ADHD: the top 10 tools

How to use this guide

Please don't start all ten tools this week. Start with tools 1 and 2, one calendar and one task list, because tools 3, 4, 6, and 8 plug into them. Use those two for a month. After that, add one tool at a time, starting with whichever problem costs you the most.

Each tool covers why it works, setup, how often to use it, what goes wrong, and one thing to do today. Menu paths look like this: Settings › Focus › Work. If a name on your phone doesn't match, search the Settings app for the last word in the path.

Skip to your situation

What ADHD does to a day

ADHD gets described as trouble paying attention, but the part that wrecks an ordinary Tuesday is usually executive function.

Executive functions are the brain's management skills. They hold information in mind, keep track of time, get you started, pick what matters, switch gears, and settle your reactions. Most people run them in the background without noticing. With ADHD they're unreliable, and they tend to fail at the worst possible moment. Each one below comes with a real-life example and the tool on this page that takes over that job.

The idea behind every tool on this page

Brain-training programs have been studied for ADHD, and the gains mostly stay inside the games instead of carrying over to daily life. What does work is moving the job out of your head. Remembering goes to a calendar and a task list. Keeping time goes to timers and alerts. Deciding goes to a few simple rules you set once, like the ABC system in tool 3, so you aren't deciding from scratch every morning.

Every tool has to pass one test: will you see it at the moment you need it? A notebook in a drawer fails. A task list on your phone's home screen passes.

1 & 2The foundation

One calendar, one task list

A calendar holds everything that happens at a set time. A task list holds everything you need to get done. Together they do most of the remembering and planning that ADHD makes unreliable, which is why I rank these two above everything else on this page.

If calendars and to-do lists have fizzled for you before, please try once more. They almost always fail for a fixable reason, like a second list on a sticky note or something that was going to be added later and never was, and the two golden rules below prevent exactly that.

Why it works

ADHD makes working memory small and leaky. A calendar and a task list are memory outside your head that doesn't leak, and they turn a vague cloud of obligations into a finite list you can look at. The daily review then does your planning once, in one sitting, instead of in anxious fragments all day.

What goes where

The calendar is for things with a time. The task list is for things that don't have a time yet. Something like a report due Friday usually needs both: a dated task so you don't forget it, and a calendar block so there's time set aside to do it.

Choosing a system

The best system is the one you'll open every day, so start from the devices you already carry. The one feature that matters most is seeing your tasks and your open time together.

Setting up Google Calendar and Google Tasks

Budget about 45 minutes, most of it for the brain dump in step 6. If you chose Apple or Outlook, follow the same steps with that app's menu names.

1. Install both apps and sign in with the same account. Get Google Calendar and Google Tasks from the App Store or Google Play, and sign in to both with the same Google account. A task you add in one shows up in the other.
2. Put Tasks on your first home screen. On an iPhone, touch and hold an empty spot on the home screen, tap Edit › Add Widget, choose Tasks, pick the medium or large size, and tap Add Widget. On Android, touch and hold an empty spot, tap Widgets, find Tasks, and drag it onto the screen.
3. On a computer, open Tasks beside the calendar. Go to calendar.google.com and click the Tasks icon (a blue circle with a check mark) in the strip along the right edge. Your list opens next to the calendar.
4. Set default alerts once, so every new event gets them. On a computer, click the gear icon, then Settings. Under "Settings for my calendars," click your calendar and scroll to Event notifications. Click Add notification until you have two: 1 day before, and 1 hour before (longer if you usually need travel time). In the Android app, go to Menu › Settings, tap your calendar, and tap a notification to change it.
5. Make a second list called Long-term. Your main list ("My Tasks") holds what you plan to do in the next week or two. Long-term holds everything else; tool 3 explains how the two work together. In the Tasks app, scroll the list tabs at the top all the way to the end and tap New list.
6. Do a brain dump. Set a 30-minute timer and get every obligation out of your head and your piles. Enter each one as you go: things with a set time into the calendar, everything else into Tasks. Don't organize or letter anything yet. When the timer ends, recycle the sticky notes you copied, because keeping them creates a second system.
7. If work requires a separate calendar, show it in the same view. Two calendars are fine as long as you look in one place.
   • If work uses Google: in the Google Calendar phone app, tap your profile photo, then Add another account, and sign in. On Android, open Menu and tick both calendars so they share one grid.
   • If work uses Outlook: first ask whether your employer allows sharing your calendar outside work. If it does, in Outlook on the web go to Settings › Calendar › Shared calendars › Publish a calendar and copy the ICS link. Then in Google Calendar on a computer, click + next to Other calendars, choose From URL, and paste the link. Changes can take up to a day to come through this way, so check Outlook itself for anything booked today.

