Zapier Tutorial – An Effective ADHD app tool

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

In this Zapier tutorial, we will be creating a workflow from two separate productivity apps, Microsoft Outlook and Todoist.

Zapier has incredible potential as a productivity app for adults with ADHD. This app is for all the things that we need to handle, but have no app dedicated to handling these specific needs. This app also allows us to create specialized processes for organization that are customized for our individual personalities and needs. Being adults with ADHD, organization skills are critical, and Zapier can cater to our organization skills with individualized precision. Maybe some people like customized summaries of tasks emailed to them in the morning, or tasks that are created automatically based on the content of the emails we receive. Once you find an organization or productivity tactic that works for you, Zapier can automate and enhance that process so you can get the most out of your productivity and organizational tools.

The first step is to head to https://zapier.com. Then, either create an account or log in to an existing account. Once logged in, look for the magnifying glass icon at the top right portion of your screen. Hit this icon, and a search box will appear, allowing you to search and open your Zapier Workflow. For this Zapier tutorial, I will create a new workflow between Microsoft Outlook Email and Todoist Task Manager.

The next step opens the “Create Your Own Workflow” box, shown below. Start by selecting an app from the first list titled “Connect this app…”. Type the name of an app into the search bar to find out whether the app is supported. If supported, select the app. For this Zapier tutorial, I selected Microsoft Outlook.

Like the last step, type the name of an app into the following search bar titled “with this one!” In this example, I selected the Todoist Task Management app.

The next step is to select the trigger from the options presented in the “Select a Trigger” box. The trigger is the event that initiates the workflow and is directly linked to the first app we selected. In this Zapier tutorial, the trigger dropdown box gives us the available Zapier options for Microsoft Outlook. I selected “new email”.

Next, we select an action from the options presented in the “Select an Action” box. The action is the event that will happen after the trigger event. Like the prior box, the options presented in the dropdown box are directly related to the second app we selected. For this Zapier tutorial, I selected “create task”.

At this point in creating a Zapier Workflow, we should see all four boxes populated with a selection. This is shown in the below screenshot. If everything looks ok, select “Try it”.

This screen will be shown next, allowing you to select an account. In this step, you’ll need to configure and connect your app account for the trigger step. If you haven’t already configured an account at this step, this screen will ask you to “Sign in” to the account. For this Zapier tutorial, I signed into my Microsoft Outlook account. If you have multiple accounts, you can click the “Manage connected accounts” text in blue. Once the account is configured and set, select the “Continue” button.

In this next step, Zapier will ask to test the trigger account. In our example, Zapier tested my Microsoft Outlook account. The test concludes with the screenshot shown below, indicating that Zapier was able to retrieve an email from my Microsoft Account. After the successful test, select “Continue”.

Next up is selecting the event. In this example, I selected “Create Task” for Todoist. Then, click “Continue”. Just like with the trigger account, Zapier will request that you sign into the action account. In this Zapier tutorial, I signed into my Todoist account. Then, click “Continue” again.

In this step, we need to configure the action event. This is the event that will occur after the trigger event occurs. So, in our example, after an email is received in my Outlook account, this Todoist action event will occur. The title field is required and represents the Todoist task name. The rest of the options are not required but can be configured to fine-tune the Todoist task creation. I selected the “Inbox” for the project and left the remaining options at the default values. After you have finished configuring the action event, select “Continue”.

The next step is to allow Zapier to test the action event. In this Zapier tutorial, Zapier tested my Todoist account by creating a test task. Select “Test and Continue”.

After the test is complete and successful, select “Turn on Zap”.

Next, Zapier will display this message, indicating that the “Zap” is active and on.

This final screen in the tutorial is Zapier’s home screen. The list of “Zaps” is shown on the right side of the screen, with a switch to turn the Zaps on and off. It is the green switch shown in the below screenshot. On the left side of the screen are the account options. The “My Apps” section will show all the app accounts that you have linked to Zapier.

A Zapier Tutorial

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2 POWERFUL ADHD STUDY TIPS FOR STUDENTS

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

ADHD Study Tips

Here are some ADHD study tips for students. With ADHD, studying for school can be a bit difficult. Sure, studying for school is no picnic in the park for anybody aiming for a high grade.

