u/chunk-app

Hi guys,

Ive had a lot of people email me who loved things3 and told me I should post here incase its of interest to any of you. To cut to the chase a couple of years ago I started building an app called Chunk.

Its a mac-only time-blocking app with both tasks and lists and timeline view for time-blocking. When you've decided when you want to allocate time for a task, you can enter plan mode and drag the tasks from your lists directly onto the timeline.

I love things3 too so just mentioning here incase its of interest to anyone.

the app has a no-card-required 100% free 7 day trial then is a lifetime license if your interested its Chunk

Hi r/macapps, I'm the developer of Chunk, a time-blocking app for macOS. Just shipped v3.2.0 with a long-requested feature.

Problem:

Time blocking in a normal calendar app or to-do list can feel clunky and detached. Chunk bridges this gap, bringing both time-blocking and things3 style task management into the same workflow. Chunk keeps your task lists and your schedule together in one menubar app, so planning your day is just dragging tasks onto the day view and the plan is always one click away (no more context switching).

Comparison:

Sunsama / Akiflow: The two biggest names in daily planning, and both are genuinely polished. But they're subscriptions (roughly $15-20/month, every year, forever). Chunk is a one-time purchase and offers its own unique menubar approach with features like fullscreen notifications and on-device storage.

What's new in v3.2.0:

• Window mode. Chunk was once just a menubar app, but now with the click of a button you can detach the usual fixed panel and Chunk becomes a regular window you can drag and resize. When you're done planning, toggle straight back to menubar mode.
• Floating timer. Keep the timer visible while Chunk is closed. Click the button in the bottom right, and when you have an active task and close or hide Chunk, a small draggable timer stays on top of other apps.
• In case you missed it, we recently added cross-device syncing. If you have two Macs signed into the same iCloud, you can now time-block your day across both.

How fast is the sync? With local syncing enabled and your devices within range of each other, changes land in 1-2 seconds. Otherwise it goes through iCloud and takes 10-30 seconds.

Does this affect the privacy-first approach? No. Chunk still stores your data on-device and we don't host it in our own database. It lives in your own iCloud account and syncs to each device's local database.

If you've not seen Chunk before, some of the features:

• Bi-directional calendar sync for Apple Calendar, Google and Outlook
• Bi-directional Apple Reminders sync
• Tasks with dates, deadlines, attachments, recurrence, sub-checklists and notes
• Task lists, list groups, reusable templates/routines
• Day, week and month schedule views with click-and-drag to create and edit tasks
• Drag tasks directly from lists onto the schedule
• A locally hosted MCP server for Claude Desktop
• End-of-task completion and rescheduling
• Fullscreen notifications and keyboard shortcuts
• Available in all workspaces, even over fullscreen apps
• Task completion and frequency analytics dashboard
• On-device storage: we don't hold your data, you do

The timing of cross-device sync is no coincidence. v3.2.0 lays the groundwork for the long-awaited and almost ready Chunk for iOS. After a short holiday we're back to development and expect to launch iOS in the next 1-3 weeks.

Pricing:

• 7-day free trial, all features, no card required
• $19.99 one-time lifetime license (covers 2 Macs)
• $44.99 family lifetime license (covers 5 Macs)
• No subscription
• Code MACAPPS for 10% off
• https://www.chunkapp.net/

Requires macOS 12 Monterey or later.

Questions or feedback: drop me a message on LinkedIn or r/ChunkApp.

Hey r/macapps,

Chunk is a Mac time-blocking app that lives in your menu bar. We've just released v3 and it has a load more features!

What's new in v3:

• Every task now holds notes, subtasks, attachments, deadlines, and recurrence
• Organise tasks into lists, group them, or save them as reusable template lists
• Drag a task onto the schedule to time-block it, or skip lists entirely and work straight from the timeline
• Day, week, and month scheduling
• Export any day or week to PDF or CSV
• New timer and a new task editor with full recurrence (daily/weekly/monthly/yearly, every-N, or repeat-after-completion, with per-occurrence skip/reschedule/reset)
• Templates are no longer a separate mode, just a list type that can have its own recurrence schedule.
• Reworked completion and scheduling analytics

In the works (~75% done): Chunk for iOS

• Task lists, smart lists, template lists
• Timeline with 1-day, rolling 3-day, and month views
• iPhone ↔ Mac sync over iCloud
• Calendar integrations (auth will be required on both devices)

Pricing (kept simple):

• 7 days free, no card. Not for you? Just delete it.
• Then a one-time $19.99 licence (not a subscription), 2 activations for home + work Macs.
• Code MACAPPS for 10% off.

