I built an anti-productivity app for ADHD brains — and it is free
Hi IndieHackers! I'm Alex.
Every wellness app I tried made my ADHD worse. Streaks gave me anxiety. "You missed 3 days" messages made me feel guilty. Push notifications felt demanding. The apps were built for neurotypical brains — and for ADHD, that approach backfires.
Streaks trigger cortisol (fear of loss), not dopamine (motivation). For ADHD brains, that's the difference between a tool that helps and a tool that hurts.
The Solution: GentleQuest
I built GentleQuest — a mood-first wellness app that does the opposite:
- No streaks — we track "total active days" instead. You can never lose progress.
- No guilt — missing a day doesn't reset anything. You're never starting over.
- Mood first — check in with how you feel before anything else.
- Quiet by design — no push notifications begging for attention.
- Built for overwhelm — one-tap check-in, no 10-question forms.
The Build (Solo Founder Stack)
- Engine: Flutter (iOS, Android, web)
- Intelligence: Google Gemini 2.0 for the AI wellness chat
- Privacy: Your data stays on your device. No analytics SDKs tracking your taps. No ad networks. No selling data.
- Distribution: Blog (66 posts), Medium, Buffer
The Ask
My goal is to reach every ADHD brain that's been failed by streak-based productivity apps.
I'm looking for:
- Feedback: Does the "no streaks" approach resonate? What would make you actually use a mood tracker?
- Distribution: Where do ADHD folks hang out online?
I'm building this in public and open to any questions on the stack or the mission.
Try GentleQuest free: https://gentlequest.app
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/gentlequest/id6756537464
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.gentlequest.www
Blog: https://gentlequest.app/blog
#buildinpublic #mentalhealth #adhd #founder #flutter #indiehackers
The “no streaks” thesis is clear, but the real signal seems to be repeat use. Have early users actually returned more consistently with the guilt-free model?
Honest answer: too early for statistically meaningful retention — I'm at ~75 users over 90 days (GA4), so cohorts are tiny. What I can share:
The real test is D7/D14 return rate, which I'm instrumenting now (GA4 cohort exploration — will publish the numbers in the thread once the cohorts mature). My thesis isn't that streaks don't motivate — it's that streak-retention is borrowed motivation that collapses on the first miss. "You've shown up 23 times" vs "streak: 0" is the same compounding story without the shame reset. If you're building something habit-adjacent, happy to compare notes — the metric I'd watch is "did the user open the app on day 2 of a broken streak," because that's where streak products bleed.
The D7/D14 return signal is the one I’d be interested in following. If you’re open to it, what’s the best email to reach you on?