However, ADHD adds an additional layer of difficulty to the study process. With our short-term memory issues and distractibility, we can quickly lose track of where we were in the process or have to reread material because we lost focus during reading. However, there are ways that we can augment our process of studying to accommodate our ADHD traits and tendencies. Here are some ADHD study tips.

The first of the ADHD study tips that can augment our study process is to limit our focus time. We already know that we have limited focus. The fundamental issue with our limited focus and increased distractibility is that we don’t always know when we lost focus. This causes us to reread material and re-assess where we are in our studies. We don’t always have a clear picture of what we have already completed.

We can create shorter time blocks for studying that avoid overloading our short-term memory. Back in college, I used to limit my study blocks to 20 – 30 minutes. I tried never to exceed this time allotment.

Then, I would take a 10-minute break, where I would allow my mind to wander in whatever direction it wanted. I would consider this a cycle, 20 minutes focus, 10 minutes off. With less focus required per cycle, I could repeat this cycle several times. Sometimes, after several cycles, I would take a more extended break of maybe 20 -30 minutes.

It may seem that reducing your study time into smaller blocks with more breaks would be counterintuitive to maximizing productivity. However, these ADHD study tips increase your productivity because each time block of focus is more efficient for our ADHD brains. As a result, we don’t overload our short-term memory or risk losing too much focus. If I had studied past the 20 -30 minute time allotment, I likely wasn’t very focused. With the longer study times and increased risk of losing focus, the extra study time past the allotment was wasted.

The next ADHD study tip to increase the effectiveness of our study time is to take notes frequently. Again, specific to ADHD, we should take notes that indicate where we are in our planned study process. For example, if we are reading independent articles for research, we should occasionally take notes of which articles we have read and any thoughts. It’s also essential to note what we identified while reading our research material.

The point of these detailed notes is to save us from having to backtrack when we lose focus. Furthermore, with the detailed notes, if we lose focus, we have a record of where we were in the study process. This saves us time in retracing our steps or rereading too much material.

As an example of this ADHD study tip, spend 20 minutes identifying articles that relate to a research topic. Then note which article you were reading, and then take a 10-minute break. After the break, pick up where you had previously stopped. Using your notes of what you were thinking and where you needed extra attention, you can more efficiently pick up where you had previously stopped.

The key in this process is short 20 minutes sections, with detailed notes of your thoughts and progress with learning the material. Then, when you need to stop studying for the night, you have a road map of exactly where you were in the process.

With ADHD in college, this was my way of giving myself milestones when researching. For example, if I lost focus at any point and had to stop studying for the night, I didn’t have to worry about losing my place in my research. Instead, I would use my notes to tell me exactly where to pick up my research the next day. By doing this extra step, I was able to limit how much research I had to repeat. This ADHD study tip saved me from a lot of headaches.

The other key in using short 20-minute focus sessions is that you don’t overwhelm yourself with information. With ADHD, it is very easy to overwhelm yourself with information and lose track or forget what you are doing. This is related to our hindered cognitive executive functions in our prefrontal cortex.

For you, the optimal time may not be 20 minutes. ADHD affects us all differently, and you may need to increase or decrease your optimal focus time. For me, after many nights of frustration when studying, I found my optimal study time of 20 minutes. If I stuck to 20 minutes with a good 5–10 minute break, I could sustain this cycle for a few hours. Hopefully, these ADHD study tips can help you as well.

Check out my article on the Apple Watch for ADHD. There are some perfect apps to help follow these ADHD study tips.

ADHD Study Tips

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Office Open floor plans and ADHD, Disastrous

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

Office Open Floor Plans and ADHD, a disastrous cautionary tale.

I think office open floor plans are disastrous for ADHD. Yet, these plans seem to be applauded by their suggested increase in discussion, collaboration, and idea generation. I do mean suggestion because I don’t think I’ve seen any of these benefits materialize in actual implementation.

