I need assistance with task retrieval, time management, and working memory. I do not need an app that makes me feel guilty, and quantifies it with pretty charts. We are not lacking in knowledge, and track data isn't particularly useful. Especially if you're ability to consistently engage with an app is not there. No amount of notifications and prodding will work to solve overwhelm and and distraction.
What we need is assistive technologies that complement our deficits. I won't use an app to just log I did something, but I will use an app if it's crucial to do that activity, and it makes it easier for me to do so.
When you say assistive technology, what kind of things are you thinking about?
I don't have ADHD myself but I'm heavy into home automation and am just interested in it in general, since I think there's so much potential for smart tech to actually improve the lives of those with ADHD.
Some things that come to mind:
- Washing machine alerts you if you have accidentally done washing and forgotten to take it out.
- Household lights change colour consistently throughout the day to assist with time blindness; house goes into wind-down mode at night automatically at the same time. Music starts automatically when you should be getting up out of bed. Coffee machine starts brewing coffee (if that's your thing).
- Doomscrolling pits like Instagram and Tiktok are disabled except for very specific times of the day.
Also goes without saying -- when you know one person with ADHD.... you know one person with ADHD. What works for any particular person is going to be mostly unique, or at least a unique combination of things.
Essentially, anything that a) puts cues in your environment to help steer you in the right direction and b) requires very little executive function to access.
I have adhd myself and I am designing assistive technology for myself.
My software is basically "self spyware", a (mouse/key/browser history/etc) logger for linux. In a way like an open source (though not yet) microsoft recall but even more extensive and with better search and no AI. The idea is to:
1. Be able to put in small notes easily and quickly without having to think of name, tags, etc.
2. Be able to recall what I did, when I did it and what else I did around that time, with _time_ being the main link. So you don't have to semantically link things together like in e.g. obsidian. You can, but using locality of reference should already provide good results.
I wrote some code already for the keylogging parts. Where I got stuck is when thinking about/designing the parts that require cryptography. When I have more free time I definitely want to get back to it.
What I found I need most due to my adhd:
1. A way to do anything "in the moment". Let's say I'm about to procrastinate on my phone but know I have to write an email. Then I must have the ability to do that very quickly right from my phone. If mentally the task of "turning on my laptop" and doing it there seems like too much, I won't do it. So the "preparation friction" to do any task must be as small as possible. This is somewhat a difficult problem but technologically it requires everything to be cross platform and easily accessible.
2. A way to very quickly confirm what I already did before or confirm that I already did something. I have to constantly confirm it because I can't remember if I did. This part is what my software tries to address.
As ADHD dev that thought about something similar (but never worked on it) I'd love to see the code. Please make a post when you intend to release it as opensource, it seems super interesting
Agreed. This app feels like work, which for ADHD-PI sufferers will stop using almost immediately, forget to use it entirely, or use it inconsistently and then feel bad/guilty for failing then give up anyway.
> No amount of notifications and prodding will work to solve overwhelm and distraction.
+1000. Depending on the 'flavour' of ADHD one suffers, an app that requires data to drive graphs only creates more noise, which is a killer for ADHD brains, especially those with the 'hyperactive' traits of the disorder.
thanks for this feedback - curious what current assistive technologies you use right now? totally agree on complementing our challenges, and there are definitely a lot of apps that do pieces of it (we have some of these features on our roadmap to integrate in) but what we've found through coaching and our members is that a big part of their barrier to reaching the life they want is around self worth, noticing wins / patterns in little wins over time, and coming up with / remembering strategies across different life areas. the goal here is not to choose one or the other but to support both types of needs
Not OP, but a notepad, a calendar (both I already get for free on my phone), and medication.
Your app interesting, but the tracking data and linked data required is an absolute non-starter for me. Privacy is key, especially for those who are really sensitive about revealing their ADHD diagnosis or symptoms. I know of people who have been discriminated against because of their ADHD diagnosis.
As an ADHD person, this app looks like a repackaging (with nice design) of all the stuff I’ve built up over years - habit tracking, daily/weekly/yearly reflection, detailed task management, etc.
This isn’t for me (because I’ve already built a system that works), but this looks like something that would be very useful. For the target user who does feel stuck and hasn’t successfully built their system, this looks like a phenomenal product.
I appreciate the emphasis on self-reflection and perhaps the implied focus on continuous improvement.
Over the last few years I implemented a weekly self-review + planning practice (think solo agile retrospective), and my life has been on a steady trajectory of improvement since.
Edit: commenting on the product concept, not the company, pricing, or concerning tracking practices.
Glad to hear you've built a system that works for you! We've also heard from a lot of our beta users that they've tried to cobble together something similar, and a lot of their feedback and ideas is what we used to build this initial version (in collaboration with our Research Lab to integrate the latest methods too). Many of them weren't able to push their self-built systems over the finish line or maintain it, due to ADHD challenges though. Our goal is to build a flexible enough system that it can be adapted for various learning styles (in practice we're still far off from where we want to be) and continue building agents on top of it that make science-backed exercises and methods more accessible. A lot of the best practices are currently gated behind long textbooks and scattered PDF worksheets so I'm really excited about making this more accessible. For example, this week we're working on an "energy accounting" agent that's widely used (in varying formats) across ADHD practitioners that many ADHDers know they want to do theoretically but haven't found the way to follow through on it.
I love the weekly self review and planning practice you mention; I do a similar one with myself and my co-founder each week and have started moving that process into Indy recently!
Here is my template from obsidian that I use for my weekly reflection - customize reflection based on your values and priorities. I have goals to improve work-life balance, social connections (social isolation was a factor driving poor outcomes, and through deliberate consistent effort I have solved this problem).
Hyper scheduling: https://dev.to/maxpatiiuk/series/32301 (I stumbled upon this and implemented a form of it, although mostly I just like the colors in my calendar)
- [ ] Review year compass
- [ ] Review journal entries from the week
- [ ] Review last week's reflection
## Quick summary
> *Headline for the week*:
## Basic planning
- [ ] Set up outline of the week in Outlook
- [ ] Plan a fun weekend activity:
- [ ] Plan to visit one new restaurant:
- [ ] Plan one meet up or social activity:
- meditation (I combine with a fancy LED face mask to help reinforce the habit via my desire to combat wrinkles and acne - the cryoglow is better at acne than wrinkles so far)
- exercise (you can add notes)
- evening leisure time (if I don’t have dedicated leisure time, I end up revenge bedtime procrastinating/doomscrolling)
- stretching (there are two simple band stretching exercises that solved what I thought would be life-long neck and shoulder pain)
When I really struggle with productivity, I find the pomodoro system is a good bootstrap, and TickTick makes it easy to start. I like seeing the pomos on the built-in calendar.
I have a ton of respect for your approach. That said, as someone without ADHD, it seems somewhat odd that an inability to kick off executive function would be well addressed by adding an additional activity that requires executive function. Like, if I had to plan my day out with this document before doing things, I think I'd grow to dread the process, and be even more stymied - i.e. if it was hard to go clean the kitchen, why wouldn't it be hard to go write my dayplan?
Yet, I do hear this sort of thing works for people. I'd love to know more about what you experience and why this helps.
TickTick gives me reminders to do some of these things - daily reflection is a “habit” and weekly reflection is a recurring task. That helps me not forget. There’s still value in doing the daily plan regardless of whether I do it right after I wake up (things are going well) or if I do it many hours later when I realize my day has not gone well and I want to get back on track.
The calendars and checklists really help with not forgetting things, and getting back on task once distracted. I can have 100 adhd moments; the system can’t prevent that, but it can help me find my way back to shore when I’m lost at sea.
I don’t really struggle with kitchen cleaning, but sometimes I do set out to clean the kitchen and end up folding laundry or scrolling instead. I can do that but if I haven’t checked off “clean the kitchen”, I know to come back to it.
The weekly reflection is a chore but I set aside time for it, and I keep doing it because it works. I can spend an hour doing deep reflection, or I can rush through it, there is value either way. It is really just a check list, and check lists are very ADHD friendly.
Separately, I find that physical and mental health improve performance regardless - so a system that improves these factors _is_ a system that helps with ADHD. Getting to bed on time, and building the system that produces that outcome, is an ADHD-friendly system. I struggle with this, but I try to get better over time by experimenting and adjusting.
The reality is that the system will not solve ADHD problems, the system is just a tool - you still have to do the work. Same for the app that is being shared.
I have ADHD & use a very similar kind of daily notes template. I think the reason that it works for me at least is that it shortcuts some of the "not knowing where to start" executive function issues at the start of the day. I only need to remember one thing: open a new daily notes template. The checklist itself chains other good habits off the back of that, reminding me to e.g. make sure I've taken my meds, make coffee, put music on, think about what I've done recently & if there's anything to pick up again or dive back into & what I'm going to do for the day etc.
Yes, it can feel like a chore at times (especially forcing myself to do more in-depth periodic reflections) but without a system like this, I quickly find myself completely rudderless & my mental health & productivity both collapse pretty quickly.
You'll actually hear quite frequently that people diagnosed relatively late in life went under the radar for so long exactly because we developed our own massively over compensating systems like this & can appear (externally at least) to almost have the exact opposite of "executive function issues"!
Some ADHD folks have something called "justice sensitivity"[0]. Put plainly, we get more bothered than neurotypical folks by actions and events we view as morally wrong.
I can't say for certain that this is caused by my ADHD or not, but I have a "sensitivity" to dark patterns. That is to say, dark patterns bug me more than they probably should.
Hiding the pricing until after signup is a dark pattern. It's a clear case of the company optimizing for their interests over mine and they are therefore unworthy of my trust (or so my brain tells me). After all, what other user-hostile design decisions are they going to make?
What ends up happening is that my brain puts its guard up, and keeps it up. It's constantly on the lookout for more subtle tricks and corner cutting.
