A desktop app designed with ADHD minds in mind
Murmur is a Windows app for the moment a thought slips away, or another one barges in. It keeps the thought you’re on in a small floating note and gives the others somewhere to wait. You don’t need a diagnosis to use it.
Free for 14 days · No account · No card
If some of this sounds familiar
- You switch to another window to do something, and when you get there, it’s gone.
- A good idea turns up mid-sentence. You can’t put it down, and you can’t keep going.
- You’ve set up a system before. It was great for about two weeks.
- You look up and it’s 4pm, and you couldn’t say where the day went.
Murmur was built around moments like these.
What Murmur does at those moments
| The moment | What Murmur does |
|---|---|
| You lose the thread | The thought is still on the note, floating above your other windows |
| Another thought arrives | Ctrl+Shift+Space, type, Enter. It goes to Thoughts, and your note stays as it is |
| You want to switch | Click a thought, and it swaps places with what’s on the note |
| You need a break | The coffee cup starts a break. That time doesn’t count, and nothing asks you to explain it |
| You wonder where the time went | History shows which thoughts you were on and which apps you used. It describes the day and doesn’t grade it |
What we left out on purpose
- Streaks, points and levels. Miss a day and nothing resets, because there’s nothing to reset.
- Lists, priorities and due dates. Nothing turns red or goes overdue.
- Setup. Install it and write a thought. The short guide can be skipped.
- Nagging. Murmur doesn’t send reminders today. There’s no live timer on the note, either: time only shows up when you choose to look back in History.
Why it’s built this way
These studies shaped what we left out. Only the first one looked at ADHD, and none of them is evidence that Murmur works.
Staying is the hard part. In a seven-week open study of one mobile app for adults with ADHD, about 54% of the people who signed up dropped out before the final assessment, most of them in the first two weeks. The authors note this isn’t unusual for apps, and those who stayed rated the app well.1 So Murmur asks for as little setup and upkeep as we can manage.
Counts can cost enjoyment. Across six experiments, showing people a count of what they’d done tended to make them do more and enjoy it less.2 So there’s no counter on your screen.
Points don’t build motivation. In a study of 273 people, points, levels and leaderboards raised how much people produced, without improving the quality of the work or their intrinsic motivation.3 So there’s nothing to earn.
- Knouse LE, Hu X, Sachs G, Isaacs S. Usability and feasibility of a cognitive-behavioral mobile app for ADHD in adults. PLOS Digital Health, 2022. doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000083
- Etkin J. The hidden cost of personal quantification. Journal of Consumer Research, 2016. doi:10.1093/jcr/ucv095
- Mekler ED, Brühlmann F, Tuch AN, Opwis K. Towards understanding the effects of individual gamification elements on intrinsic motivation and performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 2017. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.048
What Murmur isn’t
Murmur hasn’t been clinically studied, and we don’t claim it improves ADHD symptoms. It doesn’t diagnose or treat anything, and it isn’t a substitute for a clinician, medication or therapy.
It’s a small tool that may or may not suit you. That’s what the 14-day trial is for.
Free for 14 days · No account · No card
Questions
Do I need an ADHD diagnosis to use Murmur?
No. Anyone can use it, whether you’re diagnosed, wondering, or neither.
Does Murmur help with ADHD?
We don’t know whether it will help you. Murmur hasn’t been clinically studied. It’s designed around things people with ADHD often run into, and you can try it free for 14 days to see how it fits.
Can Murmur replace ADHD medication or therapy?
No. Murmur isn’t a medical product. If you have questions about ADHD care, a clinician is the right person to ask.