Floutwork is an all-in-one desktop app designed to serve as a personal work system, offering a no-BS approach to getting real work done online.
Background: When I transitioned from a development role to a product management role, I realized there was no real organization or structure to the way I worked as a PM. Tasks I needed to complete were scattered across emails, Teams, meetings, etc. I was inundated with emails and found myself juggling multiple browser windows, numerous open tabs, and other desktop applications. This overwhelming situation made it clear that success in my new role hinged on being self-organized and focused. After reading the book "Deep Work" by Cal Newport, I recognized that my work habits were counterproductive to accomplishing meaningful work. After that, I delved further into the "focus and productivity" path, read more books on the subject, and decided to integrate these concepts and methodologies into a single app. I could have created a specialized tool that addressed only one or two problems, like many other apps out there, but I knew that building a single app designed to assist with the workflow from start to finish was the only way to eliminate as many distractions and friction points as possible. Honestly, I could've wrapped up development way sooner if I'd just tackled one issue. But what's the point if one part of my workflow rocks and the rest sucks?
What's the problem with modern work? You might be using a combination of a task manager and a calendar to track tasks. To work on a task, though, you probably bounce to your browser full of tabs. If you use desktop apps like Teams, Slack, or Discord, this bouncing back and forth becomes even worse because every link you click on opens in the browser. The real problem is when we jump to a browser full of tabs every time, we get distracted by all the tabs and get sidetracked, or our old habits kick in due to how our brains are now wired, and we start aimlessly browsing. This causes a lot of friction in our flow. This is one of the main reasons why people today are not able to focus or don't feel motivated to get work done. What usually takes 1 hour to complete can take up to 3 hours.
What's unique about Floutwork? Floutwork has an excellent task management system and a calendar view right next to it to intelligently show you when you can work on your tasks amidst your busy schedule. However, it goes beyond that and lets you pin your work apps right within Floutwork. Once you know you need to work on a task, you can quickly hop on to your web apps right within Floutwork and get that done, and then repeat. Every time you access a web app within Floutwork, any tabs you open within that app stay within that app, so you only get to see the tabs to get your current task done. This powerful flow cuts down all the distractions and friction points that come between tasks and work getting done.
Now that all your work can be consolidated into one unified system, you can access powerful tools in a distraction-free way to:
- Monitor your work habits
- Gamify your tasks
- Experience an immersive focus mode for tasks
- Open a command bar without losing your flow to open apps, links, tools, add tasks, ask ChatGPT, etc.
- Quickly take work notes in context
- Clean out your emails with a few clicks
- Access AI tools via ChatGPT meaningfully right within your flow
This app is designed for people in roles like PMs, freelancers, managers, admins, and marketers, where being self-organized online is crucial for success. I know the HN community has a lot of developers. While this app can offer some benefits to devs, it won't be a game-changer for your workflow, especially if you're primarily in VS Code or other desktop development tools most of the day.
I'd love to invite you all to try out the product and would appreciate hearing your feedback!
I discard immediately any subscription based app that doesn't provide a clear and useful service for / because of the subscription (as a side note, this is apparently not highlighted in any capacity in your website, and it seems to be you don't offer any kind of cloud related storage).
Before you say "but what's 5 bucks a month" well the reason for me saying no to 5 bucks a month is the same reason why you charge 5 bucks: You're looking at volume.
People needs to realize that by offering subscription only apps, they are competing in a very, very crowded market. Only those apps that offer a real value get a sustained subscription.
For the record, 5 bucks is more or less the same amount I pay in my country for the full set of Adobe apps, and half of what I pay for the full set of JetBrains tools (International price). The other two services I pay for are OpenAI and Github Copilot.
P.S.: In my opinion JetBrains offers the best subscription model there is, that is a "hybrid" model. It's subscription based, but if you paid a full year (Not calendar) you get the last version available for the calendar year which ends inside the period you paid (Or that is how I understand it).
It's interesting to hear what you pay for Adobe and JetBrains in your country. The JetBrains hybrid model is definitely worth exploring. Thanks for bringing it up.
It’s a constant reminder of how I’m not managing my work well enough by choosing efficient tools.
Imagine if you had to rent a hammer. Or a pencil.
> I do feel it is a bit hard to nail the best pricing model that works for everyone
I understand the reason for going with a subscription model, but in your case I think that works for you only, not for your users.
Argentina is a weird country.
Everytime I start lusting after a sweet young thing I ask: Is it local? Is it future-proof? Is it plaintext? Is it extensible by competent users? The answer is always no to one of them (unless it's basically also a text editor like Vim (shudder)), and the "heat" dissipates, and I "rejoice in the wife of my youth."