The two golden rules

These two rules matter more than which app you pick. Almost everything else in this guide can bend to fit your life.

Rule 1 in practice

• Two lists inside one app still count as one system. Your main list and your Long-term list live in the same place and get checked in the same review. What breaks the rule is a second place you have to remember to look.
• Paper someone hands you, like an appointment card, goes into the system right away and then into the recycling.
• If your job tracks work in its own software (Jira, Asana, a ticket queue), you don't need to copy every item. Add one repeating task, "Check the work board," so the other system gets looked at on schedule.

Rule 2 in practice: fast ways to capture

Type three to five words and stop; details get added in the daily review. "Hang on, let me put that in my list" is a normal thing to say.

Voice assistants sometimes claim to save a task and don't, so check voice captures in your daily review.

The daily review: 2 to 5 minutes, every morning

This is where the list turns into a plan. Tie it to something you already do, like the first coffee or sitting down at your desk, and make "Daily review" a repeating event with an alert, so the calendar reminds you to check the calendar.

1. Open today's calendar with the task list beside it.
2. Find today's open time. Leave room for travel, and keep one gap empty, because something will run over.
3. Clear yesterday. Check off what you finished. Unfinished tasks get a new slot or a new date.
4. Letter anything new. Give A, B, or C (tool 3) to whatever you captured since yesterday. If you kept a distraction log (tool 6), add its real items now.
5. Schedule your A tasks. Put the hardest one in your best-focus hours. If there's still room, add a B. To schedule a task, click it, add today's date and a start time, and save. It then shows on the calendar grid as a block you can drag to a different slot.

The weekly review: 15 minutes, once a week

The weekly review looks far enough ahead that nothing sneaks up on you. Pick Friday afternoon or Sunday evening and make it a repeating calendar event.

• Next week's calendar: anything that needs prep (a gift, a babysitter, a refill) becomes a dated task.
• Two to four weeks out: trips, birthdays, big deadlines. Add a task for the first step of each.
• The whole main list: re-letter anything whose urgency changed, and delete what no longer matters.
• C tasks that have sat for more than two weeks: move them to Long-term.
• The Long-term list: skim it for anything that has become timely.
• Next week's one or two big items: break each into steps (tool 4) and schedule the first step.

When a task doesn't get done

Anything you don't finish rolls over to tomorrow's review and gets a new slot. That's normal, and it usually means the plan was a little optimistic.

If a task rolls over three days in a row, it's usually too big (break it down with tool 4), too vague (rewrite it as the first physical action, like "Find last year's tax return"), or no longer important (delete it).

When you fall off the system

At some point you will. A sick week, a vacation, or a crunch at work, and suddenly the app shows 40 overdue tasks and you haven't opened it in nine days. That's the moment most people quit, even though it's the most predictable part of using any system. Restart like this:

1. Don't back-fill. Skip reconstructing what happened on the missed days.
2. Triage the overdue pile. Delete anything that no longer matters. Move anything without a real deadline to Long-term.
3. Brain dump for 15 minutes. Catch whatever is in your head right now.
4. Tomorrow morning, do a normal daily review. The whole reset takes about half an hour.

Dose

Capture all day, a daily review every morning, and a weekly review once a week. Habit research suggests a new daily routine takes around two months, on average, to feel automatic, with a lot of variation between people. Give it the full 30 days before deciding it doesn't work for you.

What goes wrong

You forget to open the list

Put the widget on your first home screen, and make the daily review a repeating event with an alert.

