Every feature below gets the same four things: a plain-language summary of the relevant research, how Momentum applies it, what it doesn't mean, and links to the sources. Where a design choice is a judgement call rather than a finding, we say so. Momentum is a support tool, not a treatment.
Brain dump capture
Working memory is one of the most consistently impaired executive functions in ADHD, with meta-analytic effects across both verbal and spatial tasks. Holding unfinished intentions in mind consumes that same limited resource. Offloading intentions to an external store reliably improves performance on the remaining task in general-population studies.
What this means in MomentumThe capture box takes one thought per line, sorts nothing and asks no questions. Everything lands in an Inbox you triage later, so capturing costs almost nothing.
What this doesn't mean: This won't improve your working memory itself. It just stops you spending it on remembering.
One clear 'One Thing' per day
Larger choice sets reduce the likelihood that people act at all, and undifferentiated lists push the decision cost into every glance. ADHD is associated with greater difficulty with decision-making under ambiguity. Naming a single priority moves that decision to once per day.
What this means in MomentumExactly one task can be marked The One Thing. Everything else is explicitly optional, and the load budget is calculated to protect it.
What this doesn't mean: Choice-overload findings come mostly from non-ADHD samples and have mixed replication. Treat this as a sensible design bet, not a proven ADHD treatment effect.
Two-minute micro-steps
Delay aversion and steeper delay discounting are well-replicated in ADHD: distant rewards lose value faster than they do for neurotypical peers. Shrinking a task shortens the distance to the next completion signal. Task-chunking is also standard in behavioural ADHD interventions for adults.
What this means in MomentumEvery task can be broken into steps, and Momentum proposes a concrete first step — 'open the thread and read it once' — for tasks that have been sitting.
What this doesn't mean: Smaller steps make starting easier; they don't make the whole task shorter, and they won't help if the task is genuinely the wrong one.
Realistic time ranges instead of single estimates
The planning fallacy — systematically underestimating how long our own tasks take — is one of the most robust findings in judgement research. ADHD adds measurable differences in time reproduction and estimation, often described as time blindness. A range communicates that uncertainty honestly.
What this means in MomentumYour estimate is shown alongside a 1.2×–1.8× likely range. Once you've completed a few timed tasks, Momentum adjusts that multiplier towards your actual history.
What this doesn't mean: The 1.2–1.8 multiplier is a working heuristic, not a measured constant. It's a starting point that your own data replaces.
A large, visible countdown
Barkley's model frames ADHD as a disorder of self-regulation across time, and his practical recommendation is to externalise time — make it physical and visible rather than internally tracked. Visual timers are among the most widely used ADHD accommodations in schools and coaching.
What this means in MomentumThe Focus page shows one task and one large countdown ring, with a 'just five minutes' mode for when starting is the whole problem.
What this doesn't mean: The evidence for visual timers specifically is mostly practice-based and observational, not randomised trials. It's a low-risk accommodation, not a proven intervention.
Short sprints with real breaks
Sustained-attention performance degrades over time (the vigilance decrement), and brief deactivation of a goal can restore performance. ADHD is associated with a steeper decrement. Interval-based working keeps effort inside a window you can actually hold.
What this means in MomentumSprints default to 25 minutes with a 5-minute reset, and Momentum reports your own typical focus window once it has three sessions to work from.
What this doesn't mean: There's no evidence that 25 minutes is a magic number. The point is bounded effort, not the specific interval.
The cognitive load budget
Cognitive load theory holds that working memory has a hard, small capacity and that performance collapses once demand exceeds it. Separately, emotional dysregulation is now recognised as a core, not incidental, feature of adult ADHD — emotionally loaded tasks consume regulation capacity as well as time. Budgeting the day by both is the direct implication.
What this means in MomentumEach task costs its upper time estimate plus a switching cost, multiplied by an emotional-weight factor. The meter shows what fraction of a realistic day the plan uses, and offers to move things when it overflows.
What this doesn't mean: The multipliers and the four-hour budget are transparent design choices, not measured quantities — no study has calibrated a personal daily load budget. Treat the meter as a conversation with your plan, not a verdict on your capacity.
Naming how a task feels
Putting feelings into words (affect labelling) is associated with reduced amygdala response and lower reported distress. Rejection-sensitive responses and shame are frequently reported by adults with ADHD and are a common driver of avoidance. Naming the emotional load makes it addressable at the level of task design.
What this means in MomentumA one-tap selector on the Focus page tags how a task feels, and the micro-copy changes accordingly — shame-heavy and rejection-sensitive tasks get an offer to shrink the first step.
What this doesn't mean: This is self-awareness inside a planner, not therapy and not a clinical assessment. If avoidance is affecting your work, health or relationships, that's a conversation for a clinician.
Implementation intentions ('when X, I will Y')
Specifying when, where and how you'll act roughly doubles follow-through in a large meta-analysis, by shifting control from intention to environmental cue. The effect has been demonstrated in children with ADHD on tasks requiring sustained effort.
What this means in MomentumSuggested first steps are written as concrete actions with a defined stopping point, and timing suggestions attach heavy tasks to the part of the day where your own focus minutes cluster.
What this doesn't mean: Implementation intentions help you start; they don't manufacture motivation for something you've decided you don't want to do.
The wins log
Mastery experiences are the strongest source of self-efficacy, and self-efficacy predicts persistence. Diary research on knowledge work found that visible progress on meaningful work was the single largest positive driver of inner work life.
What this means in MomentumCompleted tasks stay visible with a running count and streak, and the copy explicitly says a broken streak costs you nothing.
What this doesn't mean: Streaks can turn into another source of shame. That's why nothing in Momentum is lost when one breaks — and why there are no points, badges or leagues.
Movement prompts during breaks
Acute aerobic exercise improves attention, inhibitory control and executive function in people with ADHD, sometimes measurably after a single session. Effects are short-lived but real, which makes a break the natural place to use them.
What this means in MomentumReset periods suggest standing, stretching or walking rather than scrolling.
What this doesn't mean: Exercise is not a substitute for treatment, and the studies here are small with short follow-ups.
Honest limitations
Most of the findings above come from lab tasks or general-population samples, not from trials of planner apps. No study has tested Momentum. Effect sizes for behavioural supports are typically modest, and the ADHD literature has its share of small samples and mixed replications. Nothing here is a claim about treatment outcomes.
If tasks are seriously affecting your work, health or relationships, talk to a clinician. Tools like this one work best alongside assessment and, where appropriate, medication and therapy.