Even though the idea of office open floor plans may seem appealing to non-ADHD coworkers, I’m reasonably sure the distractions and decreased chances for concentration are not limited to only the ADHD coworkers. For obvious reasons, office open floor plans create focus difficulties for us with ADHD. However, I’ll bet the potential for loss of focus impacts everyone to some extent.

At some point, even the best coworkers with multi-tasking skills can become too distracted. It’s easily related to the law of diminishing returns. Sure, some increases in communication can be beneficial, but each ill-times interruption must have limits. How many interruptions can anyone handle without beginning to lose focus and eventually reducing productivity?

Take emails and instant messaging as parallel examples. Has anyone tried to answer every email, instant message, and text message immediately? Generally, unless one message is critical, we batch them and answer several at a later time. I can’t imagine that responding to all digital communication immediately upon receiving them, without exception, could have no impact on productivity.

The last company I worked for began this process of creating office open floor plans. First, they lowered the cubicle walls until they were the same height as our desks. Next, they rearranged the cubicle desks so that we all faced each other. Then, eventually, we lost our cubicles. This included the executives. In the end, we all had desks on wheels that could be moved anywhere in the office.

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The Parable of The Strawberry and ADHD

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

I’ve heard the parable of the cliff and vine told in separate ways, and with slightly different interpretations. I heard the story first in a World Religions class in college. I heard the story next in a recorded meditation session. I think the parable can have a very focused and unique application to adults with ADD outside the context of religion and meditation.

The story starts with a man walking through the forest. As he casually walks, several wolves begin to chase him. So, he begins to run as fast as he can in hopes of escaping the current danger. However, as he desperately flees, he runs into a cliff. Turning around to see the wolves, he looks around for an escape, and sees a vine growing on the edge of the cliff. As he climbs down the cliff on the vine, he sees a second pack of wolves at the bottom of the cliff. So, he realizes he can neither climb up the vine nor jump down the cliff. As his weight begins to cause the vine to tear, he notices a wild strawberry growing on the side of the cliff. He reaches with one arm to grab the strawberry. As the man eats the strawberry, he realizes it is the best tasting strawberry he has ever eaten.

In World Religions, the lesson relates to one of the primary purposes of religion. This purpose is the redemption of conscience. In the story, the man is clearly going to die in every scenario. Yet, in the end, all he thought about was the joy of finding such a wonderfully tasting strawberry. Religion takes away the stress and fear of that moment, and allows the man to enjoy that last moment. It’s the idea of prayer in many religions, that we can unburden ourselves by telling a higher power.

In meditation, the lesson was that both scenarios the man faces were unrealized dangers. They were unrealized dangers that the man could not overcome. So instead, the man seizes that which is in front of him, the current moment and the strawberry. Tomorrow’s dangers are unrealized today. So, if we allow tomorrow’s dangers to affect us today, we rob ourselves of the current moment. We lose the current moments to dangers that are not even present in the current moment.

I think this story can be applied to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in a unique context. This is especially true for adults with ADD. With attention deficit disorder in adults, we are constantly striving to achieve focused clarity in the current moment. Distractions, whether they are hyperactivity or inattentiveness, rob us of being able to concentrate on the present moment. Unlike the religious and meditative applications of the story, for adults with ADD, the strawberry, the breaking vine, and the wolves are all competing for our attention. It’s not about dismissing the other dangers of the wolves and the breaking vine on the cliff, but rather gaining the ability to focus on the strawberry.

With the religious and meditative analogies, the goal was to recognize the dangers and to actively choose not to allow them to define the current moment. More specific to adults with ADD, even if we recognize the true nature of the dangers the man faces, we are not able to actively dismiss the dangers. Merely identifying the dangers is not enough. We need to identify and block out the dangers facing the man on the cliff. For adults with ADD or anyone with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the dangers and strawberry distract us simultaneously. Our goal is to create a window of focus that blocks out the wolves, vine, and strawberry. We strive to consciously choose focus, above the dangers ahead of us and the strawberry in front of us. Though the strawberry is in front of us, it may not be the content that needs our attention.

