Five years ago, I wrote an article about Super Productivity, a to-do application that was available for Linux, making it interesting for my target Linux audience. For anyone who read that article, it probably quickly became clear how enthusiastic I was about this application. I wrote that Super Productivity was stable, fast, offered lots of powerful functions, syncing, health management, productivity optimization, time tracking, reporting, customization, and was very well structured and laid out. Now, five years later, I think it is time to take another look at this application and see how much Super Productivity has evolved and fits in my personal productivity workflow. And I think the title of this article gives something away.

Contents of the article

• Introduction
• A quick look back
• What has happened to Super Productivity
• Super Productivity in practice
• How to download and install Super Productivity
• Any room for improvement?
• Final thoughts

Introduction

Five years ago, I said in my article “Super Productivity is an extremely powerful To Do app for Linux” that Super Productivity is a really well designed open‑source to‑do and time‑tracking application for Linux. Even back then, it stood out as one of the most capable productivity tools available for Linux. What impressed me was how a single developer managed to build an application that combined task management, time tracking, project organization, and developer‑friendly integrations into one fast, lightweight, cross‑platform solution.

In my original review, Super Productivity already offered a solid GTD‑style workflow with projects, tasks, subtasks, estimates, and reminders. It included built-in time tracking with detailed worklogs, Pomodoro support, break reminders, and even counters like the standing desk and coffee tracker. For developers, integrations with Jira, GitHub, and GitLab made it easy to link tasks directly to coding activities. Syncing across devices was possible through Dropbox, Google Drive, and WebDAV, and the app was available on Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and the web.

Although I was really positive about this application, from my perspective and way of working it wasn’t perfect though. I missed some things like project hierarchies, drag‑and‑drop task reordering, Kanban‑style sections, and proper priority fields. Even so, Super Productivity already stood out as a fast, stable, and surprisingly feature-rich tool that could easily compete with many mainstream applications.

Back then, it was already a very promising open‑source project, but at some point I lost track of it, partly because I was busy testing and writing about lots of other tools for this website. Earlier this year, Super Productivity came back on my radar, and since then it has become my main daily task and project management application, and one of my most important personal productivity tools. I use it every single day on my Linux systems, my Android phone, and my iPad, to organize and keep track of everything that needs to be managed and done in my life.

Now, roughly five years later, and using it on a daily basis for a while, it feels like the right moment to take another close look at Super Productivity and see how much it has evolved. In this follow‑up article, I will walk you through what is new and what has improved.

A quick look back

Even though I was mainly positive about Super Productivity at the time, even for the best products there are always possible improvements. In my previous article, I mentioned a few things which would improve my productivity workflow and discussed those with the developer. So let’s have a look at what has happened with my ideas over the past few years. Below my findings, the feedback 5 years ago from the developer and the status at this moment.

Project hierarchy

My finding: “I miss the option to set up a project hierarchy. There is no possibility to set up a structure of main projects and sub projects or sections, to differentiate projects for example between Private, Study and Work. Now all projects are just in one list.”

• Feedback developer: “While I personally wouldn’t need it, there is an open discussion about project folders and if more people request the feature I will add it”
• Current situation: I am very happy. I got exactly what I asked for, and even much more than that. Because not only for projects, but also for tags, it is now possible to build a folder hierarchy consisting of top-level folders and subfolders. Further, these folders support full drag-and-drop functionality. This gives you the ability to organize your projects and tags according to your own exact needs. 

Moving tasks

My finding: “I can’t just move a task to another project with my mouse. This works only via menu option Move to other project.”

• Feedback developer: “Moving tasks via drag and drop makes a lot of sense and will come at some point”.
• Current situation: Moving individual tasks between different projects is now an absolute breeze, working smoothly via direct drag-and-drop mouse movements.

Kanban functionality

My finding: “Within a project there is no possibility to add sections where I can move tasks into. I like to create a setup with multiple sections to have a kind of a Kanban board. Normally I create sections for tasks that for example are in review by others or in progress by others or when I am waiting for feedback from others. Of course I can use tags for that, but it is not as visual as using sections.”

