Tasks
🌿 Wellness Check-ins
Gentle check-ins with your body every 30 minutes. Tap to mark done — that nudge won't repeat today. Adjust in Settings
Your safe place to dump everything without deciding what to do with it yet. Type it all out, hit Sort, and we'll file each thought into the right folder automatically.
🧠 Brain Dump
One thought per line. Don't filter. Just type. We auto-sort into folders:
📌 Tomorrow
▸📅 This Week
▸📆 This Month
▸🎉 Events
▸🎂 Birthdays & Events
▸🎯 Weekly Goals
▸🌟 Monthly Goals
▸🏔 Yearly Goals
▸Why UpOrbit works for ADHD brains
Every feature is grounded in peer-reviewed research from journals like JAMA, The Lancet Psychiatry, Neuropsychology Review, and Journal of Attention Disorders. We connect the science to the tools.
Executive Function & the Prefrontal Cortex
ADHD involves reduced prefrontal cortex activation, impairing working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control. These are the exact skills traditional to-do apps assume you have.
Time Blindness & Temporal Processing
Research shows ADHD brains significantly underestimate time passage. A 2019 meta-analysis found people with ADHD have measurably impaired time perception across multiple paradigms.
Dopamine & Reward Sensitivity
ADHD is associated with altered dopaminergic signaling, particularly in the mesolimbic pathway. This affects motivation initiation and reward processing — not laziness, neurochemistry.
Cognitive Fatigue & Ultradian Rhythms
Humans cycle through 90-minute high/low energy periods (ultradian rhythms). ADHD amplifies these swings. Working against your energy cycle wastes effort.
Movement, Hydration & Cognitive Performance
A 2% body mass loss from dehydration reduces working memory and attention. Even brief physical activity improves executive function in ADHD for 30-60 minutes post-exercise.
Task Initiation & the "Starting Problem"
Task initiation is one of the most impaired executive functions in ADHD. The Pomodoro Technique (25-minute blocks) has been shown to reduce procrastination by lowering perceived task magnitude.
Cognitive Offloading & External Memory
Writing things down ("cognitive offloading") frees working memory capacity. For ADHD brains with already-limited working memory, this is especially impactful.
Habit Formation & External Scaffolding
Habit research shows cue-routine-reward loops are essential for automaticity. People with ADHD take longer to form habits and benefit more from external structure.
Ready to try it?
Every feature above is built into UpOrbit. Set your #1 Must-Do and start.
Physical tools that address real ADHD challenges — fidgeting for focus, timers for time blindness, sensory support for overwhelm. Each one is tied to research.
Affiliate links — UpOrbit may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Recommendations are based on usefulness, not sponsorship.
Shuts out the world when you need to focus. The #1 tool adults with ADHD say they wish they'd bought sooner.
For: Adults, open offices, WFH
Makes abstract time visible as a disappearing red disk. The most therapist-recommended tool for time blindness.
For: Kids, adults, classrooms
Flip to start — 5, 10, 25, or 45 min presets. No phone needed, no app to open. Physical timers remove the friction of starting.
For: Desk work, studying, focus sessions
5, 10, 15, 30 minute hourglasses. No batteries, no buttons. Calming visual countdown for focus sessions or transitions.
For: Kids, classrooms, low-tech focus
Reduces noise 26dB without blocking conversation. Reusable, discreet. Life-changing for sensory overload.
For: Offices, social events, errands
Fidgeting occupies the sensory-seeking part of your brain so the rest can focus. Research supports this.
Top picks: Speks, Infinity Cube, Flippy Chain
Attach to keys, wallet, bag. Ring from your phone. Solves the daily "where did I put that" problem.
For: Everyone who loses things
Shows how much to drink by each hour. Makes hydration visible when your brain forgets body signals.
For: Everyone
By Russell Barkley — the leading ADHD researcher. Evidence-based, practical, no fluff. The one book to read.
For: Newly diagnosed adults
Deep pressure promotes calm and sleep onset. Research supports weighted blankets for anxiety and insomnia.
For: ADHD sleep problems
Allows micro-movement while seated. Active seating improves attention in children with ADHD.
For: Kids 5-12, classrooms
AM/PM compartments. The empty slot is visual proof you took your meds. Simple but essential.
For: Daily medication
If you can't see it, it doesn't exist. Transparent bins solve the ADHD object permanence problem.
For: Everyone with ADHD
Pop Its, Tangle Therapy, sensory chew necklaces, kinetic sand. Tactile tools for classrooms and home.
For: Kids 3+, classrooms, OT