Spend yourself wisely.

Your tasks are tracked. What about your effort?

Start free in your browser

You can't manage
what you can't see.

Task apps count checkboxes

Done doesn't mean easy.

Five "completed" tasks can mean a great day, or one that wrecked you.

Time trackers assume all hours are equal

An hour of deep work isn't an hour of email.

Your tools shouldn't pretend they are.

Burnout hides in plain sight

Declining flow. Repetitive effort. Project avoidance.

These signals are invisible, until now.

AI helps you do more

The Verification Tax is invisible.

Refining prompts, verifying outputs, deciding what to trust: AI shifted the work, not eliminated it.

The world's first
effort management
system.

EMRALD — the Effort Management Recursive AI Learning Driver — is the world's first effort-aware engine. It learns how you work: what drains and recharges you, and when you're headed for burnout.

Not a dashboard. A mirror.

Productivity apps measure tasks and hours. EMRALD shows you how much each project costs you, so you can spend your energy where it counts and spot burnout before it hits.

Three steps.
Ten seconds each.

Simple on purpose. Ten seconds a session to finally see what work costs you.

1
Capture the block

Start a timer

Pick a project, tap start. That's it. EMRALD tracks your session in the background while you focus on your work.

EMRALD Web Platform — start a session timer on a project
2
How did it feel?

Give honest feedback

When you stop, rate how hard it was, how focused you were, and whether you hit flow. Takes ten seconds.

EMRALD Web Platform — effort receipt feedback after a session
3
EMRALD learns you

Watch the patterns emerge

After a week, EMRALD starts surfacing insights. After a month, it knows your rhythms better than you do. Insights, digests, metrics, and burnout warnings, all automatic.

EMRALD Web Platform — metrics and patterns emerging over time

Backed by Science

Built on research.
Not vibes.

EMRALD's metrics aren't guesswork. Every measurement maps to peer-reviewed research in effort science, cognitive load, and energy management.

Effort science

Effort isn't one thing: it has cognitive, emotional, and motivational dimensions. Each drains you differently and demands a different response.

Based on Grund et al., 2024

Flow quality

Flow states aren't effortless: they're a specific kind of effort that feels positive. Tracking flow quality reveals patterns time logs never could.

Based on Thissen & Oettingen, 2024

Unified theory

Physical and cognitive effort follow the same perceptual mechanisms, validating a single framework that works across every kind of work.

Based on Mangin & Pageaux, 2026

Framework

A Life Operating System for multi-domain integration, energy-aware scheduling, and burnout prevention, proposed as a thesis framework. EMRALD is the working implementation.

Based on Jagielska, 2025, University of Iceland

Learn more →

Integrations

Use EMRALD where you
already work.

EMRALD also plugs into the tools you live in. More integrations land as we build.

Available now

Obsidian

A free, native Obsidian plugin. EMRALD lives in your sidebar and writes only to frontmatter. Your notes stay yours.

Use EMRALD in Obsidian →
On the roadmap

More integrations

The same effort engine, surfaced wherever you plan and do your work. We're building outward from one system.

Coming soon

Pricing

Start free.
Upgrade when it clicks.

Free

$0

forever

Pro Pro

$5/mo

or $42/yr (3 months free)

Core
Full timeblock tracking
✓
✓
Up to 5 active projects
✓
✓
1-minute sync & 10K API calls/day
✓
AI-Powered
Daily check-in & energy tracking
✓
✓
Burnout monitor (never paywalled)
✓
✓
Computed metrics
8 (D1–D8)
20 (D1–D20)
Digests
Weekly
Weekly, Daily & Monthly
Pinned metrics & insight bulletin
✓
AI-powered insights & suggestions
✓
Create your free account

Upgrade to Pro from your account.

Ready when you are

Spend yourself wisely.

Ten seconds a session. Your first insights inside a week.

Get EMRALD