• Feedback developer: “A kanban view makes a lot of sense and will come at some point”
• Current situation: I am a huge fan of Kanban workflows, and I am thrilled to see that robust Kanban functionality is now fully baked into the application in a powerful, flexible manner. (More on this later in the article!)

Resizing the side bar

My finding: “It is not possible to resize the left menu bar. When you have a long project name you can’t see the complete name. But with my 32 inch 4K screen I have enough real estate to have a very big left side bar.”

• Feedback developer: “Resizing the left pane also makes sense and there is an open issue for that as well”
• Current situation: I can be short here. Resizing the left pane is possible now, which is great.

Task priorities

My finding: “I like to have the option to add a priority to a task. I can emulate this by using the tags, but a dedicated prio option would be more convenient for me personally.”

• Feedback developer: “I am not yet sure if I would want to add a priority feature beyond tasks. Currently, I am happy with providing a way to do that in a completely custom fashion via tags as you mention, but if more people request this I am definitely open to adding it.”
• Current situation: There is still no dedicated option to add a priority to a task. But I now think it makes sense. Different users have different interpretations of how to organize priorities. You may prefer using the values high, medium, low. But someone else prefers the four quadrants of the Eisenhower Matrix: important, not important, urgent, not urgent. And there are all kinds of different personal interpretations of priorities. So, like the developer mentioned 5 years ago, I now think that using tags is the proper way to solve it. In combination with the flexible implementation of kanban boards in Super Productivity it even makes more sense to use prio based tags, as they can be used to set up a prio based Kanban board.

Custom attributes

My finding: “I like to see the option to add custom fields to tasks, so I can personalize the way of working.”

• Feedback developer: “The same goes for custom task fields. While definitely a useful addition for some people I am hesitant, due to the increased complexity of code but more importantly the UI.”
• Current situation: It is still not possible to create custom attributes, like for example in Zenkit, Notion or AppFlowy. First of all I can indeed imagine that custom attributes add a lot of extra complexity for the underlying datamodel, database, logic and the user interface. It is also a valid remark made by the developer that it is only useful for some people, which probably are the same people that are using tools like Notion or AppFlowy. Super Productivity caters well to power users who value a fast, focused out-of-the-box experience over endless tinkering and database configuration. There’s no right or wrong approach here, but I think excluding custom attributes fits within Super Productivity’s core philosophy.

Most of my previous requests have been officially implemented. Therefore Super Productivity has grown significantly closer to my ideal setup. But the app’s evolution doesn’t stop here. Let’s take a closer look at many other things that have been improved and renewed in recent years.

What has happened to Super Productivity

Five years ago, I said that Super Productivity was one of the most capable open-source task management apps for Linux. Now looking again at this application, it is very nice to see how it has evolved. The developer Johannes Millan and many contributors have turned, in my opinion, a capable application 5 years ago into a powerful almost feature complete productivity hub today.

In the last years Super Productivity has evolved from an already capable task manager into a much broader productivity platform. I went through 20 pages of release notes on GitHub to see what has changed. Between the release of version 6.1.1 (November 2020, around the time of my previous article) till the current version 18.21.1 (publication moment of the current article), the focus has been on improved planning capabilities, more integrations, improved synchronization, mobile support, extensibility, and overall polish. Below a breakdown of how Super Productivity has transformed over the last five years.

Look and feel

• Redesigned onboarding: Getting started with Super Productivity is far less overwhelming. First-time users can pick a preset workflow style immediately, learn via localized sample tasks, and benefit from subtle onboarding hints.
• New themes: A new theme like “Zen” brings a clean, minimal, transparent and flattened interface. The new “liquid-glass” option is a hint to the new macOS theme with rounded corners and glass-like transparency.
• Linux desktop polish: Linux users benefit from refined Wayland idle-detection support, improved Snap GPU compatibility, template tray icons, and a lighter overall memory usage.
• Global accessibility: Thanks to community contributors, translation coverage has expanded enormously and all 27 languages are currently actively maintained.