The list hits 60 items and you avoid it

Move everything not due in the next two weeks to Long-term (tool 3). A main list of 10 to 20 items is manageable.

Alerts turn into background noise

Keep two alerts per event, and only on events where you have to be somewhere. For birthdays, use a dated task in place of an alert.

You skip the review on busy mornings

Do the 60-second version: open the app, find today's most important A task, and give it a time.

3Organize

ABC priorities

Give every task a letter when you add it: A, B, or C. The letter makes the decision once, while you're calm, so the morning review takes seconds and you don't re-decide the whole list every day.

Why it works

With ADHD, whatever is in front of you feels urgent, and whatever isn't in front of you barely exists. A long list with no ranking gets done in order of what's easiest or most interesting, which is how the report due at noon loses to twelve easy emails. A one-letter code is the simplest ranking that holds up.

Three letters and one extra list

Writing the letters in Google Tasks

1. Type the letter and a colon first. "A: Send Dana the Q3 numbers." Use the same format every time, a capital letter and a colon, so the list sorts cleanly.
2. Sort the list by title. Open the list's menu (the three dots at the top of the list) and under Sort by, choose Title. The A's gather at the top, then the B's, then the C's.
3. Change letters when things change. When a B turns urgent, tap it and change the B to an A. Give anything with a deadline a date too, so it also shows on the calendar.
4. Move long-term items off the main list. Open the task and change its list to Long-term.

Google Tasks also lets you star a task. Starring your A's instead of typing a letter works fine, as long as you pick one method and stick to it.

Keep your A's to what fits today

If your A tasks need more hours than today has open, you'll end the day feeling behind no matter how much you got done. Before you finish the daily review, compare the open time on today's calendar with the time your A tasks need. If they don't fit, move one to tomorrow with a date, shrink one to a first step that fits (tool 4), or ask whether a deadline can move. On a normal workday, one to three A tasks is plenty.

The long-term list

The second list inside your one system holds things you'll need to do someday but not in the next couple of weeks, which keeps the main list short. Scan it in the weekly review, and whenever you have unexpected free time. Some random Saturday you'll open it with nothing to do and think, oh yeah, I do need new shoes. Anything that gets a deadline moves back to the main list with a letter.

Dose

Letter each task when you capture it, or at the next daily review. Re-letter during the weekly review, and scan the long-term list once a week.

What goes wrong

Everything is an A

Ask question 1 literally: what happens if this waits until the day after tomorrow? If the honest answer is "nothing much," it's a B.

C tasks never get done

Some never need to. Batch a few into a 45-minute "C hour" on a low-energy afternoon, and move the rest to Long-term.

An old B is suddenly due tomorrow

Give every task with a deadline a date as well as a letter, so it shows up on the calendar before it's urgent.

4Organize

Break big tasks down

If "clean the whole house" is on your task list, I promise it won't get touched until 20 minutes before your guests arrive. Broken into small steps, each with its own slot on the calendar, the same job becomes a series of easy starts.

Why it works

Starting is the hardest part for an ADHD brain, and a big task gives you nothing to start on. You look at "do taxes," can't find the first move, feel a wave of dread, and pick something easier. A small, concrete step has an obvious first move and a visible finish line.

What a good subtask looks like

1. It starts with a verb. Email, find, print, call, wipe. "Taxes" is a topic. "Find last year's tax return" is a step.
2. You can picture yourself doing it. If you can't see where you'd be standing and what your hands would be doing, break it down again.
3. The first one takes under about 5 minutes. The first step only has to get you moving, so make it almost embarrassingly small: "Open the tax folder," "Put the dishes in the sink." Later steps can run 15 to 45 minutes, about one Pomodoro each (tool 5).

Adding subtasks in Google Tasks

• On a phone: open Google Tasks, tap the big task, tap Add subtasks, and type the first step. Tap Add subtasks again for each one after that.
• On a computer: in the Tasks panel beside Google Calendar or Gmail, click Task options (the three dots) next to the task, then Add a subtask.
• Schedule subtasks in the daily review exactly like any other task, by giving each one a date and a time.
• One limit to know: a task that has subtasks can't be set to repeat.