The Parable of the Strawberry

The best Music for ADHD Concentration reviewed for 2022

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

This is a short review of streaming services that I have tried and used for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. These are my top personal choices in Music for ADHD Concentration.

Throughout the day, I switch music channels frequently. With ADHD, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that I get bored with my music quickly. However, regardless of the music channel, I avoid music with vocals.

Music with vocals can easily distract and are not very effective as music for ADHD concentration. They are essentially the same as someone talking directly to me while I am trying to focus. Vocals begin to compete for our attention, commanding attention from our brain’s executive functions.

Music with vocals is generally considered more distracting because it is more salient and prone to stealing our attention. Conversely, music without vocals is more like white noise in its ability to remain in the background.

A study in 2016, published in Behavioral and brain functions, found that children with ADHD performed better while listening to white noise. Another study in 2007, published in Psychological Review, found that controlled environmental noise had positive effects on ADHD and cognitive performance.

There are several categories of music for ADHD concentration that work well as background music. As mentioned earlier, white noise or environmental noise is effective. In addition, music for ADHD with consistent and repeating rhythms can also be highly effective. Electronic music is an excellent example of music with repeating rhythms and beats. In particular, electronic music categories in ambient, trance, techno, dubstep, and bass create perfect background music.

Soundscapes and noise generators work well for creating white noise and environmental noise. Several apps can generate white noise, such as Noisli and White Noise App. In addition, some apps offer environmental noises and soundscapes, such as cityscapes and nature sounds.

Personally, I listen to music for a variety of reasons that help me stay balanced and productive as an adult with ADD. At work, I’m looking to have 30 to 40-minute concentration sessions. In between the concentration sessions, I try to destress and breathe. Mind you, I cannot keep this session switching going for more than 3 or 4 hours. However, as with most things in life, I’ve gotten better with practice.

These are my top choices in Music for ADHD Concentration.

Focus@will

Focus@will provides effective Music for ADHD Concentration, backed by some equally impressive research. I use the focus@will music streaming service frequently. The productivity that I achieve while listening to focus@will is measurable and significant. A huge pro for focus@will is their extensive array of carefully curated music to help you concentrate. Their collection of music is essentially curated by a collaboration between neuroscientists, traditional music producers, and musicians.

Focus@will even has a music channel dedicated to ADHD. They list a lot of science on their site, focused on keeping your mind active while not distracted. Although their music is only geared toward focus, their music service excels at this goal. This music streaming service may not have a selection as large as Apple Music or Spotify, but they excel at their targeted purpose of concentration. With a monthly subscription price of $7.49, focus@will is also cheaper than Apple Music and Spotify.

Brain.fm

I have used this music streaming service extensively for the last several days, and have found the music immensely useful for concentration.

Like focus@will, Brain.FM‘s service is based on science designed to achieve Focus. Specifically, their music is designed to achieve Neural Phase Locking. This specific neural activity is described by Brain.FM as large clusters of neurons activated and coordinated to work on the same task.

In addition, Brain.fm also has science-backed music designed for Relaxation, Sleep, and Meditation, along with Focus. So, I can stay in the same app for several hours a day just by switching the music type inside the Brain.fm app. Like focus@will, Brain.fm has a good library of different genres that are effective as music for ADHD concentration. However, it adds extra value by using the same technology to provide music curated and designed for more than one goal, such as relaxation, meditation, and sleep.

I wrote an in-depth review article about Brain.FM, which is available here. Their pricing is $6.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly, which is significantly cheaper than Apple Music and Spotify. Using this coupon code, “TheADHDLifestyle,” you can get a 20% discount on a subscription to Brain FM.

Endel

Endel is a unique music streaming service that can be very effective at matching your daily pace while creating a non-distracting and unique music experience. Endel’s website describes that content as soundscapes, which I think is more accurate than music for ADHD. Endel is unique because the soundscapes are AI-generated and are matched to the user’s device input, such as heart rate and sleep schedules. In addition, the music is thoughtfully generated using Endel’s unique algorithm that attempts to avoid distraction by using certain music elements such as pentatonic scales.

