ADHD apps: pick one and delete the rest
A new app feels like progress. Switching apps every month is a hobby, not a system.
The short version: try one today
- Choose one for tasks and one for calendar.
- Use it for thirty days before judging.
- Turn off every notification you do not need.
Want one app instead of five? Priori does task breakdown, reminders and body doubling, and connects to Google Calendar. (We make it. It's free to download.)
Count the productivity apps on your phone. Go on. If the answer is more than four, and at least two of them still have the sample tasks in from when you signed up, welcome. Downloading ADHD apps is one of the most satisfying ways to feel organised without organising anything.
No judgement. A new app is new, and novelty is thought to be especially rewarding for ADHD brains. The setup is fun. You pick colours, create categories and import your tasks. For about nine days you are a different woman. Then the shine goes, the red badge climbs to 47, and a different app starts to look promising.
Why switching feels like progress
Moving your tasks from one app to another gives you the feeling of having dealt with them. You have touched every item. You have sorted them. None of them is done.
There is often some perfectionism in it too. Many women with ADHD describe hunting for the one right system that will finally make everything easy. That system does not exist. A decent app used most days will beat an ideal one used for a fortnight.
Choosing ADHD apps: one for tasks, one for calendar
You need two jobs covered. A calendar holds anything with a date and time: lectures, shifts, the dentist, a friend's birthday drinks. A task app or list holds everything else: reply to the landlord, buy washing powder, start the essay plan.
That is the whole setup. Notes, habit trackers and focus timers can come later, if they come at all. When you are choosing, look for a few plain qualities.
- Adding something takes two taps or fewer.
- It works on your phone and your laptop.
- It opens on today, and not on a dashboard you have to dig through.
- It still makes sense when you are tired and have not opened it for a week.
Some apps are designed with ADHD in mind. Priori, for example, breaks tasks into tiny steps and connects to Google Calendar. Whatever you pick, the same rule applies: one for tasks, one for calendar, and everything else off your home screen. If you find screens slippery in general, paper can do the task job perfectly well, and there are ideas in low-tech ADHD tools.
The thirty day rule
Commit to your two apps for thirty days before you judge them. You are allowed to notice things you dislike. Write them down. You are not allowed to switch.
Around day ten you will hit the dip. The app is boring, you have missed a few days, and someone online is praising a different one. This is the moment the system starts being useful, because it has stopped being a toy. If you have fallen behind, do not migrate. Delete or postpone the overdue tasks in bulk and carry on in the same app.
At the end of the month, look at your list of complaints. If one is a real dealbreaker, switch once, on purpose. If the list is mostly 'I got bored', the app was never the problem.
Turn off almost every notification
Each app arrives wanting to tell you things. Streak reminders, tips, weekly summaries, 'we miss you'. When everything buzzes, you learn to ignore all of it, including the one alert that mattered.
Go into settings and switch off everything except what needs action at a specific moment. Calendar alerts for events stay. A reminder you set yourself for a particular task stays. Marketing nudges, badges and digests go.
Do the same for the rest of your phone while you are there. Fewer pings means the ones that remain keep their meaning. That is the whole idea behind putting your brain outside your head: the tools remember for you, but only if you can still hear them.
Then delete the extras. Yes, including the pretty one. If you cannot bear to, move them into a folder on the last screen and see whether you open it in the next month.
Quick questions
What kind of apps help with ADHD?
Most people need only two: a calendar for anything with a time and a task app for everything else. Features that tend to help are quick capture, reminders and the ability to break tasks into smaller steps. The best choice is the one you will open every day.
Why do I keep switching productivity apps?
A new app brings novelty, and setting it up feels like getting organised. When the novelty fades, the app feels dull and a new one looks better. Committing to one setup for thirty days before judging it helps break the cycle.