Two more worked examples

Dose

Break down any task that would take more than about an hour, and any task that has rolled over three days in a row. The weekly review is a good time for it, because you're planning then, not doing.

What goes wrong

Breaking it down feels like too much

Make the only subtask "Spend 10 minutes listing the steps for the taxes." Listing the steps is a small task too.

You broke it down and still didn't start

The first step is too big. Shrink it until it sounds silly ("Open the tax folder"), then set a 5-minute timer and do only that.

Your time estimates are way off

Estimates tend to run short, and ADHD makes that worse. Double your first guess, and check how long the step took afterward so the next guess is better.

5Focus

The Pomodoro technique

Work on one thing for a set stretch with no distractions, take a real break, and repeat. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Francesco Cirillo used when he came up with the method in the late 1980s.

Why it works

"Work on the grant this afternoon" has no edges. "Work on the budget table until the timer rings" does. The timer takes over the time-keeping that ADHD makes unreliable, and knowing a guilt-free break is a few minutes away makes it easier to leave your phone alone right now.

The protocol

1. Pick one task and write it down. A subtask from tool 4 is ideal.
2. Clear the decks. Phone in another room, or face down and out of reach. Close every tab the task doesn't need. Put a notepad beside you for the distraction log (tool 6).
3. Set the timer for 25 minutes and start. Work only on that task. If an unrelated thought shows up, write it on the log and go back.
4. When the timer rings, stop and take 5 minutes. Stop even mid-sentence, since knowing exactly where you left off makes the next round easier to start. Set a timer for the break too.
5. After four rounds, take a long break. Give it 15 to 30 minutes.

Finding your interval

Twenty-five minutes is only a starting point. Try each of these for a couple of days and keep the one where you finish the most rounds without breaking. Different kinds of work can use different lengths.

What counts as a distraction

Anything that isn't the one task: messages, email, a new tab "just to look something up," a quick chore, or a different task, even an important one. If you break a round (Instagram at minute 12), don't count it. Reset the timer and start a fresh round.

Break rules

• Set a timer for the break too. With ADHD, a 5-minute break can easily turn into 45 minutes of scrolling.
• During the break you can do whatever you want, including checking your phone, though standing up and getting water will leave you fresher than a video.

A realistic count

So count two rounds as a real win and four as a great day. Put your rounds on the calendar in the daily review, during your best-focus hours, and aim them at your hardest A task.

Timers

I prefer a physical timer. Picking up your phone to start a timer is how a lot of focus sessions end before they begin.

Disclosure: Amazon links on this page are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, Psychofarm earns from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you. Nobody paid for a spot on this list, and the picks are ones I'd recommend anyway. Full disclosures →

Your phone's built-in Focus mode pairs well with any of these. Turn it on when a round starts (setup steps are in tool 9).

Dose

Start with one or two rounds a day on your hardest task. Test intervals for the first week, then add rounds only once two feel easy.

What goes wrong

The break turns into an hour

Set the break timer before you stand up, and take breaks away from screens.

The timer rings when you're finally in the zone

Take the break anyway, or switch to the 45-minute interval for that kind of work.

You can't manage even 15 minutes

Try 5. Starting counts. If focus is this hard most days, tell your clinician, because this is exactly the kind of problem ADHD treatment is meant to help.

6Focus

The distraction log

Keep a pad of paper beside you while you work. When an unrelated thought barges in, write it down in a few words and go straight back to the task. You deal with the list later.

Why it works

With ADHD, a new thought arrives feeling like the most important thing in the world. You're working on something due in an hour, and it suddenly pops into your head that there was mold in the shower this morning and you need to take care of it right now. The mold has been there for months, and it can wait another 25 minutes. Writing the thought down gets it out of working memory without losing it, so your brain can let it go, and it saves you from switching tasks, which is where the time disappears.