That's the biggest obstacle for me with these personal knowledge management apps. They're nice to use individually, but when I need to collaborate with someone, there's no way to delegate access—much less granular access.
I recently learned to love the unadorned emacs (no eVIl mode), and I can't believe I spun my gears in modal land for so long.
If I wasn't programming then I might be more interested in this but I need the full browser for my work and looking up docs or help on an error I'm getting doesn't seem like it'd play well with this. I do like the integrations with you calendar/agenda but it's just not for me.
Project White Rabbit: www.pwr.builders
1. (transitive) To express contempt for (laws, rules, etc.) by word or action.
2. (transitive, archaic) To scorn.
1. The act by which something is flouted; violation of a law.
2. A mockery or insult.
Congrats on launching and sharing! The idea of an integrated all-in-one solution is intriguing to me. So intriguing that over the last 10 years I've started various projects in a similar direction. Mostly focused on integrating calendars (multiple external calendars), tasks and notes within the same app. Lesser focus on web app integration or focus modes.
Combining calendar, tasks en notes within the same app is something that I have not found a good solution for. Most apps focus on only 1 aspect and lack in the others typically leading to having to use a separate app for each aspect, and then losing time and focus by context switching between apps.
A few years ago I wrote about my experiences in this space[1].
I'm curious to see how you have tackled this problem and how the integration between tasks/calendars (and notes?) works.
also: The "Learn more" link near the bottom does not go anywhere.
[1]: https://stevenvanbael.com/open-calendar-task-space-is-a-mess
I've been thinking my workflows in a similar way to you, but came to a different conclusion. What I need is an interface that ties together all the threads of a given task and puts them in one place.
Let's say that for a given "thing to get done" I have information stored in various locations: 1. multiple email threads in my inbox (sales, PO, ELT, etc). They are in various states: actionable by me, waiting for reply (to follow up by X date if none), paused until X date then actionable, etc. Threads change state as emails are exchanged. 2. multiple related chat windows (dev team, peers, support triage, etc) 3. a litter of notes, meeting minutes, random thoughts, rough drafts, bookmarks (to internal documents, related wikis, JIRA tickets, external web pages, meeting recordings, project plans). Note that I have boiled a lot of stuff down to this "notes" category - I use a notes app to store this all already even though the actual content is spread across multiple locations.
My ideal interface would embed all of this together.
Imagine the bastard child of OneNote, Outlook, and maybe Teams. To use OneNote terms: I add a Section for my "thing to do"; all the shit in #3 goes in a hierarchy of pages under it. In a page I can have the related email threads in an embedded mini-inbox widget - no more swapping to Outlook, no more bullshit with flags/folders etc. Same for related chat windows - a widget in the related section. State tracking and deadline/reminder/scheduling etc for everything.
Anyway I ramble. What you have built is very cool! But I don't want an app grid, I want my inbox and chats sharded across my structured notes in a way that I can organise and annotate.
From Floutwork's design perspective, the goal is to display only one thing to the user at a time. This is deliberate to maintain focus. When your eyes catch something, your mind starts paying attention to it, often without you realizing, leading to a loss of focus. This is why working in a browser full of tabs can be distracting. If your eyes wander, seeing an updated inbox count in another Gmail tab title can divert your attention, making you wonder who might have sent you an email. Imagine the friction points introduced into your workflow simply by seeing items that shouldn't demand your full attention. In Floutwork, when you're checking your emails, your Outlook or Gmail becomes the primary view commanding your full attention. Once you're done with that, you can easily switch your view and context to, let's say, a design project in Figma by clicking on the Figma icon in your sidebar. Now that becomes your full view. You don't have to worry about a cluttered desktop. For those rare cases where side-by-side viewing is needed, 'Split View' functionality is provided. Closing it returns you to your original view with just one click.
My problem is juggling all the balls in the air for a large number of in-progress tasks.
Presently my information landscape is split "vertically" by communication medium - here's all the email, here's all the chats, here's all the notes, here's the design projects, here's the slide decks, etc. What I want is rather to split it "horizontally" by task - here's everything related to task X.
People I have discussed this with have joked that what I need is a good Personal Assistant instead, haha. They have a point though.
emacs, org-roam, org-mode, org-attach, mu4e, are what I use to accomplish roughly what you describe.
But anyway, yeah. I have seen emacs power users and there is indeed cool stuff there. Don't know that I have the strength to invest to become a power user though.
- native or wrapper eg. Electron/Tauri
- what is your opinion of app adoption vs. web app
- what tool did you use to design? figma/paper?
I'm concerned about the name, fl out or flout (openly disregard?) didn't know that was a word huh.
