Being productive is one of ADHD’s major struggles, especially with the many distractions we have today. The way technology has evolved can be overwhelming, but there are also many tools and apps available to help with productivity. These are some of the apps that have helped our ADHD team increase their productivity and maintain their focus.
Toggl Track
Good for: Time tracking and time managing
Toggl is a popular productivity app that lets you track the time you spend on different activities. It is meant to track working hours for employees or freelancers, but it is extremely helpful for ADHDers who need to track the time they are spending on their tasks. You can use Toggl on your browser, but it also has a downloadable app for your computer or phone. It has a simple design and is fairly simple to use, so it doesn’t get in the way nor become a separate task. It's free plan for individuals includes basic features such as time-tracking, idle detection, Pomodoro timer, and a timeline. It is perfect to track the time spent doing different tasks and learn about your working habits, which can help you increase your productivity. At the end of a week or the month, you can look back and understand how much time you are spending studying, cleaning, cooking or working.
Opal
Good for: App blocking and reducing screen time
Opal is perfect for helping you control your screen use and app use. By blocking distracting apps such as social media platforms, you can save time and focus more on being productive. The app even lets you create schedules to block certain apps at desired moments. By using Apple’s VPN technology, Opal monitors and disconnects specific services to block access to certain sites or apps when you need to be focusing on something else. This way, Opal helps you avoid the distractions you select at the time you need it to block them. Opal calculates your digital health score and recommends to you a schedule to reach your desired screen-use goal. You can schedule sessions to block distractions by category, individual apps or websites or a complete block of internet access. It also has a resources section with learning resources about digital wellness and mindfulness. The only downside? Opal only has an annual plan of $60. As an alternative (if you’re on a budget),, Apple’s Screen Time is entirely free and it does give you insights on your screen-time health, it won’t block apps on a desired schedule nor include a mindfulness resource library but it is one way to start creating awareness of your screen time and becoming more productive.
Endel
Good for: Focus and meditation music
Endel is an app that creates personalized auditive environments utilizing special technology which recollects many inputs such as location, heart rate, time, weather and many others to generate sounds in real time. All of this with the purpose of helping reduce stress, increase focus, and improve sleep. The soundscapes made by Endel might sound like songs at times but they are actually unique, never ending and ever changing soundscapes. If you tend to get distracted every time the song changes when you are listening to playlists for focus, this is a great app to try. These infinite AI created soundscapes are perfect for keeping focus and increasing productivity. Endel can be downloaded from the App Store and its pricing plans are of $6/month, $50/year, or $90 for a lifetime.
Stoic
Good for: Journaling and mood tracking
Relax, this is not an app that focuses on lessons in philosophy. The Stoic app is a virtual journal that is made to help the user better understand their feelings. It is very intuitive and user friendly. Just open the app in the morning when you wake up and in the evening, when you are ready to wind down after a day of hard work. When you open the app you will be asked some questions and perform some simple and entertaining exercises. Stoic focuses on mindfulness and mood tracking so you can increase your self awareness. The app has a free version but there is a premium plan that starts at $27.99 a year that includes iCloud syncing and additional content such as visualization and meditation exercises.
Forest App
Good for: Reducing phone time and tracking focus time
Forest App gives you a fun way to plant trees as a reward for not looking at your phone! This app focuses on improving the productivity of their users by helping them manage their time in a fun, innovative and interesting way. You can download the app for either Android or iOS and start earning credits by not using your phones. These credits are used to plant trees all around the world. By gamifying screen-use and focus time, Forest App helps you reduce your phone time and be more productive. You can use the free version or pay $1.99 for the premium ad-free version.
