Stay on course — and keep your head clear.
Free while in early access · No credit card required
We help you clarify your values and long-term goals, then connect them to everyday tasks.
Your roles reflect the relationships and responsibilities that give your life meaning. Define who you want to be in each role and the principles you want to live by.
Read more: Define your rolesWork
Keep my commitments, help my team grow
Dad
Be actively involved in my daughter’s life, keep my promises
Partner
Stay close to each other, share everyday responsibilities
Me
Maintain my body, be strong and confident
Define your goals as beacons for the life you want to build. Even when you don’t yet know how to reach them, you know which direction to move in.
Read more: Define your goalsChoose small steps that move you toward your goals and honor your roles. Give them a place in your week so what matters to you becomes part of how you spend your time.
Read more: Plan the week and performMissed
No date
Reflect on what worked, what got in the way, and which roles need more attention. Use what you learn to choose what to change next week.
Read more: Review ritualsSep 7 – 13
Work took most of my energy. Time with Lily was the best part.
Next week: an evening with Emma, a morning run, and time for myself.
Give yourself mental space. Write down everything you are trying to remember, so your attention is free for the people and the work in front of you.
Read more: Clear your head
Free while in early access · No credit card required
Four steps are the method. The rest of the app is there for the days the method meets real life.
Is the task really several steps? Then it is a project. Left as one line it either scatters across the weeks or never starts at all — as a project it holds its own tasks and its own notes, so the reference material sits next to the work.
A week holding more than you can carry. So take things out: pause a project and its tasks leave the plan without being lost, postpone a task and it comes back on the day you named.
Some tasks are not one task — the bins on Tuesday, the class on Thursday. Set the days and the time once and every occurrence stands on its own day: ticking off Thursday does not close Tuesday, and a day that went by is simply gone rather than following you around.
Sport three times a week is not a task with a date, it is a count. Give the goal a number and the week keeps the score — three of five done, and what is left is visible on Wednesday rather than on Sunday night.
Birthdays and anniversaries, and the task each of them needs before it arrives. Say “pick a present, ten days before” once and it comes back every year, ten days ahead — which is the difference between remembering a birthday and being ready for it.
Whatever you are trying to remember is attention you are not spending on the work. An idea, a quote, something someone said, the thing to ask the doctor — write it down and it attaches to the role or the project it belongs to, still there when the subject comes back up.
Roles are who you are being; tags are where you are and who you are with — the shop, the summer house, a person you will see on Friday. One word ties together tasks and notes that live on different pages, so opening the tag when you get there is the whole trick.
“Defining roles made me realize that keeping up the household — groceries, cooking, repairs — is not the same as nurturing my relationship with my wife. Those are two completely different roles.”
“I put things off — always have. For a couple of weeks I kept dragging the same cards from Missed to Tomorrow, until it was plain that tomorrow could never hold them all. That horrified me, and I did two of the easy ones on the spot — no resistance, and honestly with some pleasure.”
“I spent a while trying to figure out which role to file my whole week's work under — until it hit me that it didn't align with any of my goals at all.”
Motive is free right now for early users. There is no credit card, trial clock, or feature meter.
After early access, Motive will be $10 per month. We will give early users plenty of notice before pricing changes.
Motive is still in development. We are looking for the best solutions and practices to make everyday life better, and early users help us learn what is genuinely useful.
Name who you want to be — as a parent, a partner, at work, for yourself — and write down what you dream of in each role. Motive turns it into small steps, one week at a time.
Free while in early access · No credit card required