Page model
- Tasks live on the page where they were created.
- The current page stays at the front.
- Old pages recede naturally instead of crowding the present.
- A new page is created each day, resetting the active workspace.
Featured case study
Compass
Compass is a task management system built on subtraction, not addition. It is designed around one core problem: most task apps either bury people in options or keep every past commitment visible forever, until the system becomes harder to trust than a paper notebook.
Compass answers that with page-based recency, status-driven visibility, structured planning, and a Today surface that brings forward only what matters now.
- Pages
- Auto Death
- Today
- Planning Module
- Priority Matrix
The problem Compass is solving
Tasks should not live at the front forever.
Most systems accumulate stale commitments until everything competes for attention. Compass is built around receding visibility: old work stays accessible, but it stops demanding attention by default.
Core philosophy
Compass is built by subtraction. Every feature that remains is there because removing it made the system worse. The goal is not infinite flexibility. The goal is a system that makes the right choice clearer.
Pages and Auto Death
The central model is the Page: a dated workspace, like a page in a physical notebook.
Auto Death
Compass borrows the useful property of a notebook: older entries stop demanding attention without being deleted. You can always go backward, and you can pull any task forward to the current page when it deserves renewed attention.
Status is the source of truth
A task should only appear where it belongs. Compass uses status to control visibility across the whole system.
ACTIVE
Working now or intending to work on it now.
WAITING
Hidden from the main view until the follow-up date arrives.
PARKED
Still present, but visually deprioritized.
SCHEDULED
Quiet until its scheduled day arrives.
COMPLETE
Archived and accessible, but no longer in working views.
IDEA
Preserved without competing with current commitments.
Today and planning
Today section
Today is a unified attention surface. It brings together due or overdue tasks, items planned for today, waiting tasks whose follow-up date has arrived, and scheduled tasks whose day has arrived.
The point is simple: when something becomes relevant, it should appear without the user having to remember which view to check.
Planning Module
When the next step is unclear, Compass guides the task through the Natural Planning Model: purpose, vision of success, brainstorm, organize, and next action.
That reasoning stays attached to the task, so returning later does not require reconstructing the thought process from scratch.
Strategic layer and prioritization
Compass page
The Compass page separates strategic clarity from operational flow. It holds two things that should not get buried in the task list: a single Why statement and a set of Goals that orient the work beneath them.
Priority Matrix
When several tasks all look important, the Priority Matrix helps make trade-offs explicit. Compass supports a personal model and a business model so the user can score work more objectively instead of relying on vague intuition alone.
Supporting features
Projects and subtasks
Tasks can be flagged as projects and organized with subtasks so larger bodies of work remain structured without losing connection to execution.
Contexts and recurring work
Contexts support filtering and grouping, while recurring tasks automatically create the next occurrence without carrying stale operational state forward.
Time and finance
Time reports help reveal actual work patterns, and the finance module provides a simple net worth view organized around assets, debts, and trajectory over time.
Compass in context
Compass is the clearest expression of David Holt's product thinking: reduce noise, encode useful structure, and make execution easier to trust.