ADHD Work Flow Part 2: Even More Life-hacks For That.
Seven more tech & analogue based solutions for the ADHD productivity struggle.
Many of us will be working from home (wfh) for the foreseeable future. This comes with both benefits and added struggles; especially for those of us with ADHD. Distractions are high, energy levels fluctuating, and even our neurotypical friends are struggling with executive dysfunctions and time-blindness. Here are some apps and tricks that have been helping with my shelter-in-place work flow.
Of course, everyone’s brains and needs are different, so what may work for me, might not work for you. Please do comment with things that worked for you, or even with things that have failed to be useful. I’m always excited to hear about about new possibly helpful apps or ideas.
And also, remember your productivity is not a reflection of your value as a person. Please be kind to yourself in these troubled times.
What is Meant by “Work Flow?”
This has been referred to as “being in the zone” or as hyperfocus. It describes an intensely focused state where an individual will be fully engaged in an activity. It can feel productive, creative, and immersive. I prefer the term flow or work flow, as I feel it best represents a positive, engaged work or creative session. For many ADHDers, being disrupted during a work flow can be mildly irritating, or even destructive to ones productivity.
Magnet
Magnet.Crowdcafe
Price: 2.99
Device: macOS
A big thing I missed when I moved to a Macbook from my PC laptop was the ability to snap multiple windows to my screen at once time. Magnet has brought this to iOS. It saves me from so many clicks when referencing something, when trying to have Slack AND Zoom open, or when I want to take notes during a webinar.
Noto
Price: Free with some paid options.
Devices: mac&iOS
Noto brands itself as a modern writing app; citing delightful interactions, plenty of formatting tools, and a beautiful interface. It certainly delivers on a beautiful, minimalist, and easily navigable interface, where one can quickly glance through all their writing easily.
What works about Noto:
- Clean, clear interface is intuitive without much tutorial
- Many options for formatting (though math equations, and tables are paid options)
- Navigation bar allows you to visually scan all your documents
- Documents can be organized within color coded folders
- Syncs between desktop and mobile versions
It is unfortunately not a replacement for Microsoft Word or Google Docs if you need to write a term paper, but it is a good tool for personal, everyday writing needs.
Tab Stash
Price: Free
Browser: Firefox
You have 30 tabs open for a work project, and another 42 open for that underwater basket-weaving project you are totally going to start very soon, and you cannot lose them. But bookmarking them would sacrifice their perfectly lined up spots in your window! Your bandwidth is suffering, and you are lost in a sea of tabs!
How does Tab Stash help?
- Saves all your tabs in order within a sidebar extension
- Or save your tabs as groups, and reorder them as needed
- Search your Stash with a search bar (no more frantically clicking through tabs!)
Hooks. Hooks Everywhere.
Price: Varies
“But Saskia,” you ask, “how can home decor help me get @#$%! done?”
How much time do you spend looking for your keys? Your face mask just to pop over to the mail box? While looking do you become side-tracked by some other time sucking black hole? If you have ADHD you probably struggle with a version of object-permanence (frustrating for babies and adult ADHDers alike!)
This basically means ‘out of sight, out of mind’ for us, but when it does come to mind, we just can’t figure out where it is. Therefore, we generally need an organizational system that is visual and in the open.¹ Making sure things have a home on a hook will help reduce cognitive load, and saves us time by staying on task. This also helps prevent double buying. That habit, where if something is packed away, you forget you own it and buy it again. (How did I forget that I owned winter clothes? I don’t know, but it happened.
¹Honestly, most home organizing methods are not made for us.
Satchel Method
Price: Free.
Haven’t touched your work bag since remote work started? Go grab it. Trust me here.
Working from home involves a lot of distractions. Living spaces turned into workspaces, which in many cases are shared. Small things can add up while interrupting our flow, which can make tasks feel overwhelming.
Maybe you have to change to a new work area so your partner or kids can have better lighting for Zoom. In the process you forgot your pen. You get up and hunt it down. Back to work, but oh…you left your notebook over there as well. While you were up you see the dishes in the sink are overflowing, which leads to a kitchen cleaning session. Your work-flow just keeps getting disturbed by these small interruptions, resulting in a lack of focus, and discomfort.
So, we are going to gather ALL your work supplies into your bag: Laptop, notebooks, bullet journal, favorite pens, anything you need; It’s all right there, and not creating a clutter over your workspace that you threw together when the shelter-in-place mandates first started.
Benefits of the Satchel Method
- Creates a contained, organizational space, which aids in mental focus and reduces physical clutter
- Portable. The Satchel Method makes moving to different work spots quick and seamless.
- Prevents small distractions which could lead to being sidetracked
- Reduces time needed to prepare for tasks or the work day. Everything is already in one spot, ready to go
- You don’t have to use a bag. You could use a basket, roller cart, milk crate, etc. Whatever you have that works for you
Video Game Music & Lo-Fi Hip-Hop
Price: Free
A trending topic on TikTok is how teens are using video game music to help them study. This is not an entirely new idea. Popular Science wrote about how video game music was designed to help gamers focus in 2018, and suggested it as a work productivity hack.
While having silence to not distract from a task makes logical sense, for individuals with ADHD not enough stimulation can be a distraction as well. For many, background music can meet the minimum threshold stimulation needed to engage focus. It’s also great for anyone’s mood.
If video game music is too distracting, or not quite the right fit for your vibe, Lo-fi Hip-Hop could be the perfect alternative. This music, popular on YouTube, features vocal-less, relaxed music that retains a strong beat created to be used as study music.
Adulting Stickers
Price: Varies
Mostly, I find this idea hilarious, and it fills that childlike need to collect stickers that seems to persist into adulthood. These are a great addition to a bujo habit (which I wrote about here), and a cheerful way to look at every day challenges.
Also, you would be surprised at just how much changing from your sleep pajamas into your wfh sweat-pants aids in focus. I like these from Etsy store KeeperOfTheSuns.
AdultingStickers.com will be coming out with digital stickers for both Android and iOS, for those of you who are the strictly digital type.
Thank you for reading! Please comment if any of these apps have helped you, or if you have anything to suggest.
P.S. Did you know you can set up reminders in slack to reply to messages? I know that if I cannot reply right away, but don’t give myself a reminder I will likely forget. Thank you slack, you know my brain too well.
