For ADHD

Too much to read?

TLDR: MailSynth is an AI agent built on cutting-edge ADHD neuroscience—specifically, research showing that visual clutter physically degrades your brain's information processing, and that ADHD brains need folder structure but can't maintain it. Developed with ADHD coaches and psychologists, MailSynth automatically detects and applies the inbox structure you should have but couldn't build, no learning and hard work required. Plain English commands let you tune from there. Nothing is deleted, and important information is surfaced via summaries and digests. The result: inbox calm without the executive function tax.

Now here's the deep dive.

The neuroscience of inbox overwhelm

If you have ADHD, your inbox isn't "just email." It's a high-stakes environment that directly taxes your brain's weakest systems.

A 2024 study from Yale University, published in Neuron, found that visual clutter doesn't just distract you—it physically degrades information transmission between neurons in your visual cortex. When your peripheral vision is filled with competing stimuli (unread badges, promotional thumbnails, chat sidebars), the neural pathways that carry information become "noisy" and less efficient. Your brain has to work harder just to process the one email you're actually trying to read.

For the ADHD brain, this is catastrophic. Executive function—the set of cognitive processes that handle prioritization, task initiation, and impulse control—is already impaired. Now add an interface that actively degrades your neural processing before you even start making decisions.

Why every system you've tried has failed

You've probably tried folder systems, label hierarchies, "Inbox Zero" methods, and elaborate filters. They all worked for about two weeks. This isn't your fault, it's a fundamental mismatch between how these systems work and how ADHD brains operate.

The Piler vs. Filer problem

Research by Bergman and Whittaker on Personal Information Management found that people overwhelmingly prefer navigation (clicking through folders) over search (typing keywords) for retrieving personal information. Navigation uses recognition ("I know that folder"), which is cognitively cheap. Search uses recall ("What did I name that file?"), which is expensive, especially for ADHD brains with working memory deficits.

But here's the trap: creating and maintaining folders requires high executive function at the moment of filing. You have to make a categorization decision for every single email, right when it arrives, while you're already juggling other tasks.

So ADHD users become "Pilers": everything stays in the inbox because the cognitive cost of deciding where to put it is too high. The pile grows. Retrieval becomes impossible. Shame accumulates.

The paradox: Folders are the best way to find things, but filing is too hard to maintain. MailSynth exists to break this paradox.

The "out of sight, out of mind" fear

You've heard this called "object permanence," but that's technically inaccurate—adults with ADHD know archived emails still exist. The clinical issue is object constancy: the ability to maintain a mental representation of something you can't see. Without a visual cue, the ADHD brain's working memory "scratchpad" gets overwritten by whatever's in front of it right now.

This creates a genuine design tension:

• Too many visible emails → Visual clutter degrades neural efficiency (Yale study)

• Hiding emails via archive → Out of sight, out of mind; you forget to pay the bill

Any tool that just archives aggressively will fail you. The solution has to hide the noise while surfacing the signal.

How MailSynth solves this

MailSynth is a prosthetic environment for your inbox. Dr. Russell Barkley, a leading ADHD researcher, recommends building external systems that hold information outside your brain so you don't rely on willpower alone. That's what we do.

Natural language rules (not Boolean logic)

Standard Gmail filters require you to translate your intent ("I hate these emails") into abstract logical syntax ("IF sender contains X AND subject contains Y THEN move to Z"). This demands working memory and complex sequencing—exactly what ADHD brains struggle with.

MailSynth accepts plain English:

• "Stop showing me recruiter spam."

• "Summarize my newsletters in three sentences and let me know if AMD stock is mentioned."

• "Only highlight deals over 50% off."

This isn't just convenient, it's an accessibility feature. We lower the activation energy required to organize your inbox by meeting your brain where it actually works.

Auto-archive with summaries (not deletion)

MailSynth removes low-value emails from your main view, directly reducing the visual clutter that degrades your neural processing. But we don't just bury them—we transform them.

