Why Glide works this way

Get it out of your head

When you have a task you haven’t done yet, your mind keeps reminding you about it. These reminders pop up while you’re busy with something else, and they make it hard to focus.

But if you decide exactly when you’ll do the task, your mind stops reminding you, even before you start the task.¹

So Glide asks you to pick a day for every task. Once a task is written down with a day, you don’t have to keep it in your head.

See everything you’ve taken on

Most of us keep our tasks in many places: a work app, a family list, a calendar, a notebook, and our own memory.

Each list might look small. But all the lists together can hold more work than one person can do. When your tasks are in many places, you never see how much work you really have.

Projects, subtasks and tags do the same thing inside one app. They split your tasks into groups. Each group looks small, so you don’t see how much work there is in total.

Glide keeps all your tasks in one list. It has no projects, subtasks or tags. This isn’t an oversight. It’s a decision. You do every task yourself, so Glide shows you every task in one place.

Plan for an ordinary day

Most of us plan our day as if nothing will go wrong. We think tasks will take less time than they really do. Often, they take longer than even our worst guess.²

When the day doesn’t go to plan, we blame ourselves. But usually, the plan asked for too much.

To make a plan that works, you need to know two things:

• all the tasks that need your time
• how much time you really have on a normal day

Glide helps in two ways.

Break big tasks into small ones. If a task feels too big to start, it’s usually a few tasks in disguise. “Plan the trip” is a project; “Book the hotel” is a task. When you list all the steps, you can better guess how long the whole thing will take.³

Move tasks you can’t get to today. The Today screen shows the tasks due today, most important first. If there are too many, move some to another day. You choose what matters most today. Your list for today stays short, so it’s easier to focus and less stressful to look at. And when you pick a new day for a task, your mind stops reminding you about it.¹

One thing at a time

Switching between tasks wastes time. Each time you switch, it takes a moment to get going again, and harder tasks take longer to get back into.⁴ Part of your mind also stays stuck on the task you just left, so you don’t do as well on the next one.⁵

Glide helps you do one thing at a time. Focus is a timer for one task. While the timer runs, other apps can’t interrupt you with notifications.

Working for a set time and then taking a short break helps you focus better and feel less tired than taking breaks whenever you feel like it.⁶ This way of working is called the Pomodoro technique.

Habits that fit your day

New habits are hard to build. It’s easy to try too much at once. Glide’s routines are built around how habits really form.

Do it right after something you already do. Plan exactly when you’ll do it, like “after breakfast, I’ll take my medicine.” A plan like this makes you much more likely to actually do it.⁷

Do it every day. A new daily habit takes about two months to become automatic, but it’s different for everyone.⁸ A routine shows you the same steps every day, so you don’t have to plan or remember them.

Don’t worry if you miss a day. Missing one day doesn’t stop a habit from forming.⁸ In Glide, every day starts fresh. A missed day doesn’t wipe out your progress.

Goals built on real numbers

Many of us set goals based on what we hope will happen. When real life doesn’t match, we give up. Later, we set a new goal that’s just as hard, and give up again. This cycle has a name: false hope syndrome.⁹

Glide builds goals on real numbers. Your routines track numbers, like how many hours you slept or how many minutes you walked. Your goals use those same numbers. After a few weeks, you can see what your days are really like. Then you can set a goal you can actually reach.

Tracking also helps on its own. People who keep track of their progress are more likely to reach their goals, especially when they write it down.¹⁰

Many of us tell ourselves we’re doing badly. Real numbers show you how you’re actually doing.

Check in when it suits you

Notifications may be the most damaging thing ever to happen to our attention. A notification breaks your focus, even if you don’t look at it.¹¹ When people keep notifications on for a week, they have more trouble paying attention and feel more restless than when notifications are off.¹²

You decide when to open Glide: after breakfast, between meetings, or at the end of the day to plan tomorrow. Glide never buzzes or pings you to get your attention.

The only time Glide makes a sound is during a Focus session you start. Then it shows how much time is left, plays chimes, and holds back other apps’ notifications until the session ends.

When you decide when to open Glide, your attention stays on what matters to you.

Change that lasts

Many apps use streaks, badges and points to keep you coming back. These tricks can backfire. Badges and leaderboards can leave people less interested and less happy than they were without them.¹³ When a streak breaks, people are more likely to give up, even if they’ve done just as well.¹⁴

In Glide, every day starts fresh, so missing a day doesn’t wipe out your progress. Glide shows you what you’ve actually done. The reason to keep going comes from you. Change lasts when you choose things because they matter to you.

Glide doesn’t want you hooked. It wants to be a tool you pick up because it helps, and put down when you’re done.

Room to learn

Grades and judgement can push you for a day or two, but they get in the way of learning. People stay more interested and do better when they get helpful comments instead of grades. Adding a grade to the comments takes that benefit away.¹⁵

How you treat yourself after a mistake matters too. Being kind to yourself after a failure makes you more likely to try to improve, not less.¹⁶

Glide shows where you are without grading you. A goal’s pace line shows whether you’re ahead of your plan or behind it. A lighter day on the week strip is just a lighter day, not a failure. With no grade attached, it’s easier to look at your numbers, see what isn’t working, and change it.

Your data is yours

Your tasks, routines and journal say a lot about your life. Glide keeps them on your phone. Glide doesn’t collect your data, sell it, or use it to show you ads. We think those practices are predatory.

If you sync between devices, Glide locks your data with a key that only your devices have, before it leaves your phone. Nobody else can read it.

Glide Cloud

You don’t always get to choose your tools. Teams at work, families and friends often share tasks in other apps. Each extra app is one more place you have to check.

Glide Cloud brings the tasks assigned to you in those other apps into Glide. When you change or finish one of those tasks in Glide, Glide Cloud updates it in the other app too. You see all your tasks in one place, and everyone else keeps using their own app. Glide Cloud also keeps Glide up to date on all your devices, with one sign-in.

To move tasks between apps, Glide Cloud has to read them, so those tasks pass through Glide’s server. The rest of your Glide data is locked on your phone before it syncs, and Glide’s server can’t read it.

Glide Cloud costs money to run every month, because each connection to another app needs care and support as that app changes. So Glide Cloud will cost a monthly fee. Glide itself stays free, and you don’t need an account.

What Glide asks of you

Glide takes some effort, especially at the start. You’ll need to open it often, be honest in your journal, and set goals you’ll really work toward. Glide isn’t a shortcut. It helps most when you use it.

Alongside other support

If you see a therapist, psychiatrist or coach, use Glide alongside that help, not instead of it.