There’s a lot of to-do list apps, reminders, calendars etc out there advertised towards us to help us do things like break down large tasks into meaningful chunks and focus on what we need to do each day, but I want to hear from the community what do you guys think is the best so let’s start a thread
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Am I the only one who feels like productivity/organization tools for ADHD people is like bicycles for blind kids? Like, “yeah I can see how a functional person could find this useful, but what the heck am I going to do with it?”
The only way I’m able to get anything done is by externalising my memory. I just make sure I have reminders on a smartwatch so that they forcibly are brought to my attention even if I’m away from my PC/phone.
How do you set reminders on your smartwatch?
Directly on the watch: timers, alarms. Via the watch: calendar events and the like whose notifications get picked up by the watch. Have to be proactive about blocking useless notifications though.
I have an Android phone and a galaxy watch 4, not sure how equivalents work on Apple.
I just have a dry-erase board for planning out my week at work and at home I fly by the seat of my pants and spend months attempting to form good habits
It took me 25 years just to start brushing my teeth once a day, no idea how long until I get it up to twice a day.
heard recently that people with ADHD can’t form habbits in the same way neurotypicals do, thats why we struggle with this shit so often!
I try to brush before bed, and when I shower. Thats like… 1.5 times daily (most days), i’m almost there :P
We can, but they are extremely limited. I’ve a habit of checking my keys, phone and wallet are in my pocket when I leave the house. I also have the habit of thinking, “I need to brush my teeth” in the mornings. Unfortunately, forming a habit of actually brushing my teeth is more than my brain can handle (hence the work around).
Medication helps a lot, with even minimal habit forming. It vastly accelerates it from 5-10 years, to maybe 6-12 months, for simple habits. I can lock in 1 a year now!
Medication unfortunately hasn’t really helped my habit forming much. I’m slowly working on it though.
It’s definitely helped a lot of my executive dysfunction, though it does have its drawbacks.
I do have days where I am more depressed than I ever have been, but only if I take it more than 3-4 times a week.
@nuttydepressor @cynar I’m struggling with my meds ATM too. If I take the full dose I’m functional but my anxiety is just silly. And the depression/moodiness has been bad recently, tho it was likely burnout from stress and full dose meds taken for work. It took me a while to realise it was the meds. Half dose today anyway.
Even when medicated, it takes a long time, and a ridiculous amount of mental effort to lock them in. They are also still fragile as spun glass.
As for the depression I know it. I had 2 types. Burnout was the most obvious. I’m actually on half the medication dose I was on. It turned out I had gone over the hump, and my mind was overloading. The kickback from that caused a depressive state. Backing off put me back on the peak.
The 2nd was wile coyote like. I managed to reduce the stress I was under, by a mix of medication, cognitive, and behavioural changes. Without the stress however, my emotional lockdowns released. The depression was environmental, but I couldn’t even feel it, under the weight of stress. It was like wile coyote running off a cliff, all good until I stopped and looked. I’m still chipping away at it, but it still helps that I can feel it now. Before, it was still there and affecting me, but I wasn’t aware of it.
Holy fuck I am not the only one.
I hear you. They can be a time sink (bone apple tea?). For me, basic BuJo on paper has been the answer for years. Recently though, I’ve started to use Google Tasks and Calendar to push tasks at me more than the pull of paper and pen.
My most used app for this is the built in alarms app.
I have so many alarms, no other app forces you to pay attention like an alarm.
Be wary of falling into the new tool new toy cycle. I have a huge problem of wanting to try new tools despite the current solution working absolutely fine.
I’m down to Ticktick for tasks and habits, and Obsidian for notes.
Habitica for daily tasks (I like the RPG feel), gobin.tools for breaking down tasks into manageable increments, and the pomodoro app Focus To-Do to keep momentum. I use a paper calendar for appointments and dates and index cards to keep track of tasks that don’t have a specific date involved.
Goblin.tools is interesting! The chef tool will be a huge help!
I’ve been messing around with obsidian (a note-taking/thought-keeping app only for people who like to tinker and customize so wouldn’t necessarily recommend here), but having something that syncs between all my devices is FANTASTIC. It would still be nice to try something more grab and go, but I would highly recommend considering apps that can be easily accessed and edited from multiple devices.
only for people who like to tinker and customize so wouldn’t necessarily recommend here
I seriously cannot tell if this is sarcasm
lol. I meant it seriously but now I see my mistake.
(a note-taking/thought-keeping app only for people who like to tinker and customize so wouldn’t necessarily recommend here)
It’s as simple or complex as you make it to be. Obsidian can be used with core plugins only and work just fine.
Goblin tool. You give it a task you want to do and it breaks it down into smaller tasks/steps which you can keep breaking down. Also has a tone rewording tool and a tool for checking if you are taking something in the wrong tone. Super helpful for people with ADHD and Autism.
Oh, that looks really promising. But I’m extremely hesitant to use something like this if it can’t be done 100% local and offline
Edit: Maybe I’ll use it just for the most basic, non-personal stuff, like cleaning my room. Actually yeah, I think that’s okay
They have an app for $0.99, but I believe it still needs connection for all the back end task generation and stuff. Hopefully it works for you as another tool for the tool box!
What it spits out from just the words clean room is pretty damn great, more than enough to convince me. And while I’m generally very careful with AI, I think in this instance it’s best for me to swallow my damn pride, and accept the help it can give me.
