You have quit six to-do apps, and each one was better than the last.
More views, more tags, more integrations, a better dark mode. Each one held your whole life for eleven days and then held nothing, because you stopped opening it. If you have ADHD, that is not a review of you. It is a review of what the apps assumed. Every one of them assumed a task you marked important is a task you will start.
An ADHD brain does not start on importance. So here is the list we use instead, when we judge a to-do app, including our own.
Seven things it needs
1. It takes a thought in under two seconds
With ADHD, it is hard to keep a list in your head.
A 2013 meta-analysis of 38 studies found adults with ADHD score lower on working memory, the short store that holds a thought while you use it (Alderson and colleagues, 2013). So the thought you had on the stairs has seconds to live. If the app needs a project, a tag and a due date before it will take the line, the line is gone. One box, open now, any words.
2. It sorts, so you do not have to
The sorting is the work, and the work is what you cannot start.
Most apps take a clean task and give you clean views. An ADHD head does not produce clean tasks. It produces "dentist?? rent friday deck by 4 sam trip". The app should take that as it comes and hand back a short list of tasks, each with a verb, each with its time. If you have to do the sorting yourself, you have a second to-do list about your to-do list.
3. It shows the time left, not the date
An ADHD brain starts when time is almost up.
"Due Friday" is a fact in a calendar. "3h left" is a feeling in your chest, and the feeling is what starts you. An app for this brain shows the time left on the row, counting down, so "almost up" arrives at noon and not at midnight. Look for a time of day on a task, not only a day. Here is the whole case for deadlines you can see.
4. It shows one thing at a time
A long list gives you no place to start.
Working memory again: a list of twenty is nineteen things pulling at the one you picked. The app needs a way to put one task in front of you and hide the rest, even for ten minutes. A random pick is fine. Random beats a ranking you have to make first.
5. It lets a big task carry small steps
Big jobs get put off for days. A small step starts.
Breaking a task into steps is a core skill in the cognitive behavioural programme for adult ADHD that Safren and colleagues tested in a randomised trial in 2010, so this one has more behind it than most (Safren and colleagues, 2010). The app should let "do my taxes" hold "find last year's return" under it, and let you tick the step without opening the whole job. More on small steps here.
6. Someone is there
It is easier to start when someone is in the room.
People with ADHD call it body doubling. An app cannot be a person, but it can do the smallest part of what a person does: notice a task has waited, and say its name. Not a banner, not a push, not a red badge. One line, in the corner, once. Why we kept it that small.
7. Skip a week and nothing breaks
The app you stopped opening must not punish you when you come back.
No pile of overdue items in red. No "you missed 12 days". No system to rebuild because you did not keep it up. You open it, the list is where you left it, and today is today. If the app needs maintenance to stay useful, it will not stay useful.
Four things it must never do
- Turn red. A red pile is the thing you stop opening. A task past its time can get darker, or say "was due 4pm", and that is enough.
- Count anything back at you. Streak lost, points down, "3 days missed". A 1999 meta-analysis of 128 experiments found expected rewards lower the motivation you already had (Deci, Koestner and Ryan, 1999). A score you can lose is worse than no score.
- Ask you to build the system first. In 2,520 Notion complaints we hand-coded, "too complex to learn" was 55% of what new users said in their first weeks, and the tasks stayed in their heads while they built. The full Notion numbers are here.
- Need the internet to open. In the same data, "slow to reach" was 37% of all complaints, the largest family. A thought does not wait for a spinner.
The honest note on Apple Reminders
Apple Reminders is free, it is already on your Mac and phone, and it passes more of this list than most paid apps.
It takes a line in two seconds, with Siri if you like. It does dates and times, subtasks and lists, and it never asks you to build anything. If you want a free start, start there and stop reading.
What it does not do: sort a dump into tasks, show time left instead of a date, put one task in front of you, or say a task's name when it has waited too long. Those are the four things we built Kaapi to add. If Reminders is enough, it is enough.
How Kaapi does it
We wrote the list above before we wrote the app, and then built to it.
You dump everything into one box, typed or spoken. A model on your Mac turns it into small tasks and steps, and a time you wrote becomes a countdown that gets darker near the end and never turns red. A Shuffle button picks one task and blurs the rest. Timi sits at the bottom right of your screen and says a task's name when it waits too long. Games stay off until you ask, and nothing is counted back at you. Everything you write stays on your Mac.
It costs $9.99 a month or $99 a year, plus any tax where you live. You try the whole loop first, then you pay.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best to-do app for ADHD?
The one you will open on a bad day. Judge any app by seven things: two-second capture, it sorts for you, time left on each task, one thing at a time, steps under a big task, someone there, and nothing breaks when you skip a week. Apple Reminders passes about half of that for free. Kaapi was built to pass all seven on a Mac.
Why do I keep abandoning to-do apps?
Because most of them assume an important task is a task you will start, and an ADHD brain does not start on importance. The list fills, nothing starts, and the pile turns red. The app then costs more to open than it gives, so you stop. Look for an app that starts you, not one that stores more.
Do I need a paid app for ADHD?
No. Start with what is on your Mac. Pay only when a free tool fails on one of the seven things above and the paid one fixes that exact thing.
Should a to-do app for ADHD have gamification?
Only games you opt into, and only against yourself. Points, leaderboards and streaks you can lose lower the motivation you already had. A ten-minute clock, or a race against your own usual time, adds a reason to start without adding a way to fail.
Sources
- Alderson, R. M., Kasper, L. J., Hudec, K. L., and Patros, C. H. G. (2013). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and working memory in adults: A meta-analytic review. Neuropsychology, 27(3), 287–302. doi.org/10.1037/a0032371
- Safren, S. A., Sprich, S., Mimiaga, M. J., Surman, C., Knouse, L., Groves, M., and Otto, M. W. (2010). Cognitive behavioral therapy vs relaxation with educational support for medication-treated adults with ADHD and persistent symptoms: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA, 304(8), 875–880. doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.1192
- Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., and Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627–668. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627
- Kaapi (September 2026). What hurts Notion users: 2,520 complaints hand-coded from Reddit, app stores and Hacker News. Summarised in Why Notion does not hold an ADHD brain.