Keeping a to-do list up to date is the real work

Keeping a to-do list up to date means doing four jobs all day: adding new tasks, updating them as the work changes, checking them off when they’re done, and reviewing the list to make it accurate again. None of them is hard, but together they never stop. Pippin is a Mac app that does the first three for you from the text on your screen, which leaves you a list that keeps up on its own.

A to-do list is a good idea. One place that shows your open work is worth having, and research on reminders backs that up. In four online experiments with 1,196 participants in total, people who set themselves reminders did better at carrying out things they had planned to do later. Those were simple tasks in an experiment, not real workdays, but the idea fits what most of us feel: you shouldn’t have to hold every next step in your head.

So the list is worth having. Keeping it is the hard part.

What does it take to keep a to-do list up to date?

Four small jobs.

1. Adding. Someone has to notice each task and write it down, usually in the middle of doing something else.
2. Updating. Work changes. The call moves, the form is half sent, the review is now waiting on someone else. The task has to change too.
3. Checking off. Finished work has to be marked as finished, or it stays on the list and looks open.
4. Reviewing. Every so often, someone has to read the whole list and fix what’s wrong.

In a normal week you can manage all four. In a busy week you can’t, and that’s usually the week people stop keeping the list.

What Pippin does for you

Pippin reads the text on your screen while you work, through macOS Accessibility, about every 15 seconds. From that, it handles the first three jobs.

• It adds tasks. When you start on something, a row appears in Recents with a title and a short summary. A Slack question from Emily becomes “Emily’s question about the Q3 numbers.” You didn’t type it.
• It keeps them current. As the work moves, the summary under the title moves with it. “Send the August invoices to Ryan” might start as “The PDF is ready. The email is not sent yet.” and later read “Ryan asked for them as one PDF.”
• It checks them off. When Pippin sees that the work is done, it closes the row. Closed rows go to the Logbook, grouped by day, so you can see what you got through.

Because the list stays current, the fourth job gets small. There’s not much to review when nothing is out of date. And when you want a quick answer, you can ask in the chat column: “what was I doing before lunch?” or “did I ever answer Emily?” Pippin answers from what it saw you work on.

What you decide

You stay in charge of your list, on purpose.

You pick what goes on your To-do list. New rows don’t go straight onto it. They go to Recents, which shows at most ten rows from the last three days. Your To-do list holds only what you add: click the list icon on a row, drag it across, or tell Pippin in the chat (“add the invoices to my list”). A row on your To-do list stays there until the work is done or you remove it.

A tool that reads your screen can see what you’re working on. It shouldn’t decide what you care about today. That part is yours.

You have the last word on every row. Open a row and use Mark done to close it, or Stop tracking to remove it. Each one leaves an Undo.

Do you still type anything?

No. You don’t type tasks in. You move rows onto your To-do list, and you close or remove them when you want to. The only place you type is the chat, when you want to ask Pippin something or tell it what to change.

Good to know before you start

• Rows build up as you work. On the first day the window says “Nothing yet. Rows come as your work takes shape.” Pippin writes a row once it has seen enough of a piece of work to describe it, so give it a normal morning of work.
• A row is simple on purpose. It shows a title, a short summary and its age. There are no due dates, tags or projects to maintain.
• Pippin uses the AI you already have. To understand what it reads, Pippin sends the text to the AI you picked: your ChatGPT plan, a Claude API key or an OpenRouter key. Your list and history are saved on your Mac. What Pippin reads on your Mac, and what it never reads has every detail, and so does the privacy page.

If keeping the list up to date is what made you quit every to-do app, Pippin is built for you. For the different ways to take this work off your plate, read how to automate your to-do list. More short answers are in the FAQs on the home page.