The About section does mention the wish to move this to open source solutions, which I’d very much love to see. I’m looking forward to whenever that can happen.
Google Calendar with a ton of notifications per event and goblin.tools to automatically break down tasks.
Same for me. Now that I know about goblin.tools, I will take over the world! Mu-ha-ha
TickTick has served me well for the past few years. I throw them some cash but I hear the free version doesn’t lack much.
Oh my god I have my entire life and my husband and kiddo’s entire life on TickTick.
Every tiny thing I have to do during the day is planned out… I can’t even express how much I love that app.
I use the Microsoft ‘To Do’ app.
On your phone, set it as a widget and put it on your home screen so it’s the first thing you see when you unlock your phone.
On your computer, set your browsers homepage as your To Do task list, so it’s the first thing you see when you open your browser.
Whenever you think of anything you need to do, just write it in, you’ll be reminded of it constantly. Any appointments won’t be forgotten, and you can set due dates for any task.
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I’ve been using TickTick for a while now. It syncs with my Android phone and work computer pretty cleanly. It handles notifications, recurring tasks, skipping a task until the next time, habits tracked differently than tasks, etc. I don’t use the premium stuff and it doesn’t have ads in it. So, it’s free for me.
I’ve got a keyboard shortcut on my computer ,so I can quickly add new items on the fly. The entry has basic language parsing to pick out the date and things. I can just enter “
every monday check the mail #life” and it’ll set up and tag the task automatically.I’m working on finding good ways to make sure that I actually follow my to-do at work instead of latching on to the top item and getting lost on it for the whole day, but it’s working for now.
Android user here.
Habits to track my habits and get reminders to do things. I’ve got things as simple as brushing my teeth in here and have them spread across multiple areas. You can set different goals such as every day, 3 times a week, etc.
Google keep for short reminders/quick access info. The search is good and it integrates with my Google home devices to add items to my lists such as my grocery list
Todoist for task management. I love that I can use natural language when creating a task. I keep both work and personal tasks in here and plan out my day every morning using task time estimates. I’ve got labels for 5, 15, 30 minutes and higher for estimates for how long a task will take. Helps when I’ve got 30 minutes between meetings and need to find something productive to do during that time.
Notion for notes. I jumped on the hype train and thus far have found I don’t use it to it’s full potential. I could probably get by with something simpler but I don’t want to migrate again (came from onenote)
Journey for journaling. I try to use it daily and include pictures if possible. This has really helped with my poor memory of past events. They will remind you of throwback entries which are always fun to go back and look at. I also record what I ate for the day (not tracking macros so this is good enough) and also things I’m grateful for here.
Google calendar for work and personal. Wife and I add each other to events which has helped immensely when juggling shared things, doctors appointments, kids events, and more.
Insight Timer for meditations. I try to meditate in the mornings and the premium features gives you access to some courses that I’ve found really great. It also has sleep meditations which don’t always work for me but come in handy on occasion.
Those are the big ones. Every year around Christmas when I take some time off work I try to evaluate my productivity tools and process, and so far these have all been what I’ve settled on
Question. I tried to do the habit tracking thing but found I was overwhelmed by spending so much time tracking various things that it just became unsustainable. Did you pick specific areas you wanted to address or do you just do everything? I still do medication, but that’s because I don’t want to accidentally overdose. Again.
I’ve also never been able to keep a journal to save my life. 2 days is about as far as I get. So kudos to you for all the strategies you have going here.
The habits app is super quick to update. Takes me 30 seconds when I plug in my phone for bed. I do try to pick something to focus on each week, but the nice thing about the app I use is you don’t have to do the things every day. Most of my goals are set to some number of times per week.
Hm, ok. Maybe I’ll give habit tracking another shot. Thanks!
If you haven’t tried it you should check out Sunsama. I have tried a lot of todo apps and have never found one that works for every situation and Sunsama kinda solves this through integrations. I really like that it connects to email and other calendars as well as apps like Trello and Jira and lets me track them all as cards and even automate what happens when I mark them done in Sunsama. It also supports tasks directly and I use those for a few recurring tasks that don’t fit anywhere else. ADHD wise it has been helpful with planning times for specific tasks and seeing how they fit into my combined calendars and get better at time estimating which I didn’t expect. I think it’s general “turn a week into a kanban board” concept took some getting used to but it has been really helpful for me as well. I anecdotally feel like I get more done and am less overwhelmed when I keep to the daily ceremonies that it has as well for what it’s worth.
This looks cool but $16/month is a steep price.
Honestly the only thing that has worked for me is ritalin_highdose.exe
The problem with apps is they put my phone in front of my face, opening up FAR too many options for distraction.
Honestly, a bullet journal was a game changer for me. the fancy ribboned, decorated, instagram-ready craziness people make pictures of, but the basic system created by a person with ADHD for their own of index, monthly calendar with not more than two habit trackers, daily task list, future (more than a month), and a new spread (page) for whatever random thing I need when I need it.
The right notebook makes is a LOT easier. My Leuchtturm1917 A6 lives in my right pocket, with a pen twisted in the elastic. Prenumbered pages, preprinted index, good paper when my fountain pen habit surfaces, and no distractions.
Most of the websites about it are so into beautifying it that the system gets lost, so if it sounds useful try this: https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Bullet+journal&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=
The useful information is in parts 2 and 4 - the rest is motivation and fluff.