
Show HN: MonkeyMind – A shortcut-driven to-do list for your Mac's menu bar - startingpoint
https://apps.apple.com/de/app/monkeymind/id1503893432
======
Bogdanp
Congrats on launching!

I have to say, though, this looks uncannily like my own app, Remember, that I
launched a few months ago:

* [https://remember.defn.io/](https://remember.defn.io/)

* [https://apps.apple.com/ro/app/remember-quick-reminders/id149...](https://apps.apple.com/ro/app/remember-quick-reminders/id1493354028?mt=12)

* [https://github.com/bogdanp/remember](https://github.com/bogdanp/remember)

Right down to the key bindings and some of the marketing copy[1].

[1]:
[https://www.producthunt.com/posts/remember-6](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/remember-6)

~~~
keesj
FWIW, in terms of user interface I think we’re all consciously or
subconsciously inspired by the apps we use everyday such as Spotlight and
Alfred.

For example, here’s my todo list menubar app launched many months before
Remember: [https://wip.chat/menubar](https://wip.chat/menubar)

I bet other people will reply with similar looking apps launched months before
mine :)

~~~
Bogdanp
Yes, definitely. I was just struck by how close some of the similarities were
in this case. That said, it is a simple enough class of app that there are
bound to be similarities between them and I was sincere in congratulating the
OP.

------
startingpoint
Hey HN, Benedict the developer here.

I built MonkeyMind as a scratchpad for thoughts while in deep focus. Whenever
something pops up in my mind, I needed a place to put it and get back to work.

Pen and paper can do the trick, but something with a Spotlight-like shortcut
would be better.

And that is what MonkeyMind does. A simple global keyboard shortcut to add
items and an app that lives in the menubar and gets out of your way.

Let me know what you think!

~~~
ebcase
Congrats on making this, it looks slick.

Would you consider adding sync functionality, so that the same list works on
multiple machines?

~~~
startingpoint
Thanks for the kind words. Sync is definitely something I'm considering, but I
can't promise any timelines.

------
Brajeshwar
Cool. Downloaded and using it. Nit-pick but can you please have right-click to
access the setting menu?

There used to be a dead-simple MacOS App called Anxiety that does something
similar to this but it somehow died.

I don't use TO-DO Apps to do my tasks, I calendar pretty much everything but I
want a very simple task-lister for things such as "Call Ram", "Remind Kid to
learn to Type", etc.

This serves the purpose.

I tried Tot[1], another interesting simple tool to do a similar function but
MonkeyMind is simpler for me to for these small tasks.

Feature Request: Can we make this have a Powerpack option for Alfred. So, I
can keep this running in the background but use Alfred to add tasks. This is
the same request I asked the Command-E[2] guys too.

1\.
[https://apps.apple.com/in/app/tot/id1491071483?mt=12](https://apps.apple.com/in/app/tot/id1491071483?mt=12)

2\. [https://getcommande.com](https://getcommande.com)

~~~
startingpoint
Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad MonkeyMind is useful to you.

Quick question about the right-click: What exactly do you mean? Right click on
the settings icon or anywhere in the list?

As for Alfred: it's probably simpler to just set up a separate keyboard
shortcut for MonkeyMind.

~~~
Brajeshwar
I want to right-click on the icon and access the menu right away.

Alfred; Ok. Just wishing that I used just one single Keyboard Shortcut for
both. I use Alfred very often, so if I can continue to use that and do
something like -- CMD + Space > "MM Get a Haircut."

------
swah
TickTick has a nice "quick capture" experience too. Will try this.

\-- edit --

This has a super reasonable price of 2.5 EUR in Brazil. I forget the term now
but its of course a discount due to lower purchasing power.

How does Apple calculate that?

------
athenot
This is a much more polished version of what I do, which is to keep a note (in
Notes app) called Brain Dump, and I jot down anything that is cluttering my
mind, which I hold on for fear of forgetting. Just the act of writing it down
helps; it's a reassurance that it's ok to let go of those thoughts because
they are saved elsewhere.

