Dawny is a to-do app for people whose lists keep growing until they stop looking at them.
Every night at three, Dawny clears today's list, and in the morning you decide again what today is about.
At three in the morning, Dawny moves everything you did not check off in the Today list into the archive.
Dawny is made for people whose to-do list turns into a burden over time.
Writing tasks down works fine, but after a few days old and new tasks are mixed together and every look at the list takes effort. Many people with ADHD know this exactly. Every night, Dawny radically takes everything you did not check off from your list, so in the morning you only have to think about the tasks that matter today.
Everything waits in the Backlog until you pick it for today.
Backlog. Your tasks sit here sorted by time horizon, from “Quick” to “Someday”. In the morning you swipe whatever is due today to the right, into the Today list.
Today. The Today list holds only what you picked for today.
Archive. Everything that was done or left behind sits here sorted by date. A swipe brings it right back, to the Backlog or straight to Today.
Your tasks in the Today list also show up in Apple Reminders and in Calendar.
Dawny writes today's tasks into a Reminders list and picks up what you check off there. That way you see them on your Mac, on your Apple Watch and in your Apple Calendar.
Dawny 
On top of that there are widgets, Siri, iCloud sync and a few settings.
- Three widgetsfor checking off tasks right on the Home Screen
- Siri and Shortcutsadd tasks by voice
- iCloud syncbetween your devices
- Make it countsets how often a task may be left over
- Tasks in recurring categoriescome back to the Backlog every night
- Reset timefreely configurable
- Backlog limitsclear old tasks out of the Backlog
Dawny costs nothing, needs no account and collects no data.
Questions
What exactly happens at three in the morning?
Dawny ends the day and clears today's list: what was done is in the archive under “Completed”, what was not is under “Archived”, and recurring tasks go back to the Backlog. The app does not need to be open for that. The time can be changed freely in Settings.
Why three and not midnight?
Because a day does not end at twelve but when you go to sleep, and whoever checks something off at half past midnight wants to see it in yesterday's Today, not in today's morning.
Why do unfinished tasks go to the archive instead of tomorrow's list?
Because a list that only grows stops being read at some point. A place on today's list is a promise for this one day. Once the day is over, Dawny puts the task away instead of showing it to you again tomorrow with a red dot. Whatever matters to you, you bring back the next morning with one swipe. Whatever you do not bring back was apparently not that important.
What happens to tasks I keep leaving behind?
By default, Dawny moves a task that was left over to the archive after the very first day. If that is too strict for you, set a number from 1 to 7 under “Make it count” in Settings. It says how often a task may be left over before it goes to the archive, so at 3 it returns to the Backlog twice and goes to the archive the third time. When it lands there, that is usually the answer to whether it will still happen in this form.
Is anything in the archive lost?
No, archived means filed and not deleted: the archive is sorted by date and searchable, a swipe right brings every task back, and only what you delete yourself is deleted.
Does the Backlog tidy itself too?
Yes, every category in the Backlog has a limit. Anything left untouched for longer than that limit moves to the archive overnight, even if it was never in the Today list. The defaults are seven days for “Quick”, 21 days for “Next couple of days”, 60 days for “Next couple of weeks” and a year for “Next couple of months”. “Someday” has no limit, everything stays there. Recurring categories are exempt. For your own categories you set the limit yourself, and the summary after the reset shows you what was tidied away.
Why are there no due dates and no reminders?
Because a date in the future postpones a decision instead of making it. Dawny has two points in time, today and someday, and whatever is due on a fixed date belongs in Calendar or in the Reminders app, where Dawny writes today's list anyway.
Why no priorities, projects or tags?
Because after two weeks everything is “high”, and every extra structure is one more decision before you have done anything. Instead, Dawny only asks roughly when, that becomes the time horizons in the Backlog, and the real prioritising happens every morning when you decide what moves to Today. Whoever needs more structure creates more categories.
What can Dawny not do?
Plan large projects over weeks, a to-do list is the wrong tool for that, even if a recurring task like “Work on the project” can remind you every day. Dawny is built as an iPhone app, on the iPad it runs in iPhone format and on the Mac not at all, there you see today's list through Reminders.
How does Dawny work with Apple Reminders?
Dawny writes today's tasks into a Reminders list and picks up what you check off there, and on first launch iOS asks once for permission. Dawny does not import your existing reminders, and that is on purpose, because the point of Dawny is that you decide each morning what counts today instead of taking over a list with 200 leftovers.
Is Dawny an app for ADHD?
Dawny is made for anyone for whom classic to-do apps become more burden than help over time, and many people with ADHD describe exactly that: priorities do not hold for weeks, overdue tasks create pressure, and at some point the app is not opened any more. The daily reset takes that pressure away, without Dawny being a medical product.
Does Dawny cost anything, and what is the catch?
No, there is no subscription, no pro version, no in-app purchases and no ads, and there is no catch either. Dawny is a tool I use myself every day, built by one person in Karlsruhe, and the source code is open on GitHub.
Do I need an account, and where is my data?
No, you download the app and start. Your tasks live on your iPhone and, if you turn on iCloud sync, in your own iCloud account, there is no server of mine, and the app contains no analytics, no crash reporting and no trackers. On this website I measure reach anonymously, without cookies.