Why it's built this way
Momentum isn't a generic to-do list with a friendly font. Each decision below comes from the literature on executive function, delay aversion and time perception. It is a support tool, not a treatment — it works best alongside proper clinical care.
Guide: time management for ADHD professionalsSeven practices for demanding jobs — externalising time, planning in ranges and sprinting instead of grinding.Working memory is a core ADHD deficit. Holding intentions in your head consumes the exact resource you're short on; writing them down frees it for doing.
Barkley (1997), Behavioral Inhibition, Sustained Attention, and Executive Functions; Kofler et al. (2018) on working-memory deficits in ADHD.
Long undifferentiated lists increase avoidance. A single explicit priority reduces the decision load that triggers task paralysis.
Research on choice overload (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000) and ADHD decision-making costs.
Delay aversion means ADHD brains discount distant rewards steeply. Small steps put a reward within reach right now, which is what actually drives initiation.
Sonuga-Barke's delay aversion model (1992, 2003); Volkow et al. (2009) on dopamine reward-pathway differences in ADHD.
Everyone underestimates duration (the planning fallacy), and ADHD adds impaired time perception — 'time blindness'. Showing a range makes the plan survivable.
Kahneman & Tversky (1979) planning fallacy; Ptacek et al. (2019) review of time perception in ADHD.
Externalising time — making it physically visible rather than internally tracked — is one of the most consistently recommended ADHD accommodations.
Barkley's externalisation principle; widespread use of visual timers in ADHD coaching.
Sustained attention degrades faster with ADHD, but performance recovers with breaks. Timed sprints match effort to a realistic attention window.
Studies of vigilance decrement and interval-based work (Ariga & Lleras, 2011).
Implementation intentions roughly double follow-through and are effective in ADHD populations because they remove in-the-moment decision-making.
Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006) meta-analysis; Gawrilow et al. (2011) in children with ADHD.
ADHD brains under-register their own completed work, which fuels shame. Concrete evidence of progress supports self-efficacy and next-day initiation.
Self-efficacy research (Bandura, 1997); progress-principle findings (Amabile & Kramer, 2011).
Acute aerobic exercise measurably improves attention, inhibition and executive function in people with ADHD — often within a single session.
Cerrillo-Urbina et al. (2015) meta-analysis; Pontifex et al. (2013).
Cluttered interfaces compete for a limited attentional filter. Reducing on-screen elements lowers the cost of finding the next action.
Cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988) applied to interface design.
If tasks are seriously affecting your work, health or relationships, talk to a clinician. Behavioural tools like this one work best combined with assessment, and where appropriate, medication and therapy.