Most to-do lists have the same flaw. They remember everything and decide nothing.
I know, because I tried all of them. Every app worked for about three weeks. Then the list got longer than my day, and I stopped opening it.
So I built something different. The Bench is a to-do system run by AI. It doesn’t just hold your tasks. It picks what matters this morning, does the parts a machine can do, and hands you the rest.
I thought the hard part would be getting the AI to do more. I was wrong. In the first week it found 75 things I’d “done” and asked me to confirm every one. I skipped all 75. The hard part was getting it to do less, and to ask only when it mattered.
That’s the whole design now. Agents propose. Only you decide.
You run more than one thing. A business, a side project, a book, a podcast, a life. Each one has its own pile, and the piles don’t talk to each other.
You think out loud. Your best ideas show up on a walk, in the car, mid-meeting. You’d rather say it than type it.
You’ve quit more to-do apps than you can name. Not because you’re disorganized. Because the app made you do all the organizing.
You want leverage, not a list. When a task needs research, a first draft or a pile of links, you want that waiting for you, not waiting on you.
You already live in email, a calendar and AI. The Bench works inside Claude, with your Gmail and Google Calendar.
“My ideas are everywhere.”Say it to your watch, your recorder, an email or any chat. It lands in one place, sorted.
“I don’t know what to do first.”One task sits in Right now each morning, picked against the goals you set, with the money-making work first.
“I spend my day on the prep, not the work.”Press Prep it, and the research and first draft are waiting when you get back. Press Tonight, and it’s there in the morning.
“I said I’d do it in a meeting, then forgot.”The action items assigned to you in your meeting notes become suggestions you can keep or skip.
“I’m not sure if I’m waiting on them, or they’re waiting on me.”Your moves and other people’s moves sit in different places, so the difference is obvious.
“I had a full head and no idea where to start.”Say “brain dump” and dump it. It comes back sorted: do, decide, delegate, someday.
“I worked all week and have nothing to show for it.”Every Friday you get a short review of what actually got done, including the work that never made it onto a list.
Teams. This is one person’s system. It doesn’t assign work to a group or replace your project management tool.
People who want full autopilot. Nothing goes out in your name without you. Emails are drafts until you hit send. Nothing gets bought, booked or deleted on its own. If you want a robot that runs your life unsupervised, this isn’t it.
People who won’t connect their email and calendar. Without them, it’s just a smart list.
People who love tending their own system. If color-coding your notebook is the part you enjoy, keep the notebook.
Anyone whose work can’t be read by an AI. If your contracts or your field rule that out, respect that.
People who won’t tap. It asks for a few seconds a day: keep, skip, done. Skip those, and it can’t learn what matters to you.
Not sure which side you’re on? Take the test.
or email robert@richman.la