Furthermore, I'm offended that they think I'm that stupid (but that's probably the developer in me and not my ADHD).
The landing page piqued my interest but then let me down. Hard. Not because $40 a month (as reported by another user here) is too much, but because I find dark patterns to be morally repugnant.
I just wanted to clarify, this app is COMPLETELY FREE. There is no cost.
The cost you're seeing is for our other product that includes live body doubling (co-working) sessions that are guided by our ADHD coaches. I think I might remove that link or move it to the bottom. Sorry for the confusion!
"Justice Sensitivity" isn't a condition or a binary trait that you either have or you don't. It's a measurement in some psychological studies where they ask subjects to rate subjective injustices. The study that page links actually shows the ADHD kids having lower perpetrator justice sensitivity so it's not really that simple either, which I'll expand on below.
That Edge Foundation website isn't a good resource. It's SEO filler content for them to feed their coaching sales funnel.
The actual study it linked is more informative. They surveyed a group of kids about their reaction to different scenarios of injustice and also ADHD traits. They found a positive correlation between ADHD and sensitivity to injustice from the victim perspective, but substantially lower sensitivity to injustice from the perpetrator perspective.
Given that this study was purely in 10-19 year olds (mostly children) and the opposite results for victim and perpetrator injustice, I suspect it's just measuring emotional maturity among the kids. The study also noticed a high correlation with angry and anxious responses, which further supports the correlation to emotional and interpersonal maturity.
And just to add, I also have the justice sensitivity! Because of that, even our other service (ADHD coaching) has all the prices VERY clearly on the home page. It includes the monthly price in big font and a clear summary of what's included in each package. https://www.shimmer.care/
I’m an adult with combined type ADHD.
I feel very strongly that any device which has other apps is a terrible tool for ADHD management and organization. No matter how well intentioned, and I know that you are.
One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper.
The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method. It takes time, effort, and there is a learning curve. The ROI is higher than from any app. No other tool has impacted my life and productivity more.
That said, I have found some tertiary apps to be helpful, though my BuJo is my compass. Endel for time boxing/Pomodoro, and sleep.
Headspace for guided meditation.
No, it doesn’t have to be aesthetic, with pretty lettering and doodles (as seen in social media).
> I feel very strongly that any device which has other apps is a terrible tool for ADHD management and organization.
I strongly disagree. While that approach may work for you, it did not work for me. I do not believe there is a one size fits all approach in this regard. My limitation is far more on the executive side than it is with distractibility or addiction, my devices present no sigificant negative impact in that regard.
> One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper. The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method.
That may be true for you, but device usage itself is not a problem for me. I spent significant time attempting bullet journaling and found it ineffective, it increased cognitive overhead and time spent managing the system rather than executing tasks. Additionally, handwriting based systems are not well suited to me due to motor limitations from an incomplete spinal cord injury.
I use a single Kanban board in Trello to manage my entire life. It works precisely because it is digital. Always accessible, frictionless, and available wherever I am. For me, that constant availability is essential.
> The ROI is higher than from any app.
For you, perhaps. For me, adopting a Kanban based digital system was life changing. As you suggested of your own system, no other tool has had a greater positive impact on my organisation or productivity than Trello. The only thing which has had even remotely the same level of impact is medication.
For Trello itself (kanban) I think the reason it worked when nothing else did is due to its visual/spacial nature, combined with WIP limits and low friction capture. But it didnt truly click until I could have it with me at all times. Whenever I notice I've gotten distracted or drifted, no matter where I am I know i'm one "click" away effectively from re-orienting myself on what I was supposed to be doing and what matters.
Glad you found the system that works for you! Not an easy feat and not many folks have gotten there. And thanks for sharing your exact system, no doubt it'll help people here.
The doodles you're seeing is probably for our other product and social media. The new Indy app has a celestial theme in dark mode, and we'll likely make other modes later! For a lot of our members, they've noted that the calming nature of it helps them settle into a reflective state (vs. our coaching app is more bright and uplifting!).
No. Analogue is the worst for ADHD. Physical notes are the easiest thing to neglect and forget about. It becomes another brick in the massive stack of unopened letters and random papers.
As a privacy concious ADHDer, it is a sad reality that OP's product is never going to be something I can trust enough to use. Anyone has any experience of similar/alternative local-first FOSS alternatives / replacements, or resources on how you figured out how to build workflows that worked with you with non-ADHD focused tools? I have come to the point where I am going to be losing my job very soon because I have 0 executive functioning, silver-lining of this is that I can maybe take some time to figure out how better processes than I have and enough non-work related things I want to get done to have an incentive for this
Unfortunately, it is not FOSS but I find Obsidian with kanban plugin a killer. They do release their Android app from Github, and some custom ROMs allows you to disallow network permission. Also for Linux version, you can use Flatpak release and run it without network permission. Not very ideal, but I find it working for me.
I am an org-mode user myself, but I find the lack of inherent structure pretty paralysing and have built-up complex nested trees of tasks and org-roam notes that I haven't looked at in years. I fear org-agenda and the many year-long incomplete tasks I have been putting off.
I know this is probably not something that a tech tool will fix on its own, but do you mind sharing your config and how you converged to something that worked?
(1) The App and the description seem just as relevant for a non-ADHD population.
(2) Relying on, and committing to, an app like this has high requirements of diligence for efficacy; in an age of extractive apps, users might doubt even promising apps, and be less prone to adopt or maintain. So there's a yawning participation gap.
Relying on AI for the interactivity/liveness to maintain participation could work, but actually then puts a lot of quality pressure on the AI. The first off tone could prompt escape. How do you scale QA for that?
So, I'd think this needs to be coupled with social factors: testimonials and community building.
Efficacy testimonials would distinguish this from other self-management apps. Allowing users to gift others the app would spread the word. Providing users an in-app way to share feedback could help with QA, particularly if it was validated by others' responses. e.g., "I don't like this phrasing. It sounds like x." reply: "yeah, others agree so we're working on that" or "we'll look into it" Maybe only people who participate diligently get the ability to gift the app to others (but I would steer clear of obvious incentives/kickbacks).
I think the killer feature would be dedication to reporting actual feedback. Admit that it won't work for everyone, require feedback on whether it's working, and post that feedback to all users. Then work on improving it, either by fixing the app or selecting users better. That would given people confidence and mitigate the loneliness. Users should feel that they're not only helping themselves, but helping others like them. To me that commitment to others often gets me over a momentary lack of commitment to my larger self.
Some really good stuff in here.
- on testimonials. We have some early ones here https://testimonial.to/indy/all and a bunch of video ones that include the good and the bad (but not shared for privacy). i do like the idea of sharing all of it in a live place so people can engage though. something we'll look into
- community building is huge for us. i'm on IG with 200K+ and we constantly throw free community events (live), e.g. last week we did a 2026 planning with 1,000+ ADHDers there
- we’re also looking to include thumbs up/down around messages similar to other ai chat apps so people can provide more feedback around specific messages/outputs and for each chat interaction too! any other ideas welcome :)
I applaud the effort put into this product, and the willingness to help others in our situation. As someone with ADHD et al, I'll give my feedback.
I think Indy has a lot of good intentions, but I am highly suspicious of its efficacy. Personally, I have always been somewhat opposed of using applications on distracting and addicting devices in order to help with executive function issues. It's all too easy to open my phone to use one application and then seemingly end up on a completely different application mere minutes later.
Do you all have any analytics to share? I am curious how many people download Indy vs. how many people actually use it on a consistent basis. I can absolutely seem myself downloading such an application, attempting to set it up, and either stopping halfway through or never opening the app again.
> what other AI tools you’ve tried for ADHD
None. I do not believe LLMs in their current state can meaningfully help any neurodevelopmental nor mental health disorders. Until LLMs acquire the ability to force me to do a particular task or provide enough consequences for not doing a particular task, then I see them as no different than overcomplicated Todo lists for ADHD. Though, I do believe LLMs remove a lot of friction in getting started on certain types of work. Most importantly, I already have to be motivated in the first place in order to use LLMs to remove friction on whatever task I am attempting to complete.
I personally believe a lot of productivity apps, especially for ADHD, are just distraction traps that provide the user with an illusory sense of productivity, when in reality, the user is actually just procrastinating further.
Perhaps this is merely a projection on my part, but I think a lot of people have convinced themselves that various apps will yield better organization and that better organization will yield better habits. But why do people want better habits? My first inclination is that people believe if something becomes a habit, then it will become effortless and one will not have to rely on motivation or willpower anymore.
However, the irony is that it takes consistent and direct effort to even build a habit. Once a habit is built, the consistent effort never stops, but rather, one just adapts to the amount of effort required. The older I become, the more I convinced that there really are no shortcuts in life.
Appreciate the thought behind this comment, and the willingness to help with the questions we asked! We actually just came out of beta last week, so the data is skewed. Beta users have really high usage & retention rates (probably due to the accountability that they knew they'd be talking to me on the phone at the end, and since they applied and committed to testing).
Interesting thought behind using 1) force and 2) consequences to get tasks done. I think those are definitely 2 useful levers, but there are other levers to get these things done too (of course, without context to what tasks you're referring to). On Indy, we use positive motivation & emotional salience to help users connect their current task to future goals, we help them explore if there's a gap of [capability], [opportunity], or [motivation] to get something done (COM-B model), and help them draw on past strategies that have worked for them that they may have forgot (non-exhaustive). Indy is intentionally not a to-do list, there's actually no lists in there, as lists get overwhelming, but instead helps the users cut down and reflect on what's really important today or this week to get to your life goals (existential productivity vs. traditional productivity).
I like your line of thinking at the end there. A lot of our members come in thinking they want better organization / productivity / habits, or in general just MORE, but we know through research that that doesn't actually yield a more fruitful life. And yes haha, no shortcuts in life, but I try to enjoy the process :)
As an ADHD person, the landing page is absolutely anti-ADHD - a lot of stuff with basically no info about what it really does. It should have been all concise and tangible information, simple example, demo. Instead just a lot of marketing fluff. I spent all the focus budget there and I have no idea what it does.
