Focus Stack is an open-source, local-first daily prioritization app that helps users decide what matters today, stay focused, and review weekly patterns in a compact desktop-friendly experience with no account required.
Most productivity tools are good at capturing tasks but weak at helping people decide what actually matters today. Focus Stack is designed to solve that gap with a lightweight daily planning experience that emphasizes clarity, follow-through, and reflection instead of task-hoarding.
The product is intentionally small, calm, and private by default. It is meant to feel more like a precise utility app than a sprawling productivity suite.
- Local-first, no account required
- Open source from MVP onward
- Compact-first desktop experience, full-screen optional
- Fast daily planning, designed for under 5 minutes
- Explainable recommendations, always user-overridable
- No export requirement in MVP
- Privacy-conscious data controls, including local data clearing
- Zero-priority days allowed
Focus Stack helps users:
- Capture priorities quickly using natural language
- Turn draft items into structured Priority Cards
- Review carryover items from previous days
- Select what matters most today
- Run focus sessions with a built-in Focus Timer
- Complete a brief end-of-day check-in
- Review simple weekly trends and KPI-style summaries
Focus Stack uses an adapted Eisenhower-style prioritization model behind the scenes, but keeps the user-facing experience simple.
- Must do
- Should do
- Could do
- Do now
- Schedule
- Reconsider
- Deprioritize
Recommendations are based on factors such as importance, urgency, due date proximity, carryover, estimated effort, and user-defined weighting between importance and urgency.
The MVP includes:
- Welcome and minimal first-run setup
- Home screen for daily planning
- Priority Cards with editable detail view
- Focus Timer
- Trends view with KPI tiles and one weekly chart
- Settings with local data controls
- End-of-day check-in flow
The MVP does not include:
- Accounts or authentication
- Cloud sync
- Team collaboration
- Exporting
- Full project management workflows
- Heavy AI automation
Focus Stack uses a compact-first, ultra-modern desktop utility approach with:
- Soft off-white and sage-gray surfaces
- White cards and subtle borders
- Charcoal actions and restrained contrast
- Rounded panels and minimal shadows
- A calm, premium interface inspired by modern SaaS clarity without enterprise bloat
Focus Stack is initially designed for students, especially busy graduate students, but it is also intended to work well for employees, consultants, operators, and founders managing competing priorities.
All core MVP data is intended to live inside the app. The product is designed around local use, privacy, and low friction rather than account creation or cloud complexity.
Users should be able to control their data directly through Settings actions such as:
- Clear completed history
- Clear all local data
- Reset the app
Focus Stack is currently being defined and prototyped as a compact-first MVP.
TBD