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Beatrice

Why it works

Most productivity apps are built to make you feel the gap.

The streak you broke, the tasks you didn’t finish, the friend you haven’t texted. For a brain already running commentary on its own shortfalls, that gap is a reason to close the app and never open it again. Beatrice’s rules came before its features, and they came from somewhere.

the rules came first. then the app.

The evidence

Where the rules came from.

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studies

In Deci, Koestner and Ryan’s meta-analysis of rewards. The most damaging setup it measured was a reward tied to performance where most people get less than the maximum. That describes a ranked leaderboard exactly.

Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999

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people

In a step-count leaderboard study. The same board that lifted the bottom quartile pulled the top quartile down. Position, not points, did the damage.

Hydari et al., Management Science, 2023

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reviews

App Store reviews of 45 apps, read in August 2026. The same complaints came up from one app to the next: the streak, the guilt, the red badge, the summary of everything you missed.

Beatrice research, August 2026

The leaderboard problem

The people it hurt were the ones winning.

The usual story is that a leaderboard demoralizes whoever sits at the bottom. When researchers actually tested one, the bottom quarter walked more and the top quarter walked less. Switch the board on and see. So the house scoreboard in Beatrice keeps the totals and drops the ranking.

Bottom quarterbefore
Top quarterbefore

Changes in daily steps from Hydari, Adjerid and Striegel, 2023, n=516. Starting bars are illustrative.

What it will not do

Six things, ruled out before anything was built.

these were rules before there was an app

  1. 1A list of what you missed.Progress only adds up.
  2. 2Taking back something you earned.Points only go up.
  3. 3A rank beside anybody’s name.And she never says how you compare.
  4. 4Telling you to be proud of yourself.Or that you’ve earned a rest.
  5. 5Counting how many times she asked.The words are the same every time.
  6. 6A chore that comes back already late.It counts from whichever is later.

Reasonable questions

Before you give it a week.

Is it free?
Yes, and there is no card anywhere in it. If it ever costs money it will say so here first, and it will not be applied retroactively to anyone already using it.
Is there an Android version?
No, and not soon, because one person builds this and iPhone is where it works properly. If that changes it will be on this page.
What happens to my data?
It is yours. Nothing is sold and nothing goes to advertisers, and anything you enter can be deleted in the app. To export everything, or remove the account and all of it, email hello@beatriceapp.com. The privacy policy has the detail.
Does it work if I live alone?
Yes. The household half works with one person in it, and the friends half never needed anybody else.

Worth a week of your attention.

If it makes you feel worse, delete it. That's the bar. Beatrice is free while it's in beta, on iPhone.

Get on the beta list
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