Narrow

I was addicted to making the list, not doing it

Stop managing your list. Start finishing it.

Narrow empties your brain, cuts the noise, and hands you 3–5 things that actually matter — today.

Start Doing →Read the story
overwhelm
Yesterday's list47 open
  • ◻Reply to Marcus
  • ◻Fix broken staging deploy
  • ◻Draft Q3 planning doc overdue
  • ◻Review PR #482
  • ◻Update onboarding copy
  • ◻Book dentist overdue
  • ◻Reorganize Notion
  • ◻Migrate old tags
  • ◻Follow up with Sarah re: contract
  • ◻Read that Stripe article (bookmarked 6mo ago)
  • ◻Refactor the auth middleware
  • ◻Buy new headphones
  • ◻Someday: learn Rust
  • ◻Someday: write that essay
  • ◻+ 33 more…
↓
Today
Budget: 4.5h
  • Pricing page|~2.5 hrs
  • Onboarding flow|~1.5 hrs
  • Reply to Sarah|~.5 hrs
That's it. Go.

Why this exists

For years, I jumped from tool to tool for task management. Trello, Todoist, Notion, pen and paper, a blank Google Doc — nothing stuck.

Each one got overloaded. I'd get overwhelmed, end up with a long list of rotting tasks, and start over again — burning hours rebuilding my list from scratch or learning a new tool.

I was addicted to making the list, not doing it.

Painting of a person overwhelmed at a cluttered desk

Eventually I stopped trying to manage a system at all. I'd just open a blank doc with 3–5 tasks for the day. A short list, a clean screen, no ceremony.

This worked — until I had 79 Google Docs titled "Today" and no way to track the backlog behind them.

What I actually needed:

  • A place to dump tasks and ideas the second they hit my brain
  • A way to turn that mess into a handful of fully-formed, deadlined tasks
  • An AI brain to help narrow it all down to what's worth doing today
  • A distraction-free page for actually doing the work — not planning it

Endless to-do lists leave you stuck and burned out. Finishing 3–5 things a day builds real momentum.

So I built Narrow.

Painting of a person smiling calmly while working at their laptop

It's just 5 tabs:

  • Bucket — dump anything, anytime. Get it out of your head, no formatting required.
  • Live — the tasks that made the cut. Fully formed, frictionless, ready to act on — nothing sits here and rots.
  • Today — your distraction-free list for today, built for doing, not planning. AI helps you build this list each morning; 3–5 items instead of 20.
  • Done — everything you finished. A quiet log that adds up — great for a yearly look back at what you actually did.
  • Velocity — simple stats on your patterns and pace, enough to build momentum without turning into another dashboard to obsess over.

I built this for myself and have used it for months — made hundreds of tweaks, and it's the first system I've used every single day without falling off.

If your list keeps growing, your brain keeps needing to be emptied out, and you want something clean and underwhelming that helps you get out of your own way — this might be for you too.

A few friends asked for access. Now it's public.

Clear the noise and tackle your 3–5 tasks per day.

Try it free for 7 days. Then $9/month.

The solution

Narrow: 5 simple parts.

  1. Bucket

    Dump anything, anytime. Get it out of your head — no formatting, no ceremony.

  2. Live

    The tasks that made the cut. Fully formed, deadlined, ready to act on.

  3. Today

    3–5 items, built for doing. AI helps you narrow the list each morning.

  4. Done

    A quiet log of everything you finished. Momentum you can look back on.

  5. Velocity

    Simple stats on your pace and patterns. Enough signal, no dashboard obsession.

The philosophy

Most task tools and to-do lists don't work

We live in a world built to distract us. Notifications, tabs, threads, bookmarks, half-read articles, ideas jotted on scraps — the noise never stops. Most task tools become another place to dump that noise. You add, add, add, and suddenly your “to-do” list is a graveyard of 47 things you’ll never do, making you feel behind before you start.

Narrow works like meal prep.

  1. Bucket

    Your freezer. It catches everything — raw ideas, reminders, obligations, random tasks — and holds them until they're ready. Nothing rots on the counter; nothing takes up space in your brain.

  2. Triage

    When you pull something out of the freezer and cook it. You give it a due date, an estimate, a category. Now it's a real task, not a vague worry.

  3. Live

    Your fridge. These are the meals ready to eat in the coming days — fully formed, scheduled, waiting for the right moment.

  4. Today

    Your plate. Not twenty things. Three to five. A handful of tasks you can actually finish, like a few healthy meals throughout the day.

The goal isn't to do more. It's to do the right things, finish them, and stop carrying the rest around in your head.

FAQ

Common questions.

Where does Narrow live?

It works in your browser, on any device. No install required. A mobile app is coming soon. Built on a clean, modern web stack so it stays fast and transparent.

Do I need to use it every single day?

No — it's built around a daily rhythm. Miss a day and nothing breaks; your Bucket just holds what you haven't triaged yet, waiting whenever you're ready. It attempts to be the perfect balance between structure (because the world doesn't wait) and flexibility (because you're human), while reducing "to-do list management." Just open it up and get to work.

How much does it cost?

$9/month after a 7-day free trial. No credit card required to start. Cancel anytime from Settings.

Is my data private?

Yes. Your data is protected by row-level security, encrypted in transit and at rest, and never sold. Payments are handled by Paddle as the merchant of record.

What makes Narrow different from other task apps?

It isn't a list-manager. It gives you 3–5 fully-formed, deadlined tasks each day, with a workflow that keeps you doing rather than organizing.