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Design case study · Untwine

Make room forthe hard part.

A calm to-do list for the tasks that feel hard.

Each part starts as untwine.cc tells it. Then I take it apart.

1person, design and code

ways to say what’s hard
11
offers, every one written
30
analytics
0

iPhone · iPad · Mac · Apple Watch · web

untwine.cc

Some tasks sit there for months. Not because you forgot. Because they feel hard.

01The premise

A task can be low-effort and terrifying.

So how hard a task feels is its own setting, beside priority and effort. It reads as weather, never an alarm red.

Call the insurance companyEffort: Tiny · Under 5 minutesTerrifying
Effort
Scary level

Terrifying · Feels extremely difficult to face. Shape, colour and name change together.

untwine.cc

Ordinary on purpose.

  • Today
  • Upcoming
  • Inbox
  • Projects
  • Due dates
  • Reminders
  • Repeats
  • Subtasks
  • Priority
  • Effort
  • Quick add
  • Voice capture
  • Search
  • Widgets
  • Private iCloud sync

02A task app first

One rule, said twice.

Buying milk is never asked how it feels.
The product page
Buying milk does not need a therapeutic exercise.
The spec, §2.1

untwine.cc

When a task feels heavy.

  1. 01 / 04

    Open a task. There is one more door.

  2. 02 / 04

    Name what feels hard.

  3. 03 / 04

    Three things you could actually do.

  4. 04 / 04

    Stopping is a real answer.

A task, Write the release notes for 1.4, with its steps and chips, and at the foot one quiet line: Something about this feels hard?What feels hardest about this task? A list to choose from: I’m afraid of the outcome, I feel ashamed, I don’t know where to begin, and more.Three things you could do: List the questions you cannot answer yet. Find the one thing you would need first. Write it without sending it.Looking back: Everything, Completed and Set aside as equal tabs, with finished and set-aside tasks in one list.

03Untwine this task

Four screenshots sell it. Here it runs.

The first version was six steps of writing before it gave anything back. It became one screen. Every word below is the app’s.

Ask Sam for honest feedback on the portfolio

What feels hardest about this task?

Choose as many as fit. You can skip this.

  • One option per line.Statements about a feeling read down a column, not as a cloud of tags.
  • Nothing tapped: the gentlest deck.The last thing you tap fills two of the three slots, so every tap changes something.
  • Stopping is never below the fold.Say you’re exhausted or grieving and the two stops move above the things to do.
  • Actions, almost never interpretations.“Open it, then close it again” can’t be wrong about your inner life. A guess can.
A proposal can be wrong in a way a question cannot. A miss reads as a fortune cookie.
From the redesign notes, July 2026

untwine.cc

Done.
Set aside.

Same size · same ring · same weight

04Two endings

Neither is the failure of the other.

Same motion, same haptic, paired verbs. Letting go never marks a task done.

 

Both endings draw the same swan. It says you finished, never which way.

untwine.cc

Your day is built.

Today

 

MorningUntil noon
DayNoon to 5 PM
EveningAfter 5 PM

Calm lines for a built morning.

One a day, picked from the date. No praise, no numbers.

Monday, Nov 9Your morning routine is done.

  1. 01Morning habits done.
  2. 02Morning habits accomplished.
  3. 03All your morning habits, done.
  4. 04That's your morning taken care of.
  5. 05Morning handled.
  6. 06Your morning, all done.
  7. 07Morning wrapped up.
  8. 08Morning habits, all in.
  9. 09The morning is set.
  10. 10Done for this morning.
  11. 11Morning habits complete.
  12. 12Every morning habit is in.
  13. 13Your morning routine is done.
  14. 14Morning: all done.
  15. 15That's the morning done.
  16. 16All morning habits ticked.

Never in any linestreakmissednot doneleftbehindoverdue%

My note, round 5

“Scrolling feels a bit rough sometimes.”

A resting finger pressed a tile, and it shrank under you. Now tiles dim. Rest a finger, then scroll.

Before: it shrinksscale 0.92, edges move under the finger
Kept: it dimsopacity 0.6, nothing moves

untwine.cc

Give your hours a gentle shape.

Focus is your week as time blocks on one timeline.

06Focus

On the Mac, a block is one drag.

Press on free time and pull. It snaps to the quarter hour. (On iPhone, a tap or a hold.)

How Focus is built →
Today

Press on free time and pull.

Plan the day9:00 – 9:30 AM
Deep work12:00 – 1:30 PM

The hold is the confirmation.

Ending early takes a 1.2-second hold, not a dialog. When time runs out, Done and Leave it open weigh the same.

Focusing

Deep work: Studio release notes

24:10

untwine.cc

Wherever you work.

07Everywhere

The same rules, native on each.

The Mac is its own shell, not a stretched phone.

Untwine for Mac, Today: a sidebar of places and projects beside tasks grouped by project.

A sidebar, not a stretched phone.

Every place sits on ⌘1 to ⌘6, and hover is a faint wash, so the pointer always knows what it’s over.

  • Quick add on the Mac with a reminder set, and a note that reminders are off for Untwine.
    A reminder that tells the truthWith notifications off, it says so: “this one will stay quiet.”
  • Voice capture on the Mac: three heard tasks, each ticked, with chips to correct before adding.
    Nothing added until you say soSpoken tasks arrive ticked. Nothing is added until you click Add.
  • A deleted task leaving the list, with a small “Task deleted · Undo” banner at the lower left.
    Undo, not “Are you sure?”A deleted row leaves at once. The real delete waits for the banner.
  • iPhone and iPadThe whole app, in your hand.
  • Apple WatchThirty seconds on the wrist. The phone transcribes.
  • The webNow in any browser, at app.untwine.cc.

untwine.cc

No streaks. No score.

08What I turned down

Each no kept a promise.

  1. A six-step reflectionOne screen.
  2. Streaks, scores, overdue pilesStates, never counts.
  3. The swan as a rewardThe mark shows where you are, never how you did.
  4. “Are you sure?” before a deleteIt goes at once, with an Undo.
  5. Generated adviceEvery offer is written by hand.

untwine.cc

No analytics.

09What I don’t know

There, a promise. Here, a limit.

So there’s no usage curve here. With consented research, I’d ask these first.

  1. 01Do people read “how hard it feels” as separate from effort?
  2. 02Does stopping feel as available as doing?
  3. 03Under a real finger, is a dim enough to say a tile was pressed?

Try it.

On iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and on the web.

App Store ↗Open the web app ↗untwine.cc ↗

Calm on the surface. Paddling like mad underneath.

Graceful is not the same as effortless.

The mark is one line: the tangle it shipped with, untwined.