Keep it simple
For the ADHD brain (or for mine, anyways), simplicity always wins.
One of the common tropes among ADHD folks is that a lot of tools built “for us” work really well… until they don’t. And one of the things that I’ve observed is that many of those tools are too complex: either by design, or because we make them that way.
For example, a lot of “made specifically for people with ADHD” productivity tools are built around tricking your brain.
They try to gamify productivity by giving you points for getting shit done, or adding cute animations when you mark stuff complete. And it works… until it gets boring and stops working, and another productivity tool ends up in the digital trash bin.
We also do it to ourselves, by over-engineering not-made-for-us tools.
We’ll take a tool like Notion or Obsidian, and try to use all the features! Automations. Lists inside lists. Reminders. A calendar view tied into a todo list. Did I mention automations?
It’s fun to do that! It also distracts from actually doing the stuff on your todo list.
And in the end, you’re left with a complicated tool that’s hard to manage and, just like gamified apps, gets abandoned as you move on to the next thing.
The only thing that’s worked reliably for me for more than a decade has been simple tools and habits.
- I add items to a handful of bulleted lists, and pick a few to do that day.
- I have some daily habits, and I’ve stripped them down to their bare bones.
I’ll talk more about simplifying habits in another article, but my point is: complexity breaks our brains.
We have a small amount of RAM. Complexity uses all of it, and then there’s none left for the important stuff.
If you’re feeling constant overwhelm, start by looking at your systems. What can you reduce? What can you simplify?