Setup

1. Use paper. A notes app puts you one tap away from everything else on your phone. A small pad and a pen that live on your desk work best.
2. Write 3 to 5 words per thought. "Mold in shower." "Email Sam re Saturday." That's enough to remember it, and short enough to be back on task in five seconds.
3. Don't act on it, argue with it, or rank it. Write it down and return.
4. Process the log at the end of the round or the work session. Most of it will be nonsense. Sort every line into one of the bins below.

The "do it now if it takes under 2 minutes" rule comes from David Allen's Getting Things Done. Save those quick items for the break, so they don't cost you the round.

Dose

Every focus session. Processing takes a minute or two, and most people notice the difference in the very first session.

What goes wrong

You go do the thing instead of writing it

Put the pad on top of your keyboard at the start of each round, so you have to pick it up to begin.

You never process the log

Make it the first thing you do on each break, or part of the next morning's daily review.

The same worry keeps coming back

If it's a worry and not a task, write it once and give it a time: "Think about this at 5 PM." If worries crowd out work most days, mention it to your clinician. Anxiety often comes along with ADHD, and it's treatable too.

7Your stuff

Systems for your stuff

"Create organization systems" is too abstract for my little brain, so this tool comes in three concrete parts: a landing station, one object in place of three, and backups for when both fail.

7aThe landing station

A landing station is one spot, right by the door, where your phone, wallet, keys, and other daily things always go. The rule is simple: the moment you walk in, before you do anything else, everything goes on the landing station. No exceptions.

Why it works

Most lost things were put down somewhere random while your attention was elsewhere. A fixed spot turns "where did I put it?" into a habit that doesn't need memory.

Setup

1. Pick a spot on your path in. A small table, a shelf, or a wall-mounted tray within a step or two of the door. If you have to detour to reach it, you won't use it.
2. Put a charger there. Your phone will want to be there, and the keys and wallet come along with it.
3. Give each item its own place. A tray for keys and wallet, a hook for the bag, and room for earbuds, glasses, or a work badge.
4. Practice the rule deliberately for two weeks. Walk in, empty your pockets onto the station, and only then take off your shoes.
5. Recruit the people you live with. Tell your partner, roommates, or family about the system, and ask directly:

"I lose a ton of stuff. If you ever see my phone, wallet, or keys somewhere other than the landing station, could you please put them back there?"

7bPhone-wallet-key

Three separate objects means three chances to leave one behind. Combine them into one: a phone case or stick-on wallet that holds your cards, with your key tucked inside or clipped to it. Now there's one thing to remember, and it's the thing you already check dozens of times a day.

• Carry two or three cards: ID, one payment card, and one insurance or transit card. The rest can live in a drawer at home.
• If the key won't fit, put your keys on a wristlet keychain you wear, or clip them to the bag you never put down.
• Losing the phone now means losing everything, so set a screen lock and turn on Find My (iPhone) or Find Hub (Android).
• More generally, look for places where you juggle separate items and merge them, like a gym bag that stays packed.

7cBackups and trackers

Your systems will fail sometimes, so keep a spare key you can reach and a way to find a lost bag.

Spare keys

• When you get a new key for your home, car, or office, have copies made right away. Some leases and "do not duplicate" keys need the landlord's permission, so check first.
• Keep a spare with a trusted person who lives nearby, or in a combination key lockbox outside, if your lease or building allows one.
• Skip the doormat, the planter, and the top of the door frame, because those are the first places a burglar looks. Never label a key with your address.

Trackers

AirTag and Tile are small Bluetooth trackers. They have no GPS. Each tag sends out a short-range signal, and nearby phones on Apple's Find My network (for AirTag) or the Tile network pick it up and report the location to your app. That works well in cities and busy places, and less well somewhere remote with no phones nearby. When you're close, you can make the tag play a sound.

• Put one in every bag you carry and on your key ring, since they're cheap enough. Add one to the TV remote if that's your nemesis. (My wallet doesn't need one, because it's attached to my phone.)
• AirTags need an iPhone or iPad: hold the tag near the phone and follow the prompts, and it shows up in the Find My app. Tile works with Android and iPhone through the Tile app.
• Both systems warn people when an unknown tracker is traveling with them, as a guard against stalking. Only put trackers on your own belongings, and know that someone borrowing your bag may see that alert.

