Most to-do apps assume that if something isn't done, you forgot, or you planned badly. Untwine starts somewhere else: some tasks sit there for months because they feel hard — not because you don't know what to do.
So emotional difficulty is a real property of a task here, sitting beside priority and effort rather than being guessed from them. A task can take two minutes and still be the hardest thing on your list. That gap is what this app is for.
AN ORDINARY TASK APP, FIRST
Today, Upcoming, Inbox and projects. Due dates, reminders, subtasks, repeats, priority and effort. Quick capture that reads "call mum tomorrow" and sets the date without rewriting a word you typed — or say it out loud and review what it heard before anything is added. Drag to reorder, swipe to finish, search across everything.
Buying milk never gets asked how it feels. Ordinary capture is never interrupted with an emotional question.
ON YOUR WRIST
The Apple Watch app is a single screen: tap, say the thing, lower your wrist. It records up to thirty seconds and hands it to your iPhone, which does the listening and shows you what it heard before anything is added. Your phone can be asleep, or in another room.
The watch never shows your tasks. It is a door for the thought that arrives while you are standing somewhere else — not a second list to keep up with. Voice capture needs an iPhone with Apple Intelligence turned on.
AND A SECOND LAYER, WHEN YOU WANT IT
Every task also has "Untwine this task". Tap what's hard about it, and the app offers three concrete things you could actually do — not interpretations of your feelings, just small actions. Tap one and it lands on the task as a step you can reword.
There's a rotating deck behind those three, so it doesn't run out of things to say on the fourth visit. Writing is available and entirely optional.
STOPPING IS A REAL ANSWER
Putting something down until a time you choose, or deciding it isn't yours to carry, are offered with exactly the same weight as doing it. Setting a task aside is reversible and is never recorded as a failure. There are no streaks, and nothing in the app tells you that you are falling behind.
THINGS TO TRY
31 small, low-risk actions to reach for when you're stuck — grounding, movement, basic needs, getting it out of your head, reducing friction. Each with short instructions, an in-app timer where a timer makes sense, and honest notes about what the evidence does and doesn't say.
PATTERNS
Quiet, factual observations from your own history. What kinds of first steps have actually helped you before. No score, no grade, nothing telling you what your pattern means about you.
PRIVATE BY DEFAULT
Everything stays on your device. Sync is your own private iCloud database, off until you're asked and say yes. There is no account, no analytics, and no server — there is nowhere for your writing to go. Export everything as JSON or Markdown whenever you like.
WHAT THIS IS NOT
Untwine is not therapy, medical care, diagnosis, or crisis support, and it never claims to be. It offers general wellbeing prompts and small things to try. If you are struggling, please talk to someone who can actually help.
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