Task management and scheduling

• Native task deadlines: You are no longer limited to simple due dates. Tasks now support full deadlines complete with warning badges, overdue sections in the planner, and “Due Today” banners.
• Schedule and planner improvements: The planner now features a single-day view, time-block drag previews, and smart scheduling warnings that alert you if tasks overlap or go outside your defined work hours.
• Dynamic short syntax: Inline syntax recognition now highlights live as you type, supporting natural language phrases like “@every 2 weeks”.
• Subtask and board upgrades: Multi-line pasting allows you to create tasks in bulk instantly. Sub tasks can now be reordered via new “Move to Top/Bottom” context actions, and existing tasks properly sync with tagged board columns.

Focus and notes

• Revamped focus mode: Focus Mode has been completely redesigned. It now features Flowtime support (with dynamic, configurable breaks), manual Pomodoro session resets, and live timers.
• Built-in project notes: The built-in notes panel received a big upgrade, including crash-safe local drafts, a fullscreen editing mode, and auto-continuing Markdown lists when you hit Enter.

Ecosystem, integrations and plugins

• Expanded plugin system: Super Productivity has moved toward a modular plugin architecture, based on an active community supporting the plugin ecosystem next to the Super Productivity native plugins. This includes integrations for Obsidian, Asana, an OpenAI based Assistant, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.
• Issue trackers: The Super Productivity project has moved its own integrations towards the same API that is also available for third parties. Therefore the different available issue trackers moved into the built-in plugin system. GitHub Issues, Azure DevOps Issues, Trello Issues, ClickUp, Linear Issues, Gite Issuesa and Google Calendar, are official first-party plugins now.
• Deep links and universal actions: Super Productivity now supports URL scheme actions to trigger task creation or completion externally, alongside deep-link support.

Synchronization

• Sync providers: Super Productivity can sync your data via different providers. Currently synchronisation is possible via SuperSync, Dropbox, Nextcloud, OneDrive, WebDAV, and local file sync. OneDrive is available for desktop and mobile only, so not in the browser. Google Drive sync was previously available, but is no longer supported.
• SuperSync: This is the project’s new own built-in encrypted synchronization service (more details in the section “Super Productivity in practice”), designed specifically for Super Productivity. SuperSync can even be self-hosted using Docker. 
• Sync improvements: Move operations are more reliable during sync. Sync server deployment is hardened with Caddyfile validation and container checks.
• Markdown file sync: Super Productivity supports two-way sync between tasks and plain Markdown files.

Mobile applications

• Smoother mobile experience: The Android and mobile web versions received a major UX treatment. You get intuitive touch gestures, like swipe-right to mark tasks complete, backdrop menus, and a startup overlay for instant task entry before the full app loads.
• Context menus: These menus now have a proper backdrop, animation, and highlight on mobile.
• Drag-and-drop: Is locked to the Y-axis  for smoother reordering on small screens.
• Hover controls: These are hidden on touch-only devices, so no more issues with ghost buttons.

Super Productivity in practice

Now that we have taken a look at a lot of changes in Super Productivity, it is nice to have a deep dive in some of the features that really appeal to me. I want to go a little more in depth in the Kanban functionality, focus modes, filtering, plugins, progress reflection and the new dedicated SuperSync service.

Kanban functionality

One of the features that I missed 5 years ago but makes Super Productivity now even more “super”, is its flexible board functionality. Instead of having only the traditional task list presentation, you can now visualize your work in a Kanban-style board where tasks move through different stages of completion. Super Productivity allows you to create custom boards and organize tasks into columns that match your own workflow. This can be based on tags for To Do, In Progress, Waiting For, and Done, or something completely different, for example your personal creative stages, like Research, Concept, Planning, Filming, Editing, Review, Publishing.

What I really like is that the board view in Super Productivity is indeed a smart view on your data, so not a separate environment that duplicates your tasks. The same tasks that live in your projects and task lists can also be represented on a board. This means you can switch between list-based planning and a more visual workflow without having to maintain everything twice.