Dose

The landing station takes a few seconds every time you come home. Do it deliberately for two weeks and it mostly runs on its own after that. Spare keys and trackers are a one-time hour of setup, plus a new tracker battery when the app says it's low.

What goes wrong

Stuff still piles up on the kitchen counter

The station is in the wrong place. Move it to wherever your things end up.

The station turns into a junk pile

During the weekly review, clear everything except the daily items and the outgoing basket.

8Money

Automatic payments

The moment you sign up for anything with a recurring bill, turn on autopay. It sounds like a silly tool, and it prevents one of the most expensive ADHD mistakes: late fees and credit damage on bills you had the money to pay.

Why it works

Paying on time takes remembering the date, finding the login, and finishing before something else grabs your attention. Autopay removes all three steps. Late fees, interest, and shutoff notices are a big part of what people call the "ADHD tax," and autopay is the cheapest way to stop paying it.

What to automate

• Credit cards: at least the minimum payment, so a late fee can't happen. If you can, set it to the full statement balance, which avoids interest too. Paying only the minimum still leaves interest on the rest.
• Utilities: electric, gas, water.
• Phone and internet.
• Insurance: health, car, renters or homeowners.
• Rent: if your landlord doesn't offer autopay, set up a recurring payment in your bank's bill pay, timed a few days before it's due.
• Loans: student loan, car loan, mortgage. Some loan servicers take a little off your interest rate for enrolling.

Setting it up

1. List every recurring bill. Your last two months of bank and card statements show nearly all of them.
2. Turn on autopay for each one. Log in to the company's site or app and look under Billing or Payments for Autopay or Automatic payments.
3. Pick payment dates a few days after payday. Do this wherever the company lets you choose.
4. Keep a cushion in checking. Make it at least as big as your largest monthly bill, so a big charge can't overdraft the account. Turn on low-balance alerts in your bank's app too.
5. Add a monthly 10-minute event, "Glance at statements." Autopay fails silently when a card expires, and bills sometimes jump.

Subscribe & Save for things that run out

Amazon's Subscribe & Save, and similar programs at other stores, deliver things on a schedule you pick. I get coffee monthly and toothpaste, floss, and conditioner every three months, and when I end up with too much of something, I pause that subscription until I use it up. Start with a longer interval than you think you need, since it's easy to shorten.

8aThe subscription audit, twice a year

Automation has one downside: things you stopped using keep charging you. Twice a year, say in January and July, spend 30 minutes finding and canceling them. Put both dates on your calendar as repeating events.

1. Check your card and bank apps. Many have a recurring charges or subscriptions view, so search the app for "subscriptions" or "recurring." If yours doesn't, scroll back through a full year of statements, which also catches annual charges.
2. On an iPhone. Go to Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions. This shows only subscriptions billed through Apple.
3. On Android. Open the Google Play Store app, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions › Subscriptions. This shows only subscriptions billed through Google Play.
4. Fill in an audit table. Use the sample below as a model. A blank copy is in the printables.
5. Cancel the same day. If you can't, make "Cancel the meditation app" an A task.

Dose

About an hour to set up autopay, then 10 minutes a month to glance at statements. The subscription audit takes 30 minutes, twice a year.

What goes wrong

A card expires and autopay fails

When a new card arrives, make an A task, "Update card on autopays," and use your audit list to find them all.

Autopay overdraws checking

Build the cushion, turn on low-balance alerts, and move due dates to just after payday.

You can't find the cancel button

Search the company's help pages for "cancel," or call. Put "Cancel X" on your task list as an A so it survives past today.

9Environment

Simplify your environment

Your surroundings have a big effect on your ability to focus. Keep the place you work as plain as possible, then strip the distractions out of your phone and your inbox.

Why it works

Every visible object and every buzz is a small invitation to switch tasks, and an ADHD brain accepts more of those invitations. Resisting a cue takes effort all day long, while removing it takes effort once. It's tempting to fill your desk with books, a guitar, and hobby projects. Keep those somewhere you don't work.

