Take & Do — AI Productivity Manager

Most people do not fail because they lack an app—they fail because their commitments live in disconnected surfaces. A release checklist sits in Jira, the dentist sits in Apple Calendar, the talk outline lives in Notion, and the weekend errands live in a phone reminder. Popular “GTD” and “inbox zero” products optimize a single list metaphor, but they rarely preserve the *relationship* between a task, the calendar block that protects it, and the document that proves the spec.

That fracture is painful in software development *and* in real life: you context-switch between “shipping mode” and “life admin” without a single trustworthy graph of what is blocked, what is time-bound, and what is merely aspirational. Take & Do exists to tighten that loop—one workspace where boards, timelines, and notes can evolve together instead of constantly being re-synced in your head.

Stack — Next.js 15 (App Router) with Turbopack in development, React 19, strict TypeScript, and a hybrid styling model: styled-components for feature UI, Radix Themes / primitives for accessible controls, and Tailwind where utility-first wins (shared dialog chrome from `@repo/ui`).

Data & auth — Drizzle ORM against PostgreSQL for durable workspace, board, task, and schedule data; Better Auth with email/password plus optional Google, anonymous “guest” sessions where appropriate, and server-enforced access rules so workspaces stay isolated.

Performance — Server Components and route handlers used deliberately so the client bundle stays lean; fetch caching and revalidation where reads are hot; no imaginary micro-optimizations before instrumentation says they matter.

Editors & composition — Lexical and TipTap cover rich descriptions and inline structure without locking content into opaque blobs—important for tasks that are half-spec, half-checklist.

Quality — ESLint + Prettier, Vitest for units, native HTML5 drag-and-drop on the board (no brittle DnD polyfills), focus management in dialogs (shared `@repo/ui` primitives), and environment validation for anything that touches secrets.

Principles — ship thin vertical slices, keep auth boundaries boring and explicit, prefer boring PostgreSQL over clever client caches, and instrument real user journeys before optimizing micro-fetches.

Problem discovery — Before shaping the roadmap, I read long threads on Reddit (r/productivity, r/getdisciplined, app-specific subs) and Hacker News “Ask” threads where people vent about Todoist, Things, Notion, and Apple Reminders. The recurring complaints were not “missing features”—they were *structural*: tasks and calendar events do not stay linked as plans change; notes and tasks duplicate; recurring life maintenance gets lost under work sprints; and “one inbox” collapses when work uses a board but life still uses a calendar.

Product implications —

• First-class *schedules* next to boards so a task can own—or reference—time without exporting mental state to a separate calendar app.
• Workspaces that isolate context (work vs personal vs side project) without forcing separate logins for every experiment.
• Native Kanban with clear column semantics and fast drag operations; no fake “multiplayer” claims—just reliable local UX.
• Rich task bodies for specs and checklists; shallow integration points instead of pretending to replace Google Docs.
• Guest and waitlist flows that let people try the surface before committing identity—without weakening tenancy rules for paid workspaces later.

Non-goals (for now) — becoming a full calendar replacement for enterprise, or a generic wiki—those expand scope faster than a small team can support.

Mixpanel (browser) — The product distinguishes *anonymous guests* (ephemeral trials) from *waitlist-qualified leads* (email captured, intent signal). Events are named and propertied so funnels do not conflate the two populations.

Core events —

• `Guest Session Started` / `Guest Board Created` — volume and depth of try-before-signup behavior.
• `Task Moved`, `Column Changed`, `Schedule Block Linked` — board and schedule adoption, not vanity clicks.
• `Whitelist Dialog Opened`, `Whitelist Submitted`, `Whitelist Failed` — conversion and friction on the waitlist path with `_replyto` preserved for sales follow-up.
• `Auth Login Started`, `Auth Login Succeeded` — separate funnel from guest traffic.

Improvements — super-properties for workspace tier (guest vs registered), session replay sampling on error boundaries, and cohort reports that compare “guests who created ≥3 tasks” vs “waitlist only”—so marketing spend optimizes for retained trials, not form fills alone. Server-side logs remain the source of truth for API failures; Mixpanel explains *behavior*, not stack traces.