Goblin Tools Review for ADHD (2026): What It Does Well, Where It Falls Short

Item: Goblin Tools
Rating: 7.5
Author: Sean Z.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

What Is Goblin Tools?

Goblin Tools is a collection of free, AI-powered mini-tools created by developer Bram De Buyser. It was designed specifically for neurodivergent brains and went viral on TikTok and Reddit in 2023-2024. The suite includes:

Magic ToDo — Breaks large tasks into smaller steps (the flagship feature)
Formalizer — Rewrites your text in different tones (casual → professional)
Judge — Estimates the tone of a message
Estimator — Estimates how long a task will take
Compiler — Turns unstructured notes into organized lists
Chef — Suggests recipes from ingredients you have

The core appeal is simplicity: no signup, no configuration, no learning curve. You type something overwhelming, and Goblin Tools makes it less overwhelming.

What Goblin Tools Does Well

1. Magic ToDo Is Genuinely Brilliant (Rating: 9/10)

Magic ToDo is the reason Goblin Tools exists, and it earns its reputation. The "spiciness" slider — which controls how granular the breakdown is — is a stroke of genius.

At low spiciness, "Clean the kitchen" becomes 5 reasonable steps. At max spiciness, it becomes 15+ micro-steps like "Pick up the sponge" and "Turn on the hot water faucet." For someone deep in ADHD paralysis, that level of granularity can be the difference between staying frozen and actually moving.

What makes it special: It doesn't judge. It doesn't ask why you can't just "clean the kitchen." It meets you exactly where you are and breaks the wall into bricks.

2. Zero Friction (Rating: 10/10)

No account. No signup. No tutorial. You open the website and start typing. For ADHD brains, where every additional step is a potential dropout point, this is critical. Most productivity apps lose ADHD users during onboarding. Goblin Tools has no onboarding to lose you at.

3. The Formalizer Solves a Real ADHD Pain Point (Rating: 8/10)

ADHD often comes with emotional dysregulation. You receive an irritating email, and your first draft response is... not professional. The Formalizer takes your raw, emotional text and rewrites it in whatever tone you need. This is genuinely useful for workplace communication.

4. Completely Free on the Web (Rating: 9/10)

The web version is free with no usage limits. The mobile apps cost a few dollars (one-time purchase), which is remarkably fair pricing for the value delivered.

Where Goblin Tools Falls Short

1. It Stops at the Plan (Rating: 4/10 for Execution)

This is the fundamental limitation. Magic ToDo generates a beautiful list of steps and then... that's it. It hands you the list and walks away.

For many ADHD users, the list was never the problem. The problem is staring at the list and being unable to start item #1. Goblin Tools solves the "what should I do?" question but completely ignores the "why can't I start?" question.

There is no timer. No guided execution. No "show me one step at a time" mode. You get the full list, and you're on your own.

2. No Session Persistence (Rating: 3/10)

If you close the browser tab, your breakdown is gone. There is no history, no saved sessions, no way to return to a previous breakdown. For a tool designed for people with working memory deficits, this is a significant oversight.

You can manually copy the list elsewhere, but that adds friction — which is exactly what ADHD tools should be removing.

3. Generic AI Output (Rating: 5/10)

The breakdowns are generated by a general-purpose LLM. This means they're competent but generic. "Clean the kitchen" will always produce roughly the same steps regardless of your specific kitchen situation, your current energy level, or whether you're experiencing mild overwhelm or full shutdown.

There's no personalization, no context awareness, and no ability to say "I'm in a really bad executive dysfunction episode right now, make the steps even smaller."

4. No Mobile-First Experience (Rating: 5/10)

While the web app works on mobile browsers, it's not optimized for the phone-first reality of most ADHD users. The mobile apps exist but are basic wrappers. There's no widget, no quick-action shortcut, and no notification integration.

5. The Other Tools Are Nice but Niche (Rating: 6/10)

Chef, Judge, and Estimator are clever ideas, but they're supplements, not core tools. Most users open Goblin Tools exclusively for Magic ToDo and the Formalizer. The rest of the suite feels undercooked (pun intended).

Goblin Tools vs. Thawly: A Direct Comparison

Since both tools address ADHD task management, here's how they differ:

Dimension	Goblin Tools	Thawly
Core function	Breaks tasks into steps (planning)	Breaks tasks into steps AND walks you through them (execution)
After the breakdown	Hands you a list, you're on your own	Shows one step at a time with a 2-minute timer
Decision paralysis	Not addressed	Brain Dump picks a random task for you
Conversation mode	No	Coach Mode for unstructured problems
Session persistence	None (tab = gone)	Saved in your account
Price	Free (web) / ~$4 (apps)	Free (3/day) / $9/mo Pro
Best for	Quick planning, email rewriting	Guided execution, overcoming paralysis

The honest take: They solve different problems. If your bottleneck is "I don't know what the steps are," Goblin Tools is perfect and free. If your bottleneck is "I know the steps but can't start," you need Thawly or a similar execution tool. Many users (including me) use both.

Who Should Use Goblin Tools?

Perfect for you if:

You need quick, free task breakdowns with zero setup
Your primary struggle is making big tasks feel less scary
You use it as a starting point and have another system for execution
You need the Formalizer for work emails

Not ideal if:

Your main problem is task initiation, not task planning
You need guided, step-by-step execution with timers
You want session history and saved breakdowns
You need a tool that adapts to your current energy/mood level

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

Goblin Tools is a genuine gift to the ADHD community. It's free, frictionless, and solves a real problem. Magic ToDo alone justifies its existence, and the Formalizer is a hidden gem.

But it's a planning tool, not an execution tool. If you've been using Goblin Tools and still find yourself frozen after generating the list, the tool isn't failing you — it simply wasn't designed to solve the next part of the problem.

Consider pairing it with an execution-focused tool like Thawly to close the gap between "I have a plan" and "I'm actually doing it."

FAQ

Is Goblin Tools really free?

Yes. The web version at goblin.tools is completely free with no usage limits and no signup required. The iOS and Android apps are paid (~$3.99) but are one-time purchases, not subscriptions.

Is Goblin Tools safe and private?

Goblin Tools processes your text through AI models to generate breakdowns. As with any AI tool, avoid entering sensitive personal information. The tool does not require an account, so it collects minimal user data.

What is the "spiciness" slider in Magic ToDo?

It controls the granularity of the task breakdown. Low spiciness gives you 3-5 broad steps. High spiciness gives you 10-20 extremely detailed micro-steps. For deep ADHD paralysis, cranking the spiciness to maximum is often most helpful.

Sources

Barkley, R. A. (2012). Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved. Guilford Press.