Building NeuroNav—A Companion for ADHD Brains
Why I Built NeuroNav: Rethinking Productivity for ADHD
When I first set out to create NeuroNav, I wasn’t just building another productivity app. I was trying to solve a personal challenge: the overwhelming, emotional, and logistical chaos that comes with ADHD.
People with ADHD face obstacles that typical task managers or note-taking apps don’t address:
-
Executive dysfunction (getting started feels impossible)
-
Time blindness (losing hours to hyperfocus or distraction)
-
Emotional dysregulation (stress spikes, shame spirals)
-
Motivation cliffs (tasks that feel huge and paralyzing)
I wanted NeuroNav to meet users where they are—without guilt, friction, or complexity. That meant thinking beyond checklists and calendars, and creating something that feels more like a copilot for your mind.
The Design Philosophy: Soft, Safe, and Dopamine-Positive
The app’s design centers around a few key ADHD-friendly principles:
-
Emotionally Safe UI: Dark gradients, smooth animations, and a soft aesthetic that feels calming—not sterile.
-
Conversational Flows: Instead of overwhelming forms, Sam (the assistant) engages users in short, emotionally aware conversations—helping them break down tasks or decompress after a hard day.
-
Low-Pressure Gamification: Small, sparkly affirmations and micro-wins, without forcing streaks or perfection.
The Core Features (So Far)
-
Mind Dump: A central place to quickly capture anything—thoughts, tasks, reminders. Whether it’s text or voice, Sam helps organize it later.
-
Task Focuser: ADHD brains often freeze at the idea of “just do the thing.” This feature guides users to define one task + the tiniest first step—and encourages independent momentum from there.
-
Focus Mode: Once you’ve got a task, Focus Mode offers a full-screen, distraction-free view with a Pomodoro-style timer, mid-session check-ins, and gentle dopamine rewards.
-
Reset & Wind Down: Emotional regulation is as critical as productivity. These modes use grounding prompts, breathwork, and reflection to help users decompress and reset.
And Sam—the AI companion—floats in the app, always available for a check-in or a nudge.
The Technical Side
NeuroNav is built in React Native (Expo), leveraging:
-
OpenAI & Whisper API: For real-time voice transcription + natural language understanding
-
Mem0 API: For memory anchoring, task continuity, and personalized retrieval
-
Supabase/Firebase: As the backend for task storage and authentication
We designed Sam’s system prompt to act like a calm therapist-friend—focused on brevity, emotional validation, and modular support flows (Task Focuser, Reset, Wind Down). Sam can also track conversational state and integrate with tool calls (e.g., logging sessions, retrieving last tasks).
On the AI side, we planned for future agentic extensions like:
-
A Scheduler Agent that auto-adjusts your day based on energy and calendar context
-
An Email/Inbox Agent to help ADHD users avoid overwhelm
-
A Task Unblocker to reframe stuck work and offer new approaches
These phases are mapped out in the roadmap but are already architected for CrewAI-style orchestration—ready to make NeuroNav a true executive function copilot.
What’s Next
The roadmap includes habit tracking, adaptive planning, agentic AI workflows, and deeper integrations with calendar + email.
But most of all, my goal remains:
Make NeuroNav a tool that ADHD users feel safe using—a place that helps them move forward without shame.
If that resonates with you, I’d love you to try it, share your thoughts, or contribute ideas.
Thanks for reading—and here’s to building tech that feels like a friend.