I have used Endel and can attest to its unique soundscape that enhances concentration while avoiding distracting notes or percussion. My issue was that the soundscapes were so non-intrusive that they sometimes lost their ability to improve my concentration actively. For concentration and focus with my adult Attention Deficit Disorder, I want engaging music without being distracting. However, for relaxation, which is badly needed after a long day of concentration sessions, Endel delivers nicely. Its relaxation and sleep modes are very effective and are almost like AI-generated lullabies.

Apple Music

Apple Music is an outstanding all-around streaming service that excels especially if you are well tethered to the Apple ecosystem. This service has a massive library of on-demand music. Their website page boasts “millions” of songs that are streamable and on-demand. They also have a good assortment of curated playlists available. Within their extensive library is a large selection of music for ADHD concentration. A simple search for “music for concentration” will yield a large selection of around 40 choices. Also, assuming you don’t choose to listen to your favorite ’80s artist, there are plenty of options for Focus, Relaxation, and Meditation.

They don’t claim any of the science that focus@will or Brain.fm advertises, but they do have a large selection of music that works for several parts of my day. For example, after listening to music for concentration, it helps me to be able to easily stream some of my favorite Grunge bands from the ’90s. Apple Music is also great for workouts, as you can fine-tune your playlist with the best 90’s music for a good jog.

Digitally Imported (DI.FM)

Over the years, I have found electronic music to be excellent background music for ADHD concentration. I spend a lot of my day programming, and I have found that moderate to fast-paced electronic music keeps my brain incredibly active and on task. It’s like a “flow” kind of focus. I especially find this true within the genre of dubstep. Digitally Imported is very specific to electronic music and boasts over 90 curated channels. However, a subscription for Digitally Imported also comes with access to their other dedicated streaming services like RadioTunes, JazzRadio, Zen Radio, ROCKRADIO.com, Classical Radio.com.

Each of the services, just like Digitally Imported, has a large assortment of curated channels in several related genres. I find their service to be exceptionally well priced, given all their apps for each music type. I mostly use the Digitally Imported service to listen to electronic Dubstep music. Dubstep has a strong repeating percussion background that I find helps me achieve a focused concentration session.

Spotify

Spotify is comparable to Apple Music. They both provide large libraries of music on-demand for streaming. However, Spotify does seem to have a more extensive and more diverse array of curated playlists. In using Apple Music, I haven’t seen as many pre-made and curated playlists. I have used Spotify in the past, but I’ve ended up using Apple Music instead because I was already in Apple’s ecosystem.

The Calm App

Although the Calm app is better known as a meditation app, they have a surprisingly large selection of Music. Within their website and app, there are several categories of curated music lists and albums. Within that list, there are categories for Work and Focus. Both of these categories have some excellent music for ADHD concentration.

The Work category has over 20 curated music lists and albums, while the Focus category has over 50. I’m not sure that the music alone justifies the monthly subscription cost of the Calm app. However, if you are looking for a meditation app, their music is a huge bonus. Also, if you are already paying for their app, it is worth your time to check out the music section.

Noisli

Noisli is an app that offers the user several sound categories that can be mixed to create custom white noise. This app has a 4.1-star review rating and only costs $1.99. It is available on the Apple App Store, Android App Store, and Chrome browser extension.

White Noise App

The White Noise App has an enormous catalog of sounds that can be mixed to create custom white noise. This app also offers the ability to record your own noises to create sound loops. There is also a companion app that can download over 25,000 sounds, including soundscape recordings of nature. The Pro version of the app costs $2.99 and has a 4.8-star rating by 2,300 raters. The app is available on nearly every platform, including Apple, Android, Amazon Fire, Alexa, and Windows.

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Apple Watch for ADHD, Reviewed for 2022

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

An Apple Watch for ADHD is an immensely useful tool for managing many of the difficulties created by ADHD. It creates immediate advantages, such as visual and audio cues during hyperfocus sessions. An Apple Watch for ADHD also has the potential for long-term habit-forming and skill enhancement through its wide array of scheduling, focus timing, and habit-forming apps. I can’t imagine anybody getting more use from the Apple Watch than those of us with ADHD.

