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Thought Train
p/thought-train
Stop Using Stickynotes | Use this app instead
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Marc Perel
Thought Train — Stop using sticky notes to remember what you're doing 📒 🚫
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Thought Train is an app that keeps your notes neatly tucked into your menubar, right where you can see them

✅ 10,000+ users

✅ Keep a list of quick notes

✅ Highlight more than one thought, and they'll scroll like a carousel

✅ Stop tabbing around

Replies
Ryan Hoover
Super unique, @marcperel. I've definitely made the mistake of CMD+TAB'ing between too many things at once. Separately, this Mac menubar app is similarly minimalistic.
Marc Perel
Maker
@rrhoover When I saw Mac menubar, I thought "damn I should really put Thought Train up now!" I like their minimalism, I'm looking already at un-designing Thought Train to take up less room.
Travis Northcutt
Very rad! Way to go @marcperel. Will you be able to add a keyboard shortcut to open it?
Marc Perel
Maker
@tnorthcutt I want to add a keyboard short-cut or a contextual menu in the right click for highlighted text to just say "send to Thought Train".
Travis Northcutt
@marcperel Cool! A keyboard shortcut would be really great for lots of people, I think – way less of a "flow" interruption if you're coding, researching, etc. to quickly make a note. I try to do this if I get interrupted and have to walk away or switch tasks; otherwise I spend a ton of time resuming work when I come back.
Marc Perel
Maker
@tnorthcutt I'll think of one that's available ie. not widely integrated (like some apps take over shift+cmd+4, OMG!)
John O'Nolan
This is such a cool idea. Would love to hear the back story about how you came up with it :)
Marc Perel
Maker
@johnonolan Hey John, I literally got so tired of forgetting what I was doing 'between' things. Between email, Slack and Skype, and all the other distractions; I kept having a moment of "hmmm what was I doing again?", and so after a quick failed Google I decided to build something that was always visible, but unobtrusive... That's how Thought Train came about, to keep my 'train of thought'. (I'm a massive fan of Ghost btw)
Damjanski
<3
skaplan
Needs built-in update funtion auto start function scrolling just the title of note, not the all note
Marc Perel
Maker
@sedatkaplan_ Auto-startup is an important one that's coming soon thanks :)
Bruno Lemos
If you use Apple's Reminders app, you can make it appear at the Notification Center Dashboard. It's not a menu bar, but it's just a swipe gesture away.
Marc Perel
Maker
📢 💰 UPDATE ON PRICING If you're wondering why Thought Train is no longer free... After a few months of purely organic traffic, I decided to set the price of the app. That's right, I removed the pure "pay what you want" element, and set it to $3,99. I'm happy with the decision,  as it's helped stabilise earnings and will mean I can better plan product updates, especially the beautiful redesign and productivity updates I have planned!
ccgreen

DOWNLOADED - twice. paid once. Can't type in anything. Can't create an account - HELP!!

Pros:

NONE

Cons:

CAN'T GET IT TO WORK; CAN'T LOG IN...

Marc Perel
Maker
Thanks I've responded to your email and forwarded your account issue to the team at Gumroad.
ccgreen
HATE IT SO FAR. WANT TO LIKE IT AND USE IT. DOWNLOADED; PAID - IT'S IN THE MENUBAR - BUT CAN'T TYPE ANYTING IN.
Vincent Denise
Hey @MarcPerel, Thought Train is cool. Do you plan to add emoji support soon? 🚂
Marc Perel
Maker
@yesnoornext It supports them if you copy & paste them in, I want to add an emoji button for quicker adding though.
Vincent Denise

I bought this app (It's pay what you want model) because I was looking for an alternative to Stickies. Good work!

Pros:

Simple and works well.

Cons:

None so far.

Victor Gross
Hey @marcperel , nice app ! what about an autoselect to get the two clicks (1/click on the icon 2/ click on the input field to start typing) in one (click on the icon and start inputing directly) ? ++
Marc Perel
Maker
@vicgrss Yeah I like that idea. I also imagine a contextual Right Click > Send to Thought Train would be cool on highlighted text so you can add it right away.
Hrefna Helgadóttir (Habbi)

I've been using this for a few days now, and I have to say it's fantastic.

If anyone is like me and has a lot of balls flying in the air most days, it's super useful to when the 'wait, what was I working on again' thought pops up in my brain (like all the time) to do a quick glance at the top menu bar and go 'ah, there it was' – and then it's exxxtra satisfying to check it off.

A+ from me

*saying that, the annoyance of the carousel means I really force myself to pick one task to complete, so that's kinda nice => would be nice if the second items would just live in the little drop down though so once one task is finished, I could just swiftly move on to the next without re-gathering my planning thoughts.

Pros:

subtle yet effective, my favourite kind of product

Cons:

really don't like the carousel* if there's more than one item

Marc Perel
Maker
Gosh thanks for the great review! You can turn the carousel off by just de-selecting notes and leaving one highlighted (or leave none highlighted and you’ll just have then tracks) “Completed” notes live in the archive too, so if you click “Show archive” you can fetch them again. Go ya covered 🤣
Peter Witham
OK this is a brilliantly simple idea. Going to give it a go.
Koushik Marka
Super cool. Simple and Straight!
Paul Davis
Saved to a sticky note to check out later 🤞
Michael Marshall Smith
Interesting idea. Any plans to have the thought list sync via iCloud, or at least to be able to store/read the file in DropBox or similar? Be nice to be able to have them on both desktop and laptop.
Marc Perel
Maker
@ememess I considered this, but for the initial use I didn’t want to add complexity of APIs. It’s something I’ll consider though, because most thoughts arrive away from my machine too, usually on my bike 🚲 or in the car 🚗
Michael Marshall Smith
@marcperel Makes sense. Tho simply being able to choose where the app reads/writes to would do it for DropBox...
Marc Perel
Maker
@ememess I’ll see how that pans out in an update thanks mate.
Logan Honeycutt
This product is the first thing I was trying to find when I bought a mac but couldn't, thanks a ton.
Ashley Sanders

I don't often use menu bar tools, but this one is a must have. It is the nicest to-do/note taking app I've ever used, and the fact that it's right in the menu bar makes it easy to use regardless of what I'm doing in other applications.

Pros:

Really easy to use. Simple but super effective.

Cons:

None so far.

Webtica
One of the first testers! Amazing work Marc as always!