Quietkeep holds what you put down, and brings it back.
You do not have to remember to look.
There is one thing worth setting up now: ask this browser to keep
your writing rather than treat it as disposable.
On iPad you will be asked to allow
notifications. Allow it — on Apple devices that permission is
the only thing that lets the browser keep your planner for good instead of
clearing it, so it is what makes your writing safe. It does nothing else:
Quietkeep never sends notifications. When you want reminding
of something, you send it to your calendar (there is a button for it under
the i), and the calendar — which runs when this app
does not — is what reaches you.
You can skip this and do it later. It is always under
the i at the top.
What Quietkeep is
Quietkeep holds everything you put down and brings it back on its own —
so you do not have to hold it in your head, or remember to look. It is a
planner that lives entirely on your device: no account, no sign-in, and no
server holding your writing, because there is no server.
How to use it
Three things, and the app does the rest:
- Put it down the moment it occurs to you — one box,
nothing to fill in, no folder to choose.
- Sort it when you have a moment — Quietkeep walks you
through what you dumped, one card at a time, with a choice you cannot get
wrong.
- Do the next thing — it hands you the single thing
worth doing now, and quietly brings each item back when its time comes.
You never file anything or set reminders by hand. Dates, repeats and nudges
are the app’s job, not yours.
Add it to your home screen
Quietkeep runs in the browser, but it is better on your home screen: it
opens like an app, works with no signal, and it is where the browser can
hold onto your planner for good.
- iPhone or iPad (Safari): tap the Share button, then
Add to Home Screen.
- Android or a computer (Chrome / Edge): open the browser
menu and choose Install, or use the install icon in the
address bar.
The notification prompt, and why it appears. On iPhone and
iPad, adding Quietkeep asks you to allow notifications. Allow it: on Apple
devices that permission is the one thing that lets the browser keep your
planner instead of clearing it after a while — so allowing it is what
keeps your writing safe, and that is the only reason it is asked. It does
nothing else. Quietkeep itself never sends notifications
— it has no server to send them from and will not ping you. Reminders
work a different way: when you want to be reminded of something, use
Send to my calendar under “Reminders that reach you”
below. Your calendar keeps running when Quietkeep is closed, so it is the
thing that can actually reach you.
Nothing is uploaded when you install — it is the same app, given its
own icon.
Quietkeep is on your home screen — it opens on its own and works offline.
It does not send notifications; when you want to be reminded of something, use
Send to my calendar under “Reminders that reach you” below,
and your calendar — which runs when this app does not — is what
reaches you.
Help
Short answers to the things people ask. Tap one to open it.
How do I get something out of my head?
Type it in the box at the top and press Hold it. One line is
enough — you are only getting it down, not sorting it. Do that as often
as things occur to you; sorting comes later, on your terms.
What happens to everything I put in?
When you have a moment, Quietkeep offers each one back to you,
one at a time, with a small choice: a thing to do, something you are waiting
on someone else for, or just a note to keep. Nothing piles up unsorted where
you cannot see it.
How does it decide what to show me next?
It hands you a single next thing — the one most worth
doing now — with a short list behind it, never the whole pile at once.
If it is not the right moment for that one, you can pass, and passing costs
nothing.
What if a date has already gone by?
Nothing here is ever marked late or overdue — that is
deliberate. A date that has passed quietly becomes a card asking when you
would like to look at it again. There is no pile of failures to face.
Will it remind me?
Quietkeep does not send notifications. To be reminded at a set
time, send that item to your calendar with “Send to my calendar”
below — your calendar runs even when this app is closed, so it is the
thing that can actually reach you.
Is my writing private? Where does it live?
Everything stays on this device. No account, no sign-in, and
no server holding your writing, because there is no server. Nothing about you
is collected.
How do I back it up, or move to a new device?
“Export a copy” under Your data saves everything
as one plain file. On another device, “Bringing a copy back” reads
that file and tells you what is in it before anything changes.
Can I keep two devices in step?
There is a separate edition, Quietkeep Sync, that does exactly
that — sealed on your device before anything leaves, with a key only your
devices hold. The default app you are in never contacts anything at all.
Why does it work this way?
Every choice here — bringing things back instead of
listing them, never marking anything overdue, one next thing rather than the
whole pile — comes from research on how memory, attention and motivation
actually work, and how that differs for a lot of neurodivergent people. The
full reasoning, with every source named and tagged by how well established it
is, is written up in
Planning for Humans, here in the app.
Your data
Storage on this device
Bringing a copy back
Moving to a new device, or restoring after something went wrong. Choose an
exported file and Quietkeep will tell you what is in it before anything
changes.
Take in what I don’t have adds anything this copy has and
this device doesn’t, and removes nothing — that is the one for
carrying your work between your own devices.
Replace everything throws away what is here and uses the copy
instead — that is the one for a device you are setting up again.
Extras
One pass through your messages
Messages arrive all day and attention does not divide. If you turn this on,
Quietkeep offers a single pass through them at the moment you come out of
working on something — when looking costs least — and never while
you are in the middle of anything.
It is off unless you ask for it, it counts nothing, and skipping one is not
a failure. Quietkeep cannot see your messages and never will.
Today, on paper
One page: the thing to do next, what else is ready, what is with other people,
and what is coming up. For a meeting where a screen is rude, or a day the
battery is going to lose.
Paper cannot update. Ticking something off on the printout does not reach
Quietkeep — the app is still where things are true.
Telling someone where things are
What has changed since the last time you told anyone — finished, come
back, now with someone else — plus what is still outstanding and what
is coming up. It is worked out from your own history, so nothing has to be
kept up to date for it to be right.
Nothing is sent anywhere. It is written for you to paste or hand over
yourself, and the next one starts from this moment.
Reminders that reach you
Quietkeep can only bring something back while it is open. Send what you are
holding to your calendar and the calendar will tell you instead — it
already runs when this app does not.
Only days you set go to a calendar. Quietkeep puts its own dates on
things constantly — that is how it brings them back — and those are
not appointments, so they stay here.
The number on the app icon is how many things are ready now.
It is the same number as “ready now” beside what you are holding,
and it goes away by itself when nothing is asking.
It is a snapshot of this moment. If you change a date here afterwards, the
calendar will not follow — send a fresh copy when it matters.
Trying it out with something in it
An empty planner is hard to judge. This puts a small set of ordinary work in,
dated around today — a job with two steps in it, something whose date has
already gone by, something you are waiting on someone else for, a couple of
things nobody is asking you to do, and two notes not yet sorted.
It goes in beside anything you already have and behaves exactly like your own
work — there is no button that takes only this back out again. Export a
copy first if what is already here matters.
Bringing work in from another planner
An OmniFocus export — TaskPaper or CSV — or anything else
TaskPaper-shaped. Projects keep their contents, and dates you set over there
arrive as dates you set here.
It goes in beside whatever is already here. If you want a clean run at
it, save a copy and start again from empty first — both are just below.
Clearing things out
Two different things, and they are not the same favour. Save a copy first
— it takes a second and it is the only way back.
About
What’s new
Part of a family of free apps
Quietkeep is one of Noah Jefferson’s free apps — small tools,
no accounts, nothing to pay. See the rest of them, and how to reach him, at
noahjefferson.pages.dev.
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Source and licence