Version 3 of Set landed across three releases this summer (3.0, 3.1, and 3.2), and looking back at the run, there’s a clear theme. Almost everything we shipped attacks one of the three classic ADHD failure points: starting, staying, and stopping.

Here’s the tour, and why each feature is shaped the way it is.

Staying: Focus Mode

ADHD attention isn’t weak, it’s undirected. A busy screen is a menu of exits. Focus Mode (3.1) strips the Today view down to just your tasks and their start times: no overview, no toolbar, no date strip, no tab bar, no metadata. Rows even go read-only so a stray tap can’t open an editor.

Tap the Today tab again and everything but the work disappears. Your estimated finish time waits quietly at the bottom: the one number worth keeping.

Stopping: the Overdue Alarm

Hyperfocus is the flip side of distraction, and it doesn’t respect estimates. A single chime when your time is up is easy to not-hear; by the time you surface, the afternoon is gone.

The new Overdue Alarm (3.2) is optional nagging, and we mean nagging as a compliment. Once a running task passes its estimate, the timer alarm sounds again at an interval you choose, every 1 to 30 minutes, until you either complete the task or pause the timer. Leave the app and notifications take over.

It’s off by default. But if time disappears on you, turn it on under Settings → Timer and let the app be the annoying friend your internal clock never was. It works beautifully with Set’s overtime counting, where the timer runs into red negative time instead of stopping at zero. The deadline stays alive.

Starting: Sort Mode

An unsorted inbox of forty tasks is an executive-function tax you pay every time you open the app. Sorting it the normal way means opening each task, making four decisions across four pickers, closing it, and losing steam by task six.

Sort Mode (3.2) restructures that job the ADHD-friendly way: one screen, one decision, big tap targets, nothing else visible. Pick what you want to set (project, stage, priority, duration, date) and Set walks you through your tasks one at a time. Or flip it to topic by topic: set durations for every task in a row, then priorities, and so on. A counter shows progress, Skip and Back forgive mistakes, and tapping a task’s name mid-sort completes or deletes it on the spot.

Forty tasks becomes about ninety seconds of tapping. The trick isn’t discipline. It’s that each decision was made small enough to be automatic.

There’s a matching upgrade for capture: the + button now drags. Pull it into your list and a dotted line shows exactly where the new task will land: between two tasks in Today, into a specific project stage, or onto a project card. The idea goes in where it belongs, not into a pile you’ll have to sort later.

Guarding the whole thing: the App Blocker

Willpower is a terrible API. The App Blocker (3.0, iPhone & iPad) shields distracting apps with Screen Time while your task timer runs, or, in its strictest schedule, until every task in Today is done. Finishing your day is what unlocks your phone.

Turning it off mid-session requires typing a short focus sentence. A tap is easy; typing gives the impulse three seconds to die, which is usually all it needs.

And the rest of version 3

  • Scan Tasks from Image (3.0, Pro): photograph a handwritten list or whiteboard and Set turns it into scheduled tasks, reading “10.15 - Jogging” and “(30 min)” like a human would.
  • AI notes rewriting (3.0, Pro): messy note in, structured checklist out, all on-device.
  • Quick-add bar on Mac (3.1): type, Return, repeat. Durations and dates parsed as you type.
  • iCloud sync overhaul (3.0): duplicates gone, deletions stick, order preserved.
  • Plus swipe-to-log completed tasks, an auto-simplifying timer, quick delete, and a pile of small polish.

The full list lives on the changelog, and every feature has a proper page in the documentation.

Try the idea before the app

The core of Set (tasks with time estimates, a visible finish time, a timer that counts overtime) works even in a browser tab. We built a free online task manager and timer so you can feel the difference in the next ten minutes, no download, no account.

And when you want the full system: Set is on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with a version 3 celebration discount on Set Pro until July 30.