Imo ADHDers need minimum technology (at least anything with a screen that’s addictive) and more community. Being outdoors, moving the body, living in community. Where you do chores together and don’t need to be good at planning cause someone else will. And we can do the things we’re good at.
I think ADHDers just show how dysfunctional and absurd the modern way of being is. We‘re not meant to live in isolation and we cope with it worse than NTs.
I enjoy using tech that doesn’t try and force fit me into a structure that makes me want to smash things up as a result of my not being able to make use of it. For example, ‘Evernote’ works for me as a way of making notes and keeping records because it supports my inner chaos in a sympathetic and non-judgmental way (yes, as an AuDHDer, I also tend to anthropomorphise everything)
Same feelings. I’ve been using Day One, a journaling app as an accidental writing tool. Ie it’s just journaling so I don’t feel any pressure to write any particular thing and sometimes I come out with a reasonable piece, idea, language, whatever.
I’ve even started doing a checklist at the top of the day just things I’d feel really good about getting done or have to get done. Rather than some strict blocked off schedule.
I don’t know if it tames my chaos, but there’s so little pressure it feels more free.
Yes, you reminded me that I use iAWriter for..uh…writing because it’s so uncluttered. I also make ‘have done lists’ as well as ‘to do lists’ because the former deserves recognition even if it doesn’t tally with the latter.
I make have done lists too! lol. Sometimes if I have a slow, hard day it’s like “Brushed my teeth. Got dressed. Lay in bed all day.” And it feels so good to tick those tasks off! lol.
I really like the Zettelkasten method - or the ADHD hacked way that I use it. It's too complex to explain in a short comment, and it took me a few tries to understand enough to be able to use it, but once it clicks, it CLICKS. It's a way of fostering, managing and remembering the links between different pieces of information. It was originally created on index cards, and though digital Zettelkastens are very popular, I MUCH prefer the paper version because it means I can physically move the cards around when it comes to write something or otherwise think through something.
In fact, any kind of thought-technology that grounds things in a physical object is just so much better for me. I grew up when computers were still computers, rather than shiny app boxes, and computer-logic is so much more intuitive for me to understand rather than app-logic. I would imagine that's by design, because apps hide everything from you. So that's another one, using more software rather than apps. I've always been intimidated by trying to build things in computers due to my struggle with maths and inability to think in 3D in my head. But if I draw things out on paper and take it slowly, it's not as complicated as it seems to build small spreadsheets, databases or otherwise make changes to the parameters of existing software or tools. It's often the case that someone has already done what you wanted to do and has released a tutorial.
Technology just a set of tools and the knowledge of how to use those tools. When you understand how various things work and fit together at their fundamental level, you can re-purpose them, improvise etc. I'm talking at the level of 'metal conducts heat' + 'you cannot put metal in a microwave'. So I haven't gotten around to doing my dishes, and I wanted to eat eggs. I know you can cook eggs in an oven because I've made oven-cooked dishes which include full eggs like shakshuka. I also know you cook fish in an oven by wrapping it in foil. Can you cook an egg in an oven by using foil? Turns out, yes, you can.
Is that anywhere close to the NT solution to that problem? No. Did it solve the problem? Yes.
This thought-technology pairs well with this one: what do you actually want to do? What is the problem in the way? No amount of budgeting software, planners, tools, CBT etc made me less impulsive with money. But having an easy to define thing I'm saving up for? I'll cut every corner (and every coupon) to do it, and ENJOY that experience of trying to do more with less. And now I've done that a few times, I know in my bones that there will be another Exciting Adventure soon, so I don't dip into the money that was left over too much.
Anything I can do to make something a CHALLENGE rather than a STRUGGLE is the kind of tech I use. My goal is not to eliminate my credit card (something I've tried for years now), my goal is to go to the World Cosplay Convention this year. Eliminating my credit card will mean that I have the extra money to put towards that. My goal is not to get better at cleaning (secret goal: act like a real adult), my goal is to feel safe and at home in my own space.
I got one of those desk bikes for free from the community, and now I only play video games or scroll whilst I'm on the bike. The heart rate tracker and distance travelled thing doesn't work, but who cares? I'm on my bike everyday.
I keep a paper planner, but I put anything out of a usual routine, like a Dr Appt, into my phone so it chimes early in the morning. I can't abide being beeped at, so its the only time my phone will ever chime except for a wake-up alarm.
I like ADHD uptempo focus music that you can find on YouTube, because the focus music aimed at neurotypicals sends me to sleep
Drum & bass is 100% an adhd technology for me!! i cannot do anything without 160+ BPMs in my ears.
you make a good point about desire and interest — planners might organize my tasks but they don’t make me interested in doing those tasks, so i just end up ignoring them for more interesting things
I like your point about computer/software logic vs app logic. Some apps are trying to be helpful but over simplify and you can’t do what you actually need to do. Others are too complicated to the point they aren’t navigable. But either way the issue is that the actual logic is often kind of obscured by the UI so you can’t customize to your needs. Which is another reason physical stuff ends up working better. You can manipulate and customize things like, move index card around, cut it in half, cross things out. My boss really likes to do sticky notes on a wall to map things out and honestly it works really well because everyone can see but also like touch and manipulate things
I think the sense of touch is so forgotten about in the current day, for every brain, but I think it's extra important for ADHD. I don't have the coherent mental landscape* that NTs do, so my environment must be where my thinking occurs.
(*by coherent mental landscape, I'm thinking about things like working memory and the audio-visual scratchpad etc, not the 'personality' or the 'I' part. In that the 'I' that is in Japan right now is different than the 'I' in the UK in the past or future, because the country I reside in changes me, but I am not the country I reside in. My internal landscape is incoherent, therefore I must externalize it. Whilst I think its more common for ADHD people to have an incoherent sense of self, that's due to being forced/guilted into conforming against our sense of self, or ourselves being misunderstood by an ableist world. However I perceive of myself, I am a being that thinks primarily with its hands. Does that make sense?)
