User Guide

Welcome to MyExternalCortex — a personal coach that lives in Discord and Telegram and helps you stay on top of tasks, appointments, daily habits, and your day without judgment.

Heads up: This bot is experimental. Expect occasional rough edges. Your data is encrypted and private — no one else can see your tasks or conversations.

Getting started

Where to talk to it

The bot runs on Discord and Telegram — you only need one to get started, and you can link both later if you want reminders on both platforms.

Discord: Direct-message the bot for a fully private conversation. To DM the bot: click its name in the member list → Message. You can also mention it in a channel (@BotName your message) or reply to one of its messages.

Telegram: Search for the bot by its username and start a conversation directly. Telegram sends proper push notifications with sound, which makes it better for time-sensitive reminders on mobile.

Linking both platforms: Once you're set up on one, use /link (on either platform) to connect the other. After linking you can choose where reminders go with /set_platform.

First contact

The first time you message the bot, it will introduce itself and walk you through a short setup — three questions asked naturally, one at a time:

Timezone — just say a city name ("Denver", "London") or a timezone ("EST")
Check-in time — when in the morning works for a quick daily check-in
Coaching style — how you'd like the bot to communicate with you:
Gentle — warm and patient, ADHD-aware coaching
Direct — brief, clear, no-nonsense, ADHD-aware coaching
Cheerleader — enthusiastic, celebrates everything, ADHD-aware coaching
Task management only — neutral productivity assistant, no coaching layer (good if you don't have ADHD and just want a task manager)

Habit setup (right after first contact)

Once the three setup questions are done, the bot will walk you through a second, optional phase: building your habit routine.

It'll introduce each habit one at a time — with one sentence of why it works for ADHD brains — and ask if you want to add it. You can say yes to as many or as few as you like. There's no pressure, and you can add or change habits at any time.

There are two types of habits: - Action habits (exercise, meditation, walks, etc.) — added as recurring tasks, just like anything else on your list - Check-in question habits (consistent wake time, screens before bed) — asked as yes/no questions during your morning check-in

The whole setup takes about 5–10 exchanges. When you're done, the bot will remember your choices. A brief review happens automatically about every 60 days.

For more on the science behind each habit, see The Science Behind the Habits.

Talking to the bot

Just write naturally. You don't need to use special commands or keywords.

Examples: - "I need to call the dentist before Friday" - "Remind me about my 3pm meeting with Sarah" - "What do I have going on today?" - "I finished the report" - "I can't deal with the tax stuff right now, push it a week" - "Help me break down the website project into smaller pieces"

The bot will figure out what you need and act on it — creating tasks, logging appointments, marking things done, or just talking things through.

Emoji shortcuts:

Emoji	What it does
✅	Mark the last-mentioned task done
❌	Cancel / abandon the last-mentioned task

Everything else — 😶, 👍, 👎, 🎉, and any other emoji — is treated as a conversational reaction, not a command. The bot will respond naturally but won't take any action.

What the bot can do

Tasks

Add a task — mention it in conversation ("I need to …", "remind me to …")
See your tasks — "what's on my list?" or "show me my tasks"
Mark something done — "I finished X" or "mark X as done"
Snooze a task — "push X to next Tuesday" or "I can't deal with that today"
Break a task down — "help me break down X into steps"

Snoozing is never judged. Do it as many times as you need.

Appointments

Add an appointment — "I have a dentist appointment Thursday at 2pm"
See upcoming appointments — "what do I have coming up?"
Reminders fire automatically before your appointment (default: 30 minutes before)

Travel time: For in-person appointments, Aria will ask if you need driving or travel time built in. If you say yes (or include it yourself — "dentist at 2pm, about 20 minutes away"), she stores the travel time and fires your reminder early enough that you can leave on time. The reminder message will say something like: "Dentist starts in 50 minutes. You need about 20 minutes to get there — time to head out." You can also update travel time later: "Add 15 minutes travel time to my dentist appointment."