• Newsletters get summarized into a digest, so you get the information without the visual penalty

• Promotions get filtered, but ones matching your criteria ("deals over 50%") still surface

• Nothing is deleted—archived emails are always searchable and retrievable

This maintains object constancy (you know the information exists and can find it) without the object permanence trap (it's not cluttering your view and creating decision fatigue).

Guided label cleanup

If you've been using Gmail for years, you probably have 40+ labels you created with good intentions and never used again. MailSynth detects overlapping and duplicate labels and helps you merge them into a minimal, meaningful structure.

We encourage a tiny set of labels that actually map to how ADHD brains work: "Now," "This Week," "Later," "Archive." Fewer categories means fewer decisions every time you open Gmail.

Priority steering

The ADHD brain treats all unread bold text as equally urgent. MailSynth acts as an external executive function, pre-processing your inbox and highlighting only what you've defined as important.

This breaks the "doom scrolling" cycle. You get the reward (the message you care about) without sifting through noise. It converts the inbox from a variable reward slot machine into a predictable, filtered feed.

Trust and safety

ADHD is often comorbid with anxiety. We know you're worried about giving a third-party tool access to your email. Here's how we address that:

No permanent deletion

MailSynth archives, labels, and organizes. It never deletes unless you explicitly tell it to. Your emails aren't gone—they're just quiet.

Instant undo

Changed your mind on a label merge or archive rule? Revert it with one click. We don't make irreversible changes without your explicit consent.

Transparent logic

Unlike Gmail's opaque "Promotions" tab (which often hides important things unpredictably), MailSynth's rules are ones you wrote in plain English. You know exactly why something was archived because you told us to do it.

We're not going anywhere

We're bootstrapped, not VC-funded. We don't need to hit a hockey-stick growth curve or "pivot" when funding dries up. MailSynth is a sustainable business built for the long term.

How MailSynth compares

You have other options. Here's how we're different:

SaneBox learns from training—you drag emails into folders over weeks until it understands you. If you already know exactly what you hate ("Block all recruiters"), stating it in plain English is faster and less ambiguous.

Shortwave is excellent if you want to treat email as a to-do list and you want a new app, or if you're a business user. But converting an email into a task is still an executive function decision. MailSynth is for people who want the noise to stop, not another productivity system to maintain.

What a day with MailSynth looks like

ADHD resists rigid routines. MailSynth offers a rhythm instead.

Morning (5–10 minutes)

1. Open Gmail → see only priority messages

2. Check your digest for overnight summaries

3. Reply to what can't wait, snooze a couple things to afternoon

4. Archive the rest. Inbox zero for that view.

Midday (2–5 minutes)

Quick scan of priority view. No spelunking through promo hell to find the one important update.

End of day (5–10 minutes)

Final pass through priority messages. Close Gmail knowing you're not sitting on a disaster.

Because the system does the sorting, you spend energy on doing the work, not constantly reorganizing it.

The quiet part out loud

If you have 40,000+ unread emails, MailSynth is on your side.

You do not need to "earn" a clean inbox by manually processing all of them.

You need a tool that gives you a clean starting point and keeps it that way going forward. That's what we do.

Users who successfully adopt MailSynth report achieving "inbox calm"—a qualitative state that means lower cortisol, restored executive reserve, and the ability to open Gmail without dread. That's the metric we optimize for.

Important note

MailSynth doesn't diagnose or treat ADHD. It's not a replacement for medication, therapy, or coaching. What it can do is act as an external structure that supports your executive function—shielding your attention from digital chaos so you can follow the strategies that work for you.

Research cited

• Yale University (2024). "Visual clutter alters information flow in the brain." Neuron. news.yale.edu

• Bergman & Whittaker. The Science of Managing Our Digital Stuff. MIT Press.

• Barkley, R. "Intention Deficit Disorder." ADDitude Magazine. additudemag.com

• Kushlev et al. (University of Virginia). "Smartphone notifications increase inattention and hyperactivity symptoms."