Sticky Alarm.

I tried a few blockers. FocusMe. StayFree. Forest. Same story every time: I install it, set everything up, and then I figure out how to bypass it. Not because I want to — because my brain automatically searches for the way out.

Closing the app somehow. Finding a specific key combination. Removing the setting. Something always works. ADHD brains are pattern-recognition machines. I see the gap before I'm even consciously looking for it.

So I stopped searching and started building.

ADHD brains outsmart systems.
This system outsmarks back.

Why no blocker works.

Hard blockers are too rigid. I block YouTube — then need a tutorial for work. Blocker disabled, tutorial watched, forgot to turn the blocker back on. Three hours later I'm deep in a hyperfocus spiral about medieval siege weapons.

Forest is cute for three days. Plant a tree, hold out for 30 minutes. Then my brain builds tolerance. The dopamine hit fades. I stop caring.

RescueTime shows me I spent 8 hours on YouTube yesterday. Depressing. But it doesn't stop me.

The core problem is always the same: none of these tools understand how an ADHD brain actually works. They block. Or they track. Or they gamify. But none of them interrupt at the right moment.

What I built instead.

Sticky Alarm doesn't block anything. It interrupts. Open YouTube — alarm. Instantly. Not after ten minutes, not after "one video." Instantly. I can still watch. But I have to consciously decide, not autopilot. And that's the point: awareness before hyperfocus.

For apps like Claude or Reddit there are timers with cooldown. 15 minutes of Claude — alarm. But I can't close the app for two seconds and reopen it to reset the timer. The app has to stay closed for a full five minutes. I tried to outsmart my own system. It outsmarted me back.

Every 30 minutes: five-minute break. Automatic when the PC starts. I don't have to remember. It just locks. Stand up. Stretch. Drink water. I can snooze — but the dashboard shows me at the end of the day: snooze count 8. No punishment. Just facts.

No points. No badges. No trees. Just numbers that show me what I'm actually doing. I decide what to do with that.

Where it stands.

Sticky Alarm is in active development. The Windows version runs. The first Android version exists too. If you want it now, grab the code on GitHub and build it yourself. Otherwise, a bit of patience — download links are coming when it's ready.