What are your best AD(H)D hacks/copes/tricks?

Using Siri's announce notifications is super helpful to me. Discuss :)

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anytime I sign up for a subscription thing, I cancel instantly (if the service allows you to use it until the end of the time you paid for) That way I get the thing for the month I am most likely to use it and then my interest and subscription run out within weeks from each other.

I found a friend with ADHD and when I get overwhelmed filling out documents, they are there to help me through. I try and do the same. I can deal better with forms other people have to fill out - maybe because my own stakes are lower, so it’s not so stressful.

when I’m good, I try to make todo lists. The granularity of items is roughly proportional to emotional investment, i.e. how stressful starting it will be. They look vastly different in size (e.g. open the email, find the information, … vs. clean the entire apartment — maybe not the best example, but I hope it gets the idea across)

I currently use an app called Finch for things I want to do regularly. I get points for doing them. I also have a task for the end of the day to write down what I didn’t do and why without judgement.. just to see if there are patterns.

I “listen” to podcasts to calm down my own thoughts. It helps me concentrate on tasks. I don’t normally end up paying any attention to the podcast.
- How is Finch going as far as longevity? I feel like I've used about a million different types of habit trackers or whatever and I use them for about a week and then get annoyed at having to do it every day. I always want so badly to keep up with them because data and trends/patterns over time is just super interesting to me, but they just never work out 😞
  
  I’m not sure yet, but it’s got a couple of things that, for me personally, work in its favour:
  
  It’s very cute and you take care of a lil bird you might form an emotional connection with. The bird goes on adventures and tells you about them after, it forms a character over time, explores different areas, and grows up. All of these things have made me come back to get the random ‘completion’ dopamine hit. Most other things that work for me fall in this category.. the app rewards you with stuff for your bird on different ways. It works almost too well for me but might not be everyone’s thing.
  
  Another this is that you can add friends, which might help to hold you somewhat accountable. The interaction between friends is just a remote “I’m thinking of you” kinda thing, so it won’t help accountability on individual tasks, but might help opening the app.
  
  Now.. I have found the ‘tracking’ side of the app a bit rough, so it might not meet your expectations on that end. The only helpful thing for me has been looking over a heat map of my responses to mood check-ins.
  
  With all that being said, I’ve used it for about half a year now and I am just starting to struggle to motivate myself to use it. But I’m not quite ready to let go yet though…
  
  Oh the bird thing sounds cute!
  
  I might have to check it out. I'm very impressed that you've used it for half a year! For an ADHD-app-jumper, consistently using the same thing for more than a month is very inspiring to me lol
  
  Haha.. I’m surprised too!! Good luck! Hope it works for a good while :)
- Great list!

38 comments