deepstint vs Goblin Tools: An Honest Comparison

Goblin Tools and deepstint both show up when someone searches for ADHD and starting. They solve different minutes of the same stuck morning. Goblin Tools turns a vague task into a list of smaller ones. deepstint turns a task, even a still-vague one, into a running stint and a record. One is a decomposer. The other is a timer with a close-the-loop day.

What Goblin Tools is

Goblin Tools is a small set of utilities, the famous one being Magic ToDo: paste a scary task, get back a list of first steps. There is also a tone estimator, a formalizer, and a few other one-shot helpers. The web version is free. Mobile is a small one-time purchase. No account required on the web. For initiation paralysis that is specifically "I cannot even see the first step," this is one of the better free answers in 2026.

It is not a timer, not a timesheet, and not a place the day lives. You use it, copy the steps out, and go somewhere else to do the work. That narrowness is a strength. It also means Goblin Tools cannot tell you, at 6pm, where the afternoon went.

What deepstint is

deepstint is a focus-stint timer with a daily review. The first job is starting: type, Enter, you are in the session. Priorities can be broken into slices you check off. If you are signed in, auto-slice can propose first steps from the task text. That last part is the overlap with Goblin Tools, and it is smaller than it looks. Auto-slice is an explicit tap, it sends that one task to an AI provider, and it is not the product.

• The product is the stint plus the record, not the breakdown.
• Slices live on the priority and stay there. They are not a one-shot chat.
• $39 a year after beta, with a second seat. Goblin Tools on the web stays free.

If what you need is a better list, Goblin Tools is cheaper and more focused. If what you need is to start before the list is good, deepstint will let you start untagged and label later. Those are different stuck states. Plenty of people have both in the same week.

Where they overlap

Task breakdown. Goblin Tools does more of it, and does it without asking you to keep a focus app open. deepstint's slices are for the thing you already decided to do today. The overlap is real and easy to overstate. A Magic ToDo list is not a deepstint day.

Which to choose

Use Goblin Tools when the task is a blob and you cannot see step one. Use deepstint when you can see the work, or can live with not seeing it yet, and you need the timer to run and the day to add up. Using both is the honest setup for a lot of ADHD workdays: decompose in one tab, start the stint in the other.