Beneficial Apps for Those With ADHD
I have a confession to make: I don’t use a lot of apps. There are many out there that would make life easier, but I’ve never taken advantage of them.
Maybe I haven’t fully embraced the age in which I live. Maybe I’m disorganized. Maybe I just don’t want to take the time to figure most of them out.
Whatever the reason, you won’t find tons of apps on my phone. And I don’t use half the ones I have.
My sister is always suggesting new apps for me. I have to admit most of the time I never even look at them. I mean to — I usually just forget (there's the ADHD forgetfulness again!).
A couple of months ago she told me about an organizational/productivity app she was using that she was in love with and suggested I check it out. Because I was looking for things that could help my daughter with school, I had a look.
I’ll admit the app was a decent one, and it had me browsing the app store with curiosity looking to see what I could find for those of us with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Having ADHD, I know I could make things easier for myself if I embraced technology a little more, so I’ve been trying to actually use some of the apps I downloaded to see if they are useful for me or not.
Trello
With Trello you can make cards, and you can add descriptions, pictures, labels, and checklists to each card.
You can collaborate with others by adding them to a card. This can be useful for school or work projects, or even within your household.
Right now I have a card for grocery shopping that I add to when I think of something I need. I also have one dedicated to the cat where I keep notes of things like when she needs medications or vet appointments.
You can also make cards for recipes. You can use Trello for planning things like vacations, events, parties or holidays.
I’ve only just started using this app, but one of the things I appreciated was a tutorial on their website that guided me through how it worked and what it could do. Since I have little patience, this was a nice feature. I’m looking forward to using it more for organization and project management.
Accomplish
I heard great things about Accomplish, so I wanted to try it. It’s basically a calendar app; you can add tasks to the calendar along with alarms to remind you.
It’s handy, but I didn’t see how it was any better than the calendar that came on my phone. I’ve also tried using it as a way to organize my day, adding tasks to each hour of the day in an attempt to help me be more productive, but again, I can do the same thing using the alarm function on my phone.
I could be missing the obvious with this one. Maybe I didn’t find all the features, or didn’t use them properly. It wasn’t exceptionally useful for me.
ColorNote
There are several sticky note apps out there, and I’ve only tried this one but I honestly like it. I downloaded it with skepticism because I thought it was too simple. I didn’t think I’d use it.
ColorNote is not drastically different from using the notepad on my iPod, but I like that I can color code my sticky notes. I use black for things pertaining to my daughter, red for the cat, yellow for doctor’s appointments, and blue for miscellaneous things like grocery lists.
I also started using it for plot points and character information cards for my novels. This is especially handy when I think of something when I’m not at my desk.
I use this app far more than I ever expected to.
Just Relax
I used to have an app that played relaxation music. I couldn’t remember the name of it, so I was looking for something similar.
I use Just Relax every night when I’m trying to go to sleep. There are 12 standard sound choices and although I probably only use three of them, I find them relaxing.
The sounds are in a loop, so when it gets to the end there is a pause before it starts up again. I read some people found this frustrating. Some of the tunes can be pretty monotonous too.
I also find that when I set the timer to play for a certain amount of time, like 30 minutes, I can wake up two hours later and the music is still playing. Despite those things, I still find the app rather calming.
I will probably look to see if there are others I enjoy, I just don’t want to use something that only gives me a sample and then expects me to pay an extravagant price for a premium version. This one works fine for me.
I’ve used AnyList, which was good for grocery lists and to-do lists, but I can use Trello or ColorNote to do the same thing. I also used Evernote, which I liked, but honestly, I used it for about a month and then stopped. Now I use Trello for all the things I used to use Evernote for.
I believe the apps we use are determined by our own personalities. I need to get in the habit of using them regularly. I’ve always been too sporadic with trying anything long enough to find out how truly useful it can be.
There are so many apps out there that I can get overwhelmed just looking at them. My goal is to find a few I love and really use them to help me stay on track and organized.