Things

I keep coming back to products that do one quiet job well. Things came from that instinct.

The idea is simple: sometimes you do not need a giant productivity system. You do not need a kanban board, a second brain, or an app trying to become your lifestyle. Sometimes you just need somewhere to put the thing currently bouncing around in your head before it disappears.

A reminder. A half-plan. A person to call. A place to check out. A tiny promise to your future self.

So I made a small iPhone app where a “thing” gets a name, a date, optional tags, and the ability to be starred if it matters more than the rest. Swipe left and it’s done. Completed items don’t vanish either — they move into their own searchable space, which I like because it makes the app feel less like a void and more like a trail of closed loops.

What I enjoy most about this project is the restraint. I wasn’t trying to build an empire. I was trying to make something that feels light in the hand and light in the mind. Open it, capture the thought, move on. No ceremony. No productivity guilt. Just enough structure to make it easy to find later.

It’s also a very native little app in a way I find satisfying. SwiftUI, no third-party dependencies, persistence through UserDefaults, and even parts of the Xcode setup are generated by scripts. Slightly obsessive, yes. But in a good side-project way.

I think that’s the real pattern underneath it. I like tools that reduce mental clutter without asking for too much in return. Things is my attempt at one of those.