I have read about Zettelkasten in the past and thought it sounded awesome. I tried the electronic apps but they just do not work for me. I want to try to paper based one but it seems complicated somehow and more effort than my fatigued mind and body can handle write now - at the same time I think I NEED it to get a handle on all my reading and thoughts as just not got executive functioning since menopause hit.
I am still trialling the best methods, but the way I'm finding easiest is this:
each card has a title that summarises the information in a sentence (or less than)
each card has a diagram, example, or small elaboration
each has the full date, year first, and a double digit number that increases each card I write that day
Links are created using the date, on the back of the card, with maybe two to three words explaining my thought on the link
They are stored in date order, which makes it easy to pull a bunch of them to use on a project and easy to put them back in order so I can reference them later.
To further organise, I keep a variety of bibliography cards. These are usually either AUTHOR or WORK cards, in which case a few short details about either an author I read a lot, or a single work I made a lot of cards from. They also list any cards directly generated from them.
I'm trialling another type of card which just has a short title about a topic or theme I'm interested in potentially writing or thinking about, but don't have a set question yet. I just list any cards related to that topic. Instead of filing by topic, this allows a single card to be listed under any possible topic it could be relevant to, rather than getting 'stuck' to a single one.
I don't use Folzegettel, it breaks my brain, because it's just not how I think. I can generate a thought about Japanese naval history from thinking about British Christmas traditions - just because it was generated in the chain, doesn't mean it belongs there.
Very rarely do I approach the cards directly, mostly I do make the 'fleeting notes' or however you want to call the scrappy notes in your notebook. I try to make a habit of writing in my own words whenever possible which makes the card making easier, but sometimes you do need a quote, so I just make it very clear in my notebook which is which.
I use or make a margin to visually distinguish which note goes with which citation.
Usually, I let my notes rest for a week or so before I even think of approaching them with cards.
Great question and looking forward to reading more comments!
- I keep coming back to writing by hand because it helps me slow down, isn’t distracting, and it’s easier to write in non-linear ways when I need / want to. I know there are mindmap apps out there but I feel like traditional productivity programs (that I have found) are too linear / top to bottom. ADHD technology would support starting in the middle and making connections and visualizing and ideation would feel fun.
- energy cycles. I think it’s not just productivity that’s the problem but also fluctuating energy / “lack of consistency”. ADHD technology would take different energy levels (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) into account when.
Great point, nothing beats writing by hand. Everyone looks at my planner and pencil with great suspicion, but freedom from wondering if ‘this calendar will sync with that agenda/app’ is gold to me. Schedules on phones are Satan personified.
And yet it doesn’t do everything I want it to do. It’s great to get clarity on my plans and intentions and writing lists but I wish there was technology that reminded me of my intentions and plans in a gentle and positive and encouraging but firm way. Too often I forget what’s written down. I want tech to bridge that gap for me.
I figure that if I forget or don’t do something I’ve written down in a list of intentions it probably means it’s not as important to me as I thought it was.
Something I thought of as I was reading the comments is that it can definitely feel weird to my ADHD to map out a day according to specific times...like, 'I need to leave the house at 8:00... I need to be at work by 10:00... My lunchtime needs to last for 1 hour... I must exercise for 30min'. There are times when that is helpful of course but it can feel taxing for my system to stay on top of that, living according to the clock and exact minutes of the day.
Harnessing hyperfixation is a frequent goal (fd: im audhd, so many of the things i refer might come from the autistic pool)- not for productivity in particular, but because it feels natural and good. I'll use simple low tech things like tab and colour groupings and titles, or a text only typewriter, to be able to limit the direction my energy travels in.
Sensory regulation is also a big tech draw for me, different noise/light/visual devices, that help with overload. I like to be able to have full control over the settings because day/night functions don't always work for me.
Emotional regulation is a good one too - video games keep me focused when I do need to do work I don't enjoy, or at a time when I probably need more rest than I'm getting. Frequently playing a game with enjoyable little wins helps me get enough juice to get through the tasks that suck lol
None of my tech hacks/aids are particularly made for the benefit of people with disabilities. They're also not perfect and still require a high amount of privilege to be able to try them out/afford them. I could imagine any of these types of tech devices as being open source/collectively owned- there certainly have to be au-dhd/adhd/autistic people in these design teams! Products would only improve without profit as the goal- most of the cute functions that make something more pleasurable to use get borked/deleted because they're not profitable to maintain. Imagine keepnote could play a cute lil noise everytime you checked off a box?
Yes to all of this. And I would add: transitions. Both being able to enter monotropic states / hyperfixations with intention and support in transitioning back out of them (the focus here being on the transition, not a timer going off!).
I'm a neurodivergent music composer who also co-founded an app called Restful. and I can confirm that the vast majority of apps are neither helpful nor designed by neurodivergent folk. but the thing that really makes me mad is that app developers are now seeing ADHDers as a marketing cohort. they just stick a label on their app as an afterthought. I've even see ads saying 'this app can replace your meds'!!! so yeah, by-us-for-us is vital.
Gosh this is relieving. I thought maybe I was the only one who felt like some of these tools were just trying to make us normal when we weren’t meant to be normal.
I think in a lot of ways most of us need to be doing a lot less. I like the community and nature suggestion, except that for me most humans are exhausting and as it is I need a lot of solitude. But maybe in an environment where I was supported rather than expected to show up for people when I just can’t, it’d feel different?