Perhaps try to go directly into the app store, I think that copy and the screenshots is a lot more straight forward. Our care team has skewed the landing page to be a bit more of "show the benefit" rather than the functionality (since a lot of the functionality looks like chat bots) but we can definitely take another look through it and I love the idea of including a demo! For now, the youtube demo is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDSDxyXv6i4
I am going to second the comment you are replying to. Strongly.
Why are you (indirectly by omission) asking a cohort of people who need information to be direct, to redirect? That's a serious market/message mismatch.
> Our care team has skewed the landing page to be a bit more of "show the benefit" rather than the functionality
That is what the snake oil industry does. Or enterprise sales. Even cults. ("Look at what we say these people say about us!" "We have a solution to your problem! [restated several times in different ways]!"
I am baffled by the term "care team" in this context.
I find that being concrete and credible, instead of asking people who don't know you for trust and unrewarded interest out of the gate, is a much better way to communicate something that is real.
If you do have a way to help ADHD people, I wish you luck communicating that. As an ADHD person myself, I have system creation/adoption fatigue. You seem to be aware of this. So be very direct about exactly what you do that helps, so someone that has tried many things, i.e. a sophisticated customer by necessity, can judge anything you say. (As they say in science, non-testable claims are not worth much. When marketing solutions to serious problems, this relates to the first thing you show people.)
Fair, feedback heard from multiple people here on: being more direct, concrete, credible. I'll take this back for the next iteration of the landing page!
A huge intro post, like a text wall. That's everything an adhd person is trying to avoid.
Started the app. A couple of "motivational speeches". Asking some questions I don't even understand. Answered randomly, just to see what the app is offering. At the end: account required.
That's where you first lost me.
So I tried the website. First sentence just some sale-pitch-speech:
> Built from lessons learned after 80,000+ ADHD coaching sessions, Indy gives you the structure you need, daily support that keeps you accountable, and momentum you can actually sustain.
On the right some nothing-saying screenshot. Scrolling down. More text. Buzzword-Bingo. "Journey". "Build a vision." "Stop dreaming about your future. Start building it."
Great, another one of those catchy, fancy offers pretending to help you. Another pretty website from the default vercel-ish website-builder.
No offense - perhaps it's my asperger. This does not seem helpful at all. Maybe it is. Then it's on me.
I need clear, focussed messages. No noise. No modern interface. Form follows function. Not the other way around.
After you sign up, you're asked to spend 10-15 minutes creating a "Lifeline." Which, despite its name, does not appear to be a lifeline of any kind, but rather a timeline of my life, except it also strips dates out, so... just a list of events in no particular order.
Unfortunately - I've got ADHD. I'm not going to spend the next 10 minutes telling the app the biggest facts about my life. Well, actually - I tried to, then I put the phone down to do something else, and when I came back the 'page' had refreshed and the four things I had entered were back down to just the first one.
(Why do you even want them? The app hasn't even explained how this will help. It's barely even tried to explain what the app will actually DO.)
This comment might seem harsh, but this feedback is gold. I agree completely, matched my experience reading through the page, and I was diagnosed in my mid-40s with ADHD.
I wonder if the folks doing marketing are neurotypical, but they are trying to target a population that's neurodivergent? Just spitballing since I have no info, but an interesting topic.
There's a little button inside the profile page to discover our ADHD coaching service (1:1 coaching with one of our 50+ expert ADHD coaches). Right now we don't push it explicitly but have already seen folks explore it. Indy is meant to be an accessible form of support for those who can't afford coaching or are in between coaching seasons, or even use it with their coaching experience. We also advertise our free community events (last week we hosted a 2026 planning workshop with 1,000+ participants) and in those events, often folks also discover 1:1 coaching and will join thereafter. We're also exploring what integrating the core Indy features into 1:1 coaching looks like but doing so carefully with the feedback of members and our coaches, so in the future it may be one app with multiple tiers!
I appreciate the effort. I'll give you my honest two cents. If you don't have thick skin, stop reading here. I'm going to be critical, and I'm going to be blunt. You can take it or leave it.
The landing page sucks. In my first impression my eyes immediately darted to the animated graphics/webms. The text reads like it was written by AI with the sentences in triplets everywhere. Immediately my trust for this site (which was finicky at first) has already gone down. If you can't sustain my attention in the banner, what makes me think you can sustain my attention for the app? Be direct - show me what your app does at a glance. My attention is very scarce and very expensive, don't waste it on vague niceties or depend on me to trust you on what you say other people are saying about your app. I feel like you're trying to cheat me out of own autonomy when you're selling me something (even if it's free, my time = money) that I have no idea what it does until I get to the FAQ. My 2c - put the FAQ in the very top, with the questions "Is this just another AI chatbot?" and "How does Indy fit with ADHD coaching or other support?" in order with minimized distractions. This tells me what your product is and what it isn't at face value.
we love blunt and critical, it's why these forums are so important for us. totally hear you on these, and some other folks here have mentioned similar comments. we'll be looking at our landing page further over the next week! thanks! and also agree time = money, with you on that one. appreciate the feedback
The only thing that reliably works is co-working with another human.
This is hard to find and not always possible. The reason it works is that it triggers the "empathy brain," which transfers the importance of the person to the importance of the task. Having an invested person always at your command is impossible, and an AI robot simply doesn't trigger that same empathy. It costs three cents per interaction. It is a robot. It isn't important, no matter how advanced it is.
There is something fascinating yet defeating about how the ADHD brain craves human connection. Just as loneliness can’t be solved by an app, ADHD cannot be "app-ed" out. I have found that these systems can lighten the cognitive load, but that is their limit.
I have a vibed chief-of-staff personal system. It knows everything and it neatly mapped out my state and day. I even know the first simple task I need to do because a prompt organized it for me on another page. Yet, I would still rather write this comment here. You already know this at some level, too.
> The only thing that reliably works is co-working with another human.
I found this didnt really do anything for me.
> ADHD cannot be "app-ed" out.
I have found significant success with Kanban. To the point where at times, I can even go unmedicated and still somewhat progress. With medication I might as well be superhuman.
Something about the WIP limit, the way I structure it so that I can see the timeframes (Next month, next week, today etc) and the moving of tasks from left to right really clicked with my brain.
It's been the most successful intervention in terms of my treatment in the entirety of my existence.
It swings both ways for me. Either super comfortable or uncomfortable.
What doesn't work is hiring a virtual assistant to hold me accountable. As soon as I pay them and they report to me, they are the same loop as my own brain. No empathy brain! :D. This is bleak I know.
Thanks! Why would a user prefer this service instead of a conventional AI subscription service with memory (and possibly read access to their desktop data)? The latter can automatically capture key interactions during the day and set reminders for regular checkins. Is there a secret sauce that makes this better so it is worth the extra effort?
1) A big differentiation is the guidance. Indy is based on science-backed frameworks and exercises that set the foundation for and fuel the main scaffolding interactions. For example, by going through the lifeline exercise when you sign up, members are prompted to think of future events across different life areas (vs. often when you tackle this yourself you may just start working on productivity/work oriented things for example) and the objective function of the app is general well-being rather than productivity
2) Indy is built not to give you answers but to build your capacity. For example, in the problem solving agent, it teaches you the COM-B framework through demonstration, and I've already talked to many members who are surprised that they found themselves going through similar thought process even when Indy wasn't there and getting things done that they haven't been able to in months or years
3) Sounds trivial but the design and user experience. It's built for ADHD and although not perfect and there's tons we want to add, the app is trained to help you see the good (pulling out wins, surfacing it in pretty ways, allowing you to add photos to build salience, etc.) to build self trust over time; and other UI / illustration choices to provide some dopamine (and we've considered hard the balance between providing dopamine but not trying to just get people to return to the app for the sake of it)
Edit: A followup, if you still happen to see this edit. What about the privacy concerns that users may have. My interest is for a super-high functioning young adult that is very careful about their privacy and web footprint.
i made an account on shimmer when you launched and even tried it out. i have made multiple requests to your nonexistent support to delete it and it all goes into a dustbin apparently. very subpar experience that makes me not trust at all how you'd handle my data.
sorry that it hasn't been done yet! we generally attend to these pretty quickly. If you sent it to support, it may have been buried. I can look into it though. Can you send an email to privacy@shimmer.care?
I personally already was hesitant downloading an app that is health/disability related from the Google play store, but you triggered me. Actually my brain lacking impulse control, however, the deinstalled the app again after getting towards the account creation dialog ( the question answer thing was good to grab my attention). I moved on, because I was already thinking about pricing and whatever: quickest thing was running away and continue procrastinating on hacker news...
For awhile now I've had in mind a locally ran AI ADHD assistant. Using always on ASR for interactions (removing friction) it would keep track of todos, help refocus from distractions, and work as a personal knowledge base to aid with memory.
The key to this would be everything running locally, privacy preserving. The LLM would observe everything that is happening on screen, notice when someone is distracted by reddit (or HN!) and help refocus people.
Perfectly doable on even a moderately spec'd MacBook now days.
I'm AuDHD and I think the marked for products to help with ADHD that do not actually work for anyone except for the person who came up with them is absolutely saturated. I think what I've come to realize is that the process of building a system is at least as important as the system itself. This means nothing designed by someone who is not me will really work for me, and that's that. I suppose a lot of money can be made off of people who have not yet realized this.
I also have to say something about the "for those who feel stuck... indy will be your compass" reads incredibly fucking dystopian to me.
