About Fractal Planner

I developed the Fractal Planner to restore my own sanity

My name is Jim Stone. I'm a small business owner, software developer, and philosopher -- a good combination, it turns out. A year ago I was completely overwhelmed. My to-do list has several hundred items on it. That's several hundred ways to "drop the ball". And my brain was tired of trying to keep track of everything.

Then I started reflecting on Brian Arthur's book "The Nature of Technology", in which he shows how modern complexity is generated in a fractal manner. I also remember from studying Linguistics, Psychology, and Philosophy, that our language and the structure of our thoughts are fractals as well.

In an attempt regain some sanity I started creating a tool that would help me match the way my brain normally works to the nature of the overwhelming complexity of my day to day life.

I developed an earlier version of the Fractal Planner for my own use, and it worked wonders. From August, 2010 until today, I have never been so productive, and with so little stress.

Everyone I've shown the Fractal Planner to has told me they want to use it. No, wait -- NEED to use it.

When I showed friends and business colleagues what I was using to manage my life and business, there was generally only one response: I NEED THAT!

And that encouraged me to think about offering the Fractal Planner as a service that people from all walks of life could desperately use in these days of ever-increasing complexity.

I'm now more convinced than ever that fractals are the key to matching the powers of your brain to the complexity of your work.

For starters, . . .

Our brains are naturally wired for fractals

• Language itself has a fractal structure
• The process of making distinctions is a fractal process
• We naturally plan in a fractal or branching structure.

Fractals can also help us conquer modern business complexity because, in many cases, . . .

Business complexity is generated by a fractal process:

• Businesses grow through a fractal process
• The economy as a whole grows through a fractal process
• The internet has grown through a fractal process
• Technology as a whole develops through a fractal process
• And, our own personal projects grow through a fractal process

Many planning systems try to help us manage the complexity in our lives.

But, . . .

No planning tool matches the natural powers of your brain to the complexity of your work like the Fractal Planner

You can try to manage your projects with an Excel spreadsheet, a Word document, a notebook and pen, a daytimer, or other online planning and task management software.

But most of those methods are extremely CLUNKY compared to the Fractal Planner. They also don't integrate the important things seamlessly, AND some of them include features that shouldn't be there and serve as more complicating distractions.

The Fractal Planner is smooth. It will keep up with your brain as you plan. It will adapt infinitely to the complexity of any project. It will keep your mind clear and focused.

It does what it does well, and doesn't try to do more. It's not a scheduler (I recommend Google Calendar for that). It's not a group project management or collaboration tool. There are good tools for that out there (like basecamp or pivotaltracker).

What it is is a personal planner and task manager. And there's nothing quite like it. That's why I had to build it :-)

If you manage yourself, your productivity will go up, and your stress will go down.

If you manage a team, you will need some group management software, but you'll also want to make sure every member of your team is using the Fractal Planner as well.

If you are already familiar with planning systems like David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system, the Franklin/Covey system, or Eben Pagan's "Wake Up Productive" system, this is the online tool you've been waiting for.

Try It. You'll Like It!