Let’s start with some of the immediate benefits provided by the Apple Watch for hyperfocus. Hyperfocus is both an inherent danger, as well as a gift, of ADHD. It describes the tendency of us with ADHD to struggle with changing focus. This tendency is usually related to our inability to change focus effectively from one task to another, based on which task has the most immediate importance. Here’s another article on our site about Hyperfocus.

This challenge with multitasking relates to our high degree of distractibility. However, this tendency can also describe the opposite of distractibility, which is sometimes our inability to turn off focus on a particular task.

When we get locked into a task that we find mentally rewarding, we can sometimes get focused that we lose all track of time. Consequently, we can quickly get so hyperfocused that we miss meetings, phone calls, or anything else that needed our attention. This is where the Apple Watch can prove to be infinitely helpful.

With the Apple Watch for ADHD, we can create visual, auditory, and haptic cues to help us get out of an intense hyperfocus session. There are dozens of apps with the ability to set timers. The key with the Apple Watch and ADHD is the ability for the watch to give us an audible alarm, flashing or visually noticeably notification with the alarm, and haptic feedback for the alarm with vibration.

The best part of the Apple Watch for ADHD is that it’s on our wrist and always near us to provide these cues when needed during hyperfocus. This allows us to benefit from properly applied hyperfocus without the negative drawbacks of missing anything important during hyperfocus. Here are some Apple Watch apps for ADHD that work exceptionally well for hyperfocus sessions:Power Focus – Work Break Timer (free, $2.99 Pro upgrade), Timer+ – multiple timers (free, $4.99 Pro upgrade), and Just Timers (free, $1.99 Pro upgrade).

Another strong benefit of the Apple Watch for ADHD is its ability to keep us from concentrating too long on any one task. Because a lack of concentration and distractibility accompanies ADHD, it’s essential to limit the time we focus on a task. If we don’t limit our focus time, we risk losing focus and losing track of what we are doing—just like reading, then having to reread pages because we lost focus during reading.

Focusing for too long also carries the risk of overloading our short-term working memory, which is heavily impacted by ADHD. It’s critical that we break up long focus sessions into smaller time chunks, followed by frequent breaks.

These breaks give our short-term memory a chance to move data into our long-term memory and refresh for additional concentration. Several Apple Watch apps for ADHD aim to set focus time goals, such as Focus To-Do: Focus Timer&Tasks, (free, $1.99 per month Pro upgrade) and Pomodoro Focus Timer (free).

Power Focus – Work Break Timer (free, $2.99 Pro upgrade) is an especially useful app for monitoring both focus and break times.

A common trait of ADHD is forgetfulness. The Apple Watch also has an advantage here with Task Management apps like Todoist (free, $4 per month Pro). The Todoist task management app is a powerful app for keeping track of scheduled and prioritized tasks. With the accompanying Apple Watch app, the Todoist custom notifications can be set for location and time. At a monthly subscription price of $4, the Todoist app provides, by far, the most utility and benefit for succeeding with ADHD.

The Productive – Habit Tracker app and its accompanying Apple Watch app are also tremendously useful for ADHD by keeping track of habits, such as staying hydrated. This can be especially useful during hyperfocus sessions when we are engaged in a task so deeply that we forget common things like hydration.

One of the more commonly used features of the Apple Watch is its ability to control your music directly from the watch screen. Music can be invaluable in combating ADHD and maintaining focus. An especially useful music streaming service that is designed with focus in mind is Brain.FM. For a monthly subscription price of $6.99, Brain.FM is far cheaper than Apple Music or Spotify. Brain.FM is also scientifically designed for focus, which makes it a great choice for ADHD.

Focus@Will is another insanely useful music streaming service for ADHD focus music. At the current monthly subscription price of $7.49, Focus@Will is a music streaming service entirely dedicated to delivering music that is optimized for focus and productivity. With neuroscientists collaborating with music producers, Focus@Will provides thousands of hours of focus-optimized tracks. A unique and relevant aspect of Focus@Will is their ADHD music channel, which is created exclusively for concentrating with ADHD. Another useful feature is their productivity tracker that is incorporated into the app to provide feedback on music focus sessions. Their monthly subscription cost is also cheaper than Apple Music or Spotify.

