A way to see what’s draining your brain (not just your to-do list)

From r/SomebodyMakeThis · originally by u/demierin · May 5, 2026

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’m surprised it doesn’t exist in a clean way yet. Most productivity tools track tasks. This would track mental load. The idea: You dump everything that’s in your head (tasks, worries, decisions, unfinished thoughts) and instead of a list, it turns into a visual “cognitive load map.” Not just what you need to do, but: \- what’s taking up the most cognitive weight \- what’s stuck / unclear \- what’s draining vs lightweight \- where your attention is fragmented So instead of asking: “what should I do next?” It answers: “what is actually weighing on me right now?” I think the unlock is making something invisible (mental load) visible in a way that’s instantly understandable. This feels especially relevant for: \- people juggling a lot (work + life) \- founders \- neurodivergent brains \- anyone who feels constantly “full” but can’t pinpoint why The MVP could be super simple: \- brain dump input \- basic categorisation/clustering \- visual map (even just nodes or weight sizing) Not trying to overcomplicate it, just enough to see if that moment of clarity hits. Curious if anyone would actually build something like this or if you’ve seen anything close?

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u/Fantastic_Emu_3112on 13d ago

Without the emotional data associated with the brain dump, this will never work because doing dishes weighs differently on people's minds. I worked on something similar and a partnership with whoop or oura would have to measure the physiological response as a proxy for cognitive load

u/StackedMorningson 11d ago

the closest thing i found to this was sitting down once a week and writing every open loop on paper. one column for tasks, one for unfinished decisions, one for things i was avoiding. avoidance bucket was always heaviest. it never showed up on a to do list because i had never agreed to do it, but it was eating cycles in the background. an app that forced you to name avoidance separately would help.