About Action Manager

Action Manager started from a familiar problem: ideas come faster than they get done. The big lines are clear, the details stay fuzzy, and a project you don't know how to start turns into a weight you carry around.

Reading about personal organization led to three principles. The site was built on them, and still is:

1. Get it out of your head. Keeping things to do in mind is a constant source of stress. Write them down somewhere else, and the stress goes with them.
2. Write it down at once. Thoughts are fleeting: if your list is more than a few seconds away, the idea is lost.
3. Arrange it as a tree. A big project only becomes manageable once its tasks are organized in a hierarchy, down to steps small enough to just do.

How it works day to day is in the FAQ.

1. 2009Development, then a long beta test.
2. February 26, 2010The site opens to everyone.
3. March 1, 2011Drag and drop: move a task, with its subtasks, anywhere in the tree.
4. June 7, 2011A new site design, bold tasks and a first FAQ.
5. August 25, 2011Keyboard shortcuts for almost everything, and moving a task up or down the hierarchy.
6. December 19, 2011A choice of date formats.
7. October 2026Rebuilt from the ground up: a new design, safer password storage and a simpler sign-up. The task list and its shortcuts stay the ones you know.

There's no paid plan and no trial period: every feature comes with the free account. The running costs are covered by a few ads, on the home page and beside your task list.

Your lists stay private, and your email address is only used for your account: we never share it.