I totally hear you that there are so many products in the market that only work for the person who designed them. We designed this with hundreds of beta users (I had 5-6 deep calls per day for at least a month) and it's based off of our learnings from our 50+ adhd coaches and thousands of adhd coaching clients as well. As we build this out more, we have deeper personalization of how the app works planned too, so hopefully we'll be able to serve (not all but) many ADHDers! I'm always curious about what people build on their own though, and what about Indy wasn't fit for them. This helps us figure out what adaptability to build going forward! But if you have a system that works well for you already, that's amazing!
And hear you on that copy! We tested it with our beta community and it was based off of thousands of ADHDers main sentiment & challenge. Here are the top ones if you're curious: “I’m stuck and something has to change”; “I don’t trust myself anymore”; “I want direction, not another to-do list”; “I want to work with my ADHD, not fight it”; we'll be continuing to test this as we talk to more users!
A few main differences: 1) it moves you towards things that matter to you. E.g. not open prompts but helping you break down each week and day to move you closer to your future events you envision; 2) it uses science-back methods (like COM-B) to help you solve challenges in your life; 3) it remembers when things worked / haven't worked for you so that when you bring them up in the future it can support you with personalized solutions rather than just answering what's the "best solution". We're also working on the next phase of agents which include energy accounting, values-discovery, strengths-discovery, habit building, and more.
I suspect that the ADHD audience on HN would skew towards people who have already developed coping mechanisms and systems (and some people seem to have very high intellectual horsepower), so you might not find the best market fit or feedback here. I think I am past the point where this may have been a fit for me, but earlier in my life it may have been very useful.
Edit: Can you explain what "clear boundaries around non-medical use" means?
Thanks, appreciate you! Agree that some folks here likely have put together their own systems too, so I was also hoping to get some inspiration from what folks have done and what's working for them! And I also know this group will be the most critical (in a good way) so it's always helpful for us to launch here as it makes our product and systems better.
If there's anyone in your life who's earlier on in their journey, do send Indy their way!
re: Non-medical use, Indy doesn't give advice, diagnose, treat, or interpret symptoms. We don’t tell people what they SHOULD do. We focus on reflection, structuring thoughts, noticing patterns, and helping users orient themselves, so that they build autonomy and capacity over time. E.g. generic LLMs don't often have tight guardrails and they can drift into prescriptive or quasi-clinical territory simply because that’s what users ask for.
Hahaha, I'm a millennial and that still resonates with me, so I get it. I think within every community there's always a really big span and hopefully our new product experience can be helpful to a subset of that span! With the AI chats, it's substantially more personalized and less restrictive than last gen text box flows!
>“knowing what to do” is rarely the problem for people with ADHD. The harder problem is actually doing it consistently over time, especially when attention, motivation, and emotional state fluctuate.
I don't have a diagnosis, but I can say that choosing what to do very often seems like the stumbling block for me.
This new product might be better, but Shimmer was publicly criticized exploitative when it launched. I saw those criticisms at the time, gave the product a fair chance anyway, and unfortunately found them to be accurate.
I used Shimmer in 2022. The app had poor UX and frequent bugs, and the core offering (weekly Google Meet sessions with a “coach”) felt like generic self-help and not personalized coaching. The promised between-session support mostly consisted of DM'd article links, even after I raised that concern directly.
The sessions themselves often felt unprofessional, with background noise, unstable connections, and poor audio quality. The coach WFM'd on their couch during call. Given the price (hundreds of dollars per month at the time), the gap between what was marketed and what was delivered was significant.
Hopefully the new product addresses these issues, but I’d encourage people evaluating it to look at Shimmer’s prior execution and customer feedback, not just the announcement.
I'm sorry you had a poor experience! 2022 was the year I got diagnosed and the app definitely wasn't nearly as good as it is now, and I'm sorry you went through those bugs. But more importantly, I'm sorry about the experience you had with your coach. We take these flags really seriously and since then, we've put in several rounds of guardrails in the hiring process, with ongoing contract renewals with our coaches, and general culture & training. Now, we only take <3.5% of qualified coaches and have far more processes in place to make sure these things don't happen and catch them if they slip through. Because we don't record the sessions or supervise them because of privacy, there definitely has been a few situations like yours and again, we do take them really seriously! We do have hundreds if not thousands of really impactful stories and progress (I've personally cried in multiple feedback calls) so if anyone is reading this, I highly recommend checking out this page too! https://testimonial.to/shimmer-care/all
Thanks for giving a pretty solid real answer here.
While I have you: any advice for how to suggest to someone else that they consider your app? I'm met with defensiveness at every suggestion I make; the app seems compelling enough to me as a neurotypical person though, and I'd love to see them try something like this.
The app-store handling (QR code on desktop, app to right app store on phone) is probably supposed to be clever, but browsing on desktop it just felt annoying. QR codes are fine, but at least give me a small direct link below the code. I don't want to take out my phone to figure out if it's supported, I want to click on a link that takes me to the app store so I can have a look at the page, the reviews, and if I'm logged in click install to trigger my phone to do its thing (not sure if the last part also works on apple or is only a google thing)
The app is for 18+ only, currently!
(but we do have a coaching program specifically built for teens between 13-17 y/o if you're interested in the future!)
I think technological systems for managing ADHD are targeted mainly towards J-type personalities (Myers-Briggs).
As a hard P-type, I generally perceive Systems as detrimental to my well-being. A take which of course is riddled with both fallacies and exceptions (so don't hold me too harshly to it).
What's holding me back from checking out any sort of recommandation is the fear of commitment.
Everything eventually becomes one (or more) of the following:
- A joyous commitment
- A meaningfull commitment
- A stressfull commitment
Having a kitten is joyous. Having a 17 year old cat is all of the above.
Systems—good, usefull and fascinating as they may be—generally tend to fit in the 'stressfull' category. Especially those who encroach toward a hobby/hyper-fixation during the honeymoon period.
(The one system I still use on a day-to-day basis is a calendar. Because I have to. It's not joyous, but it's meaningfull.)
This seems insightful. I was going to comment elsewhere that some people seem to find structured systems really bothersome, whereas I personally just do not. But I am an INTJ, if anything. The idea of not taking a systems approach feels incredibly foreign, to the extent I can’t even really imagine where one would start.
How do you approach improving your personal outcomes related to ADHD without developing a system?
The short answer is that I try to maximize the strengths and minimize the struggles of ADHD.
Some practical examples:
- I have a job without any long-term projects (only long-term goals), so I never get bored from my tasks.
- I keep my evening schedules clear so I have room to be spontaneous in my hobbies after work. This is prabably made easier by being an introvert as I don't have the need to socialize often.
- I nurture an attitude toward my hobbies which is that the process in itself is always the goal. That it is okay to not finish a project as long as I keep learning new things.
- I depricate any stressfull commitment which is neither important or meaningfull long-term.
Also medication helps to overcome the menial hurdels.
I click on the link and see that ublock origin blocks a total of 15 tracking scripts on your health-related website. At the bottom there is a "cookie management" popup and I wonder what went wrong that your website includes Google, Intercom, Stripe, and several others BEFORE the user has clicked through the "cookie" dialog.
Is this yet another US-based startup that totally misunderstands that GDPR is not about blocking "cookies" but instead that it is about not telling Google that someone just visited an ADHD-related website?
I'm dumbfounded by the ignorance every single time. Why do people spend effort on cookie banners and stuff when they simply include every tracking script on first load of the website?
I'm not advocating that you need to be GDPR compliant if you are US-based and dgaf about EU customers. But if you do these shenanigans with cookie banner then at least do them correctly. And even for non-EU customers it is extremely rude to share visits to a health related website with so many third party companies that clearly build tracking profiles and utilize them to extract as much money from you as possible.
Ah the shimmer.care/indy site is a subpath for our main site (shimmer.care) which uses all of those scripts, but you're right that some of them aren't necessary for indy's site. We'll look into how to separate the two so cookie management is more straightforward for indy's site as this is a separate app still.
Absolutely nobody needs a fucking subscription model funded by VCs to shame them on a daily basis while you steal their personal data and use it to train a fucking AI.
thanks for making this. it can take a lot of time and effort to create systems like this for yourself. i hope you help the people you're trying to reach.
I need assistance with task retrieval, time management, and working memory. I do not need an app that makes me feel guilty, and quantifies it with pretty charts. We are not lacking in knowledge, and track data isn't particularly useful. Especially if you're ability to consistently engage with an app is not there. No amount of notifications and prodding will work to solve overwhelm and and distraction.
What we need is assistive technologies that complement our deficits. I won't use an app to just log I did something, but I will use an app if it's crucial to do that activity, and it makes it easier for me to do so.
When you say assistive technology, what kind of things are you thinking about?
I don't have ADHD myself but I'm heavy into home automation and am just interested in it in general, since I think there's so much potential for smart tech to actually improve the lives of those with ADHD.
Some things that come to mind:
- Washing machine alerts you if you have accidentally done washing and forgotten to take it out.
- Household lights change colour consistently throughout the day to assist with time blindness; house goes into wind-down mode at night automatically at the same time. Music starts automatically when you should be getting up out of bed. Coffee machine starts brewing coffee (if that's your thing).
- Doomscrolling pits like Instagram and Tiktok are disabled except for very specific times of the day.
- Extremely low friction note taking (eg- smartwatch, recorder pin) that's instantly available, searchable and automatable.
- Airtags for finding misplaced items quickly.
Also goes without saying -- when you know one person with ADHD.... you know one person with ADHD. What works for any particular person is going to be mostly unique, or at least a unique combination of things.
Essentially, anything that a) puts cues in your environment to help steer you in the right direction and b) requires very little executive function to access.
Is that on the right track?
Yes, this makes sense, at least to me. But the issue is that this is a lot of stuff working together and not just another app.
I have adhd myself and I am designing assistive technology for myself.
