To empty your head, you need one place where you can drop everything in a few seconds, without picking a list or a date while the thought is passing, and then something that does the sorting. With XNeuronal, you hold the button and say it all in one go: it turns it into tasks, reminders and notes, nudges you at the right time or when you reach the right place, and gives you the list back whenever you ask.
The thought that comes, and goes
You are walking to the station and remember you need to call the garage. In the shower, it is the school form. At a red light, a gift idea for Leo's birthday. Ten minutes later, nothing is left, or just the feeling that you forgot something.
It is not a lack of willpower. A thought that arrives at the wrong moment needs to be put down right away, or it leaves. And holding on to it "until later" has a cost: your mind keeps looping on what it must not forget, and there is less room for everything else. That is a big part of what people call mental load: using your own head as a to-do list.
When your mind runs fast, when you think out loud and jump from one idea to the next, it is even more obvious. Ten ideas an hour, and none of them at the moment you could act on it.
Emptying your head: what works, with any tool
The method has a name, the brain dump: get everything out of your head at once, without sorting. A few rules make it work.
- One place. A notebook, a note, an app, it does not matter, but only one. Three places means three places to check, which means none.
- Capture in seconds. If writing something down means opening the right list, picking a date and a priority, the thought will wait for "later". The right tool is the one you can use while walking.
- Do not sort while capturing. Sorting comes afterwards, with a clear head. Doing both at once is the surest way to write nothing down at all.
- A moment for everything. A task with no moment stays a thought going round in circles. "Tomorrow morning", "when I get home", "Saturday": even a vague moment gets it out of your head.
- One look a day. In the evening, to clear what is left before sleep, or in the morning, to know where to start. Five minutes is enough.
Why so many reminder apps get dropped
A lot of to-do apps are built for people who enjoy filing: projects, tags, priorities, sub-lists. That is great for planning a work week. It is too much when an idea crosses your mind in the street: open, choose, type, and the idea is already gone.
The second trap is quieter. Overdue tasks pile up in red, the counter climbs, and the app turns into a place you avoid opening. A list that makes you feel guilty is no longer any use.
What lasts is the tool that asks the least of you at the moment you capture, and that comes back to you at the right time instead of waiting for you to come back to it.
What XNeuronal does
XNeuronal is an app that remembers what you tell it. You open it, hold the button, talk, and let go. You can also type if you prefer. Nothing to choose: no list, no folder, no category.
In the evening, for example, you can get it all out in one breath: "Tomorrow at 9 call the garage about the car inspection, buy batteries, the idea for Leo is a book about volcanoes, and when I get home, sign the school form." The assistant does the sorting itself: a reminder, a task, a note, a location reminder. When a single dictation has produced several cards, it shows you a summary of everything it filed.
From then on, it comes back to you:
- At the right time, or in the right place. "Tomorrow at 9" gives a dated reminder. "When I get home" gives a reminder that goes off when you arrive, without asking what time: the trip itself sets it off. The first time, it simply asks for your home address.
- Read out loud, if you like. A reminder can be read aloud when it arrives, handy with your hands full or your phone in your pocket. You set it category by category.
- Even without a connection. Reminders that are already set are scheduled on the phone itself: they go off offline too.
- No duplicates when you repeat yourself. If you say an idea you have already noted, it strengthens the existing card instead of creating a second one. Useful when you are not sure whether you already said it.
- Find it without the exact word. "What was the idea for Leo again?" is enough: the search works on meaning, not on titles. And "show me my tasks" lists everything still in progress.
The evening recap, without the guilt
With an account, you can also get a morning briefing and an evening recap, at the time you choose. In the evening it tells you what is coming up tomorrow and which tasks are still open; in the morning, your day. If there is nothing, it says so too.
When a task has passed its date, it simply says so and suggests you archive it yourself. It never closes it for you. And when you tell it "done", the task moves to Accomplished, the list of everything you have finished or archived: nothing gets lost, and you see what you got done, not only what is left.
Two things to know before you try it. To talk to it, you need to open the app and have a connection; reminders that are already set still go off without one. And it does not decide for you what matters: it files what you say, and hands it back at the moment you chose.
Going further
If your ideas mostly come while you are walking, the article on voice memos you can actually find explains how to stop losing them. For things to do in the right place, the one on a reminder at the right moment shows how to tie a reminder to a place instead of a time. And a memory that does not repeat itself tells how XNeuronal avoids duplicates when you say the same thing twice.
The features themselves are described on the reminders and calendar, location-based reminders and neural memory pages.