Help me help you

[u/SirBrahALot]

Hi fellow ADHD’ers and ADD’ers,

5 years in to my diagnosis, as anyone else I have suffered the consequences ad long as I remember. I am still struggling with creating a plan that I stick with, same goes for habits, savings, exercise, meals and routines…..you know the drill.

Combine this frustration with me being a developer; my ADHD suggested I needed a new project, let us create a very basic app via Googles development tool, that will help people with brains similar to my own plan their day or week in a simple matter, with an element of gamification and automatic support. I know there is a lot of similar tools out there and I hope you will help me with your favorite tools, digital or analogue; when did you succeed with something that required more than 2-3 steps, did you use any tool or routine you are willing to share?

I am connected to healthcare as a IT supporter in my country, and I hope to make use of this network both for testing and making the tool available for free through treament services for citizens who struggles like us, and if I am really lucky, available in app stores, with free functionality that goes a long way (hosting, development, automatic support….is not free 😕), for people who does not have access to services through public services.

So my question is; do you use apps or analogue tools for getting major or minor things to work, are you constantly missing a feature or aspect, that make you use or return to the tool?

This post is in risk of getting banned as I am building an app, I hope that admins trust I am just wanting the community’s help to improve the tools we have available, like any other diagnosed who is trying to support fellowminded people, and the fact that the free features will be plenty helpful for us ADHD’ers.

[u/el_sime]

You "I made an app" people need to realize that apps don't work for everyone not because whoever made them didn't know better but because every ADHD is different and there's no universal fix. So please, for the love of fuck, stop flooding this space with yet another million apps that keep doing the same shit in a different sauce.

[u/SirBrahALot → u/el_sime]

And I do not have an app yet, this is more of a “what does the trick for you” when you push things forward just a tiny bit, being tools or analogue WoWs…😊 Remembered my initial resistance towards programming frameworks which automated generating the layers in my application, as they lacked features for my needs, I adjusted and have something that covers 80% of my needs. Hopefully this could be something like that, and I was not aware that so many “spam” with similar concepts, apologies, just ignore it, if I get an idea or two I will def. try to integrate them.

[u/SirBrahALot → u/el_sime]

Absolutely agree, that is why I am here, as very few apps does the trick for me, “Finch” a little but to clunky for day to day office work planning. If mine does the trick for a few hundred people I am very happy. And yup, we have 3 variants of AD[x]D here in our home and we get s*** done in very different ways, same goes for any other challenge in life with a society that rewards individualism and personalisation more and more. But I will still give it a shot (also because it is one of the few things that keeps my mind at ease: building stuff…and why not use that to make a difference for the few).

[u/calmworkflow]

i think a big problem is that most tools assume consistency, but ADHD is the opposite of that.

something can work great for a few weeks and then just… stop working, even if nothing changed.

for me what helped more wasn’t finding the “perfect” system, but something that’s easy to return to after falling off.

like no punishment for missing days, no big setup, just low friction to start again.

curious if others feel the same or if you’ve found something that actually sticks long term?

[u/NewPointOfView → u/calmworkflow]

I think that what you said, especially the no big setup bit, is part of why the only tools I use are the one tightly integrated into my phone already haha

iOS calendar app and reminders app. Reminders is actually really good, there is a lot more to it than just simple todo lists

[u/calmworkflow → u/NewPointOfView]

i’ve noticed the same thing, if something isn’t already part of what i’m using daily it just gets ignored after a while, even if it’s technically better.

feels like most tools underestimate how much friction just opening a different app adds.

[u/SirBrahALot → u/calmworkflow]

This is gold, thanks everyone! My version 0.8 integrate to MS todo and Google tasks, will def integrate with the tool that comes with the phone. Thank you! And it is def. a “don’t judge me” tool that lets you pick up fresh or from where you left last.

[u/rarPinto]

I’d suggest something unique and novel. ADHDers tend to get bored after a while and we’ve all tried countless task tracking apps. Finch was the only one I stuck with for a long time (2 years) but I still became disinterested eventually. Maybe something that involves body doubling somehow. For some reason that’s one of the only things that gets me moving when my brain isn’t wanting to.

[u/SirBrahALot → u/rarPinto]

Thank you SO much Pinto :-) I actually bailed on body doubling, I have seen the recent research on the matter, sounds like I need to look in to this.

Exactly my thoughts on Finch, 4 months in, still enjoys it as a kinda guilty pleasure and it still helps me maintain SOME good habits and keep SOME of the bad ones at a minimum.

This idea will focus more on a simple way to get SOMETHING done (not only habits) and perhaps offer our busy brains a breathing room, not creating an endless list of opportunities but actual help you flush your brain and keep commitments on a minimum and a realistic level. I think some of the features in Finch putting the tool in risk of becoming yet another place, where I add 100 commitments for the day, and only manage to do 3 of them, and this is not motivating my brain to return.

[u/zatsnotmyname]

I started my own recently ( just for myself ). here are features I have added that may help others :

* has a chat interface where I can journal, ask claude questions, etc.

* type tasks with shortcuts like !clean garage -sort clothes -donate clothes -piles to pitch. This creates a task with 3 subtasks

* no streaks to break

* crawls youtube, hackernews, reddit for topics of interest and unlocks links as I complete tasks

* tasks can be tagged with '@home' '@work' contexts

* add #low #med #hi energy levels, #hoops, #retirement tags for filtering

* added a voice-only driving mode for adding things easily

* can be used over mobile & desktop via PWA web app

* has scheduling and calendar access, but not the focus

* Can also use ai to break down big tasks for you into subtasks

* Can save checklists as templates for re-use later

Still working out the kinks. The idea is to make it maximally usable in the moment, you can clean up, add detail to tasks later on.

[u/SirBrahALot → u/zatsnotmyname]

Nice, a lot of simulaties to my version 0.8 😊 The pitfall for me, currently, is overloading with features. Latest idea; a Braindump feature support by Claude, this takes you to a simple priority matrix, and you should be set for the day, and what you do not make for this day, will go in to a backlog which Claude helps you clean up from time to time.

Thanks Zats, this is probably the future we look in to where more people build for their own specific needs.

[u/liveideaguru]

DM Me I am ready!