It’s hard to say. But the more I take things off the table and reduce the things I have to do, it’s a lot easier to do the ones that do. That’s what I’ve been asking myself the last few years: how can I make my life as easeful as possible?
I dunno if this is what you meant by your question but the first thing which came to mind was wikipedia - has there ever been a better tool to spark a deep dive? Also - I used to really enjoy online communities like Cool Freaks Wikipedia Club, which I reckon was a really ADHD place… thinking about it more, IMO communities like that are an anti-algorithmic adaptation of social media technology. If ADHD is an abundance of attention, wikipedia (and associated …fan communities, I guess?) serves us things we are likely to be delightful to us. And what’s more useful to our lives than delightful new information lol.
Joke answer - the most ADHD “tech” is parentheses. Especially nested parentheses.
I wouldn't consider myself an ADHDer but I loled at the sticky note meme because it's so relatable, as is all your recent stuff about trying and failing at organizational apps. Perhaps because it's just the digital version of sticky notes, my most consistent organizational app is Keep Notes. It's my digital braindump, but searchable. I use it for every conceivable list, things I want to remember, little bits of creative writing that I want to get down but don't have handy access to a journal or my laptop. You can attach pictures or links. If I really want a list to be in my face, I can pin it to my phone's home screen. It's a Google product, which I know can be a turnoff for some, but I like that it means all my notes have been backed up and made the switch across multiple phone changes. (I'm an android user, fwiw)
I use apples notes app for this too, the searchability is so necessary (although it doesn’t seem to always function super well tbh) I am so bad at tagging or organizing notes in any way so I just search for keywords and then end up digging thru my own notes I forgot I made.. inefficient but actually kinda fun bc I get to rediscover things all the time
I also use my notes app a lot—specifically love that it’s searchable! I keep a master grocery list there, which is continuously evolving and has lists for each store I shop at. Somehow, despite all my lack of habit in most areas of my life, I’ve been able to (mostly) consistently add to my shopping list as soon as I realize I need something. Then, when I find myself at x store, I can check the note to see what else it was that I needed.
In contrast, I rarely think to look back at the notes with little bits of writing 😆 maybe someday I’ll rediscover them…
Yes! I’ve all but given up on my general to-do list note on my phone in favor of physical stickies. Probably bc no matter how visually pleasing I make it, I cannot physically cross anything out! But the grocery list works so well on the phone bc it comes with me in the store always. And the permanent subheadings for different stores, yes! Further down I also keep a list of dishes I like to make or want to make for reference when I need reminding. My goal is to write up a recipe book though
Yes exactly! Love the idea of a little recipe book. I’ve been following Caro Chambers here on substack for a while (What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking), and some time ago she recommended making a shortlist of quick/easy/tried&true feel-good meals (plus ingredients list for the grocery store!) to pull out of your back pocket when you just CANNOT. It’s such a good idea. So easy to forget those things when we’re struggling.
I want a way for my visual ideas to be shown to me, periodically. Like a calendar, but visual. It would be so cool to put a picture into google calendar and have it show up in the future just like an appointment. Otherwise my inspiration is only alive in the moment I’m having it. Does that make sense?
Omg yes!! Love that idea. I have actually set reminders to myself when art inspiration strikes in a moment that I’m unable to flesh it out immediately. Hasn’t yet worked to make me follow through with it later 😅 but it has reminded me to keep mulling the idea over in my mind.
All I could think of were my (personal) methods to help me exist and do stuff but not nessecerily the tools/technologies I use to implement them and it seems from the comments (I have read all 53 of them, hah!) many here voiced similar thoughts, with mentions of Zettelkasten, bullet journals, etc.
Personally I devised a menthod I call 'throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks' (maybe I subconciously stole it from here and didn't make it up???) and use it instead of trying to force myself to do tasks that are most important or most urgent first. I figured out the shame of getting stuck on "the important" (aka boring, not actually important to me but maybe my survival in capitalism blahblah) stuff just drains me mentally and physically and keeps me paralyzed in fear, sometimes for days. Bleh. Now I just do whatever I can remember I have to do (or wrote down in the, yes, google keep app. yes I hate google too but I also agree with the comments that it is very minimal and functional in that way) and if I am lucky I hit that sweet target by slipping into the tasks I really needed to do, through the momentum of completing other stuff. Like the low-hanging fruit of reorganizing a drawer that I don't really needed to be reorganized but omg I sorted my postcard collection by size and theme, the high of this will carry me through the dayyy. And if not at least I don't feel miserable and try the same thing again tomorrow. I guess the biggest success (for my well-being) in this doesn't stem from the method or technologies behind it but more the realization that I will always forget important stuff/fuck up a little/not get stuff done on time (BECAUSE I AM HUMAN wohoo) and not feeling like shit about it (as much as I can) is the real goal. Pretty privileged take of course, since I was able to make a life for myself (for now) that doesn't require me to work a 40+h job and I get to make my own days flow 4-5 days of the week. (And I also don't live in the U.S., so less fear of crippling debt, homelessness etc. also helps)
Also! I made little photoshop collages of kittens doing chores to send as little digital chat stickers whenever I get my weekly cleaning done. They are cute. It works a majority of the time. Which is great, since I am suspicious of perfection. (see above)
I forget stuff (and people) exist all the time. I have decided to find joy in the fact of knowing this about me and fully accept that it will happen and just eventually return to it. Spiral time!!! Maybe that works for technology usage/methods as well.
