Inspiration
Ever had a lab report, an essay, a quiz, and a math contest all due at basically the same time?
Yeah. Me too.
The hardest part usually isn't doing the work. It's figuring out what to do first when everything feels urgent.
One week, I had a science lab due Monday, a math contest Wednesday, and two tests Friday. I realized I was spending more time deciding what to work on than actually working.
I also noticed that many planners focus on graded homework. But student life is bigger than that. There are contests like the AMC and BMT, club meetings, and practices that don't get a grade but still take time and matter. So I built a planner that treats all of it as real tasks.
What it does
ProcrastiNOT turns a giant pile of deadlines into a plan you can actually follow.
- Add anything: assignments, tests and contests (like the AMC or BMT), and activities or clubs.
- Know what to do first: every task is labeled Do first, Soon, or Later.
- Get a day-by-day plan: enter how many hours you can study each day, pick a plan length from 1 to 60 days, and it builds a schedule.
- Get warned early: if a task can't fit before its deadline, the app tells you.
- Keep your data: edit tasks anytime. Everything saves automatically in your browser, and you can export or import a file to back it up or move to another device.
How I built it
I wanted the first version to be simple, fast, and reliable.
- A single web page built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with no backend and no accounts
- Everything runs in the browser, and tasks are saved with local storage, so student data stays on their own device
- Export and import use a simple JSON file
How the ranking works: every task gets a priority score. Bigger, more important tasks score higher, and the score rises as the deadline gets closer:
$$ \text{priority} = \frac{\text{importance} + 3 \times \text{effort hours}}{\text{days left} + 1} $$
For graded assignments, importance is the grade weight. Tests and activities don't have a grade, so you choose Low, Medium, High, or Must-do (5, 12, 20, or 30).
How the plan works: the daily schedule fills each day with the earliest deadlines first. For tests and contests, prep is scheduled before the event.
Challenges I ran into
- Ranking vs. scheduling: the most important task isn't always the most urgent one, so I kept the priority ranking and the schedule separate.
- Tasks without grades: how do you compare an AMC contest with homework worth 10% of your grade? I created importance levels to solve it.
- Keeping it small: I had ideas like accounts, syncing, and teacher dashboards, but I chose a smaller, more reliable first version instead of building everything at once.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
- I built a working prototype that anyone can open and use right away, with no sign-up.
- It handles more than homework. Contests like the AMC and BMT and club activities are first-class tasks.
- It's private by design. Nothing leaves the user's device.
- It's practical. You can edit tasks, get saved progress, plan up to 60 days ahead, and back up your data with a file.
What I learned
- Planning is partly math, but mostly about making tradeoffs visible.
- A simple tool that works is better than a giant one with 50 features nobody uses.
Being overwhelmed doesn't always mean you have too much work. Sometimes you just don't know where to start. That's the problem I wanted ProcrastiNOT to solve.
What's next for ProcrastiNOT
- Paste in a syllabus: let AI find assignments and deadlines automatically
- Sync everywhere: keep your plan updated across your phone and laptop
- Smarter scheduling: spread big tasks across several days instead of cramming them at the end
- Teacher view: see when deadlines from different classes pile up on the same days
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