ADHD-Friendly App Review: Goblin Tools

As the title suggests, I’ve got another ADHD-friendly app for you, and it’s fun, useful, and –best of all – free. 

As always, you can watch me talk about it here, or listen below or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Otherwise, let’s jump right in.

What, exactly, is Goblin Tools?

From their very own website (someone actually has info about themselves on their website!!), Goblin Tools is “a collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult.” Maintained by Bram De Buyser, It’s an entry in the ongoing, ever-growing wave of AI tools, made specifically for people with different brains. How cool is that? 

Why is Goblin Tools great?

Most tools out there are great and all, but they often forget some of the biggest struggles ADHD brains can have. Amazing Marvin, for example, is grand and all, but it can be overwhelming for people who don’t know where to start when building a dashboard. Pretty much everything out there leaves it up to the user to figure out tasks and subtasks, which can also be kind of daunting, especially when everything already feels like a lot. 

Goblin Tools removes the guesswork from many of those spaces forgotten by everything else. It has a Chef, so that you can input what you have in your kitchen or pantry, and get a suggestion for a meal to make. It has an estimator, to help you figure out the time a task may take. It includes a Judge, for those moments where your Rejection Sensitivity may kick in and mess with your understanding of messages you receive. There’s even a “formalizer,” which helps you turn messages written out of upset or confusion into something that sounds like you’re not actually losing your mind. There’s also a  compiler that takes your brain dump and turns it into a nice, orderly list of tasks. You can even take those resulting tasks and send them to the Magic ToDo list.

Speaking of the Magic ToDo List, this is where Goblin Tools really shines. It takes any task you enter, and cuts it into small tasks for you. The true beauty of this, the real piece de resistance in my opinion, is that it can cut those small tasks as tiny as you need them. Meaning that if you simply just need the teeniest, tiniest, next right step, the list will figure that out for you, and then you can simply follow that suggestion. 

All of the tasks are beautifully connected to the estimator, too, just in case you need that to help you figure out the timing of your day. 

There’s also a super fairly-priced phone app, so that you can have a little goblin with you all day long.

How could Goblin Tools improve?

For one, since it’s an AI tool, Goblin Tools is kind of limited in its understanding of some tasks. For example, you can ask it to tell you how to do a pretty common household chore, or even to write a well-known type of proposal, but the more niche you get, the less likely it is that you’ll get much help in estimating or setting up subtasks. 

For another, while things like the Chef and the Estimator are amazing, they also don’t take into account the amount of energy you have at the time. The Estimator, at least, asks about focus, but the Chef tool is almost always going to suggest something that calls for using a stove no matter how tired you say you are. 

When we ask for “simple meals,” we mean that it needs to fall into our mouths immediately, and we shouldn’t have to use anything above a microwave. C’mon, people.

In conclusion…

Goblin Tools is meant to be a simple tool, and it is, which means that it’s best used as a supplementary tool along with the tools you already have. On it’s own, it won’t streamline projects or figure out your time management method, but it can help take the guesswork out of a lot of things – and guesswork is a huge part of what slows us down most days. 

Details

Platforms: Web, Android, iOS

Cost: Free to use on web, .99 to buy as a mobile app.

BEST FOR: People who already have a decent productivity stack, or people who only need a little extra help figuring out next steps from time to time.

NOT GREAT FOR: Anyone in need of project management support, or people who really need a lot of help keeping track of their day who aren’t using other software or apps.

7.28 Building An ADHD-Friendly, Energy-Friendly  Task Space in ClickUp

I’ve mentioned before that, in order to be truly ADHD-friendly, I lean hard into keeping your energy in mind when you’re planning your day. 

Sometimes, we can simply keep a mental watch on our energy and plan our days accordingly. Other times, you’re going to need to be able to see exactly where you stand in order to decide what tasks to focus on. So I’ve got two ways for you to do this, using ClickUp. 

Since this is better watched than read, I suggest watching the video below. There’s no podcast episode for this one, because that also would make zero sense. Here’s hoping this helps you out immensely!

Want to work together? Come see what options there are here.