How to use BrainSack
Short, task-shaped guides to the things people actually get stuck on. Every one of them is readable without an account, because the moment you need instructions is often the moment you cannot get in.
Account, email confirmation and the first five minutes.
Get started
Create your account
Sign up, confirm your email, and start the trial. Three steps, and the middle one is the one people miss.
Read the guide →Sign in with Google
Use a Google account instead of a password, or add it to an account you already have.
Read the guide →When you cannot sign in
Wrong password, unconfirmed address, too many attempts, or an account with no password at all — how to tell which.
Read the guide →Registering a number, what happens to a text, and how to stop.
Texting in
Register your phone number
Add your mobile to your account so you can text notes in. Takes a consent box, a one-time code and about two minutes.
Read the guide →Text a note in
Send a text to your BrainSack number and it lands on the board as a note. What arrives, what does not, and why there is no reply.
Read the guide →Hashtags become tags
Write #work in a text or a dump and the note is filed under that tag. The exact rules, and what is deliberately not a hashtag.
Read the guide →Change or remove your number
New handset, new number, or done with texting altogether. Changing re-verifies; removing takes the BrainSack number with it.
Read the guide →Stop texts by texting STOP
Reply STOP to opt out. What it removes, what it leaves alone, and how to start again afterwards.
Read the guide →Capturing things, the kinds of item, tags, archiving and sharing.
Your board
Put something in the sack
The box at the top of the board, the four kinds of item, and the two keystrokes worth knowing.
Read the guide →Make a checklist
Start one from the composer with a dash, build it row by row, and tick items straight off the card.
Read the guide →Attach files to an item
Up to ten files on a card, ten megabytes each. Uploads happen on save, and editing replaces the whole set.
Read the guide →Encrypted notes
For the handful of notes that are a door code or a recovery key. The body is stored encrypted and shown one at a time.
Read the guide →Organize with tags
Tags are typed, never picked from a list. How to make one, rename it, recolour it, and why empty ones vanish.
Read the guide →Find things on the board
Search, sort, the rail’s views, and the counts beside them. What search can and cannot see.
Read the guide →Pin, archive and delete
Three different ways of getting something out of your way, only one of which is permanent.
Read the guide →Share an item by link
Mint a read-only link to a note or a checklist. No sign-in needed at the other end, and it expires in a day.
Read the guide →Empty your head with Dump mode
One big box. A blank line between each thought, and each one lands as its own note.
Read the guide →Change how the board looks
Three themes, card density, timestamps, sort and two behaviour switches. Everything saves as you touch it.
Read the guide →Subscription, exporting your data and getting hold of us.
Account and billing
Your subscription
What you are paying, when the period ends, how to change a card and how to cancel.
Read the guide →Export your data
Download a JSON file of your notes and checklists, tags included. What is in it and what is not.
Read the guide →Change your password
Change it from the Account page, or set one for the first time on a Google account.
Read the guide →Not here?
Ask a person
One person builds and supports BrainSack, and answers this address: [email protected]. Tell us what the screen said — the exact sentence is usually enough to find the problem.
Already have an account? Most of what these guides describe lives on your Phone page and your Account page.