Same backlog. A different chain.
We respect every tool on this page. They're good at what they do. Steady is built for something different — a 12-week cycle, a weekly Move, three focus items today, and an AI that does the structuring work the user would otherwise do manually.
Beautiful daily ritual —
that doesn't add up to a quarter.
Sunsama is a thoughtful daily planner with a guided morning ritual, calendar-task fusion, and overcommit warnings. It excels at composing a single day. But the day is where it ends — there's no weekly Move that compounds, no 12-week cycle the day belongs to, no AI that breaks down a project into shippable atoms.
- Guided daily planning ritual that builds intentionality
- Overcommit warnings — flags when your day is unrealistic
- Beautiful calendar-task fusion with time estimation
- Mature integrations: Asana, Notion, Trello, Jira, Gmail
- No 12-week cycle — days don't roll up into a quarter
- No Weekly Move — there's no “the one thing I'm shipping this week”
- No 3-cap focus — your day is whatever fits, not what compounds
- No AI that breaks a project into atomic tasks or picks today's pull
- No Evidence ledger — what shipped doesn't become a visible artifact
- 01I needed weeks that compounded into a quarter, not just calm days
- 02I wanted an AI that drafts the plan and breaks down projects, not just a prettier calendar
- 03Three focus items per day, anchored to one weekly Move — not a long thoughtful list
- 04An Evidence trail of what actually shipped, separate from what I planned
Sunsama is a calm cockpit for one day at a time. Steady is the cockpit and the flight plan: 12-week cycle, weekly move, daily focus — one chain.
A fast inbox —
without a system on top.
Todoist is the cleanest, fastest task capture in the category. Quick adds, natural-language dates, reliable on every platform. But it's a flat surface: every task is equal, every project is a list, and there's no opinion about what compounds. The overdue badge is its only structural opinion — and it punishes the wrong week.
- Fast capture with natural-language dates
- Reliable cross-platform apps and offline behavior
- Clean, focused interface that gets out of the way
- No 12-week chain — projects are storage, not commitment
- No Weekly Move and no 3-cap Focus — the day is whatever you scroll past
- No AI that drafts a project breakdown or picks today's pull
- No Evidence ledger — completed tasks vanish into the logbook
- Projects = lists of tasks. No purpose, no done-when, no inventory shelf
- 01I needed shape, not more storage — three things per day, not eighty
- 02Projects with a purpose and a done-when, not just a folder of tasks
- 03An AI that drafts the plan, not just an option to hide overdue
- 04A weekly review that reads like a story of what shipped
Todoist captures everything. Steady tells you what matters this week — and what shipped.
Build the system yourself —
or use one already built for shipping.
Notion is the most flexible workspace ever shipped. Databases, pages, templates, AI text. You can build almost any system you can imagine. But productivity isn't a knowledge-management problem — it's a sequencing problem. Steady ships with the sequence: vision → cycle → move → today → evidence. You don't configure it; you live in it.
- Extreme flexibility — databases, pages, templates, AI writing
- Industry-leading for docs, wikis, and knowledge bases
- Vibrant template ecosystem you can copy in one click
- Requires building the system before it produces anything
- No opinionated 12-week chain — every workspace reinvents the wheel
- AI writes prose; it doesn't structure a project into atomic tasks
- No Weekly Move, no 3-cap Focus, no Loose-ends cap, no Evidence ledger
- Templates rot — the system someone built last year drifts from how you work now
- 01I spent more time architecting the database than shipping the work
- 02I wanted opinions baked in, not a blank page that turns into a meta-project
- 03An AI that breaks down a project, not one that drafts another doc
- 04A real Today page — not a database view that pretends to be one
Notion is a kitchen. Steady is the kitchen with the menu, the timer, and a line cook for project breakdowns.
Coordinates teams. Doesn't help one person ship a quarter.
Asana is a serious project-management tool built around assignments, dependencies, and reporting up. It's excellent at making a team's work legible to a manager. For one person trying to ship a quarter of personal work — it's the wrong shape. There's no Weekly Move, no 3-cap day, no Evidence trail of what actually compounded.
- Excellent team collaboration, assignments, and dependencies
- Powerful workflow automation and reporting
- Enterprise-grade project tracking and audit trails
- Built around assignments and reporting, not personal commitment
- No 12-week cycle, no Weekly Move, no Today focus cap
- No AI that breaks down YOUR project or picks YOUR pull
- No Evidence ledger — completion is a status, not an artifact
- Optimised for team legibility, not solo shipping cadence
- 01I'm one person shipping a quarter, not a team running a workflow
- 02I needed a chain that holds my work — vision → cycle → move → today
- 03An AI that helps me, not a board that helps a manager
- 04Three things today, anchored to one weekly Move — not a Kanban backlog
Asana is for the manager. Steady is for the operator.
Every feature ever shipped —
none of them tell you what to ship next.
ClickUp packs every productivity feature into one tool: tasks, docs, chat, whiteboards, time tracking. It's a Swiss-army knife of options. But options aren't a system — they're a tax on every decision. Steady does less on purpose: a 12-week cycle, a weekly Move, three focus items today, evidence at the end. The chain replaces the menu.
- Feature-rich — tasks, docs, chat, whiteboards, time tracking
- Deeply customisable views and workflows
- Generous free tier with most surfaces unlocked
- Feature density creates decision fatigue every time you open it
- No opinionated chain — you assemble the system from parts
- No AI that knows your cycle, week, or today and brainstorms accordingly
- No Evidence ledger or Weekly Move primitive — those are conventions you'd invent
- Customisation grows with use; the tool gets heavier the longer you stay
- 01More features meant more decisions, not more output
- 02I wanted a system with opinions, not a sandbox with options
- 03An AI that reads my cycle and suggests the pull — not another text field
- 04Three things today, one move this week. That's the whole UI I needed
ClickUp gives you everything. Steady gives you the chain.
Sees your day. Doesn't see your quarter.
Tiimo is a beautifully crafted visual day planner with timers and routine support, built by a team with deep care for how brains actually work. It's genuinely lovely. But visual planning is one layer. Steady provides the rest of the chain: a 12-week cycle to belong to, a Weekly Move that compounds, a project shelf with AI breakdowns, and an Evidence ledger of what shipped.
- Beautiful visual day planner with strong timer support
- Built by a team with lived experience of diverse brains
- Excellent for routine building and visual structure
- iPhone App of the Year 2025
- Day-scoped — no 12-week cycle, no Weekly Move, no project shelf
- No AI that reads your project and proposes the next pull
- No Evidence ledger separating planned from shipped
- Visual planning works on a calm day — Steady's chain holds on a busy one too
- 01Visual planning is one piece — I needed the whole chain
- 02An AI that breaks a project into atomic tasks, not just a timer
- 03A Weekly Move and a 3-cap today, anchored to a 12-week outcome
- 04Evidence I can read at the end of the cycle, not just a screenshot of yesterday
Tiimo helps you make it through Tuesday. Steady helps you ship the cycle.
Ready to try something different?
Start free. No credit card. No commitment.