Home · Start, and stay composed
Pillars 04 · 05 · 06
Start, and stay composed.
The hardest part of most tasks is beginning. The second hardest is staying in it. Everything on this page is built to make that first step smaller, then keep you company so you stay composed all the way through.
Try it: make time feel real
“Five minutes” means nothing to a time-blind brain. One number ticking 300 → 299 → 298 you can actually feel. Flip the switch and watch.
Just start: beating the wall.
Starting is its own kind of hard, and it has nothing to do with how long a task takes or how much effort it needs. So composeDay treats “hard to begin” and “full of dread” as real properties you can flag, and it schedules around them.
- ✓
Flag how hard a task is to begin, separate from how long it runs, so the day never puts two brutal starts back to back. Free
- ✓
Flag how much you dread a task. That’s a different axis: a 2-minute dentist call can weigh heavier than a 30-minute walk. Free
- ✓
A small, easy win drops in right before a hard one, so you arrive at the wall already moving. Free
- ✓
Breadcrumbs. You see the one next tiny step, never the whole daunting list. Free
- ✓
Keep reopening the same task? One quiet card asks whether it’s hard to start, or whether you’d rather break it down. Free
- ✓
A task you keep pushing shrinks to its first step. “Just open the document” instead of “write the report.” Free
- ✓
An optional 30-second body nudge before a dreaded task: “stand up and shake out your hands.” Free
- ✓
“What does done look like here?” An optional one-line intention so a task ends cleanly instead of trailing off. Free
- ✓
One Thing at a Time. A button that hides everything and shows a single task. Make it your permanent home screen if you want. Free
- ✓
Quick Wins. A pool of under-5-minute tasks that surfaces whenever a gap opens up. Free
- ✓
AI splits an overwhelming task into a ready-made set of subtasks, if you’d like the help. Pro
Dread and executive load are first-class, schedulable properties of a task, not feelings you’re left to muscle through. And when a task needs two prompts, you get one merged card, never a pile-up before you’ve even begun.
Most task apps
Dump the full 12-step breakdown on you, which is just a fresh wall of dread.
composeDay
Shows one crumb: “just open the dishwasher.” The next one appears only once you’ve started.
Watched Mode: a coach in your pocket.
The app stays with you through a task and walks you step by step, so presence can do the work willpower usually has to. It’s built for the moments an ADHD brain goes nonverbal and can’t narrate itself.
- ✓
A full-screen takeover with a live countdown, at every lock level. Free
- ✓
Voice-guided steps that announce each one, check in, and ask “are you done?” Made for showering, dishes, cleaning. Free
- ✓
Answer out loud. A grunt, an “mhm,” any affirmative sound counts as yes. Free
- ✓
Pick your lock. Hard Lock keeps you in; Soft Lock lets you leave with one conscious tap. Free
- ✓
The lock always lets go on its own for phone calls, kitchen timers, and medication alarms. You never have to classify a real emergency mid-task. Free
- ✓
Jot a stray idea or start a kitchen timer without breaking focus or unlocking. Free
- ✓
“Go back” if you tapped done by mistake. It restores your exact remaining time, no unlock needed. Free
- ✓
Haptic cues the whole way through, so it works with the phone in your pocket and for deaf and hard-of-hearing users. Free
- ✓
Emergency sound detection. If you go unresponsive after an alarming sound, it checks on you, then alerts a contact. V2
- ✓
Clap to answer hands-free: 1 = more time, 2 = done, 3 = let it go, 4 = pause. V2
“Yes” detection is deliberately sloppy, so any mumble gets you through, while “no” stays firm. And the focus lock quietly yields to your boiling eggs without ever making you call it an emergency.
Timers built for time-blindness.
Time slips past an ADHD brain without leaving a mark. These timers make it something you can see and feel, so it’s hard to miss.
- ✓
A Precision Timer for exact physical things (eggs, pasta, laundry), with an alarm that fires even on silent. Free
- ✓
An “almost done” early warning, so you can get to the stove before it’s too late. Free
- ✓
It offers a timer on its own when a task looks like cooking or steeping. Free
- ✓
It fills the wait: “your eggs have 7 minutes, here’s something that fits.” Free
- ✓
A Quick Timer. Up to 3 standalone countdowns from anywhere, with no task attached and no effect on your schedule. Free
- ✓
Flip any timer to pure seconds (300 → 299 → 298). A moving number feels real when “5 minutes” doesn’t. Free
- ✓
A gentle visual pulse as your estimate runs low. No alarm, no pressure. Free
- ✓
A count-up stopwatch for when you just want to see the time go by. Free
- ✓
Half-Time Sprint (Time-Box Burst). A short burst timer with no pressure attached. Free
- ✓
An Interval Timer for repeating work and rest cycles: HIIT, box breathing, Pomodoro, tabata. Pro
The pure-seconds display was built for time-blindness and nothing else. And a precision timer can run right alongside a focus session, at the same time, without the two ever tripping over each other.