AaaS — Accountability as a Service
Most productivity tools help you track what you need to do. None of them help you prove you did it. We're building the accountability layer.
The productivity software industry has spent two decades solving the wrong problem.
Every tool — from Todoist to Notion to Linear — focuses on the same thing: helping you organise what needs to be done. They give you lists, boards, timelines, dependencies, priorities, subtasks, recurring tasks, and Gantt charts. They are, without exception, tools for planning.
None of them help you prove you did the thing.
The accountability gap
Think about how task completion actually works in most software. You check a box. The task disappears, or it turns grey, or it gets a strikethrough. The system records that you, the user, clicked a button. That’s it.
There’s no verification. No confirmation from the person who asked for the task. No mechanism for the stakeholder to say “actually, no, that’s not done.” The completion of a task is entirely self-reported, which makes it exactly as reliable as any other self-reported data — which is to say, not very.
This is fine for personal productivity. If you’re lying to your own todo list, that’s between you and your therapist. But the moment tasks involve another person — a manager, a partner, a client, a roommate — self-reported completion becomes a trust exercise.
“Did you take out the trash?”
“Yes.”
“It’s still there.”
“I moved it to the garage.”
“That’s not taking it out.”
This conversation has played out a billion times across human history, and productivity software has contributed nothing to resolving it.
What accountability actually requires
Real accountability needs three things:
1. A task with a known origin. Someone specific asked for this to be done. Not a vague sense of obligation — an actual, traceable request from a real person.
2. A completion claim. The person responsible says it’s done. This is what every todo app already provides.
3. A verification mechanism. The person who requested the task can confirm or dispute the completion claim. This is what no todo app provides.
The third piece is the hard part, because it requires the requester to participate without requiring them to adopt the tool. If both people need to be in the system, you’re back to the two-account problem that kills every collaboration feature in every productivity app.
How we’re approaching it
AnotherTodo’s submission links create tasks with a known origin — someone submitted them through a link, optionally with their name and email. When you complete a submitted task, the submitter gets an email. The email has a dispute button.
That’s the entire accountability layer. Three components:
- Task origin → submission link
- Completion claim → you check the box
- Verification → the submitter gets an email with a “Nuh-uh” button
If they click it, the task gets un-completed. It goes back on your list with a “disputed” badge. You didn’t actually do it, and now there’s a record.
If they don’t click it, the completion stands. Silence is consent. The accountability loop is closed either way.
Why this matters more than it sounds
“Nuh-uh” is a joke. The mechanism behind it is not.
What we’ve built is a lightweight, asynchronous verification protocol that works across trust boundaries. The verifier doesn’t need an account. They don’t need to install an app. They don’t need to be in your workspace. They just need an email address and the ability to click a link.
This is the same pattern that powers some of the most robust systems in technology. Email verification works this way. Two-factor authentication works this way. Contract signatures work this way. You send a message, the recipient takes an action, and the action is recorded.
The fact that we’re applying it to whether someone actually cleaned the kitchen doesn’t make the pattern less valid. It makes the kitchen cleaner.
AaaS
We’re calling this Accountability as a Service, partly because the acronym is funny and partly because it accurately describes what’s happening. The service isn’t the todo list. The service is the verification loop.
The todo list is a commodity. There are hundreds of them. They all do the same thing. The interesting part isn’t tracking tasks — it’s closing the loop between “I said I’d do it” and “it’s actually done,” with a mechanism that doesn’t require trust.
Most productivity software assumes trust. AaaS assumes you might be lying about the dishes.
We think that’s a more honest starting point.
What’s next
The current implementation is minimal. One dispute per task. One-shot. No escalation. No arbitration. No reputation system, no completion scores, no accountability metrics dashboard.
We’re going to keep it that way for a while. The temptation to build an enterprise accountability platform with SLAs and compliance reporting is real, and we’re going to resist it for as long as we can.
The feature works because it’s simple. A link, a form, an email, a button. Four touchpoints between “do this” and “prove it.” That’s the right number.
If we’re wrong, we’ll add a fifth. But not before.