The workspace

• Clear the desk down to what today's task needs. Mail piles and side projects go somewhere else.
• Face a wall, or a window with a boring view, and keep your back to the room's foot traffic.
• Keep the phone out of arm's reach while you work, ideally in another room.

9aTurn off notifications

Every notification is a chance to open your phone for one thing and come up forty minutes later from some rabbit hole. Keep the ones that matter and turn off the rest.

• iPhone: Settings › Apps › [app] › Notifications, then turn off Allow Notifications. On older versions of iOS, go to Settings › Notifications › [app].
• Android: Settings › Notifications › App notifications, then switch off each app you don't need. Menu names vary a little by phone maker.
• Worth keeping: calls, texts, your calendar, and anything with a safety or money role, like your bank's fraud alerts. News, shopping, games, and social media can all go.

Focus modes, for work blocks

• iPhone: Settings › Focus › Work. Under People, choose who can still reach you, and under Apps, choose which apps can still notify you. Schedule it for your work hours, or turn it on from Control Center when a Pomodoro round starts.
• Android: Settings › Digital Wellbeing & parental controls › Focus mode. Choose the apps to pause, then tap Turn on now or Set a schedule. On some newer phones this lives under Modes, and Samsung calls it Modes and Routines.

9bUnsubscribe from nonsense emails

Newsletters and promotions bury the emails that matter. You have three ways to clear them out.

• Gmail's built-in tool: open the menu at the top left and choose Manage subscriptions (on a computer, you may need to click More first). It lists senders by how often they email you, with an Unsubscribe button beside each one.
• By hand: open a promotional email and click Unsubscribe at the bottom.
• Unroll.me: a free service that lists your subscriptions so you can block them, keep them, or combine them into one daily digest email. Know the trade-off first. In 2019 the Federal Trade Commission settled with the company over allegations that it misled users about how it accessed their email, after receipt data from users' inboxes turned up in market research sold to other companies.

9cMake your phone black and white

Bright colors are part of what makes certain apps grab you. Draining the color makes the phone less interesting to pick up, and a few small studies have found that people use their phones somewhat less in grayscale. You have two options.

Option 1: tinted icons (iPhone, iOS 18 and later)

This is the version I show in the video. Touch and hold an empty spot on the home screen until the icons jiggle, then tap Edit, then Customize, then Tinted. Drag the lower slider all the way to the left for gray icons.

Option 2: true grayscale, the stronger version

• iPhone: Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Color Filters. Turn on Color Filters and choose Grayscale. For a quick toggle, go to Settings › Accessibility › Accessibility Shortcut and choose Color Filters. A triple-click of the side button then switches grayscale on and off.
• Android, any time: on a Pixel, Settings › Accessibility › Color and motion › Color correction, then turn it on and choose Grayscale. On a Samsung, Settings › Accessibility › Visibility enhancements › Color adjustment, then choose Grayscale.
• Android, on a schedule: Settings › Digital Wellbeing & parental controls › Bedtime mode, then turn on Grayscale under the screen options. Menu names vary by phone.

9dDelete the time-suck apps

I didn't want to include tips that are obvious and hard to do, but this one earns its spot. Whenever I delete the apps built around endless scrolling, I stop using them and mostly stop thinking about them. You can still reach most of those services in a web browser, which is slower, and the slowness helps.

If deleting feels like too much, add friction instead:

• iPhone: Settings › Screen Time › App Limits › Add Limit. Pick the app or category, set a daily time, and tap Add. If you always tap past the limit, have someone you trust set the Screen Time passcode.
• Android: Settings › Digital Wellbeing & parental controls › App timers, then Set timer next to the app. When time runs out, the app pauses until midnight.

Dose

Notifications, grayscale, and app limits are each a one-time, 10- to 20-minute setup. Grayscale feels strange for about a week. Recheck your notification settings every few months, since new apps ask to send notifications and it's easy to tap Allow.

What goes wrong

You turn grayscale off and forget to turn it back on

Set up the triple-click shortcut so switching back takes a second, or use the scheduled Bedtime version on Android.