Recurring tasks

Some tasks happen every day or on a schedule — exercise, dishes, a weekly review. The bot can track these as recurring tasks so you never have to re-add them.

Just mention it naturally:

"Add a daily task to exercise every weekday"
"Remind me to clean my desk every Friday"
"I want to do a weekly review every Sunday"
"Add a quarterly task to review my budget on the 1st of January"
"Remind me to file taxes every April 15th"
"Add a semi-annual task to get my car serviced every March"

Supported schedules: daily, weekdays, weekends, weekly (specific days), monthly (by date or by weekday), quarterly, semi-annual, and yearly.

The bot will create a recurring template and automatically generate a task instance for each applicable day. During your morning check-in, it will ask you when you plan to tackle that day's recurring tasks so you can commit to a time upfront (this is called an implementation intention, and research shows it significantly improves follow-through).

To remove a recurring task, just say: "Stop the daily exercise reminder" or "Remove my weekly desk-clean task."

To skip one day without it counting against you: "Skip today's gym — I overdid it yesterday." The bot will mark today's instance as skipped (not missed) and your streak is unaffected. You can include a reason or not — up to you.

Recurring appointments

Regular appointments — therapy every two weeks, a standing team call every Monday — can be set up as recurring appointments so you don't have to re-add them each time:

"Add a weekly therapy appointment every Thursday at 2pm"
"I have a dentist checkup every 6 months, starting March 15th"
"Add a quarterly check-in with my accountant on the 1st of January at 10am"

Recurring appointments generate a new appointment instance each day they apply. Reminders fire automatically just like one-time appointments.

Habit tracking

After your initial setup, the bot helps you build and monitor daily habits that are especially beneficial for ADHD brains.

Action habits (exercise, meditation, cold shower, etc.) live on your task list as recurring tasks — no separate tracking needed. You mark them done like anything else.

Check-in question habits are tracked with a simple yes/no during your morning check-in. Currently available:

Habit	Morning question
Consistent wake time	"Did you wake up at your target time this morning?"
Screen-free wind-down	"Did you avoid screens in the hour before bed last night?"

If you're struggling with a habit: The bot notices when you're saying no a lot (60%+ over two weeks) and will gently ask what's getting in the way — no guilt, just curiosity. If there's a real barrier (travel, a tough stretch, a schedule change), you can pause the habit:

"Pause the wake time check-in for two weeks, I'm travelling"

The question will stop appearing until the pause expires.

Periodic reviews: Every ~60 days, the bot will check in about your habit routine — offer to add new habits, remove ones that aren't working, or adjust your setup. It takes just a few exchanges.

Vacation mode

Going somewhere? Tell the bot and it will go quiet until you're back:

"I'm on vacation until May 10th" "Don't bother me this week, I'm off"

All proactive messages — check-ins, reminders, habit questions, weekly summary, weekly review — are suppressed until the date you give. Your tasks and appointments stay in the system; nothing is deleted. When you're back, just say so and everything resumes normally.

"I'm back from vacation"

Quiet hours

If you don't want messages during certain hours — night hours, work hours, whatever fits your schedule — you can set a quiet window:

"Don't message me between 10pm and 7am" "My quiet hours are 11pm to 6am" "I work nights — keep quiet from 8am to 5pm"

Overnight windows work fine (e.g. 10pm–7am spans midnight). Any proactive message that would have fired during quiet hours will fire on the next scheduled check after the window ends — nothing is lost, just delayed.

To clear quiet hours: "Remove my quiet hours" or "Turn off quiet hours."

Shift workers: Set your quiet hours to your sleep window. Your check-in time (set during onboarding) can be moved to match your schedule too — for example, "Move my check-in to 6pm" if that's when your day starts.

