I’ve bought Notion, Todoist and Trello and abandoned all three. Probably like you. So this isn’t a list of shiny apps to go and collect. It’s the handful I keep coming back to, sorted by the actual job they do, with the honest trap for each one, because most ADHD founders don’t have a tool problem, they have a too-many-tools problem.
Job 1: do the boring bits for you (AI)
Claude and ChatGPT. This is the big one. The planning, the first drafts, the admin, the “turn this brain-dump into a plan”, the stuff that sits undone for a fortnight. An AI assistant is the closest thing to an assistant that never judges you for asking the same thing twice.
The ADHD win: it kills the blank page, which is where a lot of us get stuck. The trap: it’s also a shiny new toy. It’s easy to spend three hours “setting up the perfect prompt” and do no actual work. Use it to move, not to tinker.
Job 2: get the thoughts out of your head, fast (capture)
Wispr Flow to talk, Obsidian or Notion for where it lands. The single most important habit for an ADHD brain is getting everything out of your head the second it appears, before it evaporates. Wispr Flow lets you just talk, anywhere on your machine, and it turns the ramble into clean text and drops it wherever your cursor is. Talking is faster than typing, and the friction of typing is often the exact thing that stops us capturing at all. Then it needs a home: I use Obsidian because it’s just fast files, Notion suits people who like it prettier. What you use matters less than using one.
The ADHD win: speaking beats the blank page, you stop losing ideas, and you free up the working memory you were burning holding them. The trap: the “perfect second brain” rabbit hole, where building the system becomes the procrastination. Keep it stupidly simple or you’ll abandon it by Thursday.
Job 3: never rely on your memory for a call again
Fathom. It records, transcribes and summarises your meetings, so you’re not trying to listen, take notes and think all at once, which an ADHD brain cannot do well. You get the actions afterwards without having scribbled a thing.
The ADHD win: you can actually be present on the call instead of panic-noting. The trap: none really, this one’s a straight upgrade. Just tell people you’re recording.
Job 4: actually start (body doubling)
Focusmate. You get matched with a stranger on a video call and you both work. Sounds odd, works brilliantly. Having one other human silently present is often the difference between starting and not.
The ADHD win: it beats task-initiation paralysis, the “I can’t make myself begin” wall. The trap: it only works if you book the session in advance. Left to the moment, you won’t.
Job 5: take the decisions off your day (planning)
An AI calendar (Motion or Reclaim), or Sunsama. The problem isn’t a lack of to-do apps, it’s that every morning you have to decide what to do, and decisions are expensive for us. These pull your tasks onto your actual calendar so the day’s half-decided for you. Motion and Reclaim do it automatically with AI, which suits an ADHD brain because there’s less to decide. Sunsama is calmer and manual, you plan the day yourself each morning, which some people love and others quietly abandon because it’s one more ritual.
The ADHD win: less decision fatigue, a realistic day instead of a 40-item list you ignore. The trap: don’t run three of them. Pick one. Two planners is no planner.
Job 6: block the dopamine slot machines
Freedom or Opal. Scheduled blocks that lock you out of the apps that eat your day, across all your devices, during your focus windows. Freedom’s the best known and works everywhere, Opal’s newer and slicker on the iPhone. Any decent one does the job, don’t overthink which.
The ADHD win: it removes the willpower fight instead of asking you to win it. The trap: if it’s too easy to override, you will. Set it up so future-you can’t cheat.
The honest bit
None of these fixed my business. I want to be straight about that, because the internet will sell you the opposite. A tool gives you a capability. It doesn’t give you the accountability, the weekly rhythm, or the system that makes you actually use it. That’s the gap every ADHD founder falls into: a phone full of half-used apps and the same chaos underneath.
That gap is exactly what I coach. We take a couple of these tools, wire them into a system built around your brain, and put a weekly call on it so it actually sticks. The tools do the boring bits. The system does the rest.
If you want to see how the tools fit a bigger picture, the best ADHD coaches for entrepreneurs is worth a read too.