Effort management,
not task management.

Every productivity tool manages what you do. Effort Mastery builds tools that manage what it costs you — so you can do more of what matters without burning out.

20Computed Metrics
4Research Papers
1Plugin & Counting
$0To Get Started

Our Mission

We believe productivity is broken because it
ignores effort.

Task apps count checkboxes. Time trackers assume all hours are equal. Calendar tools optimize schedules without knowing if you have anything left to give.

The result: people who are technically "productive" but chronically exhausted. Systems that track everything except the one thing that matters — how much of you each thing costs.

Effort Mastery LLC exists to fix that. We build tools grounded in effort science, cognitive load research, and personal energy management. Tools that learn how you work, detect burnout before you feel it, and help you invest your energy where it actually counts.

“We're not a to-do list. We're not a calendar. We're the layer that sits between you and everything you're trying to do, and helps you do it without burning out.”

Our Product

EMRALD

EMRALD

Effort Management Recursive AI Learning Driver

EMRALD is the world's first effort management system. It tracks your work sessions, captures honest effort feedback in seconds, and computes up to 20 metrics across flow quality, burnout risk, recovery patterns, and effort distribution.

It lives inside the tools you already use — starting with a free Obsidian community plugin — and learns your patterns over time. No complex setup. No behavior change required. Just start a timer and be honest when you stop.

Free

Full session tracking, daily check-ins, 8 core metrics, burnout monitoring, weekly digest. Everything you need to start managing effort.

Pro — $5/mo

All 20 metrics, AI-powered insights, daily & monthly digests, 1-minute sync. For those ready to go deeper. Annual: $48/yr (2 months free).

Learn More About EMRALD →

More products are in development. EMRALD is just the beginning.

Research-Backed

Built on science, not hunches.

Effort management is a growing field — gaining traction in academic research, practical application, and everyday awareness. We build on what the science already proves, and design our products to grow as the field matures. These are some of the foundations we draw from:

  • Effort science — effort and cognitive load are distinct constructs that must be measured separately (Endres et al., 2025)
  • Flow dynamics — flow states aren't effortless; they're a specific kind of effort that feels positive (Thissen et al., 2025)
  • Allocation patterns — effort follows predictable rhythms based on personal traits and time-of-day (Ko et al., 2025)
  • Life OS design — multi-domain integration with energy-aware scheduling prevents burnout (Jagielska, 2025)

We didn't invent effort management on a whiteboard — we built on what the science already proved.

Our Story

Built by a real person,
for a real life.

I remember a night in college where my dad showed up unexpectedly and took me out to dinner. We had a great evening, and over the meal he shared some lifelong advice: "Be a renaissance man," he said.

So I took up that charge and ran with it.

I'm a certified welding inspector in aerospace, formerly a video game producer and logistics specialist. I'm a shepherd of sheep, a hobby pianist, a sci-fi and Warhammer 40K fan, a watch enthusiast and budding watchmaker, a husband to the love of my life, and a father of two small children who make every day both incredible and exhausting.

It's not without its burdens. Lack of sleep from too many projects. "Brain burn" from thinking too hard, too fast, all day long. My grandfather had a brutally long fight with Alzheimer's, and I'm well aware of the toll that cortisol, burnout, and broken sleep patterns take on long-term health. I'm effectively a mad scientist without the collegiate stipend.

I spent two years trying to find a system for my insatiable cravings for knowledge, projects, and learning. Incredible products from incredible teams — mind-mapping, GTD, project tracking. Three trackers for three domains. A nightmare of copy-paste and alt-tab.

Despite how good each tool was, none could fully apprehend my life. They only grabbed onto aspects of it and forced me to micro-manage my existence around their parameters.

And then I had a eureka moment: it wasn't the overwhelm of any one thing that inevitably crashed my system. It was effort itself — the ebb and flow of my own energy, and how it commanded my life's processes. I looked for an app to track it. Nothing exists. Effort was a known force, an unquantifiable "dark matter" tied to productivity but poorly captured by every tool on the market.

Well, I do love a challenge. So I built my own system to measure effort. Two years of polished apps never helped me conquer burnout. Two months of building my own effort management engine did.

That engine became EMRALD. And Effort Mastery became the company behind it.

— Devon, Founder

Ready to manage your effort?

EMRALD is free to start and lives inside your existing tools. No setup fees, no credit card, no behavior change required.

Get EMRALD Go to Dashboard