Occasions (birthday and anniversary countdowns)

Some things deserve more than a one-day reminder — birthdays, anniversaries, deadlines where you need lead time. The bot tracks these as occasions and surfaces a countdown in your morning check-in starting several days before:

"Remind me about my mom's birthday on June 15th, starting a week ahead"
"Add my wedding anniversary on September 20th with a 10-day lead"
"Remind me before my annual car registration — it's due every October 31st"

Occasions can be one-time (a specific date) or yearly (same month and day every year). The countdown shows up at the top of your morning check-in until you tell the bot you've handled it:

"I ordered mom's gift" → bot marks it handled, countdown stops for this year

For yearly occasions, "handled" resets next year automatically. For one-time occasions, it's done permanently. To remove an occasion entirely: "Remove my anniversary reminder."

One-time push reminders

For time-specific nudges that don't need to be tasks — "remind me at 3pm to call the pharmacy" — you can set a plain reminder:

"Remind me in 2 hours to take my medication"
"Send me a reminder at 4:30pm today to leave for the airport"

These fire once at the specified time and then they're done. To cancel one before it fires: "Cancel that reminder."

Reminders

The bot sends reminders proactively: - Task reminders — when a task's due date arrives - Appointment reminders — before appointments start - Transition reminders — a separate heads-up if you need travel or prep time

Reminders include buttons so you can respond with one tap:

Task type	Buttons
Recurring (exercise, walks, etc.)	Done ✓ · Skip today · Remind me in 1h
One-off task	Done ✓ · Remind me in 1h · Snooze tomorrow

Done ✓ — marks the task complete and counts it as a win
Skip today (recurring only) — intentionally skips today's instance; tomorrow's generates normally; does not count as a miss
Remind me in 1h — reschedules the nudge an hour from now; the task itself is unchanged
Snooze tomorrow (one-off only) — pushes the task to tomorrow at 9am

You can also just reply in chat if you prefer.

Daily check-in

Every morning at the time you chose during setup, the bot sends a friendly check-in. It covers:

Any occasion countdowns — birthdays, anniversaries, or deadlines you're tracking that are coming up soon, named first so nothing sneaks up on you
A warm good morning
Your most urgent tasks (up to 5 by default — you can adjust this)
Any overdue or upcoming appointments
Any recurring tasks you didn't finish yesterday — a casual "Did you end up getting to X?" If you did, it marks them done. If not, no problem.
Your recurring tasks for today, grouped into one question ("When are you thinking you'll tackle these?")
Your habit check-in questions, if you've set any up

The whole thing is designed to fit in a few exchanges — a quick orientation, not an overwhelming briefing.

Weekly win summary

Every Friday afternoon (default — you can change the day and time), the bot sends a brief end-of-week summary:

How many days you were active this week
Your current and best completion streaks
Any notable milestones (personal best streak, round-number wins)
One lightweight forward-looking question to carry momentum into the next week

To change the schedule, just tell Aria: "Move my weekly summary to Thursday at 5pm."

Weekly review

Every Monday morning (default — you can change this too), the bot kicks off a short interactive review session. It's a 5–10 minute conversation that covers:

Wins — Aria names specific things you completed last week
Triage — works through your active task list in small groups: still relevant, or time to snooze / let it go?
Priorities — "What are the three most important things you want to get done this week?"
New captures — one final sweep for anything that needs to go on the list

You drive the pace. If you want to skip triage and go straight to priorities, just say so.

To change the schedule: "Move my weekly review to Tuesday at 8am."

Slash commands

All responses are visible only to you (ephemeral). Discord commands are slash commands; Telegram commands start with /.