On the topic of forgetting stuff: Does anyone else have an excel spreadsheet of all their friends and aquaintances they can sort by city/closeness of relationship/social circle etc to be able to not forget all the peope in your life you don't see every day still exist? Tried to built it, kind of failed, suggestions welcome. I used to just write long lists of people, but not being able to sort them is kind of a bummer for when I need to remember who said that they would enjoy if I invited them to go stroll through a museum with me spontaneously or go see a movie or who i want to reach out to before I visit a city or who lives close to me and would love to go for a walk on an exceptionally sunny winter day or who I should definetly send my newsletter/email to because they are just the right amount of close but not close enough to not need a formal invite to whatever thing it is I am doing/publishing/hosting/whatever. You get the point. Maybe someone already built that?
Anyways, thanks for reading all that. I'm wishing a day with the least amoutn of internatilzed adhd-shame possible to all you fellow nerds (:
I used Google Keep notes. There's no format. It's just a blank page that I can organize anyway I want. I want to go into the boring details of how I organized it for myself since that's not the point. The point is that it's a blank page that I can configure in a way that works for ME. I use it as a planner/calendar. My phone is basically always with me. I've gotten into the habit of writing everything down into my calendar. And if I lose my phone it's in the cloud so I haven't lost everything. It's been a lifesaver!
I've been following the comment section for a few days and trying to formulate my own response... I might be in a different stage of my AuDHD journey than others here. I've been disabled for years and on benefits, and I'm trying to participate in "rehabilitation" programs to go back to school and eventually work after a life-altering event. I have an "executive functioning coach" at college, and I feel an immense pressure to try to try to conform to something I don't know if I'll even be able to imitate, much less thrive within. I don't know what a successfully unmasked life could look like while also managing to support myself.
I can tell you that I can't block my days out into strict chunks because if I "fail," I throw the whole day out and want to hide under the covers. I hate the pomodoro method because it feels like by the time I start making good progress and getting into a groove, someone loudly starts banging on pots and pans in the room, screaming "STOP!!!" Even if the break is just to pee or have a snack, I can't get myself to look at it kindly. And what if I want a longer break? (Which inevitably turns into TOO long of a break because I get into whatever it is I'm doing...)
I can do small tasks if they have an obvious and satisfying endpoint, like a worksheet for a foreign language class. Otherwise, if there's something more nebulous - "get as much Precalculus done as you can since you're 4 lessons behind" - I'd rather just sit there for hours and do all of it, life be damned. I want to read more books despite being busy with school, but "a little each day" feels like a slow death. I crave the satisfaction of seeing an entire chunk of a novel disappear behind my bookmark. I don't know how to reconcile this with the fact that SRS learning seems to have so much support and evidence behind it, nor with the fact that I'd prefer not to study for my upcoming science class by cramming in an entire chapter frantically the night before the test, like I used to. I don't even know if my brain can handle that anymore.
My current set-up is a Frankenstein of the Notes app and a physical planner I got for $10 out of desperation. I tried combining my "life to-do" with my "school to-do," and it wasn't very successful. Assigning tasks to specific days has also had mixed results. It seems that I really like analog for my school things - perhaps because that's how things were over a decade ago when I was last in school - and I prefer Notes for my "life" to-do list. I struggle with the fact that some things are more nebulous than others, like "vacuum this week" versus "schedule an appointment with a geneticist for hEDS when you can." Short-term versus long-term goals. I just put everything into a master to-do list that gets rewritten every few months (my app is a graveyard of them). I have also temporarily added an extra physical weekly calendar page that I printed myself so I could theoretically put my weekly schedule on the wall. It...kind of works? It feels like I have more space to breathe than my tiny planner. I color-coded things when the semester was still ongoing. That felt nice.
I am tentatively interested in a digital planner from Future ADHD and The Mini ADHD Coach (both IG people I guess). I could write in it with my iPad (which has been an invaluable tool for me for taking math courses online) and have the functionality and tactile nature of a physical planner in a more decorative, more ADHD-targeted digital one...but I have yet to come across a single review of it, anywhere, and that worries me. I'm also worried that it's not tailored for what someone needs for school versus life administration. I suppose it's "only" $20, but that's a lot for me. It allegedly has lifetime updates for the years, though, so that could be a nice eco-friendly thing...? I have no idea. I feel like it's going to be another planner rabbit hole. I am hoping to simultaneously be talked into and out of this planner. The design is cute, and it's impacting my decision-making. I have been Influenced(tm).
Also, re: things like pacing and the pomodoro method, my therapist (not the dreaded executive functioning coach) says that at first, it feels TERRIBLE, but you just have to...practice? And it gets better? Yet their neuroatypical ass fully admits to just doing everything in six hour chunks because that's what they can manage, and it's like... Hello...???
One major tool use I could put technology to as an audhd person is as a container and sorter for all my loops and loose ends. A fridge for the spirals so I don’t forget they exist. My sense of self, interests, and ambitions shift so frequently, but seen on a larger scale they never actually change/disappear, so it’s very easy to lose track of something (everything, all the time) that I’m genuinely passionate about. This is the draw of zettelkasten systems for me, but engineering or adopting this kind of system without it being warped by the planner/"cohesive project"-ification of everything is tricky.
I also love drum and bass! But sometimes I can find it over-stimulating, so if I have a long focus task at a desk I have found success with these. They're apparently designed specifically for ADHD to be upbeat, rather than the downbeat kind that most 'focus music' is. He has several if this tone isn't to your liking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wELOA2U7FPQ&t=4081s
I like working in my planner (I love stationery, and think on paper) but you're right, it doesn't actually make me more likely to do them. I find striking the right balance of gamification is the right way. I'm currently trialling a house-cleaning method that requires only paper, pens, dice and a timer, but could be adapted digitally. I'll report back if it works.
Imo ADHDers need minimum technology (at least anything with a screen that’s addictive) and more community. Being outdoors, moving the body, living in community. Where you do chores together and don’t need to be good at planning cause someone else will. And we can do the things we’re good at.
