A quick internet search for ADHD shows a million articles and systems that promise to help you make a list, get your house organized, or hold you accountable so you can achieve your goals and live your best life.
All this advice now strikes me, the founder of ADHDAlly, as being at best unhelpful and at worst pretty hostile. More fundamentally, I think it's incorrect, boiling down to simply telling us to stop having ADHD and to just work harder to do things the way that works for everyone else.
In spite of this, I (and I think a lot of you) took this advice to heart for most of my life and would double down and resolve to try harder. Each time promising myself that this time, this time would be different, but secretly knowing that it wasn't going to be.
It was a long path but it lead to an ADHD diagnosis. Suddenly, all the strange systems and tricks I had developed to keep myself on track started to make sense. I had developed a methodical sense of organization and had used it to manage teams with great effect and myself with somewhat less success.
Seeing my history in the context of having undiagnosed ADHD all my life the pieces started to fall into place. The strange techniques and tricks I was using to hold my life together was the system. I wasn't using lists or journals or the million productivity tools I've tried through my life as the way to manage my life. I was doing something else on top of these tools. Something that didn't follow the usual advice. Something that didn't really make sense except that it seemed to work for me. I discovered that there are a lot of people with ADHD out there who got it; the strange nonsense that I was doing, they were doing too.
So I searched for tools that got it too. And I couldn't find anything.
I've spent my career working in startups. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of how companies happen. Maybe I should build the thing I've always wanted?
I know you're holding your breath, wondering what I decided. Yes, I built the thing. It was hard. There are so many things I want and so many problems to solve but, with a lot of false starts, I found something that feels right.
Fundamentally, the app is intended to help you do, not what you are supposed to do, but instead manage what you actually do. The strange tricks and techniques are the system. Put silly pictures on things, make things colorful, walk yourself through the process of getting work out of your head, discovering what's important and then remembering to stay focused on that thing. The process is the important part and the tools in the app are there to help you guide and focus yourself.
Why does most of the advice out there for people with ADHD leave me with a bad taste in my mouth? Why do I hate the word accountability?
It feels like coercion. It makes me think of the years I spent trying to do things the way that everyone else seemed to do so easily. Of how hard I tried and of the feeling of failure each time it didn't work.
I don't want you to feel that. The app is designed to help you guide yourself. It's designed to forget your failures. It won't remind you that you forgot to do that thing last week. It will help you remember things. It will let you know that maybe it is time to water your plants. The app won't make you perfect, I'm not going to promise that, but being successful with ADHD is about continuing to try and giving yourself a lot of chances for success.
You should be in control. Your tools should help you center and focus yourself and not try to tell you what to do.
I hope you can tell that I believe in this. Hopefully, I can save people some of the trial and error I went though to get to something that works. I want anyone who wants to use the app to be able to.
I also need to pay the bills. It's just me right now and I want to keep the company as independent as possible so I can stay focused on building what is helpful for people with ADHD.
If you can afford it I'd appreciate if you bought a subscription. It's not the cheapest thing out there but making a sustainable business isn't cheap (unfortunately).
If you can't afford it or if it would be a strain on your finances, I'll get you a free subscription. No questions asked. If you can do something nice like telling your friends or leaving a good review that helps a lot but no pressure.
One of the up sides of a small, independent company is that you can actually get in touch with me. If you want something in the app, let me know. If something is confusing or unhelpful, let me know. I'll read your email and do my best to help.
If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time. I do need your help to make this happen. It's uncomfortable for me to have to ask but it is what it is.
Cheers,
Brent
P.S. That is actually a picture of me working on building the app. I like that it has my half-finished router project, and my dirty dish in it. If you look closely, you can also see the cap of my go-to hot sauce, Cholula. ADHD is weird and challenging and I hope I (and you) can be real about what it's like.