31 Practical Things That Help With ADHD

Ways, widgets, and services that can make daily life a little bit easier.

Photo by David Schultz on Unsplash

The brain of a person with ADHD is a fascinating thing.

One minute, we might be folding laundry and half-watching The Bridgertons. The next we could easily be hyper-focusing on English royal titles, how they came to be, where they — wait a second, this is apparently relevant to my family heritage due to our geographic origins of passage to America on the Mayflower — and how did I end up on ancestry.com?

The twists and turns that keep us constantly curious and on the move, intellectually or physically, can present challenges in our professional and personal lives each day. Since being diagnosed at age 30 with ADHD, I have learned just how helpful automation can be for self-managing mundane tasks I hate, healthy hygiene routines, work productivity, my emotional well-being, and more.

As we’ve pointed out before, you can absolutely adopt healthier habits and get better and better at managing your symptoms, especially as part of a holistic treatment plan with appropriate medication. Although it isn’t on this list, psychotherapy goes without saying as a recommended component of your support strategy for ADHD.

For inescapable adulting tasks

1. A robot vacuum that can auto-run on a schedule.
2. Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or another smart home speaker for chore schedule reminders.
3. Object tracker for finding keys — and other lost objects.
4. Laundry service.
5. Doggy daycare or pet care service like Rover.
6. Automate paying bills and splitting expenses.
7. House cleaning service.
8. Grocery delivery service.
9. Meal kits.
10. Use Bluetooth speaker for hands-free phone use while driving.

For physical and mental health

1. Wildly obnoxious alarm clock to help you wake up.
2. Compression socks for Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).
3. A fitness tracker with haptic queues to get up, move, eat, and take breaks.
4. Pillbox or app for remembering if you took meds.
5. Wall of photos of people who love them to combat RSD.
6. Sleep machine.
7. Bluetooth headband headphones for listening to sleep sounds in bed.
8. Personal trainer or fitness/gym/studio membership. Research shows exercise is good for creativity.
9. Meditation apps, YouTube videos, or just taking 2 minutes to sit quietly and breathe deeply.
10. Gratitude journaling.
11. Smart light routines for brightening and dimming bedtime queue.
12. Weekly standing social engagements to maintain supportive friendships — especially critical for men, who tend to isolate rather than reach out when they need support most.

For work

1. Fusion Rocketbook for note-taking and scanning into Google Drive
2. Google Home, Alexa, or another voice-based note-taking app for idea-dumping.
3. Timer cubes for Pomodoro method/time-blocking.
4. Desk calendar with something new to learn each day.
5. A career coach or professional to help with interview prep or your resume.
6. Schedule critical tasks for the times of the day you are most alert, if possible.
7. Negotiate workplace accommodations, such as an office with a door.
8. Email autoresponder that encourages follow-up via alternative means of communication, such as by phone if you are more efficient on a call.
9. Combine activities by walking while dictating routine tasks, such as writing a rough draft of an article.

Original image by Enriched Couples

Annette Miller is the Cofounder and CEO of Enriched Couples, a financial therapy platform that uses psychology to guide couples through unifying their values, financial priorities, and future goals.

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