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Help manage ADHD or neurodevelopmental condition ⏱️

When we started out building Timeular we didn’t realize that we’d be hitting on something super valuable for people managing ADHD. Now we do and we learn more from our users about the time management challenges ADHD poses, we’ll be bringing more ways to use Timeular to help manage them.

In this short section we’ll focus on just one of those challenges – making sure you work on what matters for an appropriate amount of time (as Stripe Engineer Jeremy so wonderfully put it).

1) Select what to track

If you’re reading this, the chances are what led you to consider to Timeular was the physical Tracker – our ADHD users definitely recommend it as a powerful tool to help you to remember to track (object permanence).

When it comes to selecting what to track, start with the handful of activities that you spend the most time on and forget the rest for now.

e.g. that could be:

  • “Internal comms (Slack)”
  • “External comms (Email)”
  • “Development”
  • “Meetings”

Whatever makes most sense to you right now.

What we really recommend here is to be selective about the colors that you assign to each activity. It doesn’t necessarily matter which colors you assign, provided you’re intentional and aware of the color associated with each task. The reason why will become apparent shortly.

2) Start tracking

“If I don’t have what I need in front of me, I’ll literally lose hours because I’ll struggle through without realizing.” ← Rachael, another one our users managing her ADHD with Timeular recently relayed this to us, underscoring the importance of the Tracker.

When it comes to tracking, we recommend putting the physical Tracker right in front of you where you can see it. It’ll not only help you to remember to track but also help you to remember the task you’re on so you’re not under- or over-focusing on it (the “appropriate amount of time” that Jeremy mentioned earlier).

A huge amount of the value for people managing ADHD comes from having the Tracker right there in eye line. Check out our other resources that go into more detail on this, but for now we’ll move on to what to do with the time-tracked data.

3) Seeing the data in action

Rachael starts here day with a review of the calendar screen. “I’m looking for how I did yesterday. Are there more grays than yellows?” she asks, referring to the colors she’s assigned to deep work and distractions. “Then I’m looking at the day ahead – how do I feel? What am I expecting today?”.

When you’ve started to track, you’ll probably start to see something like what Rachael’s referring to here. The importance of the “appropriate amount of time” part should be apparent when you compare an example of an unproductive week and a productive one.

An unproductive week
A productive week

Use the data to check in with yourself and ask similar questions to Rachael and make adjustments you need to to your schedule, “making sure you work on what matters for an appropriate amount of time”. Continue tracking with the adjustments you make to keep on top of time managements and make continual improvements.

Got any other time management tips for managing ADHD with Timeular? We’d love to hear them!

What do you want to achieve next?

Go back to Guide: get started with time tracking.