I think ADHDers just show how dysfunctional and absurd the modern way of being is. We‘re not meant to live in isolation and we cope with it worse than NTs.
I enjoy using tech that doesn’t try and force fit me into a structure that makes me want to smash things up as a result of my not being able to make use of it. For example, ‘Evernote’ works for me as a way of making notes and keeping records because it supports my inner chaos in a sympathetic and non-judgmental way (yes, as an AuDHDer, I also tend to anthropomorphise everything)
Same feelings. I’ve been using Day One, a journaling app as an accidental writing tool. Ie it’s just journaling so I don’t feel any pressure to write any particular thing and sometimes I come out with a reasonable piece, idea, language, whatever.
I’ve even started doing a checklist at the top of the day just things I’d feel really good about getting done or have to get done. Rather than some strict blocked off schedule.
I don’t know if it tames my chaos, but there’s so little pressure it feels more free.
Yes, you reminded me that I use iAWriter for..uh…writing because it’s so uncluttered. I also make ‘have done lists’ as well as ‘to do lists’ because the former deserves recognition even if it doesn’t tally with the latter.
I make have done lists too! lol. Sometimes if I have a slow, hard day it’s like “Brushed my teeth. Got dressed. Lay in bed all day.” And it feels so good to tick those tasks off! lol.
I really like the Zettelkasten method - or the ADHD hacked way that I use it. It's too complex to explain in a short comment, and it took me a few tries to understand enough to be able to use it, but once it clicks, it CLICKS. It's a way of fostering, managing and remembering the links between different pieces of information. It was originally created on index cards, and though digital Zettelkastens are very popular, I MUCH prefer the paper version because it means I can physically move the cards around when it comes to write something or otherwise think through something.
In fact, any kind of thought-technology that grounds things in a physical object is just so much better for me. I grew up when computers were still computers, rather than shiny app boxes, and computer-logic is so much more intuitive for me to understand rather than app-logic. I would imagine that's by design, because apps hide everything from you. So that's another one, using more software rather than apps. I've always been intimidated by trying to build things in computers due to my struggle with maths and inability to think in 3D in my head. But if I draw things out on paper and take it slowly, it's not as complicated as it seems to build small spreadsheets, databases or otherwise make changes to the parameters of existing software or tools. It's often the case that someone has already done what you wanted to do and has released a tutorial.
Technology just a set of tools and the knowledge of how to use those tools. When you understand how various things work and fit together at their fundamental level, you can re-purpose them, improvise etc. I'm talking at the level of 'metal conducts heat' + 'you cannot put metal in a microwave'. So I haven't gotten around to doing my dishes, and I wanted to eat eggs. I know you can cook eggs in an oven because I've made oven-cooked dishes which include full eggs like shakshuka. I also know you cook fish in an oven by wrapping it in foil. Can you cook an egg in an oven by using foil? Turns out, yes, you can.
Is that anywhere close to the NT solution to that problem? No. Did it solve the problem? Yes.
This thought-technology pairs well with this one: what do you actually want to do? What is the problem in the way? No amount of budgeting software, planners, tools, CBT etc made me less impulsive with money. But having an easy to define thing I'm saving up for? I'll cut every corner (and every coupon) to do it, and ENJOY that experience of trying to do more with less. And now I've done that a few times, I know in my bones that there will be another Exciting Adventure soon, so I don't dip into the money that was left over too much.
Anything I can do to make something a CHALLENGE rather than a STRUGGLE is the kind of tech I use. My goal is not to eliminate my credit card (something I've tried for years now), my goal is to go to the World Cosplay Convention this year. Eliminating my credit card will mean that I have the extra money to put towards that. My goal is not to get better at cleaning (secret goal: act like a real adult), my goal is to feel safe and at home in my own space.
I got one of those desk bikes for free from the community, and now I only play video games or scroll whilst I'm on the bike. The heart rate tracker and distance travelled thing doesn't work, but who cares? I'm on my bike everyday.
I keep a paper planner, but I put anything out of a usual routine, like a Dr Appt, into my phone so it chimes early in the morning. I can't abide being beeped at, so its the only time my phone will ever chime except for a wake-up alarm.
I like ADHD uptempo focus music that you can find on YouTube, because the focus music aimed at neurotypicals sends me to sleep
Drum & bass is 100% an adhd technology for me!! i cannot do anything without 160+ BPMs in my ears.
you make a good point about desire and interest — planners might organize my tasks but they don’t make me interested in doing those tasks, so i just end up ignoring them for more interesting things
I like your point about computer/software logic vs app logic. Some apps are trying to be helpful but over simplify and you can’t do what you actually need to do. Others are too complicated to the point they aren’t navigable. But either way the issue is that the actual logic is often kind of obscured by the UI so you can’t customize to your needs. Which is another reason physical stuff ends up working better. You can manipulate and customize things like, move index card around, cut it in half, cross things out. My boss really likes to do sticky notes on a wall to map things out and honestly it works really well because everyone can see but also like touch and manipulate things
I think the sense of touch is so forgotten about in the current day, for every brain, but I think it's extra important for ADHD. I don't have the coherent mental landscape* that NTs do, so my environment must be where my thinking occurs.
(*by coherent mental landscape, I'm thinking about things like working memory and the audio-visual scratchpad etc, not the 'personality' or the 'I' part. In that the 'I' that is in Japan right now is different than the 'I' in the UK in the past or future, because the country I reside in changes me, but I am not the country I reside in. My internal landscape is incoherent, therefore I must externalize it. Whilst I think its more common for ADHD people to have an incoherent sense of self, that's due to being forced/guilted into conforming against our sense of self, or ourselves being misunderstood by an ableist world. However I perceive of myself, I am a being that thinks primarily with its hands. Does that make sense?)
That does make sense!
