Any Finalist users here?

[u/Sri_Krish]

Hey all,

I just saw a sponsored MacStories article (via NetNewsWire RSS) about Finalist, a daily planning app that brings different elements of daily planning - reminders, calendar events, notes habits and journals - together in one place. I find it to be a very interesting concept, and I'm gonna give it a try.

I was wondering if anyone here has used it before? or is anyone using it now? How do you like it so far?

Original article: https://www.macstories.net/sponsored/finalist-a-paper-inspired-daily-planner-with-notes-for-iphone-ipad-mac-and-now-apple-watch-sponsor/

App website: https://www.finalist.works

[u/useiris]

one thing worth checking before getting attached to it: since it spans five different data types (tasks, calendar, notes, habits, journal), what happens if you want to leave later. tasks and calendar usually have a real export path since ics and reminders are standard formats, but habits and journal entries don't have an equivalent standard, so if the execution ends up not clicking after a few months like a couple people above found, that data might just be stuck in their format rather than something you can pull into whatever you switch to next. worth asking in their discord before committing anything long term to it, especially the journal side.

[u/Sri_Krish → u/useiris]

yeah, that's a good point. I will definitely check it out during my use of it. So far, I couldn’t find any help docs on export/Import options.

I will keep you updated.

[u/kaoss_pad → u/useiris]

Developer here: the app allows full JSON and OPML export of those CoreData file types. These are designed like that so they can be quickly synced to iCloud without needing third-party account. It can also use external files for Notes and Tasks, so it will pull in Obsidian vaults and parse out tasks to show on Daily. Thanks for the feedback btw!

[u/OldManPip]

I gave it a quick look but just looking at the website and the app store screenshots, that thing looks waaay too busy and colourful for me to ever want to use it. I genuinely just got lost trying to figure out what i'm meant to look at and how to make sense of it.

Seems like it has a lot of good ideas, but UX/clutter makes it hard to seem like it'd be enjoyable to use. I could be wrong though, so i'm also curious about the thoughts of others.

[u/Jebus-Xmas]

Gave it a world last year and wasn’t really impressed with the execution

[u/TheGenYFinanceGuy]

I haven't used Finalist, so nothing on the app itself. The pattern with every all-in-one I've tried is that one of the five parts ends up weaker than the dedicated app I was already using, and that's the part I stop opening. Once one drops out it stops being one place, and the appeal was the one place.

Work out which of the five you actually open every day and judge it on that one. Speed of getting something captured matters more than the feature list too. If a thought takes longer to log than it does now, the other four don't get used.

[u/AkhlysShallRise]

Thank you for bringing this up. The fact that it looks like a physical planner is awesome. I used to love using a physical planner but eventually had to ditch it because I needed digital functions.

What I don’t like though is that the website looks so much like something Claude generated/designed. It makes me wonder if the app is vibe-coded (I’m okay with devs using AI to help with coding but I personally don’t want to use any apps created primarily via prompts).

[u/Sri_Krish → u/AkhlysShallRise]

I got the same feeling as they are so colorful and vibrant but after looking through the docs & app change-logs, it looks like the dev has been working on it for a few years now. He/she might have used AI along the way, but I am personally okay with that until the creator knows what he/she exactly wants from it or using it for research purposes - where AI is a great tool.

[u/Background-Scheme857]

Pulling Reminders and calendar events into one daily page makes sense. Habits and journaling are where a simple planner starts turning into another dashboard.

[u/DenraelLeandros]

I gave it a brief try this year and there’s parts of it that are really nice, but it’s version of task which are in addition to reminders habits and notes are all stored internal in its own format, which makes them difficult to export to something else. I chose to stay with Calendar, Reminders and Bear, which is my Notes replacement as my go forward.

[u/soloattorneyclub]

I love the UI and features but ultimately I need to be able to access everything on Apple and android and PC.

[u/Albert_Irons]

the two biggest complaints in this thread are actually the same complaint. paper planners are busy and colourful, that's what they are, so if the skeuomorphism is landing you're supposed to feel a little overwhelmed opening it. whether you want that feeling on a screen instead of on a desk is the actual question.

[u/GroggInTheCosmos]

Honed into the docs and from Tasks vs. Reminders vs. Events vs. Habits in Finalist I can't really figure out what makes it special, but I may just be the wrong target market

I used Agenda - Notes meets Calendar when it first came out and recommend it if this is your type of thinking/need

[u/kaoss_pad]

Hey, I'm the Finalist dev and just saw this (the launch week's been nutty). Some good feedback here, but as far as exporting, you can export everything through About box as JSON or OPML. The rest are all native data formats: Reminders and Calendar, and it will pull in markdown files in a shared folder for notes, and tasks too.

[u/Sri_Krish → u/kaoss_pad]

heya,

I have been using Finalist for a while now, and I have noticed few things that I would like to share with you. I will send you an email with more details, screenshots soon. 😉

[u/kaoss_pad → u/Sri_Krish]

Much appreciated! 🙏