All I want is one productivity app that can handle everything

I organize my life. It is necessary for me to be. I have a working memory of an elderly goldfish, and I like deadlines. I used to be able to keep an entire week's worth of events in my head. All of that stuff needs a place to call home.

There isn't a single app that can handle most of my needs There are at least 10 productivity apps that I use on a daily basis and they all stink.

One of the project management apps I use in my career is Airtable, which allows my editors to view what I am working on. One instance is a rickety excel sheet that was maintained by sweat and tears. They all give a big picture view of a team's projects, completion status, and deadlines. None have been enough to be the sole means of maintaining an editorial calendar. There are always more than one version of the same thing on the internet. Every day, I spend an hour replicating the same information and processes in different formats.

A daily to-do list isn't included in most project management software. It's bananas. A project is never done in one step. If I am writing a story, there is testing and research, then there is photography and art, then there is the actual writing, followed by a multi step editing and publishing process. They are okay for showing everyone my progress, but this isn't everything I'm responsible for. Airtable doesn't handle many of the sub tasks, emails, and calendar events I don't think that will work for my goldfish brain. I need a to-doapp.

I have been searching for several of the thousands of to-do apps that are out there. I ended up with four to-do apps because they had 75 percent of the features I needed.

For work and personal tasks, there is focus to-do. It is a combination of a Pomodoro timer and a to-do list that has helped me get over my brain fog. There is a person named Todoist. Focus To-Do doesn't allow me to create lists that aren't time-based or integrate with my email app I use Todoist to cover the gaps.

These apps aren't helpful for keeping my plants alive or for keeping a house clean. Tody and Planta are used by me.

Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge

What's worse? My pantry and review units aren't helped by any of these apps. They can't maintain databases. I use Notion because I have an intense love- hate relationship with it. Notion has a lot of premade templates, but it has a lot of learning to do. I built multiple databases to keep track of my bylines, sources, product inventory, test logs, and meal planning. It works well but it takes a lot of time to maintain because I don't have the will to automate it.

I got so fed up with everything that I bought an old-schoolplanner. I kept all of this information in a notebook. The problem with analog notebooks is that they aren't easy to share with others. Another productivity tool was added to my arsenal.

There is a single productivity tool that works for everyone.

There is more to come. I don't use any of the calendar apps, note-taking apps, video conferencing apps, transcription apps, or communication apps. A part of my soul dies when someone starts a new channel. The same thing is happening. I end up trying a bunch of different apps in order to find the one that can do it all, only to settle for the one I don't like at all.

There isn't a perfect solution. There is a single productivity tool that works for everyone. There needs to be some sort of middle ground between the fantasy and the reality. I'd like to have two or three apps. Less than 10 is all I want.

I will have a lot of productivity apps on my phone and laptop until then.