The Vision Behind DopaDone

Why This Exists

I built DopaDone because I couldn't get myself to do the boring-but-important things. Finances, invoices, lingering conflicts with people, promises I'd made — tasks that don't give immediate results but quietly rot when ignored. I have ADHD, and no existing productivity tool understood why those tasks felt impossible. They'd show me a neat list and expect motivation to appear. It never did.

I didn't want to go the medication route, so I built a tool instead. DopaDone is the third app I've made in this space, and it carries every lesson from the first two. The core insight is simple: every engagement trick that platforms use to hijack your attention — randomization, streaks, XP, timers, progression systems — can be pointed at your own goals instead.

I'm using all of the tricks in the book for how to manipulate and create engagement — in order to create engagement into my own stuff rather than engaging in things where some Silicon Valley giant's interests are.

Who It's For

• People with ADHD who avoid boring-but-important tasks despite knowing they matter
• People who want engagement without medication — or alongside it
• People tired of productivity tools built for neurotypical motivation
• People who recognize their dopamine is being hijacked by platforms and want to reclaim it

How It Works

The Slot Machine

You hit "Start Run" and a tumbling dice animation kicks in — the system is picking your next task from a weighted pool of everything in your backlog. Higher-priority, more urgent, and longer-lingering tasks are more likely to come up, but anything can appear. You're a witness to the randomization. You didn't pick this task; the machine did.

That reframe is powerful: instead of agonizing over what to do, you're forced into a decision about this specific thing. The app asks rotating questions — "What CAN you do on this task right now?", "What's the biggest dent you can make?", "What would you do if this task were easy?" — framing you toward action, not perfection.

You get a five-minute timer. That's it. Just make any progress. Delete it, set a next action, call someone, start some research — all of that counts. You don't have to finish anything. You just have to move it forward.

Not every moment is the same, so you can shape the pool. During work hours, boost work tasks. In the evening, personal ones. Out running errands, location-tagged tasks rise to the top. These weight adjustments activate on schedules or location triggers and stack together, shaping the probability pool in real time. They're fully optional — use what works, ignore the rest.

Progress Over Completion

This is the most important idea in DopaDone: you never have to complete a task. Any progress whatsoever counts. When a task comes up, the biggest, most prominent button — glowing purple, gently pulsing — is Progress, not Done. The UI itself tells you: moving forward is the point.

Your options are all forms of movement — mark it done, record progress (it stays in the backlog for next time), skip it, or abandon it. Jot a quick note while you're at it. The goal is forward motion, not perfection.

Done for Now

Not every task belongs in this moment. Hit "Done for now" in the action menu and the task disappears from the pool — for an hour, until tomorrow, or until next week. But DopaDone is watching: if the task changes in the source — a new comment on the GitHub issue, a collaborator update in Todoist — it wakes up early. You can also manage all snoozed tasks from Settings and wake them manually. The point is decluttering without losing anything.

One Task at a Time

Your anxious mind gets one thing to focus on. Not a list of 47 things generating guilt. One task, one timer, one decision. The narrowing of focus is itself a feature — it cuts through the paralysis of seeing everything at once.

Runs & XP

Consecutive usage builds into runs. You earn XP, level up during a run, and build momentum. After 2 hours of inactivity, the run resets and you see a summary of what you conquered — top tasks, XP earned, and focus time. Then you start fresh. It has roguelike energy: each run is its own arc with a beginning, a middle, and a score screen.

Every task earns base XP, with bonuses stacking for priority, urgency, deadlines, how long a task has been lingering, and whether you stayed in the same project (flow bonus). Complete a task before the timer expires and you earn a time bonus. The celebrations scale too — small completions get a subtle chime and shockwave, but finish a high-value task and you get confetti bursts, epic sounds, and floating XP text. Level up and the screen erupts.

When the timer runs out, instead of forcing you to stop, the app asks: "Still working?" Click it and the timer resets, your focus multiplier increases, and the XP bonus for this task grows. Stay locked in for three check-ins and you've earned triple the focus bonus. The system rewards deep engagement rather than penalizing you for going over five minutes.

AI Coaching

When a task appears and you don't know where to start, an AI coach steps in. It identifies a concrete first action — "Open the proposal and read the first page" — and you respond with reactions: "I know my next step", "Be more specific", or "I don't want to do this." The coach adapts in real time, speaking your language, pushing past resistance without empty cheerleading.

After a run ends, the coach analyzes your session — which tasks you tackled, what patterns emerged, where you built momentum — and leaves a short reflection in the run summary. One actionable insight, not a lecture. The philosophy: you don't have to want to do it. Just start.

Tasks, Habits & Calendars

DopaDone isn't tied to one task manager. Connect Todoist to pull your existing backlog — project hierarchy, sequential projects, collaborator assignments all carry over. Add GitHub repos to surface open issues. Point it at an Obsidian vault to scan markdown files for tasks. Define recurring habits with time windows, dependencies, and recurring schedules — medication, meals, anything you'd forget while hyperfocusing. Track your streaks, completion rates, and a 30-day heatmap for each habit. Connect calendar feeds and DopaDone creates prep tasks automatically: 48 hours before an event, "Do you need to prepare?" — two hours before, "What needs to happen?" Every source feeds into the same weighted pool. Mix and match freely.

Your Data, Your Files

Everything is stored in markdown files — habits, tasks, settings — all human-readable, AI-processable, and portable. Run history is tracked in-memory as rich data structures during each session. When a run ends, the summary shows source breakdowns, priority analysis, and a full timeline. Copy the run data as markdown to keep it wherever you want. No proprietary database, no cloud lock-in. The files are yours.

Design Principles

1. Progress over completion — any movement counts. Delete it, delegate it, start it — all valid. The Progress button glows; the Done button doesn't.
2. One thing at a time — reduce cognitive load. Prevent the anxiety of seeing everything at once.
3. Gamification for self, not platforms — every dopamine trick serves your goals. Tiered celebrations, escalating focus bonuses, XP breakdowns — all designed to make doing your own tasks feel as rewarding as scrolling a feed.
4. Optionality everywhere — presets, habits, calendar prep, labels — use what works, ignore the rest.
5. Data you own — markdown files you can read, process with AI, or move anywhere.
6. Five-minute commitment — low activation energy. Just five minutes. Still working? Five more. That's it.