There are several other articles in our blog that discuss and compare different music streaming services and their efficacy for ADHD. Here is a review of several streaming music services. Here is a review of Brain.FM.

Another key to Apple Watch’s advantages is the ability to edit and choose what’s shown on the main watch screen. Mobile phones have an inherent drawback because of their ability to give us too much information and distraction. Being able to customize the Apple Watch screen for ADHD allows us to limit what information is shown.

For this, you can choose to edit the watch screen directly in the iPhone Watch app. On the Apple Watch directly, you can edit the screen on the watch by swiping left or right to choose the main screen style, then long pressing on the front screen will allow you to edit what widgets are shown. For immediate focus, such as when using the Just Timers app, the screen can be set to just to show the timer.

Related to customizing the main Apple Watch screen, the available notifications can be highly customized. Any app can have notifications turned off.

Also, the watch’s ability to duplicate the iPhone notifications can be turned off. On the iPhone, you may not want to turn off all notifications. However, you can decide to eliminate those notifications from the Apple Watch and limit the notifications to just the iPhone. This way, those of us with ADHD can customize and explicitly use an Apple Watch for ADHD benefits.

Here is another article on our site that dives deeper into the rationale for limiting phone and watch notifications.

If all of those benefits aren’t enough, there are apps like Drafts that can be infinitely useful in providing an immediate place to record text or audio. Every time the app is opened on the Apple Watch, the app presents the user with a blank slate that can be used to enter text or record audio.

So, anytime you need to instantly store a note, text, or record audio, the Drafts app is on your wrist. This app also syncs with their iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps.

For ADHD, the Apple Watch can become an indispensable tool that is always readily available on your wrist.

Apple Watch for ADHD

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CALMING MEDITATION WITH ADHD, 7 HELPFUL APPS

Posted on June 24, 2021 by Geoffrey Fuller

Meditation with ADHD

Meditation is an essential part of my day, which I both need and enjoy. It’s also a tool in my ADHD kit that I use for focus and to create calm moments. Meditation with ADHD does take practice, but it’s worth the effort for its calming effects and its ability to improve focus.

The most common forms of Meditation with ADHD usually involve closing your eyes, focusing on breathing, and allowing distracting thoughts to float past you, without judging them or engaging them. As your mind wanders, you just bring the attention back to breathing.

Meditation with ADHD can also come in the form of controlled breathing exercises, where the goal is to take deeper and slower breaths that are time-controlled. This kind of Meditation with ADHD is especially beneficial during moments of high stress. It can be as simple as counting your breaths during a particularly stressful moment at work when you need something immediate to relieve anxiety.

In practice, there are several methods of timed breathing Meditation such as 4-7-8 breathing. In the 4-7-8 meditation breathing pattern, you start with 4 seconds breathing in, followed by holding your breath for 7 seconds, then breathing out for 8 seconds. This particular pattern is known for its reduction in anxiety.

In general, most people can only effectively learn or concentrate for about 30 minutes. With ADHD, it’s not a given assumption that I can concentrate and focus for 30 minutes or even 15 minutes. If someone without ADHD can achieve a 30-minute session of focus, it’s probably a safe assumption that someone with ADHD may struggle to achieve half the time.

This is where meditation provides considerable gains in focus and concentration. It provides a solid strategy, with practice, for achieving longer focus sessions. I like to use the term “focus session” because it describes blocks of time that I can maintain focus. If I aim for too many minutes in a specific focus session, I risk completely losing track of what I did during the session.

This type of focused Meditation is generally referred to as Mindfulness. Meditation with ADHD and Mindfulness work together to create a foundation in the current moment. With Mindfulness, I can begin to bring my scattered ADHD brain into alignment with the present moment and my current tasks.

Through Meditation, I’m not allowing random thoughts to engage my attention, which gives me the ability to control my focus better. For me, the key is to neither block nor engage the random thoughts. This allows me to choose my focus. This is how I use Mindfulness and Meditation with ADHD.

