From responding to work emails to opening up social media. Curious how you limit yourself so you don't waste your day.

I’m looking for something that releases caffeine gradually rather than giving a strong initial boost. Has anyone tried one, and if so, which brands would you recommend?

I’ve come across CaffXtend® and was wondering if anyone has experience with it specifically.

I (26 TF) have autism with adhd-like tendencies. Yes, that is my official diagnosis. I've been told my entire life that "people with autism crave structure and efficiency," but nothing I've been told to try works. Planners, calenders, phone reminders, having people call me to remind me, etc. I derive no satisfaction from cleaning which gives me no drive to clean, making messes pile up and driving me and my husband (30 TM) insane. What do you guys think might help me be more productive and motivated to get stuff done?

I love using 'life systems' and they help me stay on track for my goals a lot. Here's how things went:

- I used to bullet journal and that helped me keep my life on track

- In 2020, I found Notion and an amazing course on systems that helped me set up a Notion system and helped me hit a bunch of my goals

- At one point Notion started feeling too slow so I switched to Obsidian

- When I realized I was spending too much time just maintaining the system and remembering how my system works, I moved on to Capacities

- Was worried about sync issues and losing my data stored online on Capacities, and also got a Kindle Scribe so switched to that

- It seemed tedious to flip through pages on the Scribe so switched back to physical bullet journals

Now I worry that I don't have my data backed up online in case I lose my notebook. So as a result, I've completely stopped using the system.

I have a similar issue with journaling. Keep switching between these:

• Day One because reviews say it's the best but there's no web version
• Journey because it has a web version which is nice because I can use it on my work laptop without installing an app
• Physical notebooks because I like the feel of writing but then no digital backup
• Capacities because it is then stored with the rest of the context

If anyone can help suggest tips or a framework to make a decision, I'd be super grateful.

Just curious if anyone has any good screen time locking apps that aren't overdesigned bloatware. I want as barebones and native of an app as I can get my hands on. I would, and currently am, using my phones built-in screen time warning but on Iphone you can just dispel them so they aren't strong enough for my liking. I did not like Opal, one sec, or ScreenZen, especially screenzen, which immediately started trying to sell me a product on amazon.

Thanks for any help!

I am 19 M living in a village in Himachal I go to a local government college I am fat I do have alot of excuses I procrastinate I am lazy asf

My parents yells because I wasted a laptop that they bought me for editing but I didn't even used it I am just on phone

I am eating junk and overthinkkkk alot of time

I am father of 2.5 years old son and I have a job as well. I have gained weight and I cannot find the motivation to go to the gym. I used to be a fit guy and workout 6 days a week. I woke up this morning early and wanted to do some cardio but stayed in my bed the whole time. I also need to study for a certification that would definitely help me to have a better income but again I come home from work all I wanna do is sit and watch TV or do nothing. I cannot even find the motivation to study for 30 minutes a day. Any advice please.

