Search for the best task app for ADHD and you get endless lists ranking apps by features, integrations, and theme options. None of that predicts whether you will still be using the app in a month. The thing that decides that is friction, and most feature comparisons ignore it entirely.
If you have abandoned five task apps, the apps were not the problem and neither were you. The mismatch was. So here is what actually matters when you choose, in rough order of importance.
Capture speed beats feature count
The single most important property is how fast you can get a thought out of your head and into the app before it evaporates. If capturing a task means choosing a project, a priority, and three tags first, you will stop capturing on the exact busy days you most need to. Look for an app where capture is one step and everything else is optional and can be added later.
Be suspicious of any app that makes you organize before you are allowed to use it. Setup energy is the most expensive energy you have, and an elaborate system you build on a motivated Sunday tends to collapse by the following Thursday.
Context and resurfacing, not folders
The second thing to look for is whether the app holds context. When a task comes back to you, "call them" with no idea who or why is useless. An app that lets a task carry the person, the customer, the meeting, the notes, and its own history means future-you opens it and immediately knows what is going on.
The third, and the one most tools miss, is whether the app reaches back out to you. A list that waits silently still depends on you remembering to look. The whole point of an external memory is to not have to remember to check it, so the app should resurface the right things at the right time on its own.
So the short version: pick for capture speed, rich optional context, and resurfacing. The prettiest feature list is irrelevant if you stop opening the app.
ADHD Notes is built around those three things on purpose. Try it free.