ADHD, Productivity and Time Management
Tags: productivity, beginners, adhd
Published: 2024-04-16 06:16:47

---
title: ADHD, Productivity and Time Management
published: true
date: 2024-04-16 06:10:03 UTC
tags: productivity, beginners, adhd
canonical_url: https://jelloeater.dev/adhd-productivity
---

_(Image credit to bphope.com)_

## Intro

So it's no secret among my friends and family that I'm a bit of a scatterbrain. I also love to offload anything difficult into different applications, either on my phone or on my desktop/laptop. While I've [covered some great tooling before](https://jesses.dev/tools-dont-matter), this time, I'd like to review a few neat things I've found that more normal users can benefit from.

I make no effort to hide the fact that I have a really bad case of ADHD. No, not the "I cannot concentrate when I have a TV on in the background bad", more like, I've sat staring at my monitor for 45 minutes and cannot make my brain engage in something I know I **NEED** to get done. This can be very frustrating and downright upsetting. Anyone with ADHD knows that stress and anxiety love to tag along RIGHT when you need to get things done. This can create a depressing cycle that can be hard to break out of, depending on the day.

While medication can work for some folks, for me I would just hyper-focus on one thing and then struggle to switch to the next task. A good strong cup of coffee and two L-Theanine gummies every morning do help. Also be sure to drink water, **like a lot of it.**

## Staying Focused

### [Focusmeter](https://focusmeter.app/)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.zeitic.focusmeter](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.zeitic.focusmeter)

![](https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/OfW0vfTGFaKIe9f1CZ7REsSEigMK2B7xIH6etF11IbiuCwwC4NVgySErWJ7iDg4R8aM)

This app sits at the core of my workflow, bite-sized 25-minute sprints of work. One of the best parts is that it not only generates great analytics but also can set your phone to Do Not Disturb mode, which helps keep those dopamine hits at bay.

### Block

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wverlaek.block](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wverlaek.block)

![](https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/yrmXbi7NFsMkOT1DQeb6mNqi-fcwOIkzfZgF5_qRA8YRPJB5z1icBRVChxxzKFGpsYSI)

While having a \*_Pomodoro_ timer on my phone lets me know how much time I have left, it does not, however, keep me from [doom-scrolling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomscrolling) between breaks. This is where Block comes in. While there are dozens of app blockers, all the ones I've tried had tons of features tacked on, bloated GUIs and junk I just didn't need. This app does what it says on the tin, and does it WELL.

If you're looking for a more physical approach, [I've also gotten this timer as well](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRB4BTRQ) for a few folks, and it works quite well.

### [Business Calendar 2](https://www.appgenix-software.com/)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appgenix.bizcal](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appgenix.bizcal)

![](https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/9v6_bQCaSO0-UUGEhp-eTkKlUZDeYAQgv5rR9tM_FogEcF3f0XnlTvDCCJ3rz_5jO5k)

I've been using this calendar app for YEARS, back when I first switched to Android from a BlackBerry Curve 😉

The best part of it is that it syncs with Google Tasks AND has a WearOS app, so I can view and edit tasks right from my Galaxy Watch. This ties in nicely to ...

### [Sectograph Day & Time planner](https://sectograph.com/)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=prox.lab.calclock](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=prox.lab.calclock)

![](https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/PIQOdExIHKKMRIgv2tS3ADD9Nhc77ToawtKbquQnwIm_FP_O5_ZN6IwZXF2U5Da5Jyw)

This is my default watch face for my smartwatch. I've been using it for years, as I've changed to different WearOS brand watches. Being able to see how much time I have to get to the next event or what my day will look like in terms of density helps me avoid being late to meetings and appointments.

### [Tockler](https://maygo.github.io/tockler/)

![](https://github.com/MayGo/tockler/raw/master/screenshots/light/tockler-timeline.png)

If you ever wonder where your time went while working on a personal or professional project, you should give Tockler a try. Many time tracking apps are invasive and creepy. Some log your data god knows where, and if you're like me, you value your privacy. All the data logged by this app is stored LOCALLY ONLY. You can generate reports from inside the GUI and if you feel fancy, pull data directly out of the SQLite database and do your own reporting. Big shout out to [Activity Watch which I initially discovered](https://activitywatch.net/). Nothing wrong with this app, and I'd encourage you to try both and see which one works best for you. [Arbtt](https://github.com/nomeata/arbtt) seems nice if you're really into CLI apps.

## Offloading

### [Calendly](https://calendly.com/)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calendly.app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calendly.app)

![](https://help.calendly.com/hc/article_attachments/4403029413655)

No more "So what time works for you?", or endless email back and forth to find shared meeting times. This web app links with Google calendar or Office 365 to automatically make sure appointments that get scheduled show up on your calendar AND appointments you already have booked, populate your free/busy time slots.

