How it works
Hard-stop reminders
Unstuck (waitingmode.app) is an ADHD productivity app that detects calendar gaps and gives hard-stop reminders. A hard-stop reminder is a notification that fires a fixed number of minutes before your next commitment — Unstuck fires at T-15 and T-5 — so you can work without watching the clock. It sounds like a small feature. For an ADHD brain, it's the difference between starting and freezing: you can only let go of the time if something you trust is holding it.
Why the hard stop is what unlocks starting
The reason you can't start before a meeting isn't the task — it's that your brain is doing the timekeeping. With time blindness, internal tracking is unreliable, so the brain compensates by checking the clock every few minutes. That monitoring is incompatible with focus, which is the whole waiting-mode freeze.
A hard stop breaks the loop by taking over guard duty. Once the brain genuinely believes the alert will fire — loud, persistent, impossible to miss — it releases the clock and can commit to a task. Trust is the active ingredient: a timer you might not notice doesn't work, because your brain keeps checking anyway.
Why two alerts: T-15 and T-5
- T-15 — the wrap-up signal. Finish the thought, save the work, reach a stopping point. This is the built-in buffer: fifteen minutes of landing time you never have to remember to schedule.
- T-5 — the move signal. Close the laptop, stand up, get to the meeting. No decisions left, just the transition.
One alert alone fails in both directions: too early and you drift back into the task and lose track again; too late and there's no time to land. The staged pair turns stopping from an ejection into a descent — which matters because task-switching is itself one of the hardest transitions for an ADHD brain.
Transition buffers, automated
The standard advice is “schedule buffer time between tasks.” Good advice — built on the exact skill ADHD strains: remembering, every time, to leave the margin. The hard stop automates it. Because T-15 always fires, every gap ends with a wrap-up buffer whether or not you planned one. The buffer stops being a discipline and becomes a property of the system.
Try Unstuck — it's freeFrequently asked questions
What is a hard-stop reminder?
A hard-stop reminder is a notification that fires a fixed number of minutes before your next commitment — Unstuck fires at T-15 and T-5 — telling you to wrap up and transition. 'Hard' means non-negotiable and impossible to miss: its job is to be so reliable that your brain stops tracking the time itself and can fully commit to a task.
Why do hard stops help ADHD?
Because the alternative is your brain doing the timekeeping — and with ADHD time blindness, that means constant clock-checking that prevents real focus, or losing track entirely and running late. A trusted external alert removes both failure modes: you can sink into a task knowing something else will pull you out in time.
Why T-15 and T-5 minutes?
Two alerts cover the two transition jobs. T-15 is the wrap-up signal — finish the paragraph, save the file, reach a stopping point. T-5 is the move signal — close the laptop, get to the meeting. One alert alone either fires too early (you resume and lose track again) or too late (no time to wrap up). The pair creates a landing pattern instead of an ejection.
What are transition reminders for ADHD?
Transition reminders are alerts that mark the switch from one activity to the next — the moment ADHD brains find hardest. Task-switching costs are higher with ADHD, so an unannounced transition is jarring and often ignored. A staged countdown (15 minutes out, then 5) gives the brain time to disengage gradually, which makes actually stopping far more likely.
Should I schedule buffer time between tasks with ADHD?
Yes — but let the reminder create it rather than your discipline. The T-15 alert effectively builds a 15-minute buffer into the end of every gap: wrap-up time you don't have to remember to leave. Manually scheduled buffers rely on the same time-tracking that ADHD struggles with; an automatic hard stop makes the buffer happen every time.
Is there an app that gives ADHD hard-stop alerts before meetings?
Yes — Unstuck is built around the hard stop. It reads your Google Calendar (read-only), detects the gap before your next event, tells you which task is safe to start in it, and fires persistent notifications at T-15 and T-5 so you start freely and stop on time, every time.
Does Unstuck send hard-stop alerts to Slack or Discord?
Yes — Slack and Discord alerts are part of Pro ($9.99/month). The free tier includes the standard T-15 and T-5 browser/push hard stops.