Flow · Attention Instrument

One thing at a time, on purpose.

Most task apps show you everything you owe, which is precisely the wrong input for a brain that already struggles to choose. Flow promotes a single task, times it, and keeps the rest quiet until you ask for it.

Open Flow How it works
Free · No account · Runs in your browser · Nothing leaves your device
01 — Premise

Built around the part that actually fails.

Productivity tools tend to assume the hard part is remembering what to do. For a lot of people — particularly anyone working with ADHD — the hard part is starting, re-starting after an interruption, and knowing how much time has passed. Flow is organised around those three failures rather than around storage and tagging.

Starting

Sessions ramp from five minutes. A finished five is worth more than an abandoned twenty-five, so five is treated as a real session rather than a consolation. When choosing is the expensive part, Flow will choose for you.

Returning

Every interruption costs you the thread. When a session ends on unfinished work, Flow asks for one line — what to start with next time — and hands it back when you return, so re-entry is cheap instead of another act of will.

Noticing

Time blindness is not a discipline problem. The day is drawn as a depleting quantity, meetings are shown as in 23 minutes rather than 14:30, and the log tells you which hours you actually finish work in.

Flow 3h 40m of day left Day Now Log
01Queue 4 open
Capture anything — press C from anywhere
Next up EST 30M · SPENT 12M
Draft the migration proposal
→ Open last quarter's doc and copy the headings across
Start 15 Pick for me Break it down
Open 4

Reply to the vendor thread

15m

Book the dentist

15m

Review the pull request

30m
Focus · 15 min
09:41FOCUS
Working on
Draft the migration proposal
Thought pulling you away? Park it here — P

Fig. 01 — The Day view. One task promoted, one clock running, everything else quiet.

02 — Use

Six things, and you have the whole system.

There is no setup, no account and no configuration required before it is useful. The first screen asks you for one task; everything below is optional depth you can pick up whenever you want it.

01

Throw things in without thinking

Press C anywhere and type. No project, no due date, no priority — just the thought, out of your head and into the queue. The capture box in the Queue panel does the same thing if you would rather click.

A capture step with five required fields is a capture step people stop using.

02

Promote exactly one task

Click any task to make it Next up. That card is the only task the interface treats as real. If you cannot decide, press N and Flow picks one for you, weighting small, already-started and long-waiting work above everything else.

Stuck on where to begin? Break it down records the first physical action — something under two minutes that requires no decisions. That line, not the task title, is what you actually start from.

03

Start smaller than feels respectable

Choose 5, 15, 25 or 45 minutes, or press Space to start immediately. Sessions attach to the promoted task, so the time is recorded against real work rather than against a generic timer.

Press F for Now mode: full screen, one task, one number, nothing else on it.

04

Park the thought instead of chasing it

When something unrelated surfaces mid-session — and it will — press P, type it, and it lands in the queue. The session keeps running.

The distraction is not the problem. Leaving the session to deal with it is.

05

Let the list retire itself

Anything untouched for ten days moves to the Shelf on its own. It is not deleted and it is not marked as failure — it is simply out of the way. Revive what still matters, drop the rest.

Habits carry one grace day per week, so a bad Tuesday costs you a day rather than the whole streak.

A list you avoid opening is worse than no list at all.

06

Read the record, not a score

Press L for the Log: which hour of the day you actually complete sessions in, how your estimates compare with measured time, and how much you tend to under-count. It is written as description rather than judgement — there are no targets to miss.

03 — Reference

Everything is one key away.

Press ? inside the app to bring this up at any time.

SpaceStart a session, or pause the one running
CCapture a thought into the queue
PPark a distraction without leaving the session
NLet Flow pick your next task
FNow mode — one task, full screen
LOpen the Log
?Keyboard reference
EscBack out of anything
04 — Scope

What it is, and what it deliberately isn't.

Being clear about the edges is more useful than a feature list.

Does

Runs entirely in your browser. Your tasks, sessions and habits are stored on your own machine and never sent anywhere. Export a JSON backup whenever you like; import it on another machine to move.

Doesn't

No accounts, no sync, no server. Clearing your browser data clears Flow — take an export if that matters to you. This is a deliberate trade for privacy and for having nothing to maintain.

Does

Works offline once loaded, and can optionally run a language model on your own device to break down a stuck task or write your end-of-day read-back.

Doesn't

Not a team tool, a project tracker or a replacement for treatment. It is a single-player instrument for getting through a working day.

05 — Questions

Reasonable things to ask first.

Is my data sent anywhere?
No. Flow stores everything in your browser's local storage on your own device. There is no account and no server holding your tasks. The only outbound requests are optional ones you switch on yourself: local weather, an imported calendar, or a hosted model if you choose to configure one instead of the on-device option.
How is this different from a normal pomodoro timer?
A pomodoro timer assumes you have already decided what to work on and can start on command. Flow treats those as the difficult parts: it promotes a single task, will choose one for you, records the first physical action so starting needs no decisions, and offers five-minute sessions as legitimate rather than as failure. Sessions also attach to tasks, so you end up with real measured time instead of a count of tomatoes.
Do I need ADHD for this to be useful?
No. It is designed around ADHD working patterns — difficulty starting, costly re-entry after interruption, and poor time perception — but those are ordinary human failure modes under stress or fatigue. Anyone who has stared at a full task list without being able to pick something will recognise the problem it is solving.
What happens to tasks I never do?
After ten days untouched they move to the Shelf on their own. They are not deleted and there is no counter of failures. Anything that reaches the shelf twice is usually telling you it needs deleting rather than rescheduling.
Will I lose everything if I clear my browser?
Yes, which is the trade for having no server. Use Export in settings to save a JSON backup, and Import to restore it or move to another machine. If you rely on Flow daily, export occasionally.
Does it cost anything?
No. There is nothing to pay for, nothing to sign up to, and no paid tier waiting behind a feature.

Start with five minutes.

No sign-up, no setup. The first screen asks you for one task, and you can be running a session about ten seconds later.