What I've Learned Building a Focus Timer for People with ADHD
Feedback and patterns I've noticed from building 100xFocus and hearing how people with ADHD actually use — and adapt — the Pomodoro Technique.
I don't have ADHD myself, so I want to be upfront that this isn't a personal account — but building a focus timer means hearing a lot from people who do, and some patterns have come up often enough that they've shaped how I think about the product.
Starting is usually the harder part
Several people have told me the same thing in different words: the task itself often isn't the problem, starting it is. A 25-minute commitment feels small enough to agree to, in a way that an open-ended "just work on it" doesn't. A few mentioned that even 25 minutes felt like too much on a hard day, and having a duration slider that goes all the way down to 1 minute meant they could start with something almost too small to talk themselves out of.
Rigid timers can fight against hyperfocus
The piece of feedback that changed how I think about this most: sometimes a session is genuinely going well, and a timer cutting it off at exactly 25 minutes interrupts real momentum rather than protecting it. A few people mentioned letting the timer run past its end when they're clearly in flow, rather than stopping strictly on the buzzer. That's a reasonable way to use the tool — the timer is a structure, not an obligation to obey exactly.
One size doesn't fit most days
The same person might want a 1-minute session on a hard day and a 50-minute session on a good one. That's part of why I didn't lock 100xFocus into the traditional 25/5/15 split — Preferences lets you drag each duration to whatever number actually fits, for focus, short break, and long break separately, so the structure can flex around the day rather than the day being forced around the structure.
No ads competing for attention
One thing a few people specifically mentioned appreciating: no ads. For a tool meant to help with focus — something that can already be harder to hold onto — a page with banners or pop-ups fighting for attention undoes the point before the timer even starts.
If you're figuring out what works for you, I'd treat all of this as a starting point to test, not a rule to follow exactly — what's worked for the people I've heard from won't necessarily map onto your own attention in the same way.