My software is basically "self spyware", a (mouse/key/browser history/etc) logger for linux. In a way like an open source (though not yet) microsoft recall but even more extensive and with better search and no AI. The idea is to:
1. Be able to put in small notes easily and quickly without having to think of name, tags, etc.
2. Be able to recall what I did, when I did it and what else I did around that time, with _time_ being the main link. So you don't have to semantically link things together like in e.g. obsidian. You can, but using locality of reference should already provide good results.
I wrote some code already for the keylogging parts. Where I got stuck is when thinking about/designing the parts that require cryptography. When I have more free time I definitely want to get back to it.
What I found I need most due to my adhd:
1. A way to do anything "in the moment". Let's say I'm about to procrastinate on my phone but know I have to write an email. Then I must have the ability to do that very quickly right from my phone. If mentally the task of "turning on my laptop" and doing it there seems like too much, I won't do it. So the "preparation friction" to do any task must be as small as possible. This is somewhat a difficult problem but technologically it requires everything to be cross platform and easily accessible.
2. A way to very quickly confirm what I already did before or confirm that I already did something. I have to constantly confirm it because I can't remember if I did. This part is what my software tries to address.
As ADHD dev that thought about something similar (but never worked on it) I'd love to see the code. Please make a post when you intend to release it as opensource, it seems super interesting
Agreed. This app feels like work, which for ADHD-PI sufferers will stop using almost immediately, forget to use it entirely, or use it inconsistently and then feel bad/guilty for failing then give up anyway.
> No amount of notifications and prodding will work to solve overwhelm and distraction.
+1000. Depending on the 'flavour' of ADHD one suffers, an app that requires data to drive graphs only creates more noise, which is a killer for ADHD brains, especially those with the 'hyperactive' traits of the disorder.
Less bells and whistles. Not more.
thanks for this feedback - curious what current assistive technologies you use right now? totally agree on complementing our challenges, and there are definitely a lot of apps that do pieces of it (we have some of these features on our roadmap to integrate in) but what we've found through coaching and our members is that a big part of their barrier to reaching the life they want is around self worth, noticing wins / patterns in little wins over time, and coming up with / remembering strategies across different life areas. the goal here is not to choose one or the other but to support both types of needs
Not OP, but a notepad, a calendar (both I already get for free on my phone), and medication.
Your app interesting, but the tracking data and linked data required is an absolute non-starter for me. Privacy is key, especially for those who are really sensitive about revealing their ADHD diagnosis or symptoms. I know of people who have been discriminated against because of their ADHD diagnosis.
As an ADHD person, this app looks like a repackaging (with nice design) of all the stuff I’ve built up over years - habit tracking, daily/weekly/yearly reflection, detailed task management, etc.
This isn’t for me (because I’ve already built a system that works), but this looks like something that would be very useful. For the target user who does feel stuck and hasn’t successfully built their system, this looks like a phenomenal product.
I appreciate the emphasis on self-reflection and perhaps the implied focus on continuous improvement.
Over the last few years I implemented a weekly self-review + planning practice (think solo agile retrospective), and my life has been on a steady trajectory of improvement since.
Edit: commenting on the product concept, not the company, pricing, or concerning tracking practices.
Glad to hear you've built a system that works for you! We've also heard from a lot of our beta users that they've tried to cobble together something similar, and a lot of their feedback and ideas is what we used to build this initial version (in collaboration with our Research Lab to integrate the latest methods too). Many of them weren't able to push their self-built systems over the finish line or maintain it, due to ADHD challenges though. Our goal is to build a flexible enough system that it can be adapted for various learning styles (in practice we're still far off from where we want to be) and continue building agents on top of it that make science-backed exercises and methods more accessible. A lot of the best practices are currently gated behind long textbooks and scattered PDF worksheets so I'm really excited about making this more accessible. For example, this week we're working on an "energy accounting" agent that's widely used (in varying formats) across ADHD practitioners that many ADHDers know they want to do theoretically but haven't found the way to follow through on it.
I love the weekly self review and planning practice you mention; I do a similar one with myself and my co-founder each week and have started moving that process into Indy recently!
Do you mind sharing your system that worked for you in detail or re-direct any good posts that detail them? Appreciate it.
Here is my template from obsidian that I use for my weekly reflection - customize reflection based on your values and priorities. I have goals to improve work-life balance, social connections (social isolation was a factor driving poor outcomes, and through deliberate consistent effort I have solved this problem).
Hyper scheduling: https://dev.to/maxpatiiuk/series/32301 (I stumbled upon this and implemented a form of it, although mostly I just like the colors in my calendar)
Yearly reflection: https://yearcompass.com/
Weekly reflection:
```md ## Preparation
- [ ] Review year compass - [ ] Review journal entries from the week - [ ] Review last week's reflection
## Quick summary
> *Headline for the week*:
## Basic planning
- [ ] Set up outline of the week in Outlook - [ ] Plan a fun weekend activity: - [ ] Plan to visit one new restaurant: - [ ] Plan one meet up or social activity:
## Values-based reflection
1. Health: - 2. Resilience: - 3. Social connection: - 4. Mindfulness: - 5. Adventure: -
## Retrospective
1. Went Well - 2. To improve - 3. Plan to improve/action items -
## Other notes
- ```
Daily reflection/journal:
```md
_Created: {{date}} {{time}}_ ({{date:DDD}}/365)
Gratitude (I am for three items):
Healthy Living Plan:
- Diet: - Exercise: - Work+Learning:
Daily reflection:
- Overall wellbeing (1-10): - Career: - Lifestyle hygiene: - Rose and thorn:
Journal:
```
I use TickTick because of the habit-tracking feature. Used to be todoist loyalist but it sucks for habits. https://help.ticktick.com/articles/7055781878401335296
Key habits I track:
- meditation (I combine with a fancy LED face mask to help reinforce the habit via my desire to combat wrinkles and acne - the cryoglow is better at acne than wrinkles so far) - exercise (you can add notes) - evening leisure time (if I don’t have dedicated leisure time, I end up revenge bedtime procrastinating/doomscrolling) - stretching (there are two simple band stretching exercises that solved what I thought would be life-long neck and shoulder pain)
When I really struggle with productivity, I find the pomodoro system is a good bootstrap, and TickTick makes it easy to start. I like seeing the pomos on the built-in calendar.
I have a ton of respect for your approach. That said, as someone without ADHD, it seems somewhat odd that an inability to kick off executive function would be well addressed by adding an additional activity that requires executive function. Like, if I had to plan my day out with this document before doing things, I think I'd grow to dread the process, and be even more stymied - i.e. if it was hard to go clean the kitchen, why wouldn't it be hard to go write my dayplan?
Yet, I do hear this sort of thing works for people. I'd love to know more about what you experience and why this helps.
TickTick gives me reminders to do some of these things - daily reflection is a “habit” and weekly reflection is a recurring task. That helps me not forget. There’s still value in doing the daily plan regardless of whether I do it right after I wake up (things are going well) or if I do it many hours later when I realize my day has not gone well and I want to get back on track.
The calendars and checklists really help with not forgetting things, and getting back on task once distracted. I can have 100 adhd moments; the system can’t prevent that, but it can help me find my way back to shore when I’m lost at sea.
I don’t really struggle with kitchen cleaning, but sometimes I do set out to clean the kitchen and end up folding laundry or scrolling instead. I can do that but if I haven’t checked off “clean the kitchen”, I know to come back to it.
The weekly reflection is a chore but I set aside time for it, and I keep doing it because it works. I can spend an hour doing deep reflection, or I can rush through it, there is value either way. It is really just a check list, and check lists are very ADHD friendly.
Separately, I find that physical and mental health improve performance regardless - so a system that improves these factors _is_ a system that helps with ADHD. Getting to bed on time, and building the system that produces that outcome, is an ADHD-friendly system. I struggle with this, but I try to get better over time by experimenting and adjusting.
The reality is that the system will not solve ADHD problems, the system is just a tool - you still have to do the work. Same for the app that is being shared.
I have ADHD & use a very similar kind of daily notes template. I think the reason that it works for me at least is that it shortcuts some of the "not knowing where to start" executive function issues at the start of the day. I only need to remember one thing: open a new daily notes template. The checklist itself chains other good habits off the back of that, reminding me to e.g. make sure I've taken my meds, make coffee, put music on, think about what I've done recently & if there's anything to pick up again or dive back into & what I'm going to do for the day etc.
Yes, it can feel like a chore at times (especially forcing myself to do more in-depth periodic reflections) but without a system like this, I quickly find myself completely rudderless & my mental health & productivity both collapse pretty quickly.
You'll actually hear quite frequently that people diagnosed relatively late in life went under the radar for so long exactly because we developed our own massively over compensating systems like this & can appear (externally at least) to almost have the exact opposite of "executive function issues"!
Some ADHD folks have something called "justice sensitivity"[0]. Put plainly, we get more bothered than neurotypical folks by actions and events we view as morally wrong.
I can't say for certain that this is caused by my ADHD or not, but I have a "sensitivity" to dark patterns. That is to say, dark patterns bug me more than they probably should.
Hiding the pricing until after signup is a dark pattern. It's a clear case of the company optimizing for their interests over mine and they are therefore unworthy of my trust (or so my brain tells me). After all, what other user-hostile design decisions are they going to make?
What ends up happening is that my brain puts its guard up, and keeps it up. It's constantly on the lookout for more subtle tricks and corner cutting.
Furthermore, I'm offended that they think I'm that stupid (but that's probably the developer in me and not my ADHD).
The landing page piqued my interest but then let me down. Hard. Not because $40 a month (as reported by another user here) is too much, but because I find dark patterns to be morally repugnant.
[0] https://edgefoundation.org/the-fairness-imperative-adhd-and-...
P.S. I struggled to write this as its first thing in the morning and I haven't even had coffee.
I just wanted to clarify, this app is COMPLETELY FREE. There is no cost.
The cost you're seeing is for our other product that includes live body doubling (co-working) sessions that are guided by our ADHD coaches. I think I might remove that link or move it to the bottom. Sorry for the confusion!
