Side Quest: got ADHD? This will help!
A pocket e-ink to-do device. Hold a button, say it, and it lands on your list. Built in a week, and it works.
If you have ADHD, or just a busy brain, ideas and to-dos show up at the worst possible times, and opening an app to type them is just enough friction to lose them. Side Quest is a pocket device with an e-ink screen and one main button, built to catch the thought before it’s gone.
How it works
- Hold the button and talk. “Pick up milk, call the dentist tomorrow, and I’m low energy today.”
- AI sorts it. The recording is transcribed and split into tasks, notes and items for the shared shopping list, with dates worked out for you.
- It plans your day. Open tasks are sorted into Now / Next / Later, using your calendar and how much energy you said you have. Low energy days get a shorter Now list.
- Mark it done. Tap twice and the screen celebrates with fireworks or confetti and a ta-da.
Each person’s lists are private. Only the shopping list is shared. There’s a focus timer for working through one task at a time, and even Wordle for a break.
One project, a few names
Our family has a few of these, and each one shows its own name on the splash screen when it wakes up. Same hardware, same code. This one is Side Quest.
The hard parts
- Working away from home Wi-Fi. When there’s no Wi-Fi, it relays through my iPhone over Bluetooth, and if neither works it saves the recording to a microSD card and uploads it later, so nothing gets lost.
- Battery and power. Small LiPo cells, deep sleep between uses, and (lesson learned) checking battery polarity before connecting anything.
- Moving fast. From first commit to working devices in about a week.
Would you use one?
I’m curious whether this is useful beyond our house. Would you buy one, and what would you pay for it? Tell me below.