About Singla

What it is, how it works and who makes it.

What it is

Singla is a free web application for planning the day’s tasks and measuring how much time you spend on each one, with as little interaction as possible. It runs in the browser on your phone or your computer, and it can be added to the home screen like a normal app. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to install.

The name comes from singladura, the Spanish word for a day’s run: how far a ship sails in 24 hours, written down in the logbook. Hence the ship’s wheel in the logo — if you measure your time, you are the one at the helm — and its golden spoke, which is the hour when you do your best work.

How it works

• One tap for everything. You tap a task and its timer starts, stopping the previous one. Tap it again and it pauses. There is no stop button.
• One thing at a time. Only one timer can run, so every switch gets counted: at the end of the day you know how many times you jumped between tasks.
• The day begins by planning. Until you start the first timer, the screen is laid out for deciding what matters today.
• Interruptions. One button pauses the task and counts what the call, the message or the colleague takes from you. Labelling the reason is optional.
• Focus blocks. No pomodoros to set up: Singla counts the stretches of 25 minutes or more of work with no interruption and no task switch.
• It can be written later. If you forgot to start the timer, you can fill the gap in afterwards. It is marked as written after the fact.
• Your categories, your colours. You create them and pick their colour on a wheel, or by typing the exact code if you have one in mind.

Where your data is

On your device, and nowhere else. Singla has no accounts and no server: everything you write is stored in your own browser. That means two good things and one worth knowing:

• Nobody else can read your tasks or your times. Not me either.
• It works offline, because it has nobody to talk to.
• But there is no automatic backup. If you clear your browser data, it is gone. Use “Export data” in the Data tab now and then; the file it downloads can be imported back on any device.

What state it is in

Singla is in open beta: it is used daily and it works, but it changes often and it can have bugs. During the beta every feature — including the ones that will one day be paid — is open to everyone. When something changes, the app itself tells you when you open it.

If you run into something odd, tell me: it is the fastest way to get it fixed. On Contact I explain what helps me most.

Who makes it

One developer, in his spare time, with no company and no investors behind him. It is free because I want it to be; if I ever charge for anything, it will be for new and optional features, never for what already works today. If you want to help with the domain and the hosting, there is a Ko-fi.