are terrible, but every now and then there's something good in there.

I never thought I'd be someone who sticks with a productivity app longer than two weeks but it's been months now. I think it's because it doesn't feel like a productivity app — it just feels like where my stuff lives.