Fast Track

Inspiration

I had a problem: every task management solution I had come up with short of 100 sticky notes on my wall wasn't working. Tools like Notion never stuck for me, as I found the UI to be limiting for my purposes. So, like any overzealous computer science student, I set out to overengineer my own solution that met exactly my needs. The core problems I had set out to solve were the following:

A way to keep track of all my tasks
To organize these tasks in multiple different ways
To sync these tasks across all my devices (particularly phone and laptop)

The first problem is pretty self-explanatory, but the other two were why I took on this project. I wanted a way to sync my assignments without having to build out a full backend service. This meant I would need to use CoreData and CloudKit, two new tools that I had yet to experiment with. The other problem I had to solve was creating ways to organize these assignments. My solution for this was to split assignments by three metrics: priority, due date, and class. This way, I could make sure my most valuable assignments and projects were completed earlier while I could save less important tasks in easier classes until later.

Features/Outcomes

Store assignments in a centralized location synced across all Apple devices
- Utilizing CoreData + CloudKit, seamlessly keep data synced all the time
Organize your assignments like never before by marking them with priority levels
Full dark mode support
Built from the ground-up for localization
Quickly find assignments with filters including
- Priority
- Class
- Completion status

Screenshots

iOS

iPadOS

End Result

In the end, I'm happy with the work I did on this project. Even though my goal was to finish it in time for the Fall 2021 semester, I fell slightly short of having a production-grade app. Despite this, I think it was a cool project that enabled me to learn new tools and techniques. This included seeing how far SwiftUI had come in the 2 years since it's initial release. Over the course of that fall, I adopted a hybrid of physical post-it notes and obsessive calendaring which I feel served my quite well for the second half of my university career.