This is my journal for sharing what I’m trying when it comes to managing my ADHD.
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Here’s a haphazard list of the things I’ve been doing so far.
- I use Beeminder (of course).
- Android Automate triggers zeno alarms which must be manually dismissed in order to ensure I don’t ignore my Beeminder goals. These alarms are only scheduled for the next due goal so I’m not overwhelmed by alarms.
- Android Automate asks me what I’m doing and how long I think I’ll spend doing it. Then, when that amount of time’s up, it asks me again, and so on.
- I use Android app timers as well as an app blocking app to schedule when and how much I can use certain apps (read: YouTube and Reddit).
- I physically go to the library each Monday morning, taking only my phone and a paper notebook, to create some space for thinking and planning where I won’t be tempted to start executing on the first thing that catches my interest.
- Today I reworked my technology entertainment beeminding to use the autodialer to connect mindfulness practice with the amount of time I’m allowed to spend gaming. This is both because I had found ways to get around my old system to game as much as I wanted, and to increase the amount of time I spend practicing mindfulness to help with anxiety and intrusive thoughts.
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This sounds interesting. Do you have an export or a screenshot of this? I might look to do something similar with Tasker…
How would you deal with something that takes longer than you predicted?
- Do you just say the same thing and guess timescale again?
- Is there a way of logging the task against the same thing and then the next time you say the task
– eg a task of beeminder goal refresh, your automation would say “you have previously spent 10 minutes on beeminder goal refresh, did you want the timer for 10 minutes?”
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Currently it’s quite simple–all it does is ask the question and then schedule itself to run again after the elapsed time. It doesn’t compare between runs. The only additional thing it does is trigger a Make.com scenario to save my answers to a spreadsheet in case I want to review the data later.
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Here’s a dump of a bunch of tools that can be helpful for ADHD. @adamwolf told me about several of them. Would be interested in others I don’t know about, too.
I haven’t actually tried any of these yet, so this is a bit of a todo list for me.
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- Routinist (on iOS, not sure about Android) is awesome.
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I’ve been using vitamin r most work days and it’s been very effective. I like how flexible it is. I do wish it integrated better with other things I use, like GitHub, trello, notion, toggl, beeminder, etc. But it’s definitely a great tool. I expect I’ll be purchasing it once my trial expires.
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Couple things I’ve found that help with programming:
- GitHub Copilot. I feel like it’s helped a lot with making coding more sustainable for me.
- Pair programming. I currently pair program quite a bit with a friend, and it seems to help a lot.
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Copilot is a godsend. It makes programming feel wayyy better, but it gets addictive fast 
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My ADHD symptoms have been stronger recently. Not 100% sure why.
I’ve been using the Arc browser, which feels like an improvement since I can use it with basically no UI, and it’s very focused on keyboard shortcuts.
I’ve also been playing with Sunsama, though it’s pretty consistent that I have a hard time doing even daily planning on a computer, since I get distracted by executing rather than planning.
I’ve been moving towards returning to an autofocus-type system for spending my time, though I haven’t quite worked out the right implementation. Thankfully Notion makes it pretty easy to play with this kind of stuff without needing to write any code.
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One thing that’s been consistently challenging is getting to bed at a good time. I find that my ADHD leads to me never wanting to stop doing things or listening to podcasts or using my phone.
One thing that’s been very helpful is using the Loòna app. It gives me a relaxing activity that transitions me to a point where I actually want to go to sleep. It’s been very effective at that.
However I’ve still had trouble getting to the app at a good time. So recently I created a new goal to start a Loòna escape 30 minutes before I want to go to sleep. I just created the goal so it remains to be seen how well this will work, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
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Having a Beeminder goal for using Loòna before bedtime has been working fairly well. I generally get in bed, complete a Loòna escape, leave the Loòna music on, and then mess around a bit more on my phone before going to sleep. It doesn’t work perfectly every night, but I’m ok with that given that it’s a gentler method of getting to bed than other things I’ve tried in the past.
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been using trydeepwork.com for last few weeks!
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At @vivgui’s recommendation I started using Focusmate again and it’s been quite helpful so far. I’ve been beeminding + autodialing it (narthur/fm).
I paused a bunch of my goals for the past weekend since my family were getting together and I wasn’t sure if I’ve have time for all my Beeminder goals. Biggest takeaway from that–I do indeed still need my Beeminder Loona goal to get to bed at a decent time.
Recently I got a water bottle similar to this, with times down the side:
I’ve only used it for a few days, but it definitely feels much better than how I was doing it. Previously I would fill up a separate jug and then refill a glass throughout the day from the jug, and track how much I drank in an app on my phone. But that created a lot of friction to refilling the glass, to the point where I would avoid doing it. Having all my water for the day means I no longer have that friction, while still being able to stay on track throughout the day.
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For a long time I’ve been using the Mindful Internet Use Chrome extension to great effect. Basically it lets me specify sites I tend to use mindlessly, and then when I try to visit that site it gives me a breathing exercise and then asks me how long I’ll use the site before letting me through. Once the time’s up, it’ll give me another breathing exercise.
Today I just discovered through the Hard Fork podcast that there’s a similar app for your phone called one sec. I haven’t used it yet, but I’ve just joined the Android beta and am hopeful that it will be similarly useful to the Chrome extension I’m already using.
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It looks like they also have browser extensions for all the major browsers:
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My loona goal is still working well for getting me to bed at a reasonable time.
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I’ve tried one sec because of you and it worked fantastic today. I like the fact that it pushes me to do an IRL breath before opening the app. There’s something about breathing that makes me think: “what the heck did I just click on, why did I do it? I could do something better for me right now!”
I just installed the app when you talked about it; I was really missing something like this for my phone.
Did you get the chance to set it up?
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@sheik I did! However I haven’t actually seen it much, since I already have things set up to limit my access to the most distracting apps on my phone, and those measures have already set me up with some pretty good habits around the phone I think.
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For Christmas my mom got me this desk whiteboard:
So far I’m really loving it. I use it to keep a working todo list, do time blocking, and otherwise augment my working memory. I really like that it’s physical and always visible, and doesn’t result in lots of random papers scattered around like was the case when I tried to use pen and paper for this kind of thing.
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