I have read about Zettelkasten in the past and thought it sounded awesome. I tried the electronic apps but they just do not work for me. I want to try to paper based one but it seems complicated somehow and more effort than my fatigued mind and body can handle write now - at the same time I think I NEED it to get a handle on all my reading and thoughts as just not got executive functioning since menopause hit.
I am still trialling the best methods, but the way I'm finding easiest is this:
each card has a title that summarises the information in a sentence (or less than)
each card has a diagram, example, or small elaboration
each has the full date, year first, and a double digit number that increases each card I write that day
Links are created using the date, on the back of the card, with maybe two to three words explaining my thought on the link
They are stored in date order, which makes it easy to pull a bunch of them to use on a project and easy to put them back in order so I can reference them later.
To further organise, I keep a variety of bibliography cards. These are usually either AUTHOR or WORK cards, in which case a few short details about either an author I read a lot, or a single work I made a lot of cards from. They also list any cards directly generated from them.
I'm trialling another type of card which just has a short title about a topic or theme I'm interested in potentially writing or thinking about, but don't have a set question yet. I just list any cards related to that topic. Instead of filing by topic, this allows a single card to be listed under any possible topic it could be relevant to, rather than getting 'stuck' to a single one.
I don't use Folzegettel, it breaks my brain, because it's just not how I think. I can generate a thought about Japanese naval history from thinking about British Christmas traditions - just because it was generated in the chain, doesn't mean it belongs there.
Very rarely do I approach the cards directly, mostly I do make the 'fleeting notes' or however you want to call the scrappy notes in your notebook. I try to make a habit of writing in my own words whenever possible which makes the card making easier, but sometimes you do need a quote, so I just make it very clear in my notebook which is which.
I use or make a margin to visually distinguish which note goes with which citation.
Usually, I let my notes rest for a week or so before I even think of approaching them with cards.
Great question and looking forward to reading more comments!
- I keep coming back to writing by hand because it helps me slow down, isn’t distracting, and it’s easier to write in non-linear ways when I need / want to. I know there are mindmap apps out there but I feel like traditional productivity programs (that I have found) are too linear / top to bottom. ADHD technology would support starting in the middle and making connections and visualizing and ideation would feel fun.
- energy cycles. I think it’s not just productivity that’s the problem but also fluctuating energy / “lack of consistency”. ADHD technology would take different energy levels (physical, mental, emotional, etc.) into account when.
Great point, nothing beats writing by hand. Everyone looks at my planner and pencil with great suspicion, but freedom from wondering if ‘this calendar will sync with that agenda/app’ is gold to me. Schedules on phones are Satan personified.
And yet it doesn’t do everything I want it to do. It’s great to get clarity on my plans and intentions and writing lists but I wish there was technology that reminded me of my intentions and plans in a gentle and positive and encouraging but firm way. Too often I forget what’s written down. I want tech to bridge that gap for me.
I figure that if I forget or don’t do something I’ve written down in a list of intentions it probably means it’s not as important to me as I thought it was.
Something I thought of as I was reading the comments is that it can definitely feel weird to my ADHD to map out a day according to specific times...like, 'I need to leave the house at 8:00... I need to be at work by 10:00... My lunchtime needs to last for 1 hour... I must exercise for 30min'. There are times when that is helpful of course but it can feel taxing for my system to stay on top of that, living according to the clock and exact minutes of the day.
Harnessing hyperfixation is a frequent goal (fd: im audhd, so many of the things i refer might come from the autistic pool)- not for productivity in particular, but because it feels natural and good. I'll use simple low tech things like tab and colour groupings and titles, or a text only typewriter, to be able to limit the direction my energy travels in.
Sensory regulation is also a big tech draw for me, different noise/light/visual devices, that help with overload. I like to be able to have full control over the settings because day/night functions don't always work for me.
Emotional regulation is a good one too - video games keep me focused when I do need to do work I don't enjoy, or at a time when I probably need more rest than I'm getting. Frequently playing a game with enjoyable little wins helps me get enough juice to get through the tasks that suck lol
None of my tech hacks/aids are particularly made for the benefit of people with disabilities. They're also not perfect and still require a high amount of privilege to be able to try them out/afford them. I could imagine any of these types of tech devices as being open source/collectively owned- there certainly have to be au-dhd/adhd/autistic people in these design teams! Products would only improve without profit as the goal- most of the cute functions that make something more pleasurable to use get borked/deleted because they're not profitable to maintain. Imagine keepnote could play a cute lil noise everytime you checked off a box?
Yes to all of this. And I would add: transitions. Both being able to enter monotropic states / hyperfixations with intention and support in transitioning back out of them (the focus here being on the transition, not a timer going off!).
So true — I snooze all my timers bc I’m never ready when they tell me to stop or start something. I need flexible time windows!
I love that!
I'm a neurodivergent music composer who also co-founded an app called Restful. and I can confirm that the vast majority of apps are neither helpful nor designed by neurodivergent folk. but the thing that really makes me mad is that app developers are now seeing ADHDers as a marketing cohort. they just stick a label on their app as an afterthought. I've even see ads saying 'this app can replace your meds'!!! so yeah, by-us-for-us is vital.
💯💯💯 gonna check out your app, it’s a cool idea! BPMs have always been my main self-soothing/energizing tool
oh thank you so much! I really hope you like it ☺️
Gosh this is relieving. I thought maybe I was the only one who felt like some of these tools were just trying to make us normal when we weren’t meant to be normal.
I think in a lot of ways most of us need to be doing a lot less. I like the community and nature suggestion, except that for me most humans are exhausting and as it is I need a lot of solitude. But maybe in an environment where I was supported rather than expected to show up for people when I just can’t, it’d feel different?