Pricing might need to be broken out more eg. $5 seems too cheap.
native or wrapper eg. Electron/Tauri - Electron
what is your opinion of app adoption vs. web app - Could you clarify? Are you asking about Floutwork app adoption versus Floutwork as a web app, or are you referring to apps vs. web apps in general?
what tool did you use to design? figma/paper? - I used Figma
Did you go with web [desktop] app for a particular reason like MacOS user's pay more or something for an app?
Pricing might need to be broken out more eg. $5 seems too cheap. - Could you clarify this one as well? When you say the pricing needs to be 'broken out more,' do you mean offering additional pricing tiers or options?
I am not a successful business owner though so take this opinion lightly.
On the website (https://www.floutwork.com/), section "Focused on You, Not Your Data" there is a "Learn more" Link, which does nothing, in both FF and Chrome.
Indeed. It asks for admin permissions (why??), and then asks me to create an account. For an app Im using on my own machine.
No thanks. Uninstalled.
asks for admin permissions - The app doesn’t need special admin permissions. However, there might rules in your OS that require admin permission to install any software.
Signed a Linux "user".
But again no workflow. A good client understands and if necessary forces you to do the next thing. Say a mail has a web link. The sensible thing to do would be to store a fullpage screenshot with the email because web pages evaporate. Doing this with tools not designed for that specifically is so much work you shouldn't even bother to try it.
You want to reply? NO, YES, YES but not now. Then it should show up in the todo list. If the todo item only lives in "draft emails" it will get lost.
What I like so far - per-app tabs, great to keep my current browser from being unnavigable, ability to add other apps using different logins, so I can share a multi-login set of tabs in one system rather than having different personas or multiple browsers. I know a lot of this can be done with a bit of effort manually, but it's just 'nice' to have it there for you.
What I don't like - sluggish start/load time. Lack of clarity about the built-in apps and how they connect to anything else you're running. The bookmarks function I haven't got my head around yet.
Quick summary of some key capabilities: You can select any text in any web app, right-click, and add it to your tasks or notes. Imagine reading an email or a message on Slack or LinkedIn that you want to follow up on; this feature can come in handy without requiring you to switch contexts or lose your flow. You also have the option to capture a screenshot and the current URL when adding a task or note, providing complete context for future reference. This context is stored in your task notes for tasks and right along with your note in the case of notes. The same goes for links or tabs; you can right-click to add them to your bookmarks. We often receive numerous links via email, Slack, etc. You can easily right-click on those links to add them to your bookmarks, organized by tags, without leaving your flow. These improvements significantly reduce the friction associated with context-switching.
Additionally, you can open the command bar and start typing the bookmark name, then press Enter to quickly access it. Pressing SHIFT+ENTER on the bookmark or any typed URL will automatically open it in split view.
The premise isn't ambitious enough, the use cases seem thin, and the lack of marketing pop reflects a lack of distinct USP. But, I'm encouraged to see someone trying technically ambitious work like this because its barking up the right tree.
Long version:
It seems like your value prop is possibly about how various workflows are organized vis-a-vis each other, but that really doesn't come through in your marketing. Rethinking the info architecture and organization of information in support of more efficient and focused workflows is a promising place to go but everything in the screenshots shows me things I've already seen. Each of the items in your marketing had me going 'I already have something for that, and this is probably way worse'.
I'm not seeing ideas in here yet that are sufficient to consider worthy of the technical challenge you've undertaken - that is, an environment where you have complete control over apps.
For instance, app grids are terrible, even the notion of apps is terrible because apps have their own distractions and workflows span apps. I'd expect something that sits at a layer below (web)apps to be able to do something about that, like extract useful things from apps without showing me the whole app. You need to flex your unique position with product approaches like this.
The main idea I'm seeing besides organizing is the time/task system. This looks a bit like single player Clockwise [1] and raises more questions than it answers. The main concern I have with this is that any auto-schedule is going to be rather rigid and force me to babysit it to meet my expectations. The real test of systems managing our time is how adaptable they are to the uncertainties life throws at us, not the creation of rigid work plans. In this case it would be good to shift your marketing (& product) to how your product adapts to various scenarios and use cases in the user's life, rather than presenting an idealized way of working that users have to adapt to.
For whatever it's worth I've done some thinking around organizing OSes differently in my Spaces concept [2] and I'd guess you're probably aware of MercuryOS [3] ideas. Both of those start from premises far different than our current paradigm and show the implications of how organizing information differently creates unexpected new ways to use our devices. I would encourage a similar level of ambitious premise to justify this level of technical undertaking. Glad you're in the arena doing this work though, as the technical undertaking creates the opportunity for more ambitious ideas to be possible.