"Justice Sensitivity" isn't a condition or a binary trait that you either have or you don't. It's a measurement in some psychological studies where they ask subjects to rate subjective injustices. The study that page links actually shows the ADHD kids having lower perpetrator justice sensitivity so it's not really that simple either, which I'll expand on below.
That Edge Foundation website isn't a good resource. It's SEO filler content for them to feed their coaching sales funnel.
The actual study it linked is more informative. They surveyed a group of kids about their reaction to different scenarios of injustice and also ADHD traits. They found a positive correlation between ADHD and sensitivity to injustice from the victim perspective, but substantially lower sensitivity to injustice from the perpetrator perspective.
Given that this study was purely in 10-19 year olds (mostly children) and the opposite results for victim and perpetrator injustice, I suspect it's just measuring emotional maturity among the kids. The study also noticed a high correlation with angry and anxious responses, which further supports the correlation to emotional and interpersonal maturity.
And just to add, I also have the justice sensitivity! Because of that, even our other service (ADHD coaching) has all the prices VERY clearly on the home page. It includes the monthly price in big font and a clear summary of what's included in each package. https://www.shimmer.care/
I’m an adult with combined type ADHD. I feel very strongly that any device which has other apps is a terrible tool for ADHD management and organization. No matter how well intentioned, and I know that you are.
One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper. The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method. It takes time, effort, and there is a learning curve. The ROI is higher than from any app. No other tool has impacted my life and productivity more.
That said, I have found some tertiary apps to be helpful, though my BuJo is my compass. Endel for time boxing/Pomodoro, and sleep. Headspace for guided meditation.
No, it doesn’t have to be aesthetic, with pretty lettering and doodles (as seen in social media).
> I feel very strongly that any device which has other apps is a terrible tool for ADHD management and organization.
I strongly disagree. While that approach may work for you, it did not work for me. I do not believe there is a one size fits all approach in this regard. My limitation is far more on the executive side than it is with distractibility or addiction, my devices present no sigificant negative impact in that regard.
> One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper. The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method.
That may be true for you, but device usage itself is not a problem for me. I spent significant time attempting bullet journaling and found it ineffective, it increased cognitive overhead and time spent managing the system rather than executing tasks. Additionally, handwriting based systems are not well suited to me due to motor limitations from an incomplete spinal cord injury.
I use a single Kanban board in Trello to manage my entire life. It works precisely because it is digital. Always accessible, frictionless, and available wherever I am. For me, that constant availability is essential.
> The ROI is higher than from any app.
For you, perhaps. For me, adopting a Kanban based digital system was life changing. As you suggested of your own system, no other tool has had a greater positive impact on my organisation or productivity than Trello. The only thing which has had even remotely the same level of impact is medication.
For Trello itself (kanban) I think the reason it worked when nothing else did is due to its visual/spacial nature, combined with WIP limits and low friction capture. But it didnt truly click until I could have it with me at all times. Whenever I notice I've gotten distracted or drifted, no matter where I am I know i'm one "click" away effectively from re-orienting myself on what I was supposed to be doing and what matters.
Glad you found the system that works for you! Not an easy feat and not many folks have gotten there. And thanks for sharing your exact system, no doubt it'll help people here. The doodles you're seeing is probably for our other product and social media. The new Indy app has a celestial theme in dark mode, and we'll likely make other modes later! For a lot of our members, they've noted that the calming nature of it helps them settle into a reflective state (vs. our coaching app is more bright and uplifting!).
No. Analogue is the worst for ADHD. Physical notes are the easiest thing to neglect and forget about. It becomes another brick in the massive stack of unopened letters and random papers.
"I'll just buy one more note book, this one will be for xxx and will solve all my problems!"
(proceeds to never write in the notebook as I don't want to sully it and don't really know where to start)
As a privacy concious ADHDer, it is a sad reality that OP's product is never going to be something I can trust enough to use. Anyone has any experience of similar/alternative local-first FOSS alternatives / replacements, or resources on how you figured out how to build workflows that worked with you with non-ADHD focused tools? I have come to the point where I am going to be losing my job very soon because I have 0 executive functioning, silver-lining of this is that I can maybe take some time to figure out how better processes than I have and enough non-work related things I want to get done to have an incentive for this
Unfortunately, it is not FOSS but I find Obsidian with kanban plugin a killer. They do release their Android app from Github, and some custom ROMs allows you to disallow network permission. Also for Linux version, you can use Flatpak release and run it without network permission. Not very ideal, but I find it working for me.
Siyuan note is FOSS and AFAIK does everything Obsidian does.
I use an emacs based system with org-mode, org-habits, and howm.
I am an org-mode user myself, but I find the lack of inherent structure pretty paralysing and have built-up complex nested trees of tasks and org-roam notes that I haven't looked at in years. I fear org-agenda and the many year-long incomplete tasks I have been putting off.
I know this is probably not something that a tech tool will fix on its own, but do you mind sharing your config and how you converged to something that worked?
(1) The App and the description seem just as relevant for a non-ADHD population.
(2) Relying on, and committing to, an app like this has high requirements of diligence for efficacy; in an age of extractive apps, users might doubt even promising apps, and be less prone to adopt or maintain. So there's a yawning participation gap.
Relying on AI for the interactivity/liveness to maintain participation could work, but actually then puts a lot of quality pressure on the AI. The first off tone could prompt escape. How do you scale QA for that?
So, I'd think this needs to be coupled with social factors: testimonials and community building.
Efficacy testimonials would distinguish this from other self-management apps. Allowing users to gift others the app would spread the word. Providing users an in-app way to share feedback could help with QA, particularly if it was validated by others' responses. e.g., "I don't like this phrasing. It sounds like x." reply: "yeah, others agree so we're working on that" or "we'll look into it" Maybe only people who participate diligently get the ability to gift the app to others (but I would steer clear of obvious incentives/kickbacks).
I think the killer feature would be dedication to reporting actual feedback. Admit that it won't work for everyone, require feedback on whether it's working, and post that feedback to all users. Then work on improving it, either by fixing the app or selecting users better. That would given people confidence and mitigate the loneliness. Users should feel that they're not only helping themselves, but helping others like them. To me that commitment to others often gets me over a momentary lack of commitment to my larger self.
Some really good stuff in here. - on testimonials. We have some early ones here https://testimonial.to/indy/all and a bunch of video ones that include the good and the bad (but not shared for privacy). i do like the idea of sharing all of it in a live place so people can engage though. something we'll look into - community building is huge for us. i'm on IG with 200K+ and we constantly throw free community events (live), e.g. last week we did a 2026 planning with 1,000+ ADHDers there - we’re also looking to include thumbs up/down around messages similar to other ai chat apps so people can provide more feedback around specific messages/outputs and for each chat interaction too! any other ideas welcome :)
I applaud the effort put into this product, and the willingness to help others in our situation. As someone with ADHD et al, I'll give my feedback.
I think Indy has a lot of good intentions, but I am highly suspicious of its efficacy. Personally, I have always been somewhat opposed of using applications on distracting and addicting devices in order to help with executive function issues. It's all too easy to open my phone to use one application and then seemingly end up on a completely different application mere minutes later.
Do you all have any analytics to share? I am curious how many people download Indy vs. how many people actually use it on a consistent basis. I can absolutely seem myself downloading such an application, attempting to set it up, and either stopping halfway through or never opening the app again.
> what other AI tools you’ve tried for ADHD
None. I do not believe LLMs in their current state can meaningfully help any neurodevelopmental nor mental health disorders. Until LLMs acquire the ability to force me to do a particular task or provide enough consequences for not doing a particular task, then I see them as no different than overcomplicated Todo lists for ADHD. Though, I do believe LLMs remove a lot of friction in getting started on certain types of work. Most importantly, I already have to be motivated in the first place in order to use LLMs to remove friction on whatever task I am attempting to complete.
I personally believe a lot of productivity apps, especially for ADHD, are just distraction traps that provide the user with an illusory sense of productivity, when in reality, the user is actually just procrastinating further.
Perhaps this is merely a projection on my part, but I think a lot of people have convinced themselves that various apps will yield better organization and that better organization will yield better habits. But why do people want better habits? My first inclination is that people believe if something becomes a habit, then it will become effortless and one will not have to rely on motivation or willpower anymore.
However, the irony is that it takes consistent and direct effort to even build a habit. Once a habit is built, the consistent effort never stops, but rather, one just adapts to the amount of effort required. The older I become, the more I convinced that there really are no shortcuts in life.
Appreciate the thought behind this comment, and the willingness to help with the questions we asked! We actually just came out of beta last week, so the data is skewed. Beta users have really high usage & retention rates (probably due to the accountability that they knew they'd be talking to me on the phone at the end, and since they applied and committed to testing).
Interesting thought behind using 1) force and 2) consequences to get tasks done. I think those are definitely 2 useful levers, but there are other levers to get these things done too (of course, without context to what tasks you're referring to). On Indy, we use positive motivation & emotional salience to help users connect their current task to future goals, we help them explore if there's a gap of [capability], [opportunity], or [motivation] to get something done (COM-B model), and help them draw on past strategies that have worked for them that they may have forgot (non-exhaustive). Indy is intentionally not a to-do list, there's actually no lists in there, as lists get overwhelming, but instead helps the users cut down and reflect on what's really important today or this week to get to your life goals (existential productivity vs. traditional productivity).
I like your line of thinking at the end there. A lot of our members come in thinking they want better organization / productivity / habits, or in general just MORE, but we know through research that that doesn't actually yield a more fruitful life. And yes haha, no shortcuts in life, but I try to enjoy the process :)
As an ADHD person, the landing page is absolutely anti-ADHD - a lot of stuff with basically no info about what it really does. It should have been all concise and tangible information, simple example, demo. Instead just a lot of marketing fluff. I spent all the focus budget there and I have no idea what it does.