A lot of Chunk's direction came from Reddit and email, so: once you've had a play, what feature do you wish was on the roadmap (iOS aside)? I'll be in the comments.

If you have any questions feel free to drop me a message on LinkedIn or r/ChunkApp

Hi Macapps,

I'm super pumped to say that Chunk is now being distributed on Setapp's single app marketplace (a new concept). Chunk has been under pretty consistent development for over a year now and while we've had hundreds of emails from licensed users that love it, running a lifetime licensed app is not always sunshine and rainbows.

There seems to be a fine balance between spending significant time marketing an app so that people know about it and still building features so that it's quality sells itself.

In recent months as a dev I have definitely been putting a lot more effort into the app than the marketing and the feedback has been great. Now I am hoping that by launching on Setapp, Chunk will continue to grow and gain traction so I can focus all my energy on building cool features.

Incase you missed it, since the launch of v2, Chunk now has:

• Bi-directional Calendar Syncing
• A huge UI upgrade from v1
• 2 Mac activations per lifetime license (heavily requested by you lot in macapps)
• New task mode with dragging tasks into the day view, bridging the gap between tasks and timeline (Kind of like things3 but with your time-blocking timeline in the same view)
• Claude MCP integration
• Apple Reminders integration
• New week view navigation for longer term planners

What is in the works:

• More features for task mode:
  • You will be able to include attachments with tasks
• A mobile app (development is underway)
• A 'large' mode setting that will scale up Chunk to allow for larger font size (we know the text is quite small)

How much is Chunk?

• 7 Days 100% free with no card required (no catch, just uninstall if its not for you)
• Then its a lifetime license for $19.99 that has 2 activations for those with a home and work computer.
• Use the code MACAPPS to get 10% off

A large portion of Chunks approach to time-blocking has come from requests either on Reddit or via email so I'd love to know: what feature is missing from Chunk that you just really wish it had?

If you have any questions feel free to drop me a message on LinkedIn

Hi everyone,

I've been solo on a Mac menu-bar time-blocking app called Chunk for about a year. Every comparable tool in the niche (Sunsama at $20/mo, Akiflow at $14.99/mo, Motion at $34/mo) is subscription. I picked $19.99 one-time. No recurring revenue, no MRR chart, no investor-friendly slope. People keep telling me this was the wrong choice 😑

What did I do? I tried writing the subscription landing page and couldn't stomach it. One of the USPs of the business is 🖕to subscriptions. There's no server I'm paying for per active user. Charging monthly for software that costs me nothing per active user felt like a tax on people who already paid. So I shipped one-time and ate the slower revenue curve.

A year in I'm still not sure it was the right call. So far it's been approx $450/month the most recent months, which is enough to keep going (I have an additional fulltime job) and not enough to feel smug.

A few things I learned along the way:

1. One-time pricing makes launch spikes actually meaningful. Product Hunt #3 product of the day translated directly into licences, not into trial cohorts I'd have to nurse for 6 months hoping they didn't churn.
2. Refund rate stays low (no one has ever asked for a refund) when the buyer already used the trial.
3. The honest cost is acquisition. Without recurring revenue you can't justify paid ads at most CACs. Content and Reddit are the only channels that math out, and that's a slow grind and something I have no experience in.
4. From a buyers perspective I've never had anyone say "I wish this was 7.99 a month instead" - Buyers hate subscriptions which means those that do buy the app are genuinely happy.

Not saying anyone should copy this. The model only works if your unit economics genuinely support it (no per-user infra cost, no support burden that scales linearly).

Happy to answer anything. chunkapp.net if you want to take a look. And if anyone has any tips or avenues of marketing etc that boost help build consistent revenue im all ears.