What I like with MonkeyMind is the minimal amount of friction involved, as
well as automatic timestamp.

~~~
aantix
I thought I was the only one.

I’ve had repetitious thoughts and originally thought they were repeating
because there was some thing missing, some nuance that I hadn’t explored.

But once I would write them down, sometimes they would just go away. It must
have been a fear of forgetting.

------
drcongo
This is definitely something I need, thanks. One small feature request: Would
be nice to have a keyboard shortcut to show the list too.

~~~
startingpoint
Great idea. What exactly would you do with that? Simply open up the list and
look at the past entries?

~~~
dddddaviddddd
I could see keyboard based navigation, e.g. press keyboard shortcut to pop
open the menu bar list. Then navigate through them with the up/down arrows,
press spacebar to toggle completion status, then hit escape to close the
menubar list.

~~~
drcongo
Exactly this. Arrow key navigation already works, so being able to open it
with a shortcut, and hit enter or space to toggle would make this complete.

------
ybahubali2018
This is really nice good job.

I have one suggestion. It would be nice if this app can fetch data from
reminders app of MacOS and put them in the menu bar along with the ones added.

~~~
startingpoint
I like that idea, but I also want to keep the user experience really simple.
Would you want to display a single list from Reminders? Or show all reminders
alongside?

And the other way around: would you add to Reminders from MonkeyMind?

~~~
DSingularity
Yes to adding to reminders from MM. Reminders syncs to mobile — that can be
convenient!

~~~
ybahubali2018
Yes this looks like a good idea. But i wanted the reminders also to be able to
display in that quick toolbar rather opening another app(Reminders). It would
be nice to merge them and show or choose a list that we wanted to show.

------
pdepip
Awesome! Looks similar to a short-cut driven note taking tool I'm building -
[https://mmap.it](https://mmap.it)

Major difference is mine is focused on longer form documentation and comes
with an inline markdown editor. Congrats on the launch!

------
sgeorge96
Should have named the app goldfish.

~~~
startingpoint
Damn, that's a great name too...

------
haack
Looks slick, great job on launching!

Any possibility of a way to purchase outside of the AppStore? I appreciate
this is extra effort for possibly little extra reach but I have managed to
survive without signing into my icloud and hopefully won't ever.

~~~
startingpoint
Not as of right now. I am considering other distribution channels like
Gumroad. Would that work for you?

~~~
haack
That would be amazing. Feel free to update me using my email (in profile) if
you want.

------
conradludgate
Damn I love this. I think I might save this for when I get a mac, but since
I'm on Linux right now, I'm going to copy this idea with my rofl menu I think

------
nikolatt
Looks great, thank you for sharing!

A question I have about macOS development - where should I start in order to
learn how to make menu bar and shortcut driven UIs?

~~~
programmarchy
Please, don't forget about the Dock!

I personally hate when apps crowd my Menu Bar when they don't need to e.g.
Dropbox, NordVPN, Keybase etc. I always try to disable the Menu Bar icon for
an app if possible, and if I can't I will delete the app if I can find a
suitable alternative.

There are so many advantages to a dock icon:

\- Richer, colorful icon

\- Support for badges, configurable by user

\- Won't be hidden by the system (macOS will hide icons in a crowded Menu Bar)

\- Can be hidden by the user (Dock Autohide)

\- Icon can be repositioned by the user

The Apple HIG makes it pretty clear that most apps don't need the Menu Bar,
and should use the Dock instead. But we're in a vicious circle where users
have been trained to use the Menu Bar (even though it's inferior), so that's
what developers do.

~~~
nikolatt
Hadn't thought about that! Thank you for the remark, will definitely keep it
in mind.

------
mertnesvat
Looks nice and slick will give it a try. Thanks for sharing Benedict :)

------
chriswphoto
I would give up Todoist if I could view todos on my phone as well :)

~~~
startingpoint
Maybe I should consider adding sync and creating MonkeyMind for iOS as well...

------
amardeepsingh
Looks good. Checking it out.