You reinstall the app a week later

Log out and delete the saved password too, so getting back in takes real effort.

10Your thoughts

Your thoughts matter

You can't have really negative, awful thoughts about yourself all day and have that not influence how you're doing. This tool is about noticing that voice and answering it.

Why the self-talk gets harsh

Many adults with ADHD grew up being told they were lazy or careless, and if the ADHD went undiagnosed, nobody had a better explanation, so they believed it. By adulthood, "I'm such an idiot" can feel normal and true. This harsh voice grows out of years of struggle and criticism. It isn't a core symptom of ADHD, which means you can work on it.

The trouble comes when you believe one of those thoughts. You feel it right away as shame, dread, or the urge to give up, and those feelings make it harder to focus, harder to start, and easier to avoid the task entirely. Avoiding it then hands the thought more evidence.

Replacement thoughts

This tool comes from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a type of talk therapy built on the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. David Burns's book Feeling Great covers it in depth. You catch the negative thought, then answer it with a replacement thought that meets two conditions.

Two examples from the video:

Neither replacement is blindly optimistic. It's fine to admit that something went badly; the goal is to stop exaggerated attacks from running the show.

The worksheet, step by step

1. Situation. What happened, in one line.
2. The thought, word for word. Rate how much you believe it, from 0 to 100%.
3. The thinking error. Use the list below.
4. A replacement thought. Write one that's 100% true and strong enough to take over, and rate how much you believe it.
5. Re-rate the original thought. If your belief dropped a lot, you're done. If it barely moved, the replacement isn't true enough or strong enough yet, so write another one.

Common thinking errors

Getting distance from thoughts

I'll admit CBT has its limitations, and a lot of the time I prefer the approach from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). ACT sets aside whether a thought is right or wrong and asks whether it's useful right now. When it isn't, you work on getting some space from it. ACT calls this defusion, and it takes three steps.

The goal is to see the thought as something your mind produced, without pushing it away, arguing with it, or treating it as the absolute truth.

The lunatic in your head

One way of putting it that I really like: you have an absolute lunatic living in your head. If the thoughts in your head came from a real person standing next to you, you would hate that person. I don't know about you, but the guy in my head is constantly complaining and moaning and giving me a hard time. It's too cold outside. That friend isn't very nice to you.

Try it yourself: give your inner critic a ridiculous face, whether that's a filtered selfie or a cartoon character. The next time the voice starts up, think, "Oh, it's him again."

Books

Dose

Fill in one worksheet row a day for two weeks, ideally within a few hours of a bad moment. Use defusion in the moment, when there's no time to write.

What goes wrong

The replacement feels fake

It probably fails condition 1. Cut anything you don't fully believe and keep only facts.

You can't catch the thoughts as they happen

Notice the feeling first, like a sudden drop in mood or the urge to quit, and ask, "What was I just telling myself?"

The thoughts are constant, or you feel hopeless most days

That can be depression or anxiety, which often come along with ADHD and are treatable. Talk to your clinician. If thoughts turn to self-harm, call or text 988.

PlanPutting it together

A 4-week plan

Add one or two tools a week, so each one has time to become a habit before the next arrives. Keep using everything from earlier weeks as you go.

When the system breaks

Tools and treatment

These tools work alongside ADHD treatment. For many adults, medication and CBT designed for ADHD make the tools much easier to use, because treatment helps with the attention and follow-through the tools depend on. Clinical guidelines for adults include both.

More help

PrintWorksheets

Printable worksheets

Print this page from your browser to get these as blank forms without the site menus. Fill them in by hand.

Print this page

Based on the Psychofarm video "Top 10 Tools for ADHD," expanded for this guide with setup steps, worked examples, and worksheets. None of the products, apps, or services mentioned are sponsorships, and nobody paid to be included. Psychofarm participates in the Amazon Associates program and earns a commission on qualifying purchases made through the Amazon links on this page, at no extra cost to you; commissions don't affect which products are recommended. See our full disclosures. App menu paths were checked in September 2026 and can change with software updates. For the thought work in tool 10, see Feeling Great by David Burns, MD, and The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris.