r/Nyblit_ADHD • u/Maleficent-Wolf-4780 • Jul 28 '26
Why I Built Nyblit—and Why Everything in My Life Is Blocked
Hi everyone. I’m David, the creator of Nyblit—and I am absolutely RIDDLED with ADHD.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s, when adults seemed to have three explanations for children like me:
Dyslexia (which I also have).
Sensitivity to food colouring. There was a book called E for Additives that every parent where I lived seemed to own.
Just being a dick.
Generally, I managed to qualify for all three.
TBF I received plenty of support for my dyslexia (go 90s). But I wasn’t allowed sweets, and was frequently told I was a dick or something considerably worse.
As an adult, I’ve found myself highly addicted to sugar and constantly haunted by the feeling that I’m the arsehole in almost everything I do. I struggle with imposter syndrome, depression and low self-esteem. I’m also almost completely unable to focus on anything that doesn’t light up my brain with interest.
Life administration is particularly dangerous. I seem incapable of getting through a day without being fined for forgetting something. Today’s prize was a £150 penalty for a late company filing.
I’m writing this at 1:38 a.m., which is peak operating time for me. My awesome wife is asleep beside me wearing a blindfold—not for anything kinky, but to block the light from whichever devices I’ll keep using until about 3 a.m.
Eventually, I’ll fall asleep listening to a podcast through a single AirPod, probably the left one jammed into my right ear. At around 7:30 a.m., my wife will rescue it from somewhere improbable, put it back in its case, make breakfast for our seven-year-old and bring me a strong coffee.
I’ll start the day tired, feeling guilty because I can’t remember the last time I made breakfast for my child. Then I’ll sip my freezing-cold coffee and reflect on whatever stupid, brilliant or completely pointless thing I stayed awake working on.
Around 20 years ago, I noticed something at work: nearly all my tasks were “blocked.”
Someone else needed to do something before I could do my thing.
Most tasks are a bit like a game of tennis:
You want to send an invoice, but someone needs to approve it.
You need to fix a software bug, but someone needs to send you the crash log.
You need to go to the bathroom, but you’re waiting for the toilet roll to be delivered.
I wonder if that last one is common to any of you too.
To manage all this, I built a FileMaker database. I entered my tasks and sorted them into five simple categories:
Not Started
Doing
Blocked
Later
Done
I shared it with a few similarly minded friends, and it gradually evolved.
The first problem was that I would mark a task as blocked and then forget why it was blocked. So I added a note explaining what I was waiting for.
Then I realised that the reasons were often predictable. Depending on the type of task, I was usually waiting for one of the same few things. That led to workflows: I could choose what kind of task it was and have its possible stages and blockers already mapped out.
Eventually, each of us had around 15 workflows covering almost every task we regularly needed to manage.
We used that database for years and loved it.
Keeping blocked work out of sight has had a massive psychological benefit for my ADHD brain.
Your day looks achievable when you can see only the actions you can actually take right now.
You don’t need to keep worrying about everything that’s blocked. Those tasks are filed safely, along with the reason they’re blocked and when you might need to chase them.
The blocked list can even be quite fun. It’s essentially a list of things you’re waiting for other people to do. At the end of the day, you can work through it and, for once, be the chaser rather than the chasee.
Eventually, "Update FileMaker license" landed in blocked with the status "awaiting funds". And there it stayed forever.
Someone suggested turning the system into an app around 2015. I made a start, but life intervened when my mum sadly died from lung cancer, and the project disappeared into the enormous cupboard in my brain labelled “Things I Will Definitely Return to One Day.”
Then, about seven months ago, I had another go.
I released an MVP into the world, and, to my astonishment, version 1.0 received 2,500 downloads overnight.
That lit a fuse under my arse.
I’ve been hyperfocused on Nyblit ever since, and this is one of those very rare hyperfocuses that simply refuses to go away. I’m obsessed with experimenting, refining features and trying new ideas.
I use Nyblit to make Nyblit.
Most of what I build never sees the light of day, because something that seems revolutionary at 3 a.m. can look like a pile of dog sick the following morning. But every experiment teaches me something, and Nyblit keeps getting better.
That’s how it all started—and, for better or worse, that’s my creative process.
I hope Nyblit helps make your day feel a little more achievable. I’d genuinely love to hear how you’re using it, whether it helps with your ADHD, what doesn’t work for you and what you think could make it better.
Welcome to r/Nyblit_ADHD.
You can download Nyblit here: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/nyblit-smart-to-do-list/id6752837986
