Slate

Your to-do list, as wallpaper.

Your desktop already shows you a picture. Slate makes it show you what you actually have to do — and redraws itself every time you tick something off.

Get Slate macOS 14 or later · free, with an optional one-time unlock
A Mac desktop showing a to-do list rendered as the wallpaper
No widget to summon, no window to keep open. The list is simply there, behind everything.

It behaves like a to-do app, not a wallpaper toy

Everything you'd expect from a task manager, with a surface you can't help but look at forty times a day.

Type dates naturally

“pay rent friday 5pm” becomes a task due Friday at five. So do “tomorrow”, “next monday”, “every weekday” and “#work”.

Lists and subtasks

Group work by list with its own colour, nest steps under a task, and see progress as you go.

Repeats that behave

Daily, weekly, monthly. Complete one and the next appears — exactly one at a time, never a pile of duplicates.

Out of your way

Four placements that stay clear of your Dock, menu bar and desktop icons. Long lists shrink to fit rather than overflow.

Quick add from anywhere

⌥⌘K opens a field over whatever you're doing. Type, hit return, and focus returns to where it was.

Private by design

No account, no analytics, no network requests. Your tasks never leave your Mac. Read the policy.

Four ways to look at it

Each template is a different typographic treatment, and each works with any of twenty-one palettes, five typefaces and six paper textures.

Ledger template: monospaced, numbered, ruled rows
Ledger — monospaced and numbered, like a banker's book.
Poster template: large display serif with no checkboxes
Poster — display serif, where the strikethrough is the only mark.
Card template: an index card on a darker backdrop
Card — an index card resting on the desktop.
Editorial template: serif heading with drawn checkboxes
Editorial — serif and quiet. The one you get for free.

Works with Apple Reminders

Mirror your Reminders lists onto the desktop and tick them off from Slate — it completes them in Reminders, so it syncs to your iPhone, iPad and Watch. Ask Siri to remind you of something and watch it land on your wallpaper.

Capture anywhere

Siri, your phone, your watch. It shows up behind your work on the Mac.

Complete from the desktop

Ticking one off in Slate marks it done in Reminders, everywhere.

Per-list control

Choose which Reminders lists reach the wallpaper. A noisy shopping list can stay in the window.

Free to use. One purchase if you want it yours.

The to-do list is not the paid part. Everything about managing tasks is free, forever, with no limits and no account.

Free

$0

  • Unlimited tasks, lists and subtasks
  • Due dates, times and repeats
  • Notes, pinning, search, undo
  • Editorial template, all four placements
  • Quick add with ⌥⌘K

No subscription. Coming to the Mac App Store.