Beginbeat
ADHD task initiation tool
$0.99 · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Beginbeat is a tiny tool for one of the hardest moments in an ADHD brain: actually starting the thing.
Task initiation is its own executive-function problem. You can plan, you can know what to do, you can even WANT to do it — and still sit there frozen, scrolling, dreading. Beginbeat is a single-purpose start ritual designed for that exact moment.
THE LOOP
Type the stuck task in one line: "Pay phone bill." "Reply to Mike." "Clean kitchen counter." Tap Begin. A 60-second countdown plays with a haptic ring on the screen and a Live Activity on your Lock Screen. Below the ring you see one short line — your "smallest first step" — generated on device by Apple's Foundation Models when your device supports it, or pulled from Beginbeat's built-in library when it doesn't. At 0:00 you feel a soft success burst. You can stop there, or tap a 2-, 5-, or 10-minute focus block to keep the wind in your sails. Beginbeat logs that you started, and tracks your day streak.
WHAT IT'S NOT
No body-doubling partner. No video. No social feed. No accounts. No leaderboards. No ads. No subscriptions. No cloud. No analytics. Nothing leaves your phone.
WHY 60 SECONDS
Long enough that you have time to put your phone down, sit up, and look at the next physical action. Short enough that "I'll just start the timer" is a real thought you can have. The countdown isn't a productivity ritual — it's a permission slip.
WHY THE MICRO-STEP
When initiation freezes you, "do the dishes" is too big. "Put one dish in the sink and turn on the water" isn't. Beginbeat asks Apple's on-device language model for one concrete, body-sized first action. If the model isn't available or isn't supported on your device, Beginbeat ships a hand-tuned library of fallback steps indexed to the verb in your task. The experience is identical to you either way.
LIVE ACTIVITY
When the countdown is running, a small Live Activity sits on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island so you can see the seconds tick down without unlocking. The Live Activity is updated locally on the device — Beginbeat does not connect to push servers and does not require any push entitlement. If your device doesn't support Live Activities, the in-app ring still runs.
SETTINGS YOU CAN TUNE
- Countdown length: 45, 60, or 90 seconds
- Haptic intensity: 0 to 100 percent
- Haptic ticks: on or off
- Micro-step style: first physical action / mindset reframe / surprise me
- Day rollover hour
- Erase all history
SIRI / SHORTCUTS
"Beginbeat pay phone bill." Siri opens the app with your task pre-filled and the timer ready.
PRIVACY
Nothing leaves your phone. No accounts. No tracking. No SDKs. UserDefaults JSON, capped at 30 days of started tasks, 500-task hard ceiling. Erase any time.
ONE TIME, $0.99. NO SUBSCRIPTION.
Buy it once. It works forever.
For the moments you can't start.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
This update sharpens the interface: the iPad layout now uses a centered, comfortable reading width instead of stretching edge to edge, so every screen reads as a clean column. iPhone is unchanged; still fully on-device.
The developer, Robert Corbin, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Robert Corbin
- Size
- 4.7 MB
- Category
- Productivity
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
9+
- 9+
- Contains
Health or Wellness Topics
- Copyright
- © 2026 Robert Corbin
