How it works
Write it down as vague as it is.
Everything on your mind belongs in one place: the things you could do today, and the things you don't know how to start yet. A todo list only takes the first kind. unnotable takes both.
Free. Every feature, for everyone.
journal · day one
Wrote it out. Mostly it's the course backlog hanging over me — I keep promising myself the weekend and it never happens. And email guilt, though half of that is newsletters I never actually read.
journal · two weeks later
Two weeks on: caught up on the course, inbox is quiet. It was never twenty things — it was two, and one of them was noise.
Why it exists
Surface thought, no analysis, repeat.
Most of what's on your mind isn't a task. It's a worry with no first step: why do I feel constantly behind? A todo list has nowhere to put that, so it stays in your head, comes back at 2am, and never gets any closer to an answer.
unnotable started from one observation. Nearly every note is one of three things: a thought to sit with, a thing to do, or a thing to find out. And the useful move is descending from the first into the other two.
So write the vague thing down. Come back when you have a moment and write a bit more. Lift the loose ends out of what you wrote. Do that a few times and a feeling turns into a problem small enough to move.
- Think
A thought to sit with.
A flag, not a task. No analysis yet; something to come back to.
“Why do I feel constantly behind?”
- Action
A thing to do.
Plain. Has a tick box. Drops out of the list when it’s done.
“Block Saturday morning for the course backlog”
- Research
A thing to find out.
Something you don’t know yet and need to, before the thought can move.
“How do other people deal with this?”
And Scratch for anything you haven't decided about yet. Most captures start there.
How it works
Four moves. No setup.
Capture asserts nothing.
One box. Type the thought and it's saved. No folder, no template, no
kind to pick first. Start with ! and it's a thing to do,
? a thing to find out, * a thought to sit with.
Nothing, and it's scratch: sorted later, or never. Type
@house anywhere and it's filed
under the topic.
Saved as
Block Saturday morning for the course backlog
- *
- Think a thought to sit with
- !
- Action a thing to do
- ?
- Research a thing to find out
- nothing
- Scratch undecided, sorted later
The note is the handle. The thread is you thinking about it.
A note is one line. Under it, a thread: a paragraph today, a braindump next week, a conclusion a month on. When you lift a loose end out of what you wrote, the new note stays attached to that entry. Open a note a year later and read, top to bottom, why it exists and what came of it.
Why do I feel constantly behind?
journal · day one
Wrote it out. Mostly it's the course backlog hanging over me — I keep promising myself the weekend and it never happens. And email guilt, though half of that is newsletters I never actually read.
- Block Saturday morning for the course backlog Action
- How do other people deal with this? Research
- Things that might be stopping me getting ahead Think
journal · two weeks later
Two weeks on: caught up on the course, inbox is quiet. It was never twenty things — it was two, and one of them was noise.
It's a checklist, too.
Not everything needs writing out. Errands and reminders go in the same box: start with ! and they're plain todo items, there to be ticked off. Every note has the tick box, whatever its kind. Ticked-off notes drop out of the list, out of the way and never deleted.
- Action
Renew the car registration
today @house - Action
Book the dentist
yesterday - Action
Return the library books
2 days ago @house - Action
Chase the electrician about the quote
3 days ago @house
It comes back to you. It never nags.
On a train, in a queue, open Review and what's been waiting resurfaces, with a question rather than a badge. It notices what's gone stale and what you keep flinching away from. Work through as much as you feel like, then leave.
- Nothing is red.
- No counters, no streaks, no overdue tally.
- A month late scores exactly what a day late scores.
- Dates say “3 days ago”, never “overdue”.
waiting · untouched for 12 days
You haven't touched this in 12 days — is it resolved, not actually important, or just heavy? Worth two minutes?
Views
Every view is a lens over the same notes.
A flat list. The outline, with notes unfolded under their parents. A calendar of what you captured, or what's due. A kanban with a column for each topic. A board that runs from last to later, with what got done greyed where it was planned. Filter any of them and save it as a tab.
Last 2
Now 1
Next 1
Later 1
Block Saturday morning for the course backlog
Email the course provider about the refund
waits on 1
How do other people deal with this?
Things that might be stopping me getting ahead
Unsubscribe from the newsletters I never read
The AI proposes. You commit.
Chat with a note when you're stuck. When the conversation gets somewhere, resolve it: the conclusion lands on the thread as a comment, and anything it turned up waits as a draft.
Connect Claude, or anything else that speaks MCP. It can read your notes and propose changes. Nothing lands until you've looked at it under Proposals and committed it yourself.
The line is deliberate. If the model did the descent for you, you'd get a tidy tree you don't believe in. It can ask whether three notes about sleep are one problem. Answering is yours.
Proposal
From Claude · 3 changes
- + Action Email the course provider about the refund
new, under Why do I feel constantly behind? · @courses
- ~ Think Why do I feel constantly behind?
add topic @energy
- +
comment on Things that might be stopping me getting ahead
Sleep came up in three notes this month. Is that one problem rather than three?
Also
-
Topics as you type
@piano, @work, @house. Type one anywhere in a note and it’s filed. A note can be in several.
-
Due dates that don’t shout
Sort by them, see them on the calendar, hide a note until it’s relevant. They never turn red.
-
Waits on
Draw an arrow between two cards on the board and the first shows as waiting on the second.
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Sixteen themes
Paper, Forest, Nord, Typewriter, Newsprint, Terminal… each in light and dark.
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A stand-up
A conversation over everything you’ve written lately. It asks, you talk, and it writes down what you said.
-
Yours
Every read and write runs as your own account, the AI’s included. Nothing leaves unless you connect an app.
Plans
Free. Support it if you like.
Everything in unnotable is free, for everyone. If you’re feeling generous, $5 a month helps pay for the hosting and the AI.
-
Free
$0
The whole app, for everyone.
- Unlimited notes and topics
- Every view: board, kanban, calendar, outline and list
- Review, with no counters and nothing red
- Chat, smart add and the stand-up, with a daily allowance
- Connect Claude and other MCP apps
- Every theme, light and dark
-
Supporter
$5 a month
Optional. If you’re feeling generous.
- The same app. Nothing is locked.
- Pays for the hosting, and for the AI every time it runs
- Your feature requests, personally considered
Stop supporting any time. Nothing changes in the app either way, and your notes stay yours.
Coming from somewhere else?
Write the vague thing down.
Then come back to it when you have a moment. That's the whole method.
Get started