Fish Bowl

Body doubles, timers, no guilt. A task picker for brains that freeze on getting started.

Fish Bowl was built by someone with ADHD and executive dysfunction, for the days when the list is right there and nothing moves. Every task is a paper slip in a cartoon fish bowl. You don't choose what to do next. The bowl picks one, and the only decision left is small: poke at it for five minutes, catch it, or put it back.

Putting it back is fine. There is no penalty, no streak to lose, no red badge, no overdue state, and no fish that gets sad because you had a bad week.

See it in 30 seconds

Toss a slip in, let the bowl pick one, start a timer, catch it, and spend the points on a fish. Tap to play; it has sound.

The bowl with slips swimming in it — Your slips, in the bowl. Tap Pull me a slip and it chooses.

A drawn slip with the minutes chooser — One slip, a few minutes, and the choice to put it back.

The timer running with Gil beside it — Work until it dings. Gil stays with you.

A caught card after finishing a task — Done is done. The card is yours to keep or share.

Fish and rewards shelves — Catches earn fish, outfits and decorations.

Two techniques that actually work, built in

Body doubling

Working next to someone makes starting easier, even when they're not helping. Gil the goldfish is your body double: he's on screen while you work, he talks you through the first move, and "Tell someone I'm starting" sends a one-line check-in to a real person who can ask how it went. No video, no strangers, no calls.

Short timers

A five-minute timer with a clear deal: work until it dings, then you're free. If you're in the zone, it just keeps counting. Breaks have their own timer. Starting earns a point before any work happens, because starting is the hard part.

How it works

The bowl chooses

Tap Pull me a slip and the bowl draws one. Deciding what to do first is the hard part, so the bowl does it.

When you're stuck

Help me start gives you ten ways in: go stand where the task lives, play one song, shrink it to the tiniest first step, do the bad version first. Say "I'm stuck in Fish Bowl" to Siri and it reads one aloud.

The bowl is small on purpose

It holds about seven slips and two whale-sized projects. When it's full, the app stops you and says why. Ideas that don't fit go in the Someday net, which is never drawn. Break a big task into steps, chain tasks that go together, and park what you're waiting on someone else for.

A week at a time

Each week is a season. On Sunday you look at what you caught, carry the rest forward, and the album keeps a picture of your bowl. The fish are lively after a catch and asleep late at night. They are never hungry, sad or dying because you didn't open the app.

Share a bowl with your household

An aquarium is a bowl two people fish from together, over iCloud, by invitation only. Either of you can toss a slip in or catch one, and both phones see it within seconds.

This season: The Harvest Bowl

The Thanksgiving shelf, open Nov 1 to Dec 7: three new fish, three things for the gravel, three outfits and the Harvest look. The cornucopia is free for everyone. The rest is Fish Bowl Plus, bought with points you've earned, and whatever you bring home stays for good. The shelf comes back next year.

Honest pricing

The whole app is free, for one person, for good: the bowl, the timer, body doubling, Siri, the weekly album, and fish and decorations to earn. Fish Bowl Plus is a single $2.99 purchase for the extra fish, outfits, bowl looks and shared aquariums, and it's one purchase for the whole family: once one person in your Family Sharing group buys it, everyone in the family has it on their own phone. No subscription. No account. Nothing collected.

Fish Bowl is for iPhone. Everything stays on your phone unless you share an aquarium. Privacy policy · Support