The other benefit of meditation with ADHD, besides focus, is the ability to be present in the current moment to relieve stress. ADHD can create a lot of stress, which we carry with us all day. Meditation provides a way to leave the day behind us and embrace the current moment.

I’ve listed and provided a brief review of the tools I’ve used for Meditation with ADHD and Mindfulness.

Calm
I use the Calm app on my iPhone daily. The meditations are narrated by Tamara Levitt, who has an amazingly relaxing voice. Every day, I aim to do at least the main featured meditation, “Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt.” They list over 70 individual meditation choices, with many sessions that change daily. They also offer an extensive library of music and nature sound scenes for relaxation as well as meditation. Their music selection even includes curated music that was co-developed with popular artists. But seriously, it’s all about Tamara Levitt’s relaxing voice in the narrations.

Flow Lab
I also use this app several times a week. Their tagline on their website is “Train your mind to get more done. With less stress. And more FLOW.” Their system of meditation is geared towards focus and achieving optimal mental performance. To that end, the meditation recordings that I have used are great and focus on achieving the best mental productivity performance.

Balance: Meditation & Sleep
This is an interesting meditation app that gives users prompts that are used by the app to customize their meditation routine and content. I used this app for several months and found the meditations to be helpful. My main issue with this app is that I didn’t know how to answer the prompts in the app’s initial phase. Consequently, I didn’t know if the app had adapted my meditation routine and content accurately in later use.

The Apple Watch Breathe app
The brilliance of this app is its fast accessibility. It’s an Apple Watch app that is built in as an Apple-designed app. Its simplicity adds immensely to its effectiveness. Just follow the breathing prompts. An interesting piece of data that can be captured and measured by this app is your Heart Rate Variability (HRV). HRV provides a gauge to help you understand the impacts of stress.

Breathe: relax & focus
The app is focused on breathing exercises to calm and relieve stress. The exercises are guided by a relaxing voice and instruct the user at each stage of the breathing exercise. A helpful feature of this app is its stats and progress screen that provides info on the number of sessions, total minutes, and usage charts that cover day, week, month, and year. It also includes four different breathing exercises. The app can also be integrated with Apple Health and is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Breathe • Calm down • Meditate
This breathing exercise app has a beautifully minimalistic user interface and is intuitive and straightforward to use. Upon opening the app, the user is welcomed with a warm and personal message and prompted to choose a breathing exercise to begin. The breathing exercises are guided by a gentle bell ring and a minimalistic and artistic circle that grows and shrinks to the exercise. The breathing circle animation can be customized to be one of several choices, including four flower icons. The guiding bell sound and app color theme can also be customized. It includes progress tracking, app reminders, Apple Health integration, and a customizable Power Breathing mode. This app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Breathe+ Simple Breath Trainer
This is a well-designed app that offers a lot of customization. Like most breathing apps, the breathing exercises are guided by an onscreen visual that contracts and expands, along with a sound cue. The breathing exercises can be customized for length, visualization colors, nine different cue sounds, and breath cycle timing settings. The app also offers session tracking reports by time period. Breath+ includes Apple Health integration and is available for iPhone and iPad.

The Apple Watch and Meditation.

I’ve mentioned the strong benefits of the Apple Watch in other articles, and the Apple Watch is equally beneficial for Meditation. A main strength of the Apple Watch is its accessibility; The watch is always at hand when needed. This is a critical benefit to meditation because of ADHD’s tendency towards anxiety.

When ADHD pushes us towards situational anxiety and nervousness, the Apple Watch can be a lifesaver in providing fast access to meditation techniques. A good example is breathing techniques. There are several Apple Watch apps that provide visuals to help guide breathing.

The pre-installed Breathe App on the Apple Watch is an effective and free app that can guide breathing. Another good Apple Watch app for guided breathing is Breathing Zone. This app provides a visual and optional voice guide for timed breathing. This app also has the ability to sync the guided breathing to your current heart rate.

In addition, several of the larger meditation apps have accompanying Apple Watch apps, such as Calm and Headspace. These additional apps provide the ability to play and pause the guided meditations, as well as the ability to save guided meditations directly on the Apple Watch.

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