A project per manuscript or beat
Novel, short story collection, the freelance beat you cover for one outlet — each is a project. Milestones are 'first draft', 'second draft', 'submission', 'launch'. Tasks are chapters or pitches.
For writers
Manuscripts have milestones too.
Milestones is the planner for novelists, journalists, and long-form writers. A project per manuscript or beat, milestones for drafts and deadlines, tasks for chapters and revisions. Quiet, focused, native.
Download on the App Store Free · Works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
What's not working today
- Scrivener handles the writing — nothing handles the publishing schedule.
- Notion templates pull you out of the manuscript every time you open them.
- Reminders flattens a six-month book into the same list as 'buy milk'.
- Pitch trackers in spreadsheets get stale within a month.
- You missed a contributor deadline because the email got buried.
How Milestones fixes that
For writers
Daily writing inside one focused view
Open the active milestone (your current draft), see only this week's chapters, write or edit. None of the planner noise that pulls you out of the work.
Pitch tracking that doesn't go stale
Make a 'Pitches' project; milestones are quarters or outlets. Each pitch is a task with a due-date and a status tag. Better than a Google Sheet you forget to update.
iPad for drafting, Mac for revising
Drafts in cafés on iPad, revisions on the Mac at the desk, quick capture of an idea on iPhone. Same project, all native, no Electron lag.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does it replace Scrivener / Ulysses / Obsidian?
No — and it shouldn't. Keep writing where you write. Milestones is for the schedule around the writing: drafts, deadlines, submissions, the things that don't belong inside the manuscript itself.
How does it handle a novel with 30 chapters?
Each chapter is a task under the current draft milestone. Mark them done as they're written. The progress bar on the milestone is unreasonably motivating during a long draft.
What about journalists with multiple beats?
A project per beat or per outlet. Tag stories `feature`, `interview`, `investigative`. The today view across projects gives you the day's queue in one place.
Privacy — these are unpublished manuscripts.
Local-first, your iCloud, no analytics on the work itself. Sentry crash reports are non-DEBUG only and don't include any of your text content.
Will it work without Wi-Fi at the cabin?
Yes. Local-first across every device. Sync when you're back online. A lot of writers explicitly use Milestones because it doesn't require an account.
Is there a Pro plan?
Free for personal use. An optional Pro upgrade unlocks the project archive (great for published manuscripts you want to keep around) and custom icons.
How does Milestones compare?
Side-by-side with the apps you might already be using.
Milestones vs
Notion
A focused native Apple project planner vs the everything-app document and database tool. They aim at very different problems — here's how to choose.
Milestones vs
Things 3
A milestone-driven project planner vs the most polished GTD task manager on Apple platforms. Both are native, both respect you — they're just for different jobs.
Milestones vs
Apple Reminders
Reminders is the free list app that ships with every Apple device. Milestones is a native planner built around Project → Milestone → Task. Same ecosystem, very different shape.
Make the deadline. Keep the calm.
Free to download. Quiet, native, offline. For people who'd rather be writing than configuring.
Download on the App StoreFree · No account required · Private iCloud sync