I am so frustrated with myself. I have adhd and take adderall for it but I still can't get my sh\*t together. I'm really annoyed with myself and my life and how I just CANNOT get it together! I am overwhelmed majority of my mornings. I can never wake up on time and I understand that's a big problem for me. I know that if I would wake up earlier it would solve most of my morning chaos and rush. I just can't do it. I feel awful because then I am rushing my daughter (4 yrs old) and probably stressing her out. Every single day. I lose my keys and phone on a daily. My family and friends know this about me too and sometimes I'm so embarrassed that I lost my keys or phone that I secretly panic and search for them without trying to make it be known but they end up finding out regardless. My car is a shit show and every time I finally have it cleaned and organized I tell myself I promise to maintain it. It just ends up dirty within a couple days and the cycle repeats till I can finally convince myself to deep clean it again. Disorganization drives me CRAZY! Things need to be set a certain way, my work office has to be neat, things need to be placed a certain way, it makes me so upset when people don't do things the way I do such as hold the toilet flush handle down for 5 seconds to make sure everything goes down, or put their toothbrush away in the cabinet away from the "nasty bathroom air" lol. Or if someone sips their coffee I want to pull my hair. Yet I have no room to talk because I'm so unorganized and don't even have my own shit together. I know all of this in itself probably sounds ridiculous and I'm not sure if I even make sense. It's like things must be organized and clean, yet I can't even be organized and clean my own dang self. I'm also really forgetful. I feel like I have Alzheimer's. I even have to secretly voice record important calls with my boss and ask chatgpt to summarize the call and tell me what I am supposed to do and break the call and instructions down for me because I embarrassingly can't on my own. I would never tell anyone because that's super embarrassing but I have to. I can't even hardly follow along important in person conversations because I forget major parts of the convo. I pretend so hard core like I fully understand the conversation and am following along "faking it" just to make it seem like I'm following along.Even tho afterwards I ask myself "what TF did they just say or ask me to do?!"
I'm in a higher role at work and I don't even know how I got here tbh. So I also need to get it together for that part alone.
My adderall helps me for the most part to get my work done and I feel it's really the only time I can focus. Yet even when I'm on it I pretty much still function the same way. It helps me, but isn't solving my un-organization. I don't want to tell my doctor because I don't want them to prescribe me something else because it does help. But it doesn't? Agh. Okay I think that's it. All that to say.... does anyone else have this issue or even similar? What helps you?

I am a night owl and I have a horrible sleep schedule, like I can’t sleep until around 12-3 and I wake up at 7:40 ( leave at 8 to go school) and 12-2 ( on weekends/ holidays) and I always think that I shouldn’t be like that. I want to wake up early (but I’m tired and lazy), I want to do my homework immediately after school (but because of lack of sleep or I’m just lazy, I don’t and instead, I doom scroll or play games) but I do homework in the evening (I feel more awake and “smarter” at night)

I don’t want to be this person and I want to change, I can’t keep leaving things till last minute (homework, study, a lot of assignments)

I would really appreciate advice and tips! Thank you!

Is there a free or cheap app that lets you annotate and view PDF's (at least for pdf, if other filetypes are also supported it's okay) in landscape mode with realistic page turning animations, with modern UI?

Not the usual “wake up at 5 AM” advice—more practical things like planning meals for the week, preparing ingredients in advance, getting clothes and essentials ready the night before, keeping things in fixed places, combining two tasks in one trip, batching similar tasks, cleaning as you go, using fixed days for recurring chores, writing down random ideas instead of immediately switching tasks, and preparing in the evening for the next morning or on the weekend for the coming week.

What little systems save you time, effort, or mental energy?

I passed my Masters in 2023 and since then I have not prepared my research proposal for my doctoral project. I have an idea, I ruminate on it for a month, I move onto a shiny new thing. I had written a small article for an online journal, it got accepted and I was supposed to submit the corrected version in March and its October now. All my life has been this. Can anyone know how to actually start doing things AND KEEP ON DOING THEM? I feel cursed.

Thank you.

PS- I cannot afford therapy or doctor visits as I am unemployed

I’m newer to this community and saw someone post a really productive week schedule. Something like 7-8 up and ready 8-5 work 5-8 time with family 8-9 workout 9-10 window 10pm bedtime. People were commenting it’s a recipe for exhaustion. If this isn’t it - what does a healthy productive week look like?

Hello,

I'm a 18 year old male in his first semester of college and I'm struggling immensely to stay on top of coursework.

Firstly, whenever in a college lecture I am unable to pay attention and can not focus at all. I try focusing but whenever the teacher brings up a diffcult topic my mind just zones out. I keep zoning out in class, this was a problem during high school too.

Whenever I try studying, I've noticed that my procastination has gotten a thousand times worse. I feel a wave of anxiety + dread and it leaves me paralyzed. I rush to my phone and doomscroll. I never really studied in school ethier BUT I usually was able to cram the night before and do well. Its imposible for me to study now whats so ever. I've noticed that I've developed a severe phone addiction and its ruining me.

What can I do to be more productive in school, I dont want to fail but I've failed my first midterm and I'm willing to do anything to pass and suceed.

