Click Gazette

Turn off most of your notifications. Seriously, just do that first.

I counted my phone buzzes once. Embarrassing number. Gloria Mark at UC Irvine has this research—takes about 23 minutes to refocus after each interruption. You do the math on how much focus that costs.

Why Willpower Won't Work

If resisting notifications feels impossible, that's probably the dopamine thing making distractions extra grabby. Not willpower. The science says so, but honestly it just feels like betrayal.

Willpower won't fix this. Remove the trigger instead.

Here's the Boring-But-Useful Part

Set up Focus mode. Let through family and calendar alerts. Block Slack, email, Instagram, texts.

• iPhone: Settings → Focus → Work
• Android: Settings → Digital Wellbeing → Focus mode

Takes 10 minutes maybe.

The first few days you'll still reach for your phone constantly. That's a tangent, sorry—point is, after a couple weeks you stop. That's it. That's the whole thing.

"ADHD books give you theory".

No, this one comes with ongoing ADHD coaching.

Most ADHD books end at the last page.

You understand the concept.

Then life happens and you're on your own.

We didn't want "ADHD Assets" to be just another book.

When we mapped the 6 core traits +
how they combine, where they work, where they hurt.

We INSTANTLY knew that wasn't enough.

ADHDers need more than concepts on pages.

We needed more than concept on pages.

So we built some ADHD micro-coaching flows.

6 traits × 3 levels each.

Which means:
→ You get the book
→ you pick a trait
→ you get all 3 micro-coaching flows on adhd-assets dot com

The flows help you work with the concept.

Integrate it into actual life.

Navigate the contexts of your traits.

Yavo and I tested every flow on ourselves.

Some we rebuilt many times because understanding a trait and living with it are a different thing 🤫

The book gives you the framework.

adhd-assets dot com gives you the micro-coaching.

Both launch on Jan 10th.

Assets isn't a positive spin on ADHD symptoms.

(that would be toxic positivity)

Here's what I mean:

Deficit framing says:
"You can't focus on boring tasks."

Asset framing doesn't say:
"Actually that's great! You're creative!"

It says:
"Your brain needs novelty to engage.
Structure tasks accordingly."

One pathologises.
One observes mechanism.

Does it always work? No.

But naming the mechanism gives us better options.
(and I'll die on that hill)

ADHD is different processing, we all know by now.
Maybe we didn't when we were growing up.
Maybe the labels got to us.

And maybe this sort of reframe changes what solutions we look for.

Your ADHD isn't the same as mine.

(even if most support acts like it is)

Every book, article, and tip list sees ADHD like one thing.

It's not.

Yours might make you brilliant in crisis and terrible at routine execution.

Mine makes starting impossible but finishing unstoppable.

We both have ADHD.

We need different support.

You can't personalize support when you're treating everyone as "ADHD."

That's what we mapped with "ADHD Assets".

→ 6 core traits.
→ How they interact.
→ Where they help.
→ Where they hurt.

It's the only way to build support that fits variety.

Generic ADHD advice will mostly miss.
(duh)

Look, the thing everyone calls your biggest problem might actually be useful.

When something grabs you, hours disappear. You forget to eat. Conversations go by and you don't hear them. That's hyperfocus. It's not a bug—it's how your brain responds to engagement instead of schedules.

The Real Problem

The tricky part isn't attention. It's direction. You can't summon the same intensity for spreadsheets that you get for projects you care about. Nobody can, honestly, but ADHD brains especially can't fake it.

What Tends to Help

Challenge helps. Urgency helps. Competition too, for some people. But sometimes it's just luck. I've stopped trying to force it.

When it shows up, protect it—close Slack, put your phone somewhere else. When it doesn't, shift to low-stakes stuff like emails. Don't fight it.

I keep a list on my phone of stuff I need to do, and half the time I forget the list exists. That's ADHD memory for you.

It's not regular forgetting. It's more like—okay, you know when you're standing in front of the fridge, door open, cold air hitting you, and you have absolutely no idea why you walked over? That. Constantly.

What's Actually Happening

Working memory is weird. It's not just about holding information, it's about what your brain decides is worth prioritizing. I don't fully understand it honestly, but basically your brain drops stuff that isn't interesting, even if it's important.

The attention thing is connected. I can spend four hours deep in a Wikipedia hole about medieval siege weapons—not exaggerating, this happened last month—but I can't do 20 minutes of expense reports. The pattern is consistent. Frustrating as hell, but consistent.

What Actually Helps

Anyway. Lists help. I know that sounds obvious. But they hold stuff outside your head so you're not trying to juggle it.

That's it. Just notice when you forget things this week. Don't fix it yet, just notice.

I almost named this book the wrong thing.

(and it would have put off an ADHDer like me)

"ADHD Assets" wasn't my first choice.

The working title was all about symptoms.

Like every other ADHD book.

I wanted something that sounded more... credible.

But this didn't feel right either ⬇️

→ Most resources talk about what's wrong.
→ Symptoms. Deficits.
→ Things to fix.

Assets aren't the opposite of symptoms.

They're a different lens entirely.

It's not pretending ADHD is easy.
More like naming what's working.
Just... differently.

I'm not saying the reframe is "you're fine".
But surely "this is how your nervous system works" is more helpful
(+ actually correct).

I rewrote the title a million times.

To get that distinction right.

The language we use shapes how we see ourselves.

"Assets" matters because it's truth, strength and grace.

Nobody warned me publishing means waiting... .. .

(which is torture with ADHD time blindness)

Book manuscript done? Great.

Now wait an undefined amount of time.

Time blindness isn't easy as it is.

But it makes waiting absurd.

The book launches next week.

And I cannot compute what that means.

In my head the book's been "done" already.

This spot between "done" and "out there" doesn't make sense.

Publishing timelines were designed by people who experience time linearly.

The rest of us refresh our email every 20 minutes to see if it's live yet.

Spoiler: It's never live yet 🤫

We finished writing our ADHD book last night.

The 1st thing that came to mind was 'DELETE'.

Relief lasted about 4 minutes.
Then terror set in.

You'd think finishing would feel good.

Instead I lay awake all night.
Running through every word.
Wondering if I got it wrong.

(more like fully convinced I got it wrong)

If it isn't the ADHD "I hit a milestone" cycle...

Done → Doubt → Should I have even started?

Because people can judge it.
Because now it's real.
And "who am I to..."

I'm a late-identified ADHDer and I've realised →
I've actually felt this with every project.

Small things like work presentations.
Programme launches.
Emails even.

And I want to celebrate the milestone.
Reward me with some puffy stickers.
And give mysef some grace.

Right now I'm in the terror bit.

If finishing creative work as an ADHDer means relief and terror arrive at the same time...

Does terror always have to win the first round?

Do we get to celebrate a win?

Do we ever get it?

AITA for using AI to assist with ADHD micro-coaching?

'But it's not sustainable'.
'But it makes things up'.
'But it's the same chats'.

→ And if I tell you that AI is only here to assist?

→ That we've made sure it only follows our human designed coaching flows?

→ While also makes possible to jump between 16.5M combos so that ADHDers never get bored?

Would you honestly tell me that we are better off without accessible coaching on demand?