It’s hard to say. But the more I take things off the table and reduce the things I have to do, it’s a lot easier to do the ones that do. That’s what I’ve been asking myself the last few years: how can I make my life as easeful as possible?
Me too. Always more ease.
🙏
I dunno if this is what you meant by your question but the first thing which came to mind was wikipedia - has there ever been a better tool to spark a deep dive? Also - I used to really enjoy online communities like Cool Freaks Wikipedia Club, which I reckon was a really ADHD place… thinking about it more, IMO communities like that are an anti-algorithmic adaptation of social media technology. If ADHD is an abundance of attention, wikipedia (and associated …fan communities, I guess?) serves us things we are likely to be delightful to us. And what’s more useful to our lives than delightful new information lol.
Joke answer - the most ADHD “tech” is parentheses. Especially nested parentheses.
Yes parentheses!! And my beloved — em dash —
I wouldn't consider myself an ADHDer but I loled at the sticky note meme because it's so relatable, as is all your recent stuff about trying and failing at organizational apps. Perhaps because it's just the digital version of sticky notes, my most consistent organizational app is Keep Notes. It's my digital braindump, but searchable. I use it for every conceivable list, things I want to remember, little bits of creative writing that I want to get down but don't have handy access to a journal or my laptop. You can attach pictures or links. If I really want a list to be in my face, I can pin it to my phone's home screen. It's a Google product, which I know can be a turnoff for some, but I like that it means all my notes have been backed up and made the switch across multiple phone changes. (I'm an android user, fwiw)
I use apples notes app for this too, the searchability is so necessary (although it doesn’t seem to always function super well tbh) I am so bad at tagging or organizing notes in any way so I just search for keywords and then end up digging thru my own notes I forgot I made.. inefficient but actually kinda fun bc I get to rediscover things all the time
I also use my notes app a lot—specifically love that it’s searchable! I keep a master grocery list there, which is continuously evolving and has lists for each store I shop at. Somehow, despite all my lack of habit in most areas of my life, I’ve been able to (mostly) consistently add to my shopping list as soon as I realize I need something. Then, when I find myself at x store, I can check the note to see what else it was that I needed.
In contrast, I rarely think to look back at the notes with little bits of writing 😆 maybe someday I’ll rediscover them…
Yes! I’ve all but given up on my general to-do list note on my phone in favor of physical stickies. Probably bc no matter how visually pleasing I make it, I cannot physically cross anything out! But the grocery list works so well on the phone bc it comes with me in the store always. And the permanent subheadings for different stores, yes! Further down I also keep a list of dishes I like to make or want to make for reference when I need reminding. My goal is to write up a recipe book though
Yes exactly! Love the idea of a little recipe book. I’ve been following Caro Chambers here on substack for a while (What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking), and some time ago she recommended making a shortlist of quick/easy/tried&true feel-good meals (plus ingredients list for the grocery store!) to pull out of your back pocket when you just CANNOT. It’s such a good idea. So easy to forget those things when we’re struggling.
Google Notes and Google Calendar basically ARE my working memory, at this point
I want a way for my visual ideas to be shown to me, periodically. Like a calendar, but visual. It would be so cool to put a picture into google calendar and have it show up in the future just like an appointment. Otherwise my inspiration is only alive in the moment I’m having it. Does that make sense?
Omg yes!! Love that idea. I have actually set reminders to myself when art inspiration strikes in a moment that I’m unable to flesh it out immediately. Hasn’t yet worked to make me follow through with it later 😅 but it has reminded me to keep mulling the idea over in my mind.
All I could think of were my (personal) methods to help me exist and do stuff but not nessecerily the tools/technologies I use to implement them and it seems from the comments (I have read all 53 of them, hah!) many here voiced similar thoughts, with mentions of Zettelkasten, bullet journals, etc.
Personally I devised a menthod I call 'throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks' (maybe I subconciously stole it from here and didn't make it up???) and use it instead of trying to force myself to do tasks that are most important or most urgent first. I figured out the shame of getting stuck on "the important" (aka boring, not actually important to me but maybe my survival in capitalism blahblah) stuff just drains me mentally and physically and keeps me paralyzed in fear, sometimes for days. Bleh. Now I just do whatever I can remember I have to do (or wrote down in the, yes, google keep app. yes I hate google too but I also agree with the comments that it is very minimal and functional in that way) and if I am lucky I hit that sweet target by slipping into the tasks I really needed to do, through the momentum of completing other stuff. Like the low-hanging fruit of reorganizing a drawer that I don't really needed to be reorganized but omg I sorted my postcard collection by size and theme, the high of this will carry me through the dayyy. And if not at least I don't feel miserable and try the same thing again tomorrow. I guess the biggest success (for my well-being) in this doesn't stem from the method or technologies behind it but more the realization that I will always forget important stuff/fuck up a little/not get stuff done on time (BECAUSE I AM HUMAN wohoo) and not feeling like shit about it (as much as I can) is the real goal. Pretty privileged take of course, since I was able to make a life for myself (for now) that doesn't require me to work a 40+h job and I get to make my own days flow 4-5 days of the week. (And I also don't live in the U.S., so less fear of crippling debt, homelessness etc. also helps)
Also! I made little photoshop collages of kittens doing chores to send as little digital chat stickers whenever I get my weekly cleaning done. They are cute. It works a majority of the time. Which is great, since I am suspicious of perfection. (see above)
I forget stuff (and people) exist all the time. I have decided to find joy in the fact of knowing this about me and fully accept that it will happen and just eventually return to it. Spiral time!!! Maybe that works for technology usage/methods as well.
