FocalNest Built for families who feel like they've tried everything.
FocalNest is the executive function a neurodivergent household is missing: planning that fits each brain, structure that bends with real life, and just the next doable step for whoever picks up the phone. A rough day never sets you back. The next one meets you where you are.
Free during the closed beta · one household · see pricing
Built around the three things ADHD brains find hardest
Deciding, starting, and following through are exactly where executive function breaks down. FocalNest carries each one, so no one has to hold it all in their head.
Deciding what’s next
You open the app to one thing, not a list of ten. It factors in your energy and everything you’ve got going on, then surfaces what matters most. You stay free to choose your own order.
Actually starting
It breaks the next task down to a two-minute first move you can do without deciding anything. Starting is the whole battle, so the app starts it for you.
Following through, without shame
Log partial progress, not just done. Kids earn rewards built for the ADHD brain instead of hollow points. A missed day just waits for you, no catch-up debt, no guilt.
What makes it different
The one thing worth doing now
Deciding what's next is its own ADHD tax. FocalNest reads your deadlines, your energy, and everything on your plate, then hands you the one worth doing now. Reorder any time. On a kitchen task? It pulls up your other kitchen tasks while you're there.
The smallest possible first step
It breaks the next task down to one physical move you can do in two minutes. Starting is the whole battle, so the app starts it for you.
Tasks that bend like real life
“Roughly every few days.” Meds three times, six hours apart. A soft deadline that nudges gently before it's urgent. Recurrence and reminders that escalate instead of snapping to a shamey “failed.” A task model shaped like the life you actually live.
Progress, not just done
Report partial effort without finishing, take a break once you have made some, and never see a progress bar sitting at zero.
Better together, not micromanaged
Everyone's tasks in one calm place, so the family can body-double, share momentum, and help instead of nag. It cuts both ways: the kids keep it novel enough that an ADHD parent actually stays engaged.
Treasures worth collecting
Real completions sometimes unlock a card from a curated collection. No streaks to break, nothing to lose, only something to gain.
Turn on what helps. Leave the rest off.
Not everyone under one roof is wired the same way, and FocalNest doesn't pretend they are. The ADHD support comes in four categories you switch on per person. A family member who just wants a clean shared list gets exactly that, no scaffolding they didn't ask for.
Time awareness
Countdowns, generous buffers, and ambient “leaving in 40 minutes” cues for time blindness.
Getting started
Two-minute first steps, body-doubling, and gentle nudges to get past task paralysis.
Focus & attention
A calm focus mode and an easy way back in after an interruption.
Transitions
A heads-up before a change, and tasks grouped by where you already are.
And the app meets each person at their level. Adults get the full planning and family view; kids get a simpler screen with bigger visuals, no time pressure, and language tuned to how they read, down to three-word steps for a child who can't read yet.
Describe the chaos. Get a plan that fits an ADHD brain.
Breaking a big thing into the right small steps is exactly the executive-function work that is hardest for the people who need it most. So FocalNest carries it. Start from a ready-made routine, add tasks yourself, or just describe what you need, and the wizard drafts the whole project for you to review.
It estimates generously, anchors routines to real moments instead of clock times, and plans backwards from a deadline. The judgment of a good coach, in a few seconds, for free.
Built on the actual research, not vibes.
Every decision here traces back to evidence-based ADHD interventions: externalizing what the brain struggles to hold, meeting behaviour at the point it happens, and removing the shame that makes people quit. A few examples of that showing up in the software.
Generous time estimates
ADHD brains underestimate how long things take, so the app plans with a buffer, on purpose.
Your real bandwidth, on screen
The planner maps each day against real capacity and flags where you’ve overcommitted before the week falls apart, time blindness moved out of your head and onto the screen.
No streaks, ever
There is no streak counter in the app. A hard day is never a loss you have to recover from.
Reduced motion, respected
Every animation can be switched off. Motion should never overwhelm a sensory-sensitive user.
Motivation that doesn't rely on guilt.
The completion celebration always plays, that part is never up for chance. On top of it, kids sometimes unlock a card from a curated collection, each one a real small fact worth knowing.
This is not a points economy that rewards logging in. A collectible unlocks only on genuine completions, variable and surprising, the way the ADHD brain actually responds.
We chose this deliberately over a streak counter. A broken streak turns a bad day into a failure; a collection just waits for next time.
Parents pick which collections a child draws from and can set up real-life rewards alongside it (extra screen time, a movie pick) with limits they control.
How we build it
Neurodivergent-first
Every decision (colour, timing, language, interaction) is made with ADHD, autism, and executive function differences in mind. Not as an accessibility afterthought. As the starting point.
Depth over breadth
We do a small number of things well. Task management and family coordination, done right, not a sprawling feature list that looks impressive in screenshots but fails in daily use.
No hardware lock-in
Works on the tablets, phones, and displays you already own. No $400 wall panel required. Serious software should run on ordinary hardware.
Honest pricing
One household price. No per-seat fees, no dark patterns, no fine print. See pricing →
Stories from real families
We're in closed beta, so we would rather leave this space honest than fill it with invented quotes. Real stories from real households will land here as our first families settle in.
Bring calm to the chaos.
We're in closed beta, reviewing requests as we go. Ask for access and we'll send you a personal invite.