GETTING THINGS DONE / ADULTS
The Invisible Wall Between Intention and Action
You want to do the thing. You've decided to do the thing. And yet, somehow, the thing does not get done. Here's what's actually happening in that gap.
10 min
Ideas for different brainsVol. 01
ADHD, in
real life.
Stories, ideas and practical thinking about attention, motivation, memory, feelings, systems, relationships and being human with ADHD.
Featured10 min read
GETTING THINGS DONE / ADULTS
Why Tiny Tasks Can Become Weirdly Impossible
Sending an email. Booking a dentist. Returning a parcel. None of these are hard, exactly — so why do they sit untouched for weeks while much bigger things get done first?
Section 01
Worth reading.
Six pieces we'd hand someone first — chosen, not sorted by date.
FOCUS / ADULTS
The Attention Hangover
Six hours in, the report is finished, the deck is perfect, the code compiles. And you are wrung out — foggy, snappish, unable to remember if you ate lunch. The good day has a cost, and almost no one talks about it.
10 min read
FEELINGS + OVERWHELM / TEENS
Why Does Being Left on Read Feel Like a Crisis?
Two grey ticks. No reply. Forty minutes later your stomach still hasn't settled. Here's what's actually happening when silence on a screen turns into a five-alarm emotional event.
9 min read
EVERYDAY LIFE / ADULTS
Your House Is Asking Too Much of Your Brain
Laundry, mail, keys, meds, groceries, chargers — your home makes hundreds of small demands a day. Most of them can be redesigned away.
11 min read
TIME + REMEMBERING / KIDS
Where Did the Time Go?
Five minutes to get dressed turns into twenty. Ten minutes of a game feels like one. Here's why time can feel so slippery, and what actually helps you catch it.
9 min read
UNDERSTANDING ADHD / TEENS
Masking: When You're Working Hard to Look Like You're Fine
Sitting still when your body wants to move. Nodding when your mind has drifted. Some teens spend a lot of energy just looking okay — here's what that costs, and what it doesn't have to mean about you.
9 min read
The ADHDier Edit
Things we keep
thinking about.
FOCUS / TEENS
Why Boring Feels Almost Physically Painful
Not "a bit dull." Not "I'd rather be doing something else." An almost physical discomfort — restless, itchy, unbearable — that shows up during a worksheet, a queue, a wait for a text back. Here's what's actually going on, and what isn't yet known for sure.
9 min read
TIME + REMEMBERING / ADULTS
Why You're Always Looking for Your Keys
It's rarely just the keys. It's a small daily audit of how working memory, habit, and your front door are — or aren't — working together.
9 min read
GETTING THINGS DONE / KIDS
Why Does "Clean Your Room" Feel Impossible?
It sounds like one job. It's actually about thirty. Here's why the biggest, vaguest instructions are the hardest ones for an ADHD brain to start — and how to turn them into something you can actually do.
9 min read
For kids
Small people,
big questions.
For kids who want to understand their brains — and the grown-ups trying to understand too.
FOCUS / KIDS
Why Does My Brain Notice Everything?
The hum of the lights, a pencil tapping two rows over, the smell of lunch through the door — some brains notice all of it, all at once. Here's why, and what actually helps.
9 min read
For teens
Not a lecture.
Just how it works.
Written for how life actually is — school, phones, friends, late nights and everything that hits at once.
GETTING THINGS DONE / TEENS
Why Am I Avoiding Something I Actually Want to Get Done?
You're not confused about the assignment. You're not lazy. So why does opening the document feel harder than almost anything else you'll do today?
9 min
FEELINGS + OVERWHELM / TEENS
Why Does Being Left on Read Feel Like a Crisis?
Two grey ticks. No reply. Forty minutes later your stomach still hasn't settled. Here's what's actually happening when silence on a screen turns into a five-alarm emotional event.
9 min read
FOCUS / TEENS
Your Phone Isn't the Whole Problem — But It Isn't Helping Either
You open an app to check one thing. Forty minutes later you're not sure how you got here. That's not a willpower failure — it's what happens when a brain that finds focus effortful meets a design that's built to be impossible to put down.
10 min read
FEELINGS + OVERWHELM / TEENS
When Everything Hits at Once
A comment, a look, a bad grade, all in the same afternoon — and suddenly you're not just annoyed, you're wrecked. Why ADHD can make emotions feel like they arrive in a flood.
