Why I started QTR
A note from Swami Venkat, one of the founders of QTR.
There are a thousand to-do apps that supposedly make you more productive. Do we really need another one?
One day I got a notification from the app I was using: Task snoozed for 167 days. That's when it hit me: to-do apps are broken. Not because they're badly built, but because they're solving the wrong problem.
“I had this vision: what if I could offload everything in my head into a second brain? My commitments, ideas, deadlines, all organized into time frames. Focus on what's important now, get reminded as things get closer.
That vision is what QTR is today.”
I was a power user of Asana, Notion, Trello, and Todoist. I even sent product sketches to the Todoist team regularly. These are genuinely great tools. But they're task managers. They make you feel productive without necessarily moving you forward.
The real question isn't whether you're managing your tasks efficiently. It's whether you're managing your time effectively. Are the things you're doing today connected to where you want to be in three months? Studies show only 8% of people ever achieve the goals they set.
"A to-do list is a wish list. Until something's on your calendar, it doesn't really exist."
The system that changed everything for me was simple: begin with the end in mind, work backwards to figure out what needs to happen, and then time-block those actions on your calendar, not as aspirational items, but as actual appointments with yourself.
I've planned this way every day for years, alongside a full-time job and a busy life. It's the only system that's let me make real progress on long-term goals without burning out.
QTR is that system, built into software. You start with your goals, work backwards through the quarter, cascade down to the week and the day, and end up with a time-blocked calendar where every task has a reason. Your Sherpa makes planning fast. The goal map makes the big picture impossible to lose.
That second brain is still at the core of QTR. What we've sharpened is the part that matters most: working backwards. Your goals stay in front of you all quarter, and every goal is a hill you can watch yourself climb.
Stop managing tasks. Start managing time.