Focus modes

Creating a task list is one thing, but actually starting and doing the work is another. This is where the focus-related features in Super Productivity become valuable. There are 3 different focus modes, Flowtime, Pomodoro and Countdown. When you start focusing on a task via focus mode, Super Productivity minimizes the clutter so you can concentrate on the single task that matters right now. The integrated timers support this workflow. 

The Super Productivity focus modes are directly linked to your tasks. Every focus session is automatically logged, making it easy to review where your time actually went. Over time, this also helps to build a more realistic understanding of how long different types of work tend to take.

Flowtime

Flowtime is perhaps the most interesting option for people whose work often requires deep concentration. Instead of forcing you into fixed work intervals, Flowtime uses a more straightforward approach. You start working on a task and the timer counts upward. When you reach a natural stopping point, like finishing a meaningful piece of work, or notice your concentration is gone, you just stop the session and take a break. The value of this approach is that it does not interrupt you when you are fully immersed in your work. 

People like writers, developers, designers, and researchers, probably know the importance of being in a state of flow. And they also know the frustration of being pulled out of their productive flow state because a timer suddenly starts beeping. Flowtime prevents that by allowing your focus to dictate the length of the session rather than a pre-set timer.

Pomodoro

Pomodoro takes the opposite approach. Here, work is divided into predefined focus sessions separated by short breaks. The classic Pomodoro technique uses 25 minute work sessions followed by 5 minute breaks, but Super Productivity allows you to customize these intervals to better match your own preferences and workflow.

Countdown

Countdown is the simplest and most traditional focus mode. Instead of working with structured Pomodoro cycles or unstructured Flowtime sessions, you decide how much time you want to spend on a task and start a countdown timer. This approach works well when you prefer time boxing. For example, you may decide to spend exactly 45 minutes processing email, one hour writing an article, or 30 minutes reviewing project documentation. 

I like that these different focus modes are integrated in the same application that I use to manage my tasks. The timer is not running in a separate productivity tool. Every focus session is directly connected to projects and tasks within Super Productivity. This means that you are building a useful history of your work habits. For me, that is what makes these integrated focus tools much more useful than a standalone timer available for Linux.

Filtering

If you are trying to manage a whole lot of tasks, or as I also do in Super Productivity, managing my hundreds of ideas for future articles for this website, then having various filter options is of great advantage. In Super Productivity, tasks can be grouped based on tags, planned date and deadlines. Tasks can also be filtered by tag, project, planned date, deadline, estimated time and time spent. Further, tasks can be sorted by tag, planned date, deadline, estimated time, time spent, name and creation date. This can help you reduce information overload. Instead of manually searching through long lists, you can create views that show exactly what is relevant for you.

Plugins

I love having the option of extending the out-of-the-box capabilities of an application with additional plugins. The plugin architecture of Super Productivity makes that possible. Although Super Productivity already provides a strong foundation, with plugins it allows you to make this application really your own. 

Super Productivity includes a dedicated plugin management section where users can browse, install, enable, disable, and remove plugins from within the application itself. Once a plugin is installed, it becomes part of your Super Productivity environment and can add new functionality, automation options, user interface elements, shortcuts, or workflow enhancements. Depending on the plugin, new buttons may appear in the header, side panels, or other relevant locations inside the application.

There are built-in plugins like Yesterday’s Tasks (Shows all tasks you worked on yesterday with time spent on each), Procrastination Buster (Helps to identify procrastination blockers and provides tailored strategies to overcome them), Brain Dump (Quickly capture many tasks at once. Each line becomes a task) and a new (experimental) Automations plugin (Let you set up rules that automatically perform actions based on triggers, like auto-tagging or moving tasks).

And there are also community plugins available, like Archived Tasks viewer (Read-only viewer to browse archived tasks with grouping, filtering, subtasks preview, and theme toggle), Autoplan (Smart non-AI plugin for the automatic scheduling of tasks using priorities assigned automatically based on tags, projects, and time estimation), and Invoicer (Generate client invoices from tracked time in Super Productivity, with flexible billing periods, itemization levels, and PDF export).

Progress reflection and habit tracking

I think Super Productivity has two nice features to help you reflect on the things you have done. Task management applications are normally mostly focused on the task itself and you forget about it when finished. But Super Productivity also gives the option to look back, see what you have done and how you did it. 

