You opened Todoist on a Monday in June and forty-one tasks were red.
Each one had been reasonable when you typed it. "Call the landlord tomorrow 4pm." "Send the deck Friday." Todoist read every date perfectly and filed every task under its day, and then the days passed. Now the Today view opens on a red column of everything you did not do, with a Reschedule button at the top, and your Karma has noticed. You did not open it on Tuesday. If you have ADHD, you know the day the red pile wins. It is the day after the last day you opened the app.
Todoist is a good list
Nothing on this page says Todoist is badly made.
Type "call the landlord tomorrow 4pm" and Todoist reads the date and the time out of the sentence and files the task. The Today view shows today and nothing else. Projects hold what belongs together, four priority levels put the urgent above the rest, and the whole thing opens fast on every device you own. For a brain able to look at a task, decide it matters, and begin, this is one of the best lists ever built, and many people use it for years without meeting the problem on this page.
The problem is not the list. It is what the list assumes about you.
An ADHD brain does not start on importance
An ADHD brain does not start on importance.
It starts on interest, novelty, challenge or urgency, in the model the psychiatrist William Dodson built from decades of adult patients. A clinical model, not a trial, so we say it plainly. Todoist's design assumes the other kind of brain. Priority 1 is a red flag, and a red flag says "this matters". A due date is a fact in a calendar. Both are importance in two costumes. Your brain reads "P1, due Friday" on Monday and feels nothing, then reads it on Friday at 4 pm and feels everything. Between those two moments the task sits in Today at the same weight as "buy stamps", which is to say none.
"Due Friday" is a fact. "3h left" is a feeling in your chest, and the feeling is what starts you. Todoist shows the fact.
The day the red pile wins
Overdue tasks in Todoist turn red, and they stay red until you deal with them.
On day one the red is useful. One red row is a nudge. On day nine the Today view is a column of red with one grey line for today's real work, and the app has changed jobs. It was a list. Now it is a record of what you did not do, and it shows you the record before it shows you anything else.
A red pile is the thing you stop opening. Not because you do not care. Because opening it costs more than it gives, and an ADHD brain is exact about cost. So you stop opening it on a Tuesday, and the list goes back into your head, the one place it cannot stay. 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 for a thought while you use it (Alderson and colleagues, 2013). The pile grows in the dark. When you come back, the only honest move is to delete everything and start again, the move you have made in four apps already.
Karma counts the misses back at you
Karma is Todoist's points system, and it is the first thing we would switch off.
You earn points for completing tasks. You set a daily goal and a weekly goal, and Todoist counts your run of days on goal. Hit the goals and the number climbs through levels with friendly names. Miss a goal and the run ends, where you can see it.
The idea is kind. The mechanism is not. A 1999 meta-analysis of 128 experiments found expected rewards lower the motivation you already had (Deci, Koestner and Ryan, 1999). Karma takes the task you were going to do anyway and hangs a score on it. Then, on the bad week, the goal is missed and the miss is shown to you before the tasks are. You now have two red things: the pile, and the number. The case for games with no score is here.
Our rule is the opposite: nothing is counted back at you.
Four changes if you stay with Todoist
You can keep Todoist and switch off what hurts.
- Turn Karma off. Todoist lets you, in its settings. The points stop, the goals stop, the run of days stops. Nothing about your tasks changes. You were never lazy, and the number was never evidence either way.
- Keep one project. Or none: leave everything in the Inbox. Every project is a place a task can hide, and every choice of project is a decision between the thought and the list.
- Put a time of day on tasks, not a day. "Friday" sits at the same weight all week. "Friday 4pm" gives the brain a moment to feel coming, and Todoist reads "4pm" out of the sentence as easily as it reads "Friday".
- Close what you will not do. Once a week, open the red and be honest. A task you will not do this month gets deleted, not rescheduled to next Monday. The way to keep opening the app is to keep the pile at zero, and deleting is faster than doing.
Do these four and Todoist becomes a plain list with times on it. For many people with ADHD, a plain list with times on it is enough.
How Kaapi does it
We built Kaapi around the two rules Todoist breaks.
It never turns red. A task with a time wears a badge, "3h left", then "1h 20m left" under three hours, and the badge fills and darkens in the last two hours. Past its time it says "Missed" in plain ink with a thin line, and the card asks: New time, Done already, or Let it go. Let it go closes the task without finishing it; we call it Settled, and "Bring back" reopens it. The pile never forms, because a missed task is a question, not a colour.
Nothing is counted back at you. Games stay off until you turn on "Make it a game", and then Timi offers at most one a day, chosen from what is on your list, no menu: 4 quick ones are open. Ten-minute dash? or Your usual is 12:00. Race it? You race your own past time and nobody else's. No points, no levels, no leaderboard.
Dates work the way you already type them. "by 4pm", "tmrw", "the weekend" in the dump become the task's deadline. Everything you write stays on your Mac. Kaapi is $9.99 a month or $99 a year, plus tax; you try the whole loop first, then you pay. The full list of what a to-do app must and must not do for an ADHD brain is here.
Frequently asked questions
Is Todoist good for ADHD?
Good at the list, hard on the brain. It reads dates from plain sentences, opens fast and keeps a clean Today view. But overdue tasks turn red and Karma counts your misses, and both make an ADHD brain stop opening the app. Turn Karma off, keep one project, put times on tasks, and delete what you will not do.
How do I turn off Karma in Todoist?
In Todoist's settings, switch Karma off. The points, the daily and weekly goals and the run of days all stop, and nothing about your tasks changes. A 1999 meta-analysis of 128 experiments found expected rewards lower the motivation you already had, so you lose less than it looks.
Why do overdue tasks in Todoist make me stop using it?
Because a red pile is the thing you stop opening. Each overdue task turns red and stays red, so after a bad week the Today view opens on a record of what you did not do. An ADHD brain reads the cost of opening as higher than the gain, and stops. Keep the pile at zero by deleting, not rescheduling.
What is a Todoist alternative for ADHD?
Any list with no red in it, the time left instead of a date, and nothing counted back at you. Apple Reminders passes some of this and is already on your Mac. Kaapi was built for the whole list: a countdown badge, plain "Missed" instead of red, and games only against your own past time.
Sources
- 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. A meta-analysis of 128 experiments.
- Dodson, W. (updated 2025). How adults with ADHD think: Uncomfortable truths about the ADHD nervous system. ADDitude. additudemag.com/adhd-in-adults-nervous-system. A clinical model from practice, not a trial.
- 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. A meta-analysis of 38 studies; well supported.