Rainbow — see the density, not the entries
A calendar tells you whether something is scheduled. This shows you how much of it is stacked on top of itself.
Darker where it overlaps
The more that piles onto the same days, the deeper the cells go. Scrolling alone shows you which week is too much.
The span, not just the day
Set a start and an end, and the line runs the whole way. Days you actually work are dark; the rest stay pale — because unfinished work still holds you.
Where there is room
It suggests the days that still have room left after the new event goes in — not simply the emptiest ones.
To-Do — split it until something fits in five minutes
A list that never shrinks is usually not laziness. It is that something is still in the way before you can touch it.
Break a large job into steps. Each step is then sorted by two questions, and two only.
| Question one | Does it start with no warm-up? If you have to reload where you left off, a five-minute gap is spent warming up and nothing else. |
| Question two | Does it run all the way through in five minutes? Work you leave half done follows you into the next hour. |
Only a step that answers yes to both is a fragment — something to take when five minutes open up. Everything else is a block, and belongs in time you have set aside. The app answers first, from the words and the time you wrote; you only step in when it is wrong.
Why it is cut this way
- Twelve five-minute gaps are not an hour. Fragments of time do not add up into a total — switching costs eat the difference — so the steps that fit in a gap have to be marked apart from the start.
- Getting back into deep work takes about twenty-three minutes on average. The cost is not the interruption itself but rebuilding the context.
- Starting takes more force than continuing. The further the first move is from your hand, the longer it is put off.
- Physical work is the exception — it still adds up when it is split, so it is not cut by size.
Order, decided once per group
Steps either wait for each other or they do not, and you decide that once for the whole group rather than wiring up dependencies one by one. In order stands the first unfinished step; Any order stands whichever fragment you could pick up now. Drag a step with a long press to move it among its siblings.
The Bolt
Swipe a row to the right to add a Bolt — your own mark saying this one is ready right now. A bolted row jumps the queue and stands at the top, so when a gap opens you only have to look up there instead of scanning the list. Swipe again to take the mark back.
Also
Home and Lock Screen widgets
Three of them — To-Do, Bolt, and Rainbow. The Bolt widget lists only what you could pick up in five minutes right now.
Add from anywhere
Share from another app and this one appears in the sheet. A small window is all it takes to turn it into a to-do.
Follows you to the Mac
Rainbow Workshop, the macOS app, uses the same iCloud account. Write on one side and it shows up on the other.
Sharing
Send a link only to the people who need it.
Events (read-only)
Send an invite link and the other person can see your events. They cannot change them.
To-dos (together)
You and the people you invite read and write one shared list. This has nothing to do with Apple Family Sharing.
Anyone holding an invite link can join, so send it only to the people you mean to include. Sharing needs an iCloud sign-in.
Getting started
- Draw an eventPress and hold an empty cell for the start day, then again for the end day. Give it a title, the weekdays you actually work on it, and the hours per day.
- Write a to-doType on the blank line and press Return. That is the whole thing.
- Split what is largeOpen the row and write the steps in the order the work rolls. The app tells you which are fragments and which are blocks.
- Take a fragment when five minutes open upWhatever is ready right now stands at the top of the list. You do not have to read the rest.
Questions people ask
Do I have to sign in to iCloud?
Not to use it on your own — everything is stored on the device. You need iCloud to sync with another device or with the Mac app, and to use sharing.
Is the app in my language?
Korean and English. The app follows your device language. To set it for this app alone, go to iOS Settings, find Rainbow of Desire, and choose Language.
What if the app judges a step wrong?
Swipe that step to the left and answer the two questions yourself. Your answer outranks the app’s guess and it stays that way. The app reads the words you wrote, so it is often wrong about someone else’s work — that is expected.
Why does a to-do with no time on it never become a fragment?
Because nothing there says it closes in five minutes, and this list is only worth anything if what stands in it is genuinely ready. Write a time — fifteen minutes, say — and it will be sorted properly.
Can I check things off in the widget?
Not yet — the widgets are read-only. Tap one and the to-do screen opens straight away.
What costs money?
The heart of the app is free: the Rainbow, splitting to-dos, the two questions, and step order. Rainbow Pro is a single purchase, not a subscription, and it opens six extras — using it alongside the Mac, Home and Lock Screen widgets, importing from Calendar, sharing events, event stats, and the Ledger.
Do I need to buy the Mac app separately?
Rainbow Workshop is a separate macOS app. On the same iCloud account, to-dos and weekly plans carry across on their own.
Privacy
There is no server. What you write stays on your device and in your own iCloud.
What changed
Every version is written down.
Support
If something gets in your way or looks wrong, please say so. There is a contact item inside the app’s Settings too.
leeo@kakao.com