On the topic of forgetting stuff: Does anyone else have an excel spreadsheet of all their friends and aquaintances they can sort by city/closeness of relationship/social circle etc to be able to not forget all the peope in your life you don't see every day still exist? Tried to built it, kind of failed, suggestions welcome. I used to just write long lists of people, but not being able to sort them is kind of a bummer for when I need to remember who said that they would enjoy if I invited them to go stroll through a museum with me spontaneously or go see a movie or who i want to reach out to before I visit a city or who lives close to me and would love to go for a walk on an exceptionally sunny winter day or who I should definetly send my newsletter/email to because they are just the right amount of close but not close enough to not need a formal invite to whatever thing it is I am doing/publishing/hosting/whatever. You get the point. Maybe someone already built that?
Anyways, thanks for reading all that. I'm wishing a day with the least amoutn of internatilzed adhd-shame possible to all you fellow nerds (:
Sluggish 4 ever (I am such a fan) <3
I used Google Keep notes. There's no format. It's just a blank page that I can organize anyway I want. I want to go into the boring details of how I organized it for myself since that's not the point. The point is that it's a blank page that I can configure in a way that works for ME. I use it as a planner/calendar. My phone is basically always with me. I've gotten into the habit of writing everything down into my calendar. And if I lose my phone it's in the cloud so I haven't lost everything. It's been a lifesaver!
I've been following the comment section for a few days and trying to formulate my own response... I might be in a different stage of my AuDHD journey than others here. I've been disabled for years and on benefits, and I'm trying to participate in "rehabilitation" programs to go back to school and eventually work after a life-altering event. I have an "executive functioning coach" at college, and I feel an immense pressure to try to try to conform to something I don't know if I'll even be able to imitate, much less thrive within. I don't know what a successfully unmasked life could look like while also managing to support myself.
I can tell you that I can't block my days out into strict chunks because if I "fail," I throw the whole day out and want to hide under the covers. I hate the pomodoro method because it feels like by the time I start making good progress and getting into a groove, someone loudly starts banging on pots and pans in the room, screaming "STOP!!!" Even if the break is just to pee or have a snack, I can't get myself to look at it kindly. And what if I want a longer break? (Which inevitably turns into TOO long of a break because I get into whatever it is I'm doing...)
I can do small tasks if they have an obvious and satisfying endpoint, like a worksheet for a foreign language class. Otherwise, if there's something more nebulous - "get as much Precalculus done as you can since you're 4 lessons behind" - I'd rather just sit there for hours and do all of it, life be damned. I want to read more books despite being busy with school, but "a little each day" feels like a slow death. I crave the satisfaction of seeing an entire chunk of a novel disappear behind my bookmark. I don't know how to reconcile this with the fact that SRS learning seems to have so much support and evidence behind it, nor with the fact that I'd prefer not to study for my upcoming science class by cramming in an entire chapter frantically the night before the test, like I used to. I don't even know if my brain can handle that anymore.
My current set-up is a Frankenstein of the Notes app and a physical planner I got for $10 out of desperation. I tried combining my "life to-do" with my "school to-do," and it wasn't very successful. Assigning tasks to specific days has also had mixed results. It seems that I really like analog for my school things - perhaps because that's how things were over a decade ago when I was last in school - and I prefer Notes for my "life" to-do list. I struggle with the fact that some things are more nebulous than others, like "vacuum this week" versus "schedule an appointment with a geneticist for hEDS when you can." Short-term versus long-term goals. I just put everything into a master to-do list that gets rewritten every few months (my app is a graveyard of them). I have also temporarily added an extra physical weekly calendar page that I printed myself so I could theoretically put my weekly schedule on the wall. It...kind of works? It feels like I have more space to breathe than my tiny planner. I color-coded things when the semester was still ongoing. That felt nice.
I am tentatively interested in a digital planner from Future ADHD and The Mini ADHD Coach (both IG people I guess). I could write in it with my iPad (which has been an invaluable tool for me for taking math courses online) and have the functionality and tactile nature of a physical planner in a more decorative, more ADHD-targeted digital one...but I have yet to come across a single review of it, anywhere, and that worries me. I'm also worried that it's not tailored for what someone needs for school versus life administration. I suppose it's "only" $20, but that's a lot for me. It allegedly has lifetime updates for the years, though, so that could be a nice eco-friendly thing...? I have no idea. I feel like it's going to be another planner rabbit hole. I am hoping to simultaneously be talked into and out of this planner. The design is cute, and it's impacting my decision-making. I have been Influenced(tm).
Also, re: things like pacing and the pomodoro method, my therapist (not the dreaded executive functioning coach) says that at first, it feels TERRIBLE, but you just have to...practice? And it gets better? Yet their neuroatypical ass fully admits to just doing everything in six hour chunks because that's what they can manage, and it's like... Hello...???
One major tool use I could put technology to as an audhd person is as a container and sorter for all my loops and loose ends. A fridge for the spirals so I don’t forget they exist. My sense of self, interests, and ambitions shift so frequently, but seen on a larger scale they never actually change/disappear, so it’s very easy to lose track of something (everything, all the time) that I’m genuinely passionate about. This is the draw of zettelkasten systems for me, but engineering or adopting this kind of system without it being warped by the planner/"cohesive project"-ification of everything is tricky.
I also love drum and bass! But sometimes I can find it over-stimulating, so if I have a long focus task at a desk I have found success with these. They're apparently designed specifically for ADHD to be upbeat, rather than the downbeat kind that most 'focus music' is. He has several if this tone isn't to your liking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wELOA2U7FPQ&t=4081s
I like working in my planner (I love stationery, and think on paper) but you're right, it doesn't actually make me more likely to do them. I find striking the right balance of gamification is the right way. I'm currently trialling a house-cleaning method that requires only paper, pens, dice and a timer, but could be adapted digitally. I'll report back if it works.