Perhaps try to go directly into the app store, I think that copy and the screenshots is a lot more straight forward. Our care team has skewed the landing page to be a bit more of "show the benefit" rather than the functionality (since a lot of the functionality looks like chat bots) but we can definitely take another look through it and I love the idea of including a demo! For now, the youtube demo is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDSDxyXv6i4
I am going to second the comment you are replying to. Strongly.
Why are you (indirectly by omission) asking a cohort of people who need information to be direct, to redirect? That's a serious market/message mismatch.
> Our care team has skewed the landing page to be a bit more of "show the benefit" rather than the functionality
That is what the snake oil industry does. Or enterprise sales. Even cults. ("Look at what we say these people say about us!" "We have a solution to your problem! [restated several times in different ways]!"
I am baffled by the term "care team" in this context.
I find that being concrete and credible, instead of asking people who don't know you for trust and unrewarded interest out of the gate, is a much better way to communicate something that is real.
If you do have a way to help ADHD people, I wish you luck communicating that. As an ADHD person myself, I have system creation/adoption fatigue. You seem to be aware of this. So be very direct about exactly what you do that helps, so someone that has tried many things, i.e. a sophisticated customer by necessity, can judge anything you say. (As they say in science, non-testable claims are not worth much. When marketing solutions to serious problems, this relates to the first thing you show people.)
Fair, feedback heard from multiple people here on: being more direct, concrete, credible. I'll take this back for the next iteration of the landing page!
I very much hope you can help people! :)
adhd here, too, including asperger. seconded:
A huge intro post, like a text wall. That's everything an adhd person is trying to avoid.
Started the app. A couple of "motivational speeches". Asking some questions I don't even understand. Answered randomly, just to see what the app is offering. At the end: account required.
That's where you first lost me.
So I tried the website. First sentence just some sale-pitch-speech:
> Built from lessons learned after 80,000+ ADHD coaching sessions, Indy gives you the structure you need, daily support that keeps you accountable, and momentum you can actually sustain.
On the right some nothing-saying screenshot. Scrolling down. More text. Buzzword-Bingo. "Journey". "Build a vision." "Stop dreaming about your future. Start building it."
Great, another one of those catchy, fancy offers pretending to help you. Another pretty website from the default vercel-ish website-builder.
No offense - perhaps it's my asperger. This does not seem helpful at all. Maybe it is. Then it's on me.
I need clear, focussed messages. No noise. No modern interface. Form follows function. Not the other way around.
After you sign up, you're asked to spend 10-15 minutes creating a "Lifeline." Which, despite its name, does not appear to be a lifeline of any kind, but rather a timeline of my life, except it also strips dates out, so... just a list of events in no particular order.
Unfortunately - I've got ADHD. I'm not going to spend the next 10 minutes telling the app the biggest facts about my life. Well, actually - I tried to, then I put the phone down to do something else, and when I came back the 'page' had refreshed and the four things I had entered were back down to just the first one.
(Why do you even want them? The app hasn't even explained how this will help. It's barely even tried to explain what the app will actually DO.)
This comment might seem harsh, but this feedback is gold. I agree completely, matched my experience reading through the page, and I was diagnosed in my mid-40s with ADHD.
I wonder if the folks doing marketing are neurotypical, but they are trying to target a population that's neurodivergent? Just spitballing since I have no info, but an interesting topic.
Nice to see a fully free app without ads. Curious, do you plan to keep it that way and make no money from Indy?
There's a little button inside the profile page to discover our ADHD coaching service (1:1 coaching with one of our 50+ expert ADHD coaches). Right now we don't push it explicitly but have already seen folks explore it. Indy is meant to be an accessible form of support for those who can't afford coaching or are in between coaching seasons, or even use it with their coaching experience. We also advertise our free community events (last week we hosted a 2026 planning workshop with 1,000+ participants) and in those events, often folks also discover 1:1 coaching and will join thereafter. We're also exploring what integrating the core Indy features into 1:1 coaching looks like but doing so carefully with the feedback of members and our coaches, so in the future it may be one app with multiple tiers!
I appreciate the effort. I'll give you my honest two cents. If you don't have thick skin, stop reading here. I'm going to be critical, and I'm going to be blunt. You can take it or leave it.
The landing page sucks. In my first impression my eyes immediately darted to the animated graphics/webms. The text reads like it was written by AI with the sentences in triplets everywhere. Immediately my trust for this site (which was finicky at first) has already gone down. If you can't sustain my attention in the banner, what makes me think you can sustain my attention for the app? Be direct - show me what your app does at a glance. My attention is very scarce and very expensive, don't waste it on vague niceties or depend on me to trust you on what you say other people are saying about your app. I feel like you're trying to cheat me out of own autonomy when you're selling me something (even if it's free, my time = money) that I have no idea what it does until I get to the FAQ. My 2c - put the FAQ in the very top, with the questions "Is this just another AI chatbot?" and "How does Indy fit with ADHD coaching or other support?" in order with minimized distractions. This tells me what your product is and what it isn't at face value.
we love blunt and critical, it's why these forums are so important for us. totally hear you on these, and some other folks here have mentioned similar comments. we'll be looking at our landing page further over the next week! thanks! and also agree time = money, with you on that one. appreciate the feedback
The only thing that reliably works is co-working with another human.
This is hard to find and not always possible. The reason it works is that it triggers the "empathy brain," which transfers the importance of the person to the importance of the task. Having an invested person always at your command is impossible, and an AI robot simply doesn't trigger that same empathy. It costs three cents per interaction. It is a robot. It isn't important, no matter how advanced it is.
There is something fascinating yet defeating about how the ADHD brain craves human connection. Just as loneliness can’t be solved by an app, ADHD cannot be "app-ed" out. I have found that these systems can lighten the cognitive load, but that is their limit.
I have a vibed chief-of-staff personal system. It knows everything and it neatly mapped out my state and day. I even know the first simple task I need to do because a prompt organized it for me on another page. Yet, I would still rather write this comment here. You already know this at some level, too.
> The only thing that reliably works is co-working with another human.
I found this didnt really do anything for me.
> ADHD cannot be "app-ed" out.
I have found significant success with Kanban. To the point where at times, I can even go unmedicated and still somewhat progress. With medication I might as well be superhuman.
Something about the WIP limit, the way I structure it so that I can see the timeframes (Next month, next week, today etc) and the moving of tasks from left to right really clicked with my brain.
It's been the most successful intervention in terms of my treatment in the entirety of my existence.
For me it's not about empathy, it's the external accountability and pressure, I.e. it needs to be someone you're not suuuper comfortable with.
But it is by far the best way to motivate myself.
"someone you're not suuuper comfortable with"
It swings both ways for me. Either super comfortable or uncomfortable.
What doesn't work is hiring a virtual assistant to hold me accountable. As soon as I pay them and they report to me, they are the same loop as my own brain. No empathy brain! :D. This is bleak I know.
yeah because it's kind of like they're just gonna do what you want no matter what, it doesn't feel real.
Needs to be something where you can't just stop as you wish.
Body doubling is different though. for that basically anyone works from my experience
Thanks! Why would a user prefer this service instead of a conventional AI subscription service with memory (and possibly read access to their desktop data)? The latter can automatically capture key interactions during the day and set reminders for regular checkins. Is there a secret sauce that makes this better so it is worth the extra effort?
A few things top of mind:
1) A big differentiation is the guidance. Indy is based on science-backed frameworks and exercises that set the foundation for and fuel the main scaffolding interactions. For example, by going through the lifeline exercise when you sign up, members are prompted to think of future events across different life areas (vs. often when you tackle this yourself you may just start working on productivity/work oriented things for example) and the objective function of the app is general well-being rather than productivity
2) Indy is built not to give you answers but to build your capacity. For example, in the problem solving agent, it teaches you the COM-B framework through demonstration, and I've already talked to many members who are surprised that they found themselves going through similar thought process even when Indy wasn't there and getting things done that they haven't been able to in months or years
3) Sounds trivial but the design and user experience. It's built for ADHD and although not perfect and there's tons we want to add, the app is trained to help you see the good (pulling out wins, surfacing it in pretty ways, allowing you to add photos to build salience, etc.) to build self trust over time; and other UI / illustration choices to provide some dopamine (and we've considered hard the balance between providing dopamine but not trying to just get people to return to the app for the sake of it)
Thanks. That all sounds reasonable.
Edit: A followup, if you still happen to see this edit. What about the privacy concerns that users may have. My interest is for a super-high functioning young adult that is very careful about their privacy and web footprint.
i made an account on shimmer when you launched and even tried it out. i have made multiple requests to your nonexistent support to delete it and it all goes into a dustbin apparently. very subpar experience that makes me not trust at all how you'd handle my data.
sorry that it hasn't been done yet! we generally attend to these pretty quickly. If you sent it to support, it may have been buried. I can look into it though. Can you send an email to privacy@shimmer.care?
I personally already was hesitant downloading an app that is health/disability related from the Google play store, but you triggered me. Actually my brain lacking impulse control, however, the deinstalled the app again after getting towards the account creation dialog ( the question answer thing was good to grab my attention). I moved on, because I was already thinking about pricing and whatever: quickest thing was running away and continue procrastinating on hacker news...
For awhile now I've had in mind a locally ran AI ADHD assistant. Using always on ASR for interactions (removing friction) it would keep track of todos, help refocus from distractions, and work as a personal knowledge base to aid with memory.
The key to this would be everything running locally, privacy preserving. The LLM would observe everything that is happening on screen, notice when someone is distracted by reddit (or HN!) and help refocus people.
Perfectly doable on even a moderately spec'd MacBook now days.
I'm AuDHD and I think the marked for products to help with ADHD that do not actually work for anyone except for the person who came up with them is absolutely saturated. I think what I've come to realize is that the process of building a system is at least as important as the system itself. This means nothing designed by someone who is not me will really work for me, and that's that. I suppose a lot of money can be made off of people who have not yet realized this.
