Murder shines bright on stage

Todomate: An app that merges bonding and productivity

It all started in APUSH in my junior year, when I looked over at my friend Sarah Kim’s laptop and saw cute icons, organized checklists and calendars. “Todomate” it read. I had tried it all: paper planners, Notion, Microsoft Todo… but I instantly fell in love with Todomate’s digital format, customizable categories, and ability to assign tasks to certain days. It even had no ads. But what makes Todomate truly different from any other to-do list app wasn’t its stellar organization: it was its duality as a public planner for all your friends to see.

Todomate is an app that lets you plan out your tasks, sending a notification out to your friends every time you get something checked off your list. So, when I saw Sarah check off “Ben Franklin KCO boxes,” I found the motivation to work on them myself rather than sitting on my bed. It also helps me remember what I have to do – I still remember seeing “humanities reading assignment” getting checked off by a friend, allowing me to finish it on time before midnight. However, as I have seen more and more people use this app, at some point earlier this year, it lost that feeling of a to-do list and became more of a social media outlet. Sometimes I feel like the work I do doesn’t seem like much compared to the barrage of completions across my friends’ profiles. Also, I use my Todomate for homework tasks while others use theirs for events, and I’ve thought “Damn, I’m really leading a boring life.” This became especially prevalent when Todomate added a diary function, where I read fun entries while I was simply working on college applications during December. But I forgot something important: everyone on this app is extremely supportive of each other, no matter how overwhelming life gets. I find great satisfaction in completing a task, but even more so when I can see my friends express “like” my accomplished task through the app. Since I only add people I am close with, I know for sure that these people are happy with what I am able to accomplish, and I am always really happy for my friends, too. Plus, the “mute” and “private” functions are meant to be used. Sometimes someone will really be popping off, and I used to feel somewhat guilty for wanting to mute them, but I realized no one was going to care. Don’t worry — I always unmute them and perhaps comment on their crazy math skills the next time I see them in person. I’ve been able to organize my life this year by balancing Todomate and Google Calendar, each app not getting in the way of another. With Todomate, the fact that you can only react with hearts and happy emojis are reflective of its supportive rather than pressuring nature, a culture I hope can be shared.