[1]: https://www.getclockwise.com
My main go to market concern is that by requiring users adopt a whole new approach to work in order to get value out of your solution you're limiting your market to those most willing to adopt new workflows. These users tend to be 'productivity tourists' that may churn faster than you expect, while users beyond these are likely to demand a much higher level of product quality to match the level of commitment required and that will be hard to achieve across the spectrum of features you offer [1].
To reach a broader market or possibly even sustainable side project income I believe you'll have to demonstrate value at each step of commitment, from 'I like it for one thing' to 'I'm all in baby!' and everywhere between. This requires really thinking about how to reconfigure the product around incremental value propositions.
My sense is as you go down this road you'll find your approach shifting (and possibly pivoting?) from a holistic workflow to diving deep on specific features that get people onboard, but that's just my guess.
I do think extracting useful bits from webpages and bringing them up in the appropriate context is a great area to focus on, and can be a feature that demonstrates value quickly to a wider audience. Some examples:
A. On a given workstream I'm waiting for Julia to message me. I don't want to see anything else from Slack, Figma, email, github, or whatever, all of which break my flow. Ideally I communicate to the system at a high level that this workstream is blocked on Julia, and it figures out the rest: A) that it should look for any contact or notifications from Julia and present them here, B) that if I do not hear anything back for a certain time I may get a reminder to bug her again, C) that the entirety of the workstream does not have to enter my 'executive purview' until this blocker is released or unless a period of time has passed.
B. On a Discord about an app I like, I want to know if anyone is talking about 'better autocomplete', a particular feature I want. I tell the system 'let me know when someone mentions this so I can jump in the discussion'. The system has discord running in the background, scanning channels until this hits, and delivers me a notification.
The theory behind this is that our attention and the rules about things that matter to us need to be defined at the OS-level where our executive function lies, where all rules can be weighed against each other, and where major categories of our lives can be properly compartmentalized.
Push notifications are insufficient for this because they are at the wrong layer: apps have no idea what matters to us or what else is going on in our lives, so they're a combination of too chatty and off the mark wrt the things we care about. Plus each one has different settings and notification capabilities.
Instead we need what amount to 'Pull notifications' so we can be freed of the need to check on various contexts and can fully let them go from our mind. But this requires a system sufficiently powerful enough to mimic the human-like gestalt understanding of what's actually happening in any given context [2]. AI is the enabling technology to do this and unlocks these kinds of use cases. It lets us unbundle interfaces & value from messy, anachronistic, and sometimes user-hostile apps. This is so powerful.
From a product-direction perspective I think that's the most compelling use case to explore at your stage, because
a) its novel & useful,
b) its useful even if used minimally,
c) it provides a path toward greater user commitment,
d) its easy to communicate to the market,
e) it opens up a bigger market of potential users,
f) it lets you continue the deeper Floutwork orchestration ideas you've started with, so it's not abandoning your motivation, hard work, and journey building this.
In particular, the work is to identify a host of use cases like the above where users can make high-level asks for things and you build smart assumptions for the system to solve those use cases. This is only possible if there's an orchestration layer / 'executive purview' to manage all of these drags on your attention. And you've built the groundwork for that with Floutwork! I hope you seize the opportunity :)
[1]: This is the classic 'well-integrated but not great' vs 'best-in-class but only does one thing' bundle/unbundle schism in tech.
[2]: e.g. we see things from the top-down, whereas traditional 'extract things from webpages' sees them from divs on up, which cannot solve most important use cases.
This statement has no bearing or reflection on any potential security implications re: this particular software (whether they may or may not exist)—- it’s just a general statement that this type of software could be put under the microscope in a corporate environment and potential users should be aware of that..
Right no it's too much to digest, it feels heavy and like I need to learn a whole new way of working. It is not clear to me what problem or massive pain point you are solving for me. Remember, you are asking me to spend time trying, learning and using a new tool, sell me on why I can't go on another day without doing that.
You've built a ton of value, more is not always better. Simplify and make it stupidly easy to understand.
Congrats and good luck.
Interesting concept, but I would focus on the integration part instead of trying to reinvent the browser, todo list and notes apps - these already exist, and just glancing at them, already know they won't replace my existing apps.
You'll never be as feature rich as Notion or keep up with any modern browser (I didn't see bookmarklets or extension support)
Also, the app is extremely sluggish, it takes almost 10 seconds to launch on my M1 air and upwards of 5 seconds to load Notes (with only 3 total notes), and there is considerable lag doing anything.
IMHO, this directly add credibility to a product because "you're sure of your product so you're not trying to trick me".