I also have to say something about the "for those who feel stuck... indy will be your compass" reads incredibly fucking dystopian to me.
I totally hear you that there are so many products in the market that only work for the person who designed them. We designed this with hundreds of beta users (I had 5-6 deep calls per day for at least a month) and it's based off of our learnings from our 50+ adhd coaches and thousands of adhd coaching clients as well. As we build this out more, we have deeper personalization of how the app works planned too, so hopefully we'll be able to serve (not all but) many ADHDers! I'm always curious about what people build on their own though, and what about Indy wasn't fit for them. This helps us figure out what adaptability to build going forward! But if you have a system that works well for you already, that's amazing!
And hear you on that copy! We tested it with our beta community and it was based off of thousands of ADHDers main sentiment & challenge. Here are the top ones if you're curious: “I’m stuck and something has to change”; “I don’t trust myself anymore”; “I want direction, not another to-do list”; “I want to work with my ADHD, not fight it”; we'll be continuing to test this as we talk to more users!
I don't see what's different from any other journal app?
A few main differences: 1) it moves you towards things that matter to you. E.g. not open prompts but helping you break down each week and day to move you closer to your future events you envision; 2) it uses science-back methods (like COM-B) to help you solve challenges in your life; 3) it remembers when things worked / haven't worked for you so that when you bring them up in the future it can support you with personalized solutions rather than just answering what's the "best solution". We're also working on the next phase of agents which include energy accounting, values-discovery, strengths-discovery, habit building, and more.
Good stuff, I appreciate your work.
I suspect that the ADHD audience on HN would skew towards people who have already developed coping mechanisms and systems (and some people seem to have very high intellectual horsepower), so you might not find the best market fit or feedback here. I think I am past the point where this may have been a fit for me, but earlier in my life it may have been very useful.
Edit: Can you explain what "clear boundaries around non-medical use" means?
Thanks, appreciate you! Agree that some folks here likely have put together their own systems too, so I was also hoping to get some inspiration from what folks have done and what's working for them! And I also know this group will be the most critical (in a good way) so it's always helpful for us to launch here as it makes our product and systems better.
If there's anyone in your life who's earlier on in their journey, do send Indy their way!
re: Non-medical use, Indy doesn't give advice, diagnose, treat, or interpret symptoms. We don’t tell people what they SHOULD do. We focus on reflection, structuring thoughts, noticing patterns, and helping users orient themselves, so that they build autonomy and capacity over time. E.g. generic LLMs don't often have tight guardrails and they can drift into prescriptive or quasi-clinical territory simply because that’s what users ask for.
> I suspect that the ADHD audience on HN would skew towards people who have already developed coping mechanisms...
Can't speak for everyone, but as one guy - I wish lol. I'm just raw dogging life - to use Gen Z (or is it Alpha?) lingo.
(I wanted to add a sarcastic thing to my message but I'm too tired to even do that without sounding rude.)
Hahaha, I'm a millennial and that still resonates with me, so I get it. I think within every community there's always a really big span and hopefully our new product experience can be helpful to a subset of that span! With the AI chats, it's substantially more personalized and less restrictive than last gen text box flows!
>“knowing what to do” is rarely the problem for people with ADHD. The harder problem is actually doing it consistently over time, especially when attention, motivation, and emotional state fluctuate.
I don't have a diagnosis, but I can say that choosing what to do very often seems like the stumbling block for me.
How much does this cost? The cost is rather difficult to find and isn't listed in the FAQ.
It's free!
Is it available on fdroid?
This new product might be better, but Shimmer was publicly criticized exploitative when it launched. I saw those criticisms at the time, gave the product a fair chance anyway, and unfortunately found them to be accurate.
I used Shimmer in 2022. The app had poor UX and frequent bugs, and the core offering (weekly Google Meet sessions with a “coach”) felt like generic self-help and not personalized coaching. The promised between-session support mostly consisted of DM'd article links, even after I raised that concern directly.
The sessions themselves often felt unprofessional, with background noise, unstable connections, and poor audio quality. The coach WFM'd on their couch during call. Given the price (hundreds of dollars per month at the time), the gap between what was marketed and what was delivered was significant.
Hopefully the new product addresses these issues, but I’d encourage people evaluating it to look at Shimmer’s prior execution and customer feedback, not just the announcement.
I'm sorry you had a poor experience! 2022 was the year I got diagnosed and the app definitely wasn't nearly as good as it is now, and I'm sorry you went through those bugs. But more importantly, I'm sorry about the experience you had with your coach. We take these flags really seriously and since then, we've put in several rounds of guardrails in the hiring process, with ongoing contract renewals with our coaches, and general culture & training. Now, we only take <3.5% of qualified coaches and have far more processes in place to make sure these things don't happen and catch them if they slip through. Because we don't record the sessions or supervise them because of privacy, there definitely has been a few situations like yours and again, we do take them really seriously! We do have hundreds if not thousands of really impactful stories and progress (I've personally cried in multiple feedback calls) so if anyone is reading this, I highly recommend checking out this page too! https://testimonial.to/shimmer-care/all
Thanks for giving a pretty solid real answer here.
While I have you: any advice for how to suggest to someone else that they consider your app? I'm met with defensiveness at every suggestion I make; the app seems compelling enough to me as a neurotypical person though, and I'd love to see them try something like this.
The app-store handling (QR code on desktop, app to right app store on phone) is probably supposed to be clever, but browsing on desktop it just felt annoying. QR codes are fine, but at least give me a small direct link below the code. I don't want to take out my phone to figure out if it's supported, I want to click on a link that takes me to the app store so I can have a look at the page, the reviews, and if I'm logged in click install to trigger my phone to do its thing (not sure if the last part also works on apple or is only a google thing)
For now, here's the app store links if you want to access it from your laptop!
for apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/indy-your-adhd-copilot/id67543...
for google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shimmer.co...
Sidenote, I appreciate that you allow installing on macos. I hate typing on a phone so having it run on a computer is much better.
Good point, we didn't consider that people would want to browse the app store from their laptop. We'll look into this today!
My son (12 year old) has ADHD ... I wonder if they did any testing of this with kids.
The app is for 18+ only, currently! (but we do have a coaching program specifically built for teens between 13-17 y/o if you're interested in the future!)
I’ll give this app a try later.
Subtle joke right there, if I may venture?
I think technological systems for managing ADHD are targeted mainly towards J-type personalities (Myers-Briggs).
As a hard P-type, I generally perceive Systems as detrimental to my well-being. A take which of course is riddled with both fallacies and exceptions (so don't hold me too harshly to it).
What's holding me back from checking out any sort of recommandation is the fear of commitment.
Everything eventually becomes one (or more) of the following:
- A joyous commitment - A meaningfull commitment - A stressfull commitment
Having a kitten is joyous. Having a 17 year old cat is all of the above.
Systems—good, usefull and fascinating as they may be—generally tend to fit in the 'stressfull' category. Especially those who encroach toward a hobby/hyper-fixation during the honeymoon period.
(The one system I still use on a day-to-day basis is a calendar. Because I have to. It's not joyous, but it's meaningfull.)
This seems insightful. I was going to comment elsewhere that some people seem to find structured systems really bothersome, whereas I personally just do not. But I am an INTJ, if anything. The idea of not taking a systems approach feels incredibly foreign, to the extent I can’t even really imagine where one would start.
How do you approach improving your personal outcomes related to ADHD without developing a system?
The short answer is that I try to maximize the strengths and minimize the struggles of ADHD.
Some practical examples:
- I have a job without any long-term projects (only long-term goals), so I never get bored from my tasks.
- I keep my evening schedules clear so I have room to be spontaneous in my hobbies after work. This is prabably made easier by being an introvert as I don't have the need to socialize often.
- I nurture an attitude toward my hobbies which is that the process in itself is always the goal. That it is okay to not finish a project as long as I keep learning new things.
- I depricate any stressfull commitment which is neither important or meaningfull long-term.
Also medication helps to overcome the menial hurdels.
Nice, let us know how that goes.
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I click on the link and see that ublock origin blocks a total of 15 tracking scripts on your health-related website. At the bottom there is a "cookie management" popup and I wonder what went wrong that your website includes Google, Intercom, Stripe, and several others BEFORE the user has clicked through the "cookie" dialog.
Is this yet another US-based startup that totally misunderstands that GDPR is not about blocking "cookies" but instead that it is about not telling Google that someone just visited an ADHD-related website?
I'm dumbfounded by the ignorance every single time. Why do people spend effort on cookie banners and stuff when they simply include every tracking script on first load of the website?
I'm not advocating that you need to be GDPR compliant if you are US-based and dgaf about EU customers. But if you do these shenanigans with cookie banner then at least do them correctly. And even for non-EU customers it is extremely rude to share visits to a health related website with so many third party companies that clearly build tracking profiles and utilize them to extract as much money from you as possible.
Ah the shimmer.care/indy site is a subpath for our main site (shimmer.care) which uses all of those scripts, but you're right that some of them aren't necessary for indy's site. We'll look into how to separate the two so cookie management is more straightforward for indy's site as this is a separate app still.
This so much
Absolutely nobody needs a fucking subscription model funded by VCs to shame them on a daily basis while you steal their personal data and use it to train a fucking AI.
Saving you sometime, after you put your email and answering a few questions It's a paid app with monthly payment of ~$40 .
Basic collection your data.
No, it's 100% free! www.shimmer.care/indy-redirect (or search "ADHD Indy" on app store)
You might be heading to our community service on our main website, which is a different one (live body doubling, etc.)
i was wondering where the ai came in lol
lol
thanks for making this. it can take a lot of time and effort to create systems like this for yourself. i hope you help the people you're trying to reach.
Appreciate this!