DayZen: Visual day planner for ADHD brains
Hey HN, I've struggled with time-blindness my whole life. ADHD means I can write 14 tasks on a to-do list and genuinely believe I'll finish them before lunch. Reality disagrees at 11 PM when everything falls apart. DayZen is my solution: your day as a 24-hour radial clock. Tasks become colored arcs. When the circle fills up, it's full. No more lying to yourself about what actually fits. Just shipped 1.4 with Focus Mode The new version adds features I've wanted since day one: Focus Mode: Full-screen timer that zooms into your current task. Distractions fade, simple controls keep you on track.…
In plain words
DayZen is a visual day planner designed for people with ADHD and time-blindness. It displays tasks as colored arcs on a 24-hour radial clock, making it immediately clear when the day is full rather than allowing unrealistic task stacking. The app includes a Focus Mode that provides full-screen timers for individual tasks and integrates with iPhone's Lock Screen to show ongoing progress without requiring phone unlocks that invite distraction.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hey HN, I've struggled with time-blindness my whole life. ADHD means I can write 14 tasks on a to-do list and genuinely believe I'll finish them before lunch. Reality disagrees at 11 PM when everything falls apart. DayZen is my solution: your day as a 24-hour radial clock. Tasks become colored arcs. When the circle fills up, it's full. No more lying to yourself about what actually fits. Just shipped 1.4 with Focus Mode The new version adds features I've wanted since day one: Focus Mode: Full-screen timer that zooms into your current task. Distractions fade, simple controls keep you on track. Built it because I kept checking my phone to see "what's next" and losing 15 minutes to Reddit. Live Activities + Dynamic Island: Your active focus session shows on Lock Screen with time remaining and progress bar. Sounds simple, but it's been genuinely game-changing for staying aware without pulling out my phone. Insights: Added analytics (today/weekly/monthly/yearly) with streaks and category breakdowns. Turns out I spend 40% of my time on "Important but not urgent" which explains a lot. Time awareness improvements: Specifically designed for ADHD time blindness. Visual feedback makes abstract time concrete. Why a radial clock? Linear lists hide the finite nature of your day. They feel infinite, so you keep adding tasks. A circle forces honesty. Conflicts glow red immediately. You see gaps. You make the hard choices before the day starts, not at midnight when you're burned out. Technical details: Built native iOS with SwiftUI Two-way calendar sync (Google, Outlook, Apple) Local-first, iCloud sync between devices No account needed, no tracking, no ads Lock Screen widgets use WidgetKit with Live Activities API Recurring tasks auto-generate instances for next 30 days Privacy approach: Your schedule stays on your device. I don't collect, sell, or see your data. No analytics, no crash reporting, no server calls except calendar sync (which uses system auth). This was non-negotiable for me as both an ADHD person and someone who values privacy. Looking for feedback on: Does the radial approach click for you, or is it too different? Focus Mode UX: Does the minimalism help or is it too minimal? What other time-blindness features would help? Try it: https://www.dayzen.xyz/ Site:Happy to answer questions about the technical implementation or design decisions. Built the whole thing solo over the past year while working full-time, so there are definitely rough edges I'm still smoothing out.
More work this month
the category →
The app store for voice native apps that lives in your notch
Work · 28d ago · voiceos.com
The New Calendly▲211Handle all of the work before, during, and after meetings
Work · 17d ago · calendly.com
Launched alongside, January 2026
the whole month →- IN
Hey HN! I wanted to share something I built over the last few weeks: isometric.nyc is a massive isometric pixel art map of NYC, built with nano banana and coding agents. I didn't write a single line of code. Of course no-code doesn't mean no-engineering. This project took a lot more manual labor than I'd hoped! I wrote a deep dive on the workflow and some thoughts about the future of AI coding and creativity: http://cannoneyed.com/projects/isometric-nyc
AI · Jan 2026 · cannoneyed.com
Automatic AI-powered code reviews the moment you open a PR
Dev tools · Jan 2026 · kilo.ai
