Small Start: ADHD Routines

Ali Fırat Ünver

In-app purchases

About this app

An ADHD brain fights lists. That is exactly why routines are so hard to keep.

Small Start shows you one step at a time. Not a checklist you have to re-read, not
twelve boxes waiting to be ticked — one step, one timer, one big Done button.
When it's finished, the next one appears.

WHY IT WORKS

• One step on screen to focus on. The list is the problem, so it stays hidden.
• Every step gets a timer, so time stops being invisible.
• The timer runs on real clock time. Lock your phone, take a call, come back —
it never drifts.
• Every step chimes when it ends, with Done and +1 minute right there — the
phone can stay on the shelf while you brush your teeth.
• Skip and +1 minute are always there. A routine that can't bend gets
abandoned.

REMINDERS THAT DON'T BECOME WALLPAPER

Most apps send the same notification forever until you switch them off.
Small Start rotates through more than a dozen messages, so it never becomes
background noise.

And if you ignore three in a row, it doesn't nag harder — it changes the
subject and asks whether the time is wrong, then offers to move the reminder
or turn it off. Your 7:00 alarm was never going to work if you're never awake
at 7:00.

IT STARTS WITHOUT YOU OPENING THE APP

Opening an app is the same problem as starting a routine, so it doesn't insist.

• A home-screen widget shows today's routine and starts it at step one, in one tap
• While a routine runs, the step counts down in a notification you can see without unlocking

STREAKS THAT DON'T PUNISH YOU

Missing today doesn't break your streak until the day is actually over, and a
missed day is shown as a day, not a failure. A habit survives one of those. No
red, no guilt, no "you've lost your progress".

Half a routine counts as half, not as nothing: get through at least half the
steps and the day still counts. And if you walk away mid-routine, the app
offers to pick it back up where you left off.

BUILT FOR PRIVACY

No account. No sign-up. No email. No ads, ever. Your routines, steps and
history stay on your phone — never uploaded anywhere.

Your data can also leave with you. One tap exports every routine, step and
completion to a file you keep, so a new phone doesn't cost you your setup.

WHAT YOU GET

• Three ready-made routines to start in one tap — Morning, Evening Wind-down,
Getting Out the Door — all editable
• Unlimited routines and steps of your own
• Step lengths from 30 seconds to 90 minutes, or the one-tap presets
• Per-routine schedules, weekday-by-weekday
• Streaks, completion rates, a calendar of your days, and the pattern of which
weekdays actually work for you
• Measured step lengths, so the plan matches how long it really takes
• Export and import, so your routines and history are yours to keep
• Light and dark themes

TRY THE WHOLE THING FOR 14 DAYS

Everything is unlocked for 14 days. No card, no account, nothing to cancel —
we never asked for a payment method, so we cannot charge you by accident.
After that you decide, once. There's a pay-once option if you never want to
think about a subscription again.

Small Start is a timer and a routine keeper for adults living with ADHD. It
isn't a medical device and doesn't diagnose or treat anything — it's built by
and for people who find starting hard.

What’s new

Two new languages, and two fixes.

• Small Start is now in German and Dutch, as well as English and Turkish
• Anonymous usage statistics can be switched off in Settings — nothing personal was ever collected, and now you can turn off the counting too
• Fixed: snoozing a reminder could quietly cost you a day of your trial