For people who lose track and need a way back
You lost track.You do not have to start over.
Practical tools for ADHD minds and overwhelmed adults to restart routines, tasks and momentum without shame.
Start with the free Restart Card below. In about five minutes you leave with a one-page plan: what matters now, what can wait, and your next action. No sign-up.
By Theodora Velli, author of When You Lose Track and creator of the Built to Restart Method.
The real problem
It is not starting. It is returning.
- You opened the planner after two weeks and closed it again.
- The task would take ten minutes. Starting it has taken nine days.
- Every system you build works until the week it does not.
When a routine disappears, the task is rarely the only thing waiting. There is backlog, lost context, shame and the pressure to restart perfectly. The book calls that bundle the comeback tax. A good system lowers it before the interruption happens.
Read about the comeback taxThe Built to Restart Method
A system is not finished until it includes the way back.
Every system that matters gets three gears. They are operating modes, not grades.
How are you operating today?
Not a test, a score or a diagnosis. It picks the right-sized tool.
Low Power
Protect what matters.
The smallest version that still protects the most important outcome and reduces tomorrow's damage.
You are here when
You can do one defined action at a time, but open-ended work or many choices cause stalling.
Example from the book
Open the account, read the balance out loud, scan only what is due in the next seven days. Ninety seconds.
Write your minimum dayUse it now
Something useful in the next five minutes.
- Restart CardSeven steps to a state you can trust: facts, the nearest expensive consequence, up to three rescue actions, a stop rule and a note for tomorrow.5 min · free
- 30-Day BuildBuild and test one system you can return to. Leave for twelve days and it welcomes you back, with nothing to repay.30 days · free
- WorksheetsThree-Gear Builder, Minimum Day, One Capture Door, Friction audit and more, each from a chapter of the book.8 tools · free
No account. Everything you type stays on this device.
The book
When You Lose Track
A Practical ADHD Guide to Restarting Routines, Tasks, and Momentum Without Shame.
Your system should survive the week you stop using it.
- 28
- chapters in four parts
- A to D
- evidence label on every claim
- 1
- page Restart Card to keep
Click or drag to turn the bookTap or drag to turn the book
Reliability is not never leaving. Reliability is having a known way back.
The 30-Day Build
Small steps.
A bigger way back.
One month, one system, tested on real weeks. Missed days are data, not debt.
Start the 30-Day BuildDays 1 to 7
Stabilize
Make the current situation safe enough to see.
Days 8 to 14
Externalize
Move the work out of memory.
Days 15 to 21
Engineer friction
Make the useful action easier to begin.
Days 22 to 28
Make it restartable
Add Full Power, Low Power and Restart, then test them.
Days 29 and 30
Decide what survives
Keep only what earns its maintenance.
Start reading
All guidesRoutines
Your ADHD routine stopped working. Do this instead of starting overWhen a routine breaks, the fix is rarely a new one. Find the missing gear, build a smaller version, and add a way back before the next bad week.
Planning
Why ADHD planners work for two weeks and then disappearPlanners often fail because they have one gear: the full routine or nothing. Learn the three-gear design that gives a planner a small version and a way back.
Starting tasks
ADHD task paralysis: make the first action smaller than the taskWhen a small task feels impossible to start, the start is the problem. Learn to expose hidden steps and use a two-minute contact action with a real stop rule.
Overwhelm
What to do when everything feels urgent with ADHDWhen every item feels urgent, ask what gets more expensive in the next 24 hours, then apply a fixed rescue order. A way to choose one action and stop.
Honest about what is proven, and what is not.
Every claim in the book carries an evidence label, from established to personal experiment. The Built to Restart tools are an original practical synthesis. They are not a treatment for ADHD, and they have not been clinically validated as a package.
How this work uses evidenceRestart Notes
One useful idea for finding your way back.
No streak required.
Your system should survive the week you stop using it.
Buy the book