About Dobahn
A small, independent project about making plans that survive contact with a real day.
I could make a good plan. Following it was another story.
I built Dobahn because I couldn't find the tool I needed. What it helped me change wasn't quite what I expected.
First, I went looking
I wasn't coming from a productivity app I wanted to replace. I just knew I needed something. I searched for a tool that made sense for a student, or someone with big ambitions who struggles to follow through. I couldn't find what I had in mind.
Planning came easily to me. I could keep refining a plan until it looked just right. But the execution didn't match. I thought that if I could make doing the work more systematic, instead of leaving it to intention, it would be worth building. So I started Dobahn.
What changed surprised me
I expected to get much better at execution. It improved to some extent, but not dramatically. The bigger change was that I started planning more realistically.
Dobahn puts what I planned beside what actually happened. Seeing those together helped me adjust what I expected of a day. The gap narrowed, not just because I did more, but because my plans got closer to reality.
Building it has its own irony
There's an awkward part to this story: building a productivity tool can itself become a way to procrastinate. That has been part of it for me, too.
I've spent longer on Dobahn than I expected, and there is still a lot I want to finish. I have second thoughts sometimes. I'm still learning when to keep refining a plan, and when to get on with the work.
So this isn't advice from someone who has productivity figured out. It's a tool I needed, built around something that has genuinely helped me: seeing the difference between what I intended and what I did.
If that sounds familiar
If making the plan comes more easily than doing the work, that's where Dobahn started, too. Take a look at how it works. And if something feels missing, I'd like to hear it.