9 min
For adults
The gap between
intention and action.
Work, home, relationships and the quiet accumulation of things you meant to do.
GETTING THINGS DONE / ADULTS
The Invisible Wall Between Intention and Action
You want to do the thing. You've decided to do the thing. And yet, somehow, the thing does not get done. Here's what's actually happening in that gap.
10 min
“Sometimes the hardest part of the task is entering it.”
Sian Trombley
Certified Therapist & Teacher, Founder of ADHDier
By area
Five ways of
looking at it.
01FocusAttention, distraction + finding your way back.Explore →02Getting Things DoneStarting, switching, finishing + getting unstuck.Explore →03Time + RememberingTime blindness, forgetting + keeping track.Explore →04Feelings + OverwhelmBig feelings, rejection + when everything feels like too much.Explore →05Everyday LifeHome, routines, school/work + relationships.Explore →
Less reading. More doing.
Something to
try right now.
GETTING THINGS DONE
Make It Smaller
A way of breaking an overwhelming, vaguely defined task down until its first step is small enough to require no decision-making at all.
5 min →
TIME + REMEMBERING
Build an External Brain
Move everything you're relying on your memory for into one single, trusted, external place — a notes app, planner or wall calendar — instead of several half-used ones.
15 min to set up →
FEELINGS + OVERWHELM
Name the Wave
A quick way to catch a big feeling while it's happening, by naming it and giving it a rough size, instead of letting it run unnoticed.
1 minute →
EVERYDAY LIFE
Create a Landing Zone
Pick one spot by the door — a basket, hook, or shelf — where keys, bag, wallet, and anything else you carry every day always lands, no exceptions.
10 minutes to set up →
From the evidence desk
Does ADHD actually affect
working memory?
What research tells us, what it doesn't and why it can matter in everyday life.
Writing it down works because the brain treats external notes as memory
People offload more when working memory demand is high, and performance improves reliably when they do — including in groups with weaker working memory.
- Why it matters
- External systems aren't compensating for a character flaw. They redistribute load to somewhere that doesn't leak, which is what every high-functioning system does.
- The caveat
- Most of this research is in general populations rather than ADHD samples specifically, so the size of the benefit in ADHD is inferred rather than directly established.
- Source
- Risko & Gilbert, Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2016)
Editors' picks
Worth coming
back to.
Save counts arrive once enough people are saving. Until then, these are the ones we keep sending to people.
Just published
New + noteworthy.
FOCUS / ADULTS
22 Aug 2026The Attention Hangover
Six hours in, the report is finished, the deck is perfect, the code compiles. And you are wrung out — foggy, snappish, unable to remember if you ate lunch. The good day has a cost, and almost no one talks about it.
10 min read
FOCUS / ADULTS
22 Aug 2026Your Environment Is Competing for Your Attention
The open-plan office, the phone face-up on the desk, the fourteen browser tabs, the pile of mail by the door — none of it is neutral. Your surroundings are not a backdrop to your attention. They're actively bidding for it.
11 min read
FOCUS / KIDS
22 Aug 2026Why Is It So Hard to Listen When Something Else Is Happening?
The teacher is talking. So is the kid next to you, the hallway outside, and the poster you keep re-reading. Here's what's really going on when too many things want your attention at once.
9 min read
FOCUS / KIDS
22 Aug 2026When Something Is So Interesting You Forget Everything Else
You're building, drawing, reading, or playing a game — and the rest of the world just quietly disappears. Here's why that happens, and why the coming-back-out part is the genuinely hard bit.
9 min read
FOCUS / TEENS
22 Aug 2026Your Phone Isn't the Whole Problem — But It Isn't Helping Either
You open an app to check one thing. Forty minutes later you're not sure how you got here. That's not a willpower failure — it's what happens when a brain that finds focus effortful meets a design that's built to be impossible to put down.
10 min read
FOCUS / TEENS
22 Aug 2026Why Boring Feels Almost Physically Painful
Not "a bit dull." Not "I'd rather be doing something else." An almost physical discomfort — restless, itchy, unbearable — that shows up during a worksheet, a queue, a wait for a text back. Here's what's actually going on, and what isn't yet known for sure.
9 min read
From ADHDier
Good things for
different brains.
New Journal stories, useful tools and interesting research — occasionally, not constantly.