I don't need it now but might need it in the future.
There might be a few mistakes in your privacy policy ("chilrdren"), but it's quite complete!
Though part of me just wants to say "Nice, you've just reinvented Emacs Org-mode". Of course, Org-mode probably isn't for everyone.
Good luck with this project!
The always visible tasks + calendar and the auto scheduling worth the price.
In the past I tried to create a similar setup on my emacs without much success, where tasks could be easily timeblocked in a view like this.
For auto scheduling, I crafted a ChatGPT prompt reliable enough to adjust my calendar a couple times per day.
Just another way of saying that I tried to implement myself what you elegantly did in your app.
It would also be nice to have more info about the integrated mail client, does it support IMAP/SMTP, and/or Exchange servers?
Floutwork does have a built-in email app, but its primary role is to supplement your main email client, not replace it. It currently makes it easy to clear out high volumes of emails with just a few clicks and can be used for sending quick replies. Over time, I plan to develop a richer experience that could serve as a replacement for your primary email client. The email app supports Gmail and Outlook.
PS I misread “gamify your work” as “calmify…” and rather liked it. We’re all after some sense of flow.
Granted I haven’t used station in maybe 4-5 years so I have no idea what’s changed or what the landscape looks like in this niche of software..
In a couple of sentences- why should we care about Floutwork?
On pricing I would want to download 7 day trial, then purchase that version and buy upgrades. It’s no bs pricing for your no bs desktop.
Pricing has been a hot topic, and I'm definitely considering more options soon. Thank you!
If you're on a web page and find something worth following up on, you can select the text, right-click, and choose "Add Task," optionally setting a time like "Tomorrow" or "Next week." Alternatively, you can select "Add Task with Screenshot" to capture the current view and URL for future reference. The same can be done by right-clicking any open tab, allowing you to close it and remove it from your view until you're ready to revisit the task.
Another way to add tasks without losing focus is to click the tasks icon at the top-right corner of any web app to open a side view. Here, you can quickly add multiple tasks and then close the Split View.
The goal is to make task creation simple and focus-friendly, enabling you to get tasks out of your head while maintaining your current activity so I wanted to provide a few different options within the app. Do you think this approach would be helpful for you?
Looks really interesting and will check it out.
Good work, keep it up
My previous post: I posted about this product at the beginning of the year, but it was still very rudimentary and I didn't give any background on my post. I received a lot of feedback from the HN community and implemented some much-discussed topics like 1.) Dedicated focus mode. 2.) Smooth onboarding. 3.) Dark Mode. 4.) Ability to download all your data. 5.) Upfront pricing. I greatly value the HN's insights!
There are great screenshots of the app in the landing page: https://www.floutwork.com
1. Font size in tasks to small for those of us with challenged eyes/big monitors. Don't see anywhere to be able to adjust it. 2. Notes - I am pretty locked in to note taking in Logseq with tags in notes, outlining, bidirectional linking, etc. My whole life revolves around notes that way including tasks, custom queries, etc. A lot of people are using this style of Markdown note taking on a variety of applications. I love all the functionality in this, but would for me an app like this with apps included that wraps around the note taking function would be good. 3. Only one gmail account. I tried to add another gmail to it, but couldn't see how. I am also using Spark for email which has a unified inbox for my 5 email accounts. I may be an outlier, but suspect a lot of folks have work and personal. Looks like I can have more than one calendar, but not email. 4. Search across email, calendars, tasks, notes, etc.
That's what I found with a first glance. I've used other similar apps, but I really like your focus on productivity, but for me, it just isn't a fit.
If you have questions or comments about my notes I'm happy to answer, but keep up the great work. This will be a perfect solution for a good number of folks.
Grouping browser tabs is of course already handled by browsers, or you can use a window manager like i3, with the added bonus that i3 tabbed containers aren't limited to putting only browser windows in the tabs, but can include native application windows too.
The ability to add links to anything in your to do list I get from Emacs's Org mode —and probably even better than what is shown in the demo gifs: there you see adding a task from a sentence in an email, but it doesn't look like that also stores what email it came from, in Org mode you can easily set things up so that kind of that context is tracked automatically for you.
What really made me think is the Paste Calendar Availability feature! I need that all the time and it had never occurred to me to automate it.
Invariably all in one products fall behind as new capabilities are needed as the user base grows and their needs evolve. Integrating new functions gets harder and harder. What I’d like to see is a graphical version of the Unix philosophy of making it easier to connect together programs, each of which handles one kind of thing, with a “shell” around them. May be come up with a richer, self describing data structure to interconnect these apps.
E: was answered here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37920591