Chris Messina

Late No More — Never be late again, built by a team with ADHD

59
Being late sucks. Most calendar apps don't give notifications that stand out to ADHD brains. Late No More gives notifications that escalate in intensity as it gets closer to the start time. If you ignore the popups, you'll get verbal alerts (or a song).

Add a comment

Replies
Best
Jeremy Nagel
I built Late No More because being late for meetings was becoming very problematic for me (I got fired from a job because of it). I have ADHD and it’s way too easy for me to see a notification for a calendar appointment, space out and then forget about the meeting for five minutes. Sometimes I hit Dismiss instead of Snooze and never show up to the meeting at all. My experience is that most calendar apps aren’t built for an ADHD brain like mine. I decided to build a Mac app that would help me and hopefully other people show up on time. Late-No-More gives you notifications that make sense. A notification 15 minutes before to remind you to prepare: this one is easy to dismiss A notification 2 minutes before to remind you to actually join the dang meeting - this one is not easy to dismiss ‍ As the time gets closer to the meeting, the notification gets more and more obnoxious. It changes colour and starts playing annoying motivating sound effects. The goal is to get you to join the meeting 2 minutes early. Once you’re in the meeting, the app asks you to set an intention - what do you want to learn/share during this meeting? I’ve gotta admit that not only am I frequently late for meetings, I’m also frequently multitasking/distracting. Reflecting on it, what’s the point of showing up for the meeting if I’m not going to be there mentally as well? I’ve started declining invites to irrelevant meetings with 50 people in them. If the purpose of the meeting is for me to absorb information, I’d rather listen back to the recording at 2x speed. ‍For the meetings that I do choose to attend, I want to give them my full attention: camera on, no other apps, listening intently. That’s really hard for my brain but it’s not impossible. It starts with aligning my motivation: why do I want to show up for the meeting? Hopefully it’s an engaging meeting. If not, that’s ok - I can treat it as an opportunity to train my focus muscle and use the tactics that work for me - clearing distractions from my desk, taking notes and sometimes playing with a fidget toy if I need to (“Busy hands, quiet mind” right?).
Mallory Musallam
@jeremy_nazgul my maan. This sounds awesome. I love that the adhd community is getting more and more love.
Paul Pamfil
Hah, why didn't I had this earlier, this is looking very promising. Congrats!
Jeremy Nagel
@paul_pamfil @fam_socialfinance lol yeah this was meant to launch three months ago 😅
Gabriel Nori
Congrats on the product launch! 🎉 This is such an incredible app and I'm sure it’s going to be life-changing for so many people who have trouble being on time. I'm curious to know how it has worked for others -- could you share any success stories or use cases? 🤔 Fantastic work and best of luck with Late No More! 💪
Jeremy Nagel
@gabriel_nori thanks :) It's definitely made a big difference to me personally - I've been 2 minutes early for most of my meetings as a result of using it. I'm hoping one of our alpha testers will jump in and share their experience too.
Michael Kimpton
@gabriel_nori I have a terrible habit of being late for meetings. My team mates would often joke about it saying he'll be here in 5 mins we'll kick off without him. I was using other tools like Slacks office calendar integration and setting up reminders on outlook, but they are passive and hide away in the background. I started using Late No More and it forces me to wrap up what I'm doing on time, that could be coding, speaking to another team member, making a cup of coffee whatever. I'm no longer the punch line in the joke and I'm making my meetings on time.
Ivano Aquilano
Hey, congrats on the launch! 🎉 I actually have a minor ADHD and once I'm fully engaged in something, it becomes quite challenging for me to transition back to reality. :) What strategies or plans do you have in mind to address and enhance the app in the future?
Jeremy Nagel
@ivano_aquilano thanks same here. Time blindness is a problem for me! For Late No More, we'll probably do a mobile app + potentially watch apps in the future. You might be interested in the other product we're building too: focusbear.io which has pomodoro mode + distraction blocking.
Made Savitra, M.D
Definitely looking forward for the Android mobile adaptation of this App! Such a great initiative behind it, as someone with ADHD myself I needed something like this
Jeremy Nagel
@madesavitra cool hopefully we'll be able to get a mobile version working soon :)
Vlad Golub
As an ADHD individual, I find this super helpful. It would be cool if Late No More could suggest the best travel routes to your appointments, taking into account traffic and public transport schedules.
Jeremy Nagel
@realvladgolub this makes a lot of sense. I'll look at how we can incorporate this in the next version.
Nuno Reis
Oh wow this seems quite interesting! I can imagine some people would be annoyed, but here's the good thing. You didn't build this for everyone, you buiilt it for those who need it, and that is amazing! Congrats on the launch! :D
Jeremy Nagel
@nuno_ms_reis haha true. It's annoying if you don't have a problem with being punctual and helpful if you do.
Nacho Franchini
This is useful. I am always hitting the dismiss button on my calendars. Any windows version coming soon? +1 for the bear logo +1 for the video
Jeremy Nagel
@ifranchini yeah planning to do windows soon
Rana Phool
Wow! Late No More looks like a great way to stay on top of appointments and events!
Peyt Spencer Dewar
Congrats on launching! Saw a previous iteration was in beta for iOS. What's the status?
Jeremy Nagel
@psd Late No More is only on Mac right now. Our other product, Focus Bear (distraction blocker + morning routines), is cross platform - still beta on iOS though (hopefully it will get approved by Apple soon so we can get off TestFlight).
Amartya Singh
Another great launch Jeremy, 🙌 !!!
Vlad Zivkovic
Nice idea. Congratulations on your launch! 🚀
Max T.Pham
Loved the intro, Jeremy, it genuinely made me laugh! Congrats on launching Late No More, an innovative solution for those of us prone to distraction. Keep up the inspiring work!
Jeremy Nagel
@maxtpham hehe thanks I had fun recording the video with my friend
Yash
Interesting concept, all the best!
Ryan Hoover
Lol, this video. Somewhat related: I add a separate calendar event when I need to travel to a meeting to block off and remind myself when to leave.
Jeremy Nagel
@rrhoover yeah that's key for me too. Maybe in the future we can add support for calculating travel time automatically.
Kavita
I love everything about this. A solid example of a really thoughtful product idea and design which has been well executed. Congratulations to you and your team!
Alina Panaite
Good luck with the launch, team! <3
orliesaurus
I love it, I am definitely in the audience for this. Curious, how did you find building a desktop app and what was your experience testing it to find bugs?
Jeremy Nagel
@orliesaurus we've been building other desktop apps (focusbear.io - distraction blocking) so had some experience there. For testing, I used it myself for 2 months to iron out bugs.
Brittany Joiner {Britt the Builder}
I was looking at this and thought- hey wait that looks like focus bear!! is this separate from focus bear, or do i just need to update? I love the 15 minute and 2 minute reminder - because i always forget within 10 minutes 😂
Jeremy Nagel
@britt_joiner lol yup complementary. We built this so we can do calendar integration with Focus Bear. If you install Late No More, you can trigger activities in Focus Bear at certain times by including fbtrigger:{activity_name} in the event description. (We'll make it easier to set it up later)
Carlos Alberto Dominguez
I started reading the description and then lost focus, (navigated to other things) … came across the article a second time in inbox and downloaded app 😂… need to get it together.
Jeremy Nagel
@carlos_alberto_dominguez haha story of my life. I've set up a tab limit in Focus Bear (max 10 tabs) to reduce the potential for this.