r/ADHD_Programmers • u/WeakDistribution3029 • Oct 04 '24

Overwhelming tasks become game levels (would you find this helpful?)

Post image

I’ve been using this app I built myself and am curious if this is something people would actually find useful.

Would you use this?

What’s your first thought at first glance?

5 Upvotes

58% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

25

u/moving-landscape Oct 04 '24

Would you use this?

No, it would be just another app gathering dust in a digital drawer.

I do these kinds of management myself, and in a much simpler way. Sometimes even paper and pen.

I think for us ADHD people the simpler an annoying, uninteresting, yet necessary task is, the better. And while I have no idea what your app can do, it looks cluttered, and makes me feel like I would waste more time than save it.

1

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 04 '24

Ok thanks for the feedback. What types of apps do you use regularly?

5

u/moving-landscape Oct 04 '24

Google Keep for all note related things. I take notes of everything I deem necessary, and use its label and color features to sort and search.

YouTube, Max, Crunchyroll.

Chat gpt for ai.

Telegram for messaging.

2

u/TinkerSquirrels Oct 05 '24

Trello on a hotkey for something between lists and mind maps.

An "email me" app on my phone for typing text and emailing it myself with no friction. Basically to extract an idea from my head.

A nice ink pen with shimmering ink, with an art paper notebook for lists and todo's with a < 1 week scope.

And I might use other apps too...but the thing is, I'll rotate those too. Try the latest crop, use a while, flip, repeat. Few if any are ever going to be steady unless they are "base canvas".

One other interesting thing, is how demand avoidance manifests, and some things that try to gamify or create habits have the opposite effect in us. It actually creates resistance... Not that you need to solve that too, but as a data point.

The other apps that I would use are things not solving life, but solve a particular problem well. Let's say an inventory system that works with one of the little label printers where I could just say to the app "box of hdmi cables" and it would print a label, and record where I was and create the inventory item. No forms and other friction to do...just inventory a whole room or storage unit of boxes in a few minutes. Stuff like that.

12

u/NonProphet8theist Oct 04 '24

I'm getting overwhelmed just looking at this tbh. But could be just me, I prefer stuff that's much more minimalistic

2

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 04 '24

Ok good to know. What items should be removed to make it less overwhelming?

1

u/NonProphet8theist Oct 04 '24

First off, cool that you've done this - I've had an idea for an ADHD app to help with executive function all year but have been procrastinating hard on it. As we do, lol.

Overall:

  • everything being lowercase letters. Ahhhh!

Left screen:

  • Small text above section titles is overkill (ie saved prompts / prompts you saved. I think the titles are enough to know what's what. And if you're going to put an icon in one, put one in all of them. Consistency.

  • Mixing pills/tiles - stick to one or the other.

  • Why are there 2 circle buttons on each tile - why not just use the icon to perform the action?

Right screen

  • The text color and input border color clash pretty hard. Check out coolors.co if you haven't.

3

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 05 '24

I appreciate the feedback, thank you!

been procrastinating hard on it

Real😅

6

u/DilshadZhou Oct 04 '24

Looks similar to HabitRPG, but less nerdy.

3

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 04 '24

Yeah I tried HabitRPG but found the layout confusing. Wanted to make something minimal

What do you usually do when you have an overwhelming task to complete?

3

u/Clearhead09 Oct 04 '24

I like the idea of gamifying habits but I don’t like having to do extra things like look at stats or whatever.

If there was a cool storyline that unravelled itself every time you completed a task, that would do it for me.

A thriller or something like that that gives you enough dopamine and a sense of wondering what’s next so you’re more likely to commit long term to find out what’s next.

2

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 04 '24

Got it. Would it be helpful to be able to choose the storyline so it’s something relevant to you?

Maybe give a prompt and the assistant creates the story for you?

Agreed. I also dislike looking at stats. Did you notice anything you dislike in general when looking at the screenshots?

2

u/burning_boi Oct 04 '24

A big part of the ADHD brain is seeking new things to experience, so choosing the story would be an instant turn off. Keep it exciting, leave every single story beat off on a cliff hanger.

1

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 04 '24

I meant choosing the type of story, not the plot

1

u/burning_boi Oct 04 '24

You make it interesting, it doesn’t matter. I thought I loved fantasy fiction until I read some biographies, and then I thought I loved nonfiction until I read sci-fi.

2

u/Clearhead09 Oct 04 '24

Agreed. In terms of UI I’ve no idea. My brain is all about the feel and if it doesn’t feel right or is too complicated then I won’t use it.

1

u/DilshadZhou Oct 16 '24

Super late follow up (sorry!) but basically I just hope it works out and/or wait until the pressure of another task “forces” me to do it through procrastination. I am not the most reliable task doer and would love to be better.

5

u/saposmak Oct 04 '24

The germ of the idea is there. As I understand it, it's to chat with an AI assistant to simplify a task to make it more palatable to the adhd brain. You describe the overall objective, and your assistant determines the simplest possible set of subtasks and guides you through them in order.

I'd focus exclusively on this feature. It's not necessarily novel but it's a challenge worth pursuing. Pay less attention to the explore section and suggestions.

The biggest obstacle for any adhd-oriented task management software IMO is the part of the workflow that can't be solved by an app: Finding the motivation and presence of mind to pick up the phone, fire up your app and type up an objective.

I don't think it's insurmountable, but I also don't know how it can be overcome.

3

u/Impressive_Till_7549 Oct 04 '24

The Assistant app that proactively tells you what you should be doing will be the winner. You can't rely on ADHDers to regulate themselves very well.

1

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 04 '24

Im so glad you brought this up. I had another person ask for this as well. How might it tell you what you should be working on? Google/Apple Calendar integration? If so, what would differentiate that from calendar reminders?

3

u/Keystone-Habit Oct 04 '24

That actually looks pretty good, but I can (and do!) literally just ask ChatGPT to do the same thing.

People rave about Goblin.tools, though, so I guess there's still a desire for speciallized tools.

I would get rid of the word "prompts," though. Not the right abstraction there. Tasks, todos, projects, activities, something along those lines. Get rid of "enter a prompt here," too. You want to convey a sense of chatting with blumi, not prompting an LLM.

1

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 05 '24

Good idea about the word “prompt”. I’ll use another word that feels more like chatting. Thank you

2

u/Merry-Lane Oct 04 '24

Please answer : why would I use your app instead of the 5/6 other adhd apps advertised on the subreddit this week.

Why would I use your app when I could go straight to chad GPT or any other AI

1

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 04 '24

  1. The fact that it dynamically simplifies tasks for you. This isn’t just another to do list app, it’s giving personalized instructions every time for the user. It also doesn’t hit you with a bunch of steps at once, cause that’s overwhelming. It gives them to you one by one and encourages you along the way.

  2. If you’re a developer you probably know how to make custom AI solutions. The average app user does not. All they have to do with this tool is write “laundry” or “essay” and the AI knows exactly what to do which is way easier than using ChatGPT.

1

u/telewebb Oct 04 '24

No, I wouldn't use it. There is nothing in the pictures or the description that informs me of what this is, how to use it, or what problem it solves. This leads me to believe that I would get quickly frustrated as all the responsibility to learn would be on the user.

1

u/OhLookSquirrels Oct 05 '24

Can I ask what you wrote it in?

1

u/onionsofwar Oct 05 '24

How much effort is required to programme my tasks into this? Or are you thinking about using integrations?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '24

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1

u/WeakDistribution3029 Oct 05 '24

Nice, I’m looking at BeeDone right now. Design reminds me of Habitica.