Command	Platforms	What it does
`/profile`	Both	See your current settings (timezone, coaching style, wins count, linked platforms, Discord/Telegram IDs, internal user ID, and running version)
`/set_timezone`	Discord	Update your timezone (use IANA format, e.g. `America/Denver`). Telegram users: tell Aria instead — "Change my timezone to America/Denver."
`/link [code]`	Both	Link your other platform account. No argument → generate a code to share. With a code → consume it and link.
`/set_platform`	Both	Choose where reminders go: Discord only, Telegram only, or both
`/bug <description>`	Both	Report a bug or unexpected behavior. Snapshots your current tasks, appointments, and recent messages so the developer can investigate.
`/feature <description>`	Both	Request a new feature or improvement. Same snapshot — helps the developer understand your context.
`/delete_my_data`	Both	Permanently delete all your data — tasks, appointments, history, habits, profile
`/reset`	Discord	Reset your onboarding so you can go through first-contact again (dev/testing)

A few things worth knowing

New features are announced in-chat. When something changes, the bot will mention it the first time you talk after an update — once, not repeatedly. You can ask "what's new?" for a summary, or visit myexternalcortex.com/changelog for the full history.

The bot remembers your recent conversations. It uses the last ~20 messages as context. Older conversations are summarized and kept as a brief briefing so the bot knows who you are even after a long break.

Two modes: coaching and task management. If you chose a coaching style (gentle, direct, or cheerleader), the bot is an ADHD-aware coach — it helps with task initiation, overwhelm, routines, and ADHD coping strategies, and it stays in that lane. If you chose task management only, it's a straightforward productivity assistant with no coaching layer.

Emotional or planning language triggers a higher-quality response. For simple requests ("add a task", "what's on my list?") the bot uses a faster, leaner AI model. When it detects that you're struggling, planning your day, or celebrating a win — from words like "overwhelmed", "can't cope", "plan my day", "I finished it" — it automatically switches to a more capable model for that turn. You don't need to do anything special; just say what you mean. You can also ask explicitly for a more considered response by including a phrase like "think carefully" or "be thorough".

In either mode: if a conversation touches on a mental health crisis or anything requiring professional support, the bot will acknowledge briefly and direct you to a qualified professional.

You can switch modes at any time by telling Aria: "Switch me to task-only mode" or "Turn on ADHD coaching."

Daily planning — breaks and meals. When you ask Aria to build a plan for your day, she'll ask whether you want regular breaks built in and how long. Once you answer, she'll remember your preference for next time. She also automatically accounts for meal times: if your plan spans a breakfast, lunch, or dinner window, she'll ask whether to block time for it (or just include it by default as a 30-minute slot).

You can set or change your break preference any time:

"Build in a 15-minute break every 90 minutes" "I want shorter breaks — 10 minutes every hour" "Remove my break schedule"

Morning check-in task list length. By default your morning check-in shows up to 5 of your most urgent tasks. If you'd like to see more or fewer, just ask:

"Show me 8 tasks in my morning check-in" "Shorten my check-in to 3 tasks"

This only affects the check-in — you can always ask "what's on my list?" during the day to see everything.

Task-switching buffer. ADHD brains pay a real cost when switching between tasks — stopping one thing and starting another takes energy and time. You can tell Aria to build a buffer into your day plans:

"Add a 10-minute buffer between tasks" "Build in 5 minutes between things when planning my day"

Once set, Aria factors this gap into any schedule she helps you build — she won't suggest you can fit four tasks in two hours if realistic transitions would make that impossible. To clear it: "Remove my task-switching buffer."

The bot won't guilt you. Missed a deadline? Snoozed the same task five times? That's fine. The bot's job is to help you move forward, not to score you.

Wins are tracked. Every time you complete a task, your win count goes up. The bot tracks your current streak (consecutive days with at least one completion) and your personal best. Your weekly summary and review both reference these — it adds up.

Privacy

Your messages, tasks, appointments, and habit pause reasons are encrypted at rest.
Habit logs (yes/no responses) are stored without encryption — they contain only a date and a boolean, nothing personally identifiable.
No one else — including other users — can see your data.
Your conversations are not used to train AI models.
You can delete everything at any time with /delete_my_data on either platform. This is immediate and permanent, and includes all habit data and platform links.
For maximum privacy, use DMs (Discord) or a direct conversation (Telegram) rather than a group channel.