First of all, Super Productivity automatically creates a history of your work, because task management, time tracking, and work logs are all combined. You can for example see how much time projects really took, and compare your initial estimates with the actual results. This helps you to understand how you work and gives insight into specific patterns, like certain types of tasks always take more time than expected. Or perhaps you are more productive at a different moment of the day than you thought. 

Next, Super Productivity has a beautiful built-in habit tracking functionality, which can be enabled in the Settings. In my previous review it was called Simple Counters, but is now renamed into Habits. When enabled you have a Standing Desk Timer, a Coffee Counter, and a Stretching Counter, but you can add extra counters yourself as well. I like to have a water drink counter to track my water intake.

With these options, Super Productivity helps you learn from both your own work and your habits and become more intentional with the way you organize your day, what you do and how.

SuperSync

Based on recent contact with the developer, SuperSync is most likely the most significant addition to Super Productivity in the last 5 years. It is the project’s own built-in synchronization solution, designed specifically for Super Productivity. For slightly more technically inclined users who prefer more control, SuperSync can even be self-hosted using Docker.

The main purpose of SuperSync is to keep your projects and underlying tasks in sync across all your devices. While the Super Productivity app also supports synchronization through external services like Dropbox or OneDrive, this new SuperSync service was built to optimally support the application itself. 

SuperSync has a strong focus on privacy and reliability. Your data is encrypted on your device before it is synchronized. The service also includes mechanisms to help prevent data loss and reliably handles changes made on multiple devices at the same time. It is worth noting that the end-to-end encryption applies to the actual operation payload, which is the project and task related data. The technical metadata required for the synchronization process, such as entity types, identifiers, and timestamps, is not encrypted.

Getting started with superSync is relatively simple. Go through the following steps:

1) First you need to create an account via https://sync.super-productivity.com/. Here you can register with Passkey or via Email, after which the system generates a token. 

2) Copy this token

3) Go to the Super Productivity sync settings and select Configure

4) Select “SuperSync” as your sync provider, paste the token in the “Access Token” field and click Save. 

5) Now use this same token in SuperSync on all your other devices.

When set up correctly, you can now enjoy a smooth synchronization between your devices. Since setting up SuperSync myself, I have had a great and flawless synchronization experience.

How to download and install Super Productivity

Super Productivity is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and as a web app. You can use Super Productivity on Linux via AppImage, RPM Package, DEB Package, Flatpak or Snap, depending on your preferred packaging format. You can find more generic information on the Download page.

Install Super Productivity as DEB

A DEB package is the standard software installation format used by Debian and Debian-based Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, and Zorin OS. Unlike universal container formats like Flatpak, a DEB package is a traditional, system-native format designed to integrate directly into your operating system and relies on shared system libraries.

Follow these steps to install Super Productivity using a DEB package:

1) Go to the Download page: https://super-productivity.com/download/

2) Look for the Linux section and click DEB Package to download the .deb file.

3) Go to your Downloads folder and double-click the superProductivity-amd64.deb file to install Super Productivity. Enter your system administrator password when prompted.

Install Super Productivity as RPM

An RPM package is the standard software installation format used by RPM-based Linux distributions such as Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, Rocky Linux, and openSUSE. Much like the DEB format used in Debian and Ubuntu, an RPM package is a traditional, system-native format designed to integrate directly into your operating system and relies on shared system libraries.

Follow these steps to install Super Productivity using an RPM package:

1) Go to the Download page: https://super-productivity.com/download/

2) Look for the Linux section and click RPM Package to download the .rpm file.

3) Go to your Downloads folder and double-click the superProductivity-x86_64.rpm file to install Super Productivity. Enter your system administrator password when prompted.

Next to RPM and DEB as the more traditional packaging formats, we also have more modern universal application formats like Flatpak, Snap and AppImage. These containerized solutions eliminate dependency issues and make installing software across different Linux distributions really easy. For developers, distributing an app as a Flatpak, Snap, or AppImage means maintaining a single package that works almost anywhere. And because these applications run inside isolated sandboxes, they keep your underlying system much more secure. Below the download and installation instructions for Flatpak, Snap and AppImage.