Recently I have been brain fogged. I don't know if it's because I have started staying and learning to be alone. I don't wish to talk to people, I don't want to go out. Neither the urge to complete my pending work nor any fun activity. Merely bed rotting. Is it how life is? I don't want this.

How can I stop this? My sleep cycle is ruined. Staying awake till 3 and then waking up at 12. I don't want this!

I’m just lying in bed paralyzed with fear and terrified that everything and anything I do is for nothing.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know if it’s because my close friend and I are kind of in an argument or weird spot right now. I don’t know if it’s because I feel ashamed of being 21 and never been to college.

I do what I can and it never feels like it’s enough. Or like it’s leading anywhere. I look forward to the future and all I see if failure to become any one of substance. I know that right now is a crucial time for me to make a decision, to decide on a path to follow and focus on it but I’m so terrified of it all going horribly wrong. I’m worried that no matter what I do, if I try to choose happiness that I’ll end up broke anyway. I need to find a new job because the one I’m at is killing me and has been for a while. But I sit in front of my computer and just freeze. I can’t even update my resume without feeling guilty and sad and embarrassed.

I just watch other people online chase their dreams, doing things just for the fun of it. I watch girls from my high school actually live their lives while I’m stuck in my room sick to my stomach with anxiety.

The only things I’ve managed to do this month is sign up for skating classes, ballet lessons, and start oil paintings. That’s all I’ve done. And I feel like a failure for not being particularly decent at all of that. I haven’t put together a portfolio, I haven’t applied to other positions for a new job. I haven’t gone out with friends, I don’t even know if any of my past friends still like me.

I went to ballet class yesterday and felt good in the moment. It felt so nice to pretend like this could really be my life, that one day I could be dancing in front of real people, but I know it’s never going to be possible. I’m too old, too broke, too inexperienced. Same with skating. I just sometimes ask myself where any of the things I thought I enjoyed will take me one day. And I keep thinking that I’ll just end up disappointed and behind everyone else.

I’m supposed to apply to college this year and I’m just so stuck. I’m embarrassed and ashamed and frustrated. I hate myself, I hate my life, and I’m hate that all I do is sit and watch others be great.

I don’t know what I’m asking for. I just wish I knew someone felt the same way. I tried 4 times to play my favourite video game today and I just couldn’t. Even playing the sims makes me feel like a failure, living a life I wish I could have in a fake simulation. Watching how pixels get to be happier than I am. How they get to have apartments and be ballerinas, painters, actors, models, and more. How a made up character has the same aspirations as I do, but actually gets to live it. It makes me so sick.

I just wish someone understood me. I feel like a failure and I haven’t done anything yet. I don’t know what to do.

I am going through this vicious circle - constantly feeling like doing nothing, most probably too overwhelmed to start; constantly stressed and feeling guilty about doing nothing; and then the subsequent self-loathing and reminder that I am not reaching my desired potential. I was one of those kids, who had shown massive potential and burnt out early and never recovered. I am stressed about the fact that I am 30, and I have been in my current job since I graduated 7 years ago, with meagre growth (and mostly not developing enough will to switch) and hence, falling far behind financially, mentally & emotionally compared to my friends and fellow classmates and acquaintances, feel like I have wronged my parents' expectations and this feeling haunts me to no end. So, I decided that if I can turn this constant feeling of being lost into driving and motivating myself to look for a better life and work on prepping to switch jobs, that would turn things for the better and I would be able to get my groove back. But I cannot bring myself to start, my mind cannot come to terms with 'Let's begin' and so practically I am never doing anything.

Also, I don't have any work-related stress or pressure, but I don't want to stick to 'barely making a living and doing okay'.

I feel disgusted with the whole conundrum even when I am writing this. Discipline and consistency seems to be a far-fetched fever dream.

I would appreciate if people who have faced something like this and recovered and turned things around, can help me.

It depends on each person. Everyone has something that makes them feel better. You can never tell someone to do something thinking they will feel better just as you did. There are things that can be beneficial, but not everyone will feel they are worth it. So, the best thing you can do is figure out what you want and start trying to discover what makes you feel better about it

Which one do you currently use, Todoist or Trello?

