Hi! I'm Jack creator of Constito 👋
TL;DR
Discovering kanban helped me to complete college with good grades, get a good job, and manage my life at the same time without going crazy
(at least I think I'm not crazy)
Simple methods are the best
No complex tool replaces motivating yourself to do the work. But can help you if you struggle with managing and focusing on what to do.
I wanted to feel free to express myself and manage my life
Firstly, I stored my data online. But later I discovered that companies can sell my data, use it to train AI, or governments can change laws so that you cannot access it anymore.
♪♫♪ I don't want to feel like somebody's watching me ♪♫♪
It's like doing something alone, and when someone is watching your hands and immediately you are not good anymore.
After years of trying to be more productive, I wanted to have the most important tools in one place
IMO, kanban board, notes, and a calendar are a simple but effective combination. And having it all together helps you integrate all of this. For example, searching for information.
I couldn't find such a tool
So I created one. All things that I think are necessary: kanban board, notes, calendar in one place. Private, all data is on your disk not online.
Something about me
I'm a rather shy and introverted person but it's not like I don't like people. I love people, but unfortunately they have problems understanding me, and I have problems understanding them, but I try to improve in this area.
The beggining
In college I wanted to change my life from a student who didn't like to learn, to for the first time in my life putting effort into learning.
It was hard to get used to from old bad habits like playing games so much, not learning systematically, not doing homework, forgetting to prepare and probably more.
I was using pen and paper, sticky notes, my phone with digital notes and even chalk to write down what I needed to do and when to not forget and maintain discipline.
Transformation
I don't remember how (ironic) but I learned about kanban board. I started to use it online and it helped to finally write down my to do list in one place and manage it in systematized approach.
It helped me to learn systematically, remember about homework and write down everything that I was afraid I might forget.
Learning regularly helped me to know more, understand more which helped me to get good grades.
Finally, I completed my college with the best grade possible and after a few job changes I got a decent job with a good salary.
It was not enought
But after just a few years of work I quit my dream job because I wanted to do something I had also dreamed from my childhood...
First fail
It was in 2023. I quit job and later I started my first project. It was harder than I thought and it failed.
In the meantime managing my life online started to bother me. I don't want to store my data on some company servers.
In late 2023, I was using a combination of multiple tools offline, but it didn't feel good.
At the beginning of 2024, I decided to build one tool on my own that will combine all important features in one place in a private way.
Second try
This time, in late 2024, I released this project to the public and from that date I'm working on it.
Constito is an offline kanban board to help you manage tasks, notes, and calendar. All in one to help you even more so you don't have to search something across different programs. And it's offline so you can organize your life in private way.
Why paid?
My goal is to make it open-source to make it more available to other people that care about privacy, but since the time when I quit my job I live from my savings and this project is the only way to earn some money (at least for now while I'm thinking about other possibilities).