Three digital tools I use every day as an Autistic ADHDer

I stayed at my parents' home over the weekend. My dad has been on a huge clear-out mission for the last couple of weeks. He proudly showed me the old phone that he'd uncovered during his mission - the first iPhone model ever made:

Ahhhhh, pure nostalgia. My dad has always been a tech geek; our home is full of the most random gadgets he's collected over the years and, despite collecting dust, refuses to throw away. It's clear where I got my love for them (and my Autism, too 🤪). I grew up loving tech and wanting to know how it worked and how it can make our lives easier and more time-efficient. And let's be honest, most of us are overwhelmed, exhausted and burnt out so every little helps!

In this article, I'm going to share three tools I've been using every single day to help with the executive functioning, time management and organisation challenges I face as an Autistic ADHDer.

It's also worth mentioning that you can most likely have them paid for by your employer as a reasonable adjustment or awarded within your Access to Work grant.

❇️ Goblin Tools

❓ What is it?

A website/app that has a collection of simple and accessible tools like Magic ToDo, Formalizer, Judge and Estimator that are useful to anyone but reduce various challenges Neurodivergent people face, such as task initiation, communication, etc.

💗 Why do I love it?

I use the "Formalizer" as a Neurodivergent ➡️ Neurotypical translator when writing emails to make it "less waffle" or "more formal" because I am quite direct as an autistic person whilst I am very warm and fluffy with my verbal communication. But my written communication can be very direct and short and I can come across as a bit of a d*ck.

And I use the "Judge" tool as a Neurotypical ➡️ Neurodivergent translator. I can't tell you how many times I've got an email and thought, "Wow, that was a bit rude", and it turns out I have just read the tone wrong, lol. This has saved me from getting unnecessarily fired up many times!

While ChatGPT can do all these things, the specific feature set reduces distractions and mental load. I also think ChatGPT makes things sound very... well... chatGPT sometimes but Goblin Tools is closer to how a human would write.

💰 Pricing

The web version is free, and the mobile app costs around £1.99 as a one-off payment.

❇️ Flown

❓ What is it?

A virtual co-working platform with a variety of sessions suited to everyone and all sorts of schedules:

• Take off: we do things like mindfulness, task dumping & prioritisation, and intention setting in a small group.
• Facilitated 1-2 hour deep dive sessions: Set your intentions and work with the Zoom call open. This is basically like body doubling, which has been proven to be highly effective for ADHD people! Read more here.
• Drop-in sessions. These are open 24/7, and you can stay as long as you like. You can set your intention and a timer (as shown below), and people can react to encourage you, which is super cute!!

💗 Why do I love it?

I've been using Flown almost every working day. When I start my day with a take-off session, I find my day is far less stressful, and I'm more present. If I need to tackle a particularly complex task that is high on my mental load, I do this in a deep focus session, and I sometimes surprise myself with how little I distract myself or get bored!

As a solopreneur, this also gives me a sense of community and helps me feel less isolated; I genuinely always look forward to my next session ❤️

💰 Pricing

Flown has a 2-tier model:

• Free forever. You can access all Friday sessions for free and host your own community sessions.
• Paid. This gives you unlimited access for £15 per month if you pay annually or £20 per month. You can get a 1-month trial with no card details needed. You can use my referral link to get 20% off your subscription.

Disclaimer: I may receive a small commission or percentage if you subscribe using this link. I pay full price for a subscription, and I would never promote a paid tool that I don't pay for myself

❇️ Tactiq

❓ What is it?

It's a meeting transcription tool, but it does so much more. It works with all of the video meeting platforms. It also has an AI feature, which I use to draft a follow-up email, write a detailed summary or identify action points from the meeting.

The integrations are brilliant too. You can send your transcription to:

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• Hubspot
• Notion
• Confluence
• Slack
• And more!

💗 Why do I love it?

BY reducing the need to multitask by writing notes, I can be more present and at the top of my game on meetings, which is particularly important if it's a client pitch meeting!

Live transcription within the meeting window reduces the anxiety of missing a crucial piece of information.

The box to type notes means I don't risk forgetting a point or question before I have the chance to say it.

💰 Pricing

• The free forever version is actually very generous; you get ten meetings per month with no time limit and five AI credits per month, which is honestly sufficient for most people. Just ensure you stop and delete a transcript for a meeting to prevent using up a credit.
• The next tier is $8-12 per month (charged at the current exchange rate at the time), which gives you unlimited meetings and 10 AI credits with the option to purchase more.

I hope you've enjoyed this short article on my favourite tools. Let me know what you think if you give any of them a go and if there are any tools you think I should test out. I've also been working on creating iOS/macOS shortcuts to reduce repetitive manual tasks, so let me know if you want me to share these along with tool recommendations in the comments ⬇️⬇️⬇️