It also has a great "meeting poll" feature to figure out when your group/team is ALL free.

### [Inoreader](https://www.inoreader.com/)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.innologica.inoreader](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.innologica.inoreader)

![](https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/Tfcyw9cNgHFiY8uzF9_AVBSwoyssMQ58YOg3VKE6ECUeEnL7zd9P0y_PGfN-iCD3Zw)

I'm sure many of you were bummed when [Google Reader finally](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26581434) shut down. I had used them for years to follow [RSS feeds](https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/07/rss-is-undead/). Incase you aren't in the know, RSS was the way to follow all your favorite websites, before sites such as Digg and Reddit took over, back when the internet wasn't made up of just 5-10 big sites. This is one of the few great FREE RSS readers online, and you can import all your existing feeds easily. I use this with [gReader, which rocks](https://github.com/noinnion/greader) to view all my feeds. This app also does 2-way sync of your feeds and read status, so you can easily pick back up from where you left off.

### [Instapaper](https://instapaper.com)

![](https://cdn.macstories.net/002/1410832717-2014-09-16-at-03-24-29-.jpeg)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.instapaper.android)

Another big issue I've run into is finding neat articles on social media and RSS feeds, but not having the time to read them NOW. Instapaper is a 'read it later' type of service. You simply add links to posts, blogs and news articles, and it turns them into a nice uniform easy-to-read format. Every article looks the same, minus photos. No ad, no banners, no color even. Just you and the content you want to consume. It even includes a speed read function and a read-a-loud function on mobile, both great time savers. Honorable mention to [Pocket](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/pocket/) as well. I did give it a short try, but I've found Instapaper much easier to use and consume. It's JUST for reading and comprehending articles, nothing more, nothing less.

### [KeepassXC](https://keepassxc.org/) & [KeepassDX](https://www.keepassdx.com/)

![](https://keepassxc.org/assets/img/screenshots/database_view.png)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kunzisoft.keepass.free](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kunzisoft.keepass.free)

I'm sure most folks in tech circles use a password manager. 1Password has been a household name for years. I'm all for generating single-site passwords because nothing will cause me to groan faster than seeing yet ANOTHER website gets breached and passwords leaked. This helps massively with security and is convenient as heck!

One of the great features of KeepassXC is that it can store BOTH your SSH private keys AND all your new fancy PassKeys, along with taking care of TOTP and auto-fill for websites, [with an additional plugin](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/keepassxc-browser/). If the idea of having all that info in one place makes you nervous, then you can always add a 'passfile' (a unique file to unlock the DB) AND Yubikey to your database, requiring 3 3-factor authentication. I've confirmed that this works just fine on mobile as well via NFC on KeepassDX. To keep everything in sync, just use [SyncThing](https://syncthing.net/) or your local file sync service of choice.

If the idea of having to 'self-host' your own password manager file sync or using a few different apps to access a common database is too much, then I would recommend [Bitwarden](https://bitwarden.com). I use it with friends and family and it works flawlessly and supports many of the common features of KeePass.

### [Obsidian MD](https://obsidian.md)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=md.obsidian](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=md.obsidian)

![](https://obsidian.md/images/screenshot-1.0-hero-combo.png)

Last, but not least, is Obsidian. This app is like a [programming IDE](https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/) for your notes, and just as powerful. I could easily write a whole blog post on JUST this one tool, it can do THAT much. Obsidian, in short, takes all of your [Markdown formatted notes](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax) and gives you a beautiful interface to interact, search, create and edit them.

At work, I use the [Kanban plugin](https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-kanban) to track all my personal TO DO items, while the [Omni-search plugin](https://github.com/scambier/obsidian-omnisearch) lets me do Google-like lookups across all my notes and save pictures as well.

If you're just looking to write MD-formatted notes, [MarkText](https://www.marktext.cc/) works wonders as well.

## TL;DR

At the end of the day, you need to find what processes, procedures and programs, work for you and your brain🧠. While I tend to lean heavily on software, others may be able to make due just fine with a pencil and notebook, and good on them if they can! Having a poor memory and struggling to concentrate each day is nothing to feel bad about, it happens to all of us, especially the more neuro-spicy ones. Being productive only matters if it brings you joy, or at very least lasting satisfaction. 💗

[Take time out of your day to be kind to you, because someone has to.](https://meinmymirror.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/boggle-the-owl/)

![](https://78.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ch91uYyS1qk4alxo1_r1_540.jpg)