Why we limit customization

Capacities is a personal tool. It’s the app you work in, it’s where you are creative and productive. It’s the Studio for your Mind. And because this is so personal, it needs to feel like an extension of yourself. It needs to feel natural and beautiful. There should be no friction.

So, there are a lot of arguments for allowing you to customize your tools. And we allow you to make some decisions – many, to be honest. And these customizations are important.

Nevertheless, you cannot customize everything. We purposely make a few decisions for you because customization also comes with a high cost.

Having options in life leads to decision fatigue. It’s easier for us in a restaurant with a small menu to decide what we want than in a restaurant with many options. And most of the time, we’re happier afterward.

Making decisions drains your energy. It might not be noticeable, but if you have to make a micro decision every few keystrokes while taking notes, it shifts your focus away from the actual work. By making decisions for you through a constrained tool, it will be easier for you to get your work done.

We try to make sensible decisions; we invest a lot of time and research into designing features and workflows. Capacities is not perfect yet; a lot can be improved. But it’s one of our central values for building Capacities. We want you to focus on what’s important to you, endless customization might not be the best path to doing meaningful work.