Rachelle in Theory's 4-App Minimal Stack

Rachelle in Theory built her audience by being honest about productivity failure. Not the polished "here's my perfect morning routine" content. More like "I tried Notion for the 5th time and still hate it" realness that people actually relate to.

Her content covers productivity experiments, wellness attempts, and the messy reality of trying to build a creator career while also having a life. She's tested probably 50+ productivity apps over the years. Abandoned most of them. What's left is the absolute bare minimum that actually works.

As of late 2024, her YouTube channel has around 60K subscribers. Not massive, but loyal. Comments sections are full of people sharing their own productivity tool graveyard stories and appreciating someone who admits most systems don't stick.

The Rachelle in Theory tools are radically minimal. Four apps total. Google Calendar for time-based stuff. Things 3 for tasks. Asana for professional collaboration. Habitica to gamify boring habits. That's it. Everything else got ruthlessly cut after proving it created more work than it solved.

Everything below comes from her videos and Instagram stories documenting the journey from productivity maximalist to "just use 4 apps and call it a day" minimalist. This stack is the result of years of testing and failure.

When people ask about Rachelle in Theory productivity apps, the answer is stupidly simple. Google Calendar for anything time-based. Things 3 for everything else. That's the core.

Google Calendar holds filming days, brand deal deadlines, personal appointments, and blocked focus time. Color-coded by category but kept deliberately simple. Red for urgent deadlines. Blue for content work. Green for personal stuff. No complex systems or elaborate time-blocking templates. Just clear visual separation.

Syncs across devices without her thinking about it. Works on phone, laptop, iPad. No manual export-import nonsense. The reliability matters when you're managing brand partnership deadlines that can't slip.

Things 3 is the task manager that finally stuck after trying literally everything else. She's made videos about abandoning Todoist (too complicated), TickTick (too many features), Notion (she really tried, multiple times, just hates it), and about 10 other apps that productivity YouTube swears by.

Things 3 captures video ideas, brand partnership tasks, life admin, errands. The Today view shows what actually matters right now without overwhelming lists of 50 someday-maybe tasks staring at her. Inbox for quick captures. Projects for multi-step work. Areas for ongoing responsibilities. The structure is just enough without being suffocating.

She's been using Things 3 consistently since early 2023. Over a year without switching. For someone who used to change task managers every 3 months, that's basically a lifetime commitment.

Asana is the third app in the Rachelle in Theory tech stack. Handles collaboration with video editors and brand partners. Keeps all professional project tracking separate from her personal Things 3 tasks, which prevents work bleeding into every moment of life.

She only checks Asana during dedicated work blocks. Morning and afternoon. Notifications completely off. This boundary prevents the constant pull of "did the editor finish that video yet" checking that used to dominate her phone usage.

Tried using Things 3 for everything including collaboration. It failed. Editors and brand partners needed shared visibility and comments. Things 3 is personal-focused. Asana handles the team coordination layer without her needing to learn complex project management systems.

Habitica is the fourth and final app. Gamifies the boring habits she'd otherwise completely skip. Daily walks. Drinking water. Stretching breaks. The RPG elements (leveling up, earning rewards, virtual pets) make mundane routines slightly less terrible.

Honestly? She deletes and restarts her Habitica character every few months when the novelty wears off. Not ashamed about it. The gamification works for a while, then stops working, then works again after a reset. Better than pretending streaks matter forever.

Tried using Streaks, Done, Productive, and about 5 other habit trackers. They all made habits feel like a report card. Habitica at least makes the guilt trip slightly fun with cartoon avatars and boss battles. Stupid, but effective.

Rachelle made a whole video in late 2023 about why she killed her elaborate productivity system. The honest answer: it was creating more work than it solved. Spending 30 minutes organizing tasks in Notion instead of just doing the tasks. Tweaking calendar color codes instead of actually filming videos.

Four apps cover the essentials without overlap. Calendar for time. Tasks for everything else. Asana for professional collaboration. Habitica for habits. Adding a fifth app would mean doubling up on functionality, which creates the "which app do I use for this?" decision fatigue.

People constantly suggest she add Notion. She's tried five separate times. Hates it every time. Too flexible, which sounds great in theory but means spending hours building systems instead of working. Things 3 has constraints that force simplicity. Constraints turn out to be features when you're naturally inclined toward productivity tool procrastination.

The Rachelle in Theory tools prove less really is more. Not as a philosophical statement. As a practical reality when maintaining productivity systems becomes its own full-time job.