Notifications off by default
Opt-in per task or globally.
Deep work
Apps for Deep Work That Don't Interrupt Deep Work
Most planners are loud. They notify, badge, and beg for attention. The ones that survive a deep-work practice are the ones that shut up by default.
The problem
Deep work requires uninterrupted blocks of attention — the kind that take ten to fifteen minutes to enter and collapse instantly under any meaningful interruption. The hostile environment for deep work is the modern productivity stack: a chat app that pings, a task manager that badges, a calendar that pops up reminders for things you already know about, an email client that previews messages you didn't ask to see. Each one steals a small amount of attention; each costs a re-entry tax measured in tens of minutes; collectively, they make the longest blocks impossible.
The honest tradeoff: most planners optimize for capture surface area — be available everywhere, always, ready to catch every passing thought — at the cost of focus protection. They want to be the always-present companion. Cal Newport's whole argument is that this trade quietly kills your best work, because the best work needs uninterrupted depth more than it needs frictionless capture.
How Lunelo solves it
Lunelo defaults to silence. Notifications are off out of the box. The icon badge is off. There are no celebratory pings when you complete tasks, no "you're doing great" toasts, no end-of-day summaries that arrive uninvited. The app stays out of your way unless you open it deliberately, and the deliberate opening is the whole point — a planner you visit on purpose, not one that visits you.
Capture, when it's needed mid-block, is voice-first and fast. Tap the mic on the lock screen or watch face, speak the thought, release. The capture flow takes about two seconds — a small enough flow break that you can absorb it and return to the work without losing the thread. The structure of the captured thought — parsing it into a title, dating it, prioritizing it — happens in the background and is available later when you actually visit the planner.
The today view is built to be opened once or twice during a deep-work day, not lived in. Three priorities at the top of the screen. No notification feed, no activity stream, no recent-changes panel, nothing that rewards scrolling. The app is designed to be useful for the thirty seconds you visit it and invisible for the rest of the day, which is the opposite of how most productivity apps want to relate to your attention.
Features built around this
No icon badge count
Off by default.
Two-second voice capture
Minimal flow break.
Today view, opened occasionally
Not lived-in.
No social/activity feed
Nothing to scroll inside the app.
Compared to other tools
Pair Lunelo with Freedom or iOS Focus Mode for website and app blocking, and you have a deep-work stack with clean separation of concerns: Lunelo plans what to work on and stays silent; Freedom or Focus mode protects the work itself by closing off the distractions you'd otherwise reach for. Apps that try to be both a planner and a distraction blocker tend to do both jobs poorly — the planner part nags, the blocker part is too easy to override — and the combined complexity makes neither half feel solid.
Related: Daily focus app · Task manager for creatives · Full comparison →
Frequently asked
Does Lunelo have a Pomodoro timer?
No. Pomodoro is a separate tool; we'd rather you use a dedicated timer than build a mediocre one inside the planner.
Can I block websites with Lunelo?
No. Use Freedom, Cold Turkey, or iOS Focus modes for blocking.
Does Lunelo nag me about unfinished tasks?
No. Unfinished tasks move to tomorrow silently. There is no shame UI.
How do I capture an idea during a deep-work block without breaking flow?
Voice capture from the lock-screen widget or watch face (watch coming in v1.x). It's a two-second interruption.
A planner that shuts up
Free to start. No account. No tracking SDKs.