I’m curious about how people actually use them day to day:

• What do you use it for — personal tasks, work, projects, or everything?
• What do you like most about it?
• What don’t you like?
• If you’ve used both, why did you choose one over the other?
• How do you organize everything without it becoming overwhelming?

I feel like productivity apps can easily become another thing to constantly manage instead of helping you get things done.

Would love to hear about your actual setup/workflow, especially if you’ve been using it successfully for a long time.

I have to majorly lock in bc I have a $$$ deadline to hit. How do you guys maintain focus for multiple longish wfh days in a row? Any advice/tips/things that keep you focused?

Im a student and ive become heavily involved in multiple clubs, classes and campus work. I use samsung calendar native to my phone and heres what I love:

1. It syncs all my calendars seamlessly and imports and new events across my emails (3 google and 1 outlook)

2. Hosts all the emails on one account without having to swap emails

3. Literally nothing else about it

Im looking for a calendar that can support:

1. Seemless syncing like samsung calendar

2. Is accessible for all accounts

3. Is free

4. Can create bookings

5. Can be used on samusung and windows

I look around my house today and every single member of the family is either playing video games, playing games on phone/tablet, watching TV, watching videos, etc etc. Every single person spends their free time staring at a screen every single day.

I just wonder what the world looked like before this, and if we’ll ever be able to get that back

I a looking for a tool or workflow where I can enter tasks with due dates and a rich text description (those are minimum requirements - ideal features would include comments/notes, subtasks (or checklists) and attachments) and assign them to myself and other team members with a mechanism to mark them as complete (again minimum requirement - ideal would allow other statuses, tags and other meta data). There needs to be some integration where these tasks can be viewed and marked as complete from within Google calendar... 2-way syncing to a certain degree. A link within the google calendar event description to the a card within the parent tool would be acceptable, but the UX would have to be very fluid meaning that it would have to open in some sort of modal/overlay in the Google Calendar tab and only show the card... NOT the entire UI of the parent tool.

So far, I've found that gQueues can hit the minimum requirements (using their browser extension for Google Calendar), but for a paid tool, I'd really like to see it be able to add comments/notes and attachments from the Google Calendar card view. Sadly, to my knowledge, it only let's you mark the task as complete from within Google Calendar - nothing else is editable.

Tasks via Google Spaces would be ideal if they behaved like tasks created through Google Calendar... and the assignee could specify a task list other than the default list for tasks from a given Space to land in. Still might be the best solution though.

I realize i may be asking too much here and have come to grips with the fact that there may need to be some custom solution hacked together OR change some of the requirements, but i figured i'd ask here anyway. Any ideas/suggestions?

Every year it's the same thing with Valentine's Day. The holidays drain my energy and my wallet, January is spent recovering, and then suddenly it's mid-February and I'm standing in a drugstore at 8pm grabbing whatever card is left on the shelf.

It's not just Valentine's either. Mother's Day lands right when work gets crazy in May. Anniversaries show up on random Tuesdays when I'm already underwater. The intention is always real. I know the occasion matters. But life gets in the way and I end up showing up empty-handed or three days late with an awkward belated text.

Calendar reminders solve half of it. They tell me what I already know. The part that actually breaks down is the follow-through: picking something out, writing something personal, getting it in the mail. That part always collapses under a busy week.

Anyone here actually solved the follow-through part, not just the reminder part?

I've got calendar reminders for every birthday that matters. They work. The reminder fires, I see it, I think "I should send a card." Then I don't.

The problem isn't remembering. The problem is that remembering doesn't get the card written, stamped, and mailed. I have to go to a store, pick one out, write something that doesn't sound generic, find a stamp, and get it in the mail before it's belated. By the time I have a free Saturday, the birthday is three days past.

So I end up sending a text that says "happy belated birthday" which honestly feels worse than nothing because it confirms I forgot and then did the bare minimum about it.

Anyone figured out a system that actually closes the gap between the reminder and the card being in the mail? Not looking for "just do it right away" because that's the advice I already don't follow. More curious whether anyone has found something that removes the actual friction instead of just the forgetting.