Install Super Productivity as Flatpak

If you use a Linux distribution like Pop!_OS, Linux Mint, or Zorin OS, Flatpak support is offered out-of-the-box, so it is integrated into the system and in the Software application. Just go to the Software Center application and search for Super Productivity to install it.

If your Linux distro does not have out-of-the-box Flatpak support, you can find more info on how to set up Flatpak support for your specific distribution on the Flathub setup page.

When you have read the support information and Flatpak support is set up correctly, go to the Super Productivity application page on Flathub.

Now, click on Install to download the .flatpakref file and double-click the downloaded file to install Super Productivity.

If you want to read more about managing your Flatpak-based apps, read my article “How to use Flatseal to modify and review Flatpak permissions in Linux“.

Install Super Productivity as Snap

If you use Ubuntu or maybe a Linux distribution like Zorin OS, Snap support is offered out-of-the-box, so it is integrated into the system and the Software application. In that case, just go to the Software Center and search for Super Productivity to install it.

If your Linux distro does not have Snap support yet, you can find out more about how to set up Snap support via Read more about Snap support.

When Snap support is set up correctly, you can install Super Productivity via the below steps:

1) Open your Terminal via the keyboard combination Ctrl + Alt + T.

2) Copy and paste the following command and hit Enter:

sudo snap install superproductivity

Install Super Productivity as AppImage

If you want to install Super Productivity as AppImage, then:

1) go to https://super-productivity.com/download/

2) Click in the Linux section on AppImage to download

After a successful download, right-click the .AppImage file, select the Permissions tab, and enable “Allow executing file as program”. Now you can double-click the AppImage file to start Super Productivity.

Any room for improvement?

Based on the implemented adjustments I previously described, following my initial points for improvement from 5 years ago, plus the additional improvements and innovations in recent years, I have reached the point of having a nearly perfect task management application for my specific needs. Therefore it is difficult for me to describe additional improvements that also make sense within the context of Super Productivity. This application is not for example a  Notion alternative, where everything can be adjusted down to the last detail by the user and tweaked to personal perfection, thereby posing the risk that users spend more time configuring their own tool instead of focusing on the actual tasks. In contrast to a do-it-all application like Notion, Super Productivity focuses on a simple yet powerful out-of-the-box productivity experience. And it does so brilliantly. Nevertheless, here are a few points that could be addressed in future versions:

 1) Flexible task detail views

When you open a task right now, the details panel slides in from the right. While that works for some users, apps like Zenkit show the benefit of flexibility by offering both a side panel and a centered pop-up overlay. My personal preference is a centered pop-up with a slightly dimmed background to keep the focus strictly on the task I am working on. Giving users a quick setting to choose between a side or center view would cater nicely to individual preference.

2) Illogical positioning of “Upcoming” 

Currently, the “Upcoming” view is positioned in the bottom section, together with Search and Support. To me, this is not logical. In my opinion it belongs right at the top alongside the task essentials like “Today” and “Inbox.”

3) Quick-Access Search

Similarly, the “Search” feature is also positioned at the bottom of the interface in the same section as Help and Support. Bringing the Search option up to the top menu, or maybe placing a permanent search bar right in the top header, makes far more sense for me for daily usability.

Final thoughts

For me, Super Productivity has grown into the most complete and capable task management application available for Linux today. It combines project boards, sub tasks, note-taking, habit tracking, scheduling, time tracking, deadlines, focus features, progress reflection, filtering options, automation, integrations, plugin support, strong security, and cross-platform availability in a single, well-designed package.

If you loved Super Productivity five years ago after reading my previous article, you will even be more impressed by how far it has come today. And if you have never checked it out before, now is the time to try it out and integrate it in your productivity workflow. 

For the last months, Super Productivity has been my daily driver and I will continue to use it. I rely on this gem every single day, and it continues to help me stay organized, stay focused, and be more productive. Super Productivity is really a joy to use and a must for Linux users.

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