Hey there, everyone.
I'm Maya, 34, single mom to a wonderfully chaotic 7-year-old who thinks bedtime is just a suggestion. Most days I'm juggling school pickups, endless snack demands, a part-time job that pays the bills (barely), and that constant low-key panic of "am I forgetting something important again?" You know the feeling, right? Like your brain is a browser with 47 tabs open and half of them are about to crash.
After one too many nights where I sat on the couch exhausted, staring at a list of unfinished stuff from three days ago, I hit my breaking point. I thought, if no app is going to work for someone like me, someone who's tired, easily overwhelmed, and really bad at rigid systems.. then maybe I have to make one myself.
And right in the middle of it all is my ADHD. I only got the official diagnosis a couple years ago, but looking back, it's been there my whole life. For so long I thought the problem was me. I thought I was lazy. Unmotivated. Careless. Weak. Everyone around me seemed to just... do things. Make plans and stick to them. Finish what they started. Keep the house from looking like a tornado hit. And I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how many pep talks I gave myself in the mirror, I kept falling short.
But it wasn't laziness. It was never laziness.
It was ADHD stealing the starter button from my brain. It was executive dysfunction turning "I'll do it in five minutes" into three days of avoidance and self-hate. It was time blindness making entire afternoons evaporate while I stared at the same email draft. It was hyperfocus hijacking me into deep-cleaning the fridge at 11 p.m. instead of sleeping or paying the electric bill that was due yesterday.
That's why I built Pala. Not to fix me overnight. Not to make me "normal." But to give my ADHD brain the gentle outside structure it desperately needs so I can stop missing so many of those Lego moments, those bedtime stories, those ordinary Tuesday hugs. So I can be the mom who's actually there more often, even when my wiring fights me every step.
Pala isn't some fancy enterprise tool with a million features I'll never use. It's the planner I needed when life felt like it was happening to me instead of with me.
What makes Pala different (at least for me)
The circle clock thing that actually changed my mornings :
Instead of a boring vertical list or those stiff hourly calendar blocks, Pala shows your whole day as a gentle 24-hour circle... like a clock, but friendlier. You open the app and boom: there's your day laid out visually. Morning routine in soft blue, work blocks in green, kid pickup in orange, free pockets in white so you can breathe. If two things overlap, it shows you gently without making you feel like a failure. I can glance at it while making breakfast and instantly know if I'm trying to cram too much into Tuesday afternoon.
Talking to it like I talk to my best friend :
The part I'm most proud of: you just type (or voice-dictate while driving) whatever is swirling in your head. "I have to finish that work report by Thursday, gym at 5 if it doesn't rain, call my mom because I keep forgetting, and maybe squeeze in grocery shopping after school drop-off." Or even "Make this weekend mostly healthy but with movie night because we both need it." Pala's AI reads it, figures out reasonable times, checks your existing stuff so you don't double-book, and drops everything onto the circle. I review it, drag something if it feels off, and that's it. No more fighting the app. It finally feels like the app is helping me, not the other way around.
The dashboard that catches what I drop:
There's this home screen that mixes the circle with a smart list of anything urgent, missed, or coming up. Nothing hides in sub-menus. If I miss something (which happens weekly), I just tap a button and ask "Hey, can you fit my missed stuff into today?" and it rearranges without making everything explode.
Weather that actually matters:
It pulls real weather so when I'm planning, I see little rain icons or sunny backgrounds. No more scheduling that park playdate on the one rainy day of the week. Small thing, huge relief. Yes, the wallpaper behind the calendar comes from your own city :)
Focus mode for when my brain wants to run away:
Full-screen timer, no notifications, just me and the task. It tracks how long I actually sat still and worked. On good days it feels like a tiny win; on bad days it at least reminds me I tried.
And little insights so I don't feel stuck :
It shows me trends over weeks: completion rates, how much focused time I actually get, patterns like "I always crash after 3 PM on Wednesdays." Seeing progress—even tiny—keeps me going when everything else feels hard.
Right now Pala speaks English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese (translations are a work in progress, but I wanted it to feel welcoming to more people from the start).
The honest part:
I’m just one person, no team, no fancy office, no marketing person telling me what to do. A lot of nights I wonder if I’m even good enough at this. But hearing from you guys, seeing your names in the credits page I quietly added inside the app (check the last screenshot)… it keeps me going.. That credits page will stay forever in the app... Even if this ends up being just another forgotten productivity app, your names will still be there because you helped make it real. If I missed you and you want you want your name there (or out), just say so. I’ll add/remove you with the biggest smile/tear. You can join our community too, and lemme know if you wanna become mod, https://www.reddit.com/r/palamy/
Lastly, I am not an expert.. I spent $250 on running ads that basically did nothing. Now I do not have budget to market this app.. I’m at the point where I’m just hoping maybe a handful more people will try it, maybe like it, maybe tell a friend.. That’s it... I don’t have marketing money but I have you guys..
If you’re curious, the FOUNDERS lifetime coupon is still open (where you will get the lifetime access at 6-month price for life). Comment “FOUNDERS” and I’ll send you a code privately..
But please don’t feel like you have to buy anything. If you download it, use it for five minutes and think “eh, not for me,” that’s okay. If you love it and feel like leaving a sweet 5-start review, that would help more than you know. If you can’t do either, just keep talking to me here. Your words literally keep this alive..
And if none of that works for you… just know you've already made my day by reading this far.. Smile for me. And go make someone else smile today too, okay? That's the only non-negotiable part 😊
Thank you for reading all this.. Thank you for being patient with me. Thank you for being you..
Really, truly, from the softest part of me.. thank you.
Big hugs,
Here is the app link : https://apps.apple.com/in/app/pal%C4%81-productivity-planner/id6757365033
Website : https://pala.my
Maya ジ
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