Someone asked me on a call this week: “I noticed you mention ADHD sometimes. I was recently diagnosed. How do you deal with it?”

I had this draft open in another tab.

So, here we are. *cracks knuckles*

This article might also answer the question I get weekly, “How do you do it all?”

My ADHD Tech Stack (And How I Actually Use It)

I was officially diagnosed with ADHD in 2022. My reaction? An extremely anticlimactic “...duh, obviously.” If you’ve ever sat through a meeting thinking about three other things, doodled just to find your focus, watched yourself burn four hours on the wrong project with zero regret, or introduced yourself to someone you’ve already met 2-3 times, you get it. You may also have a very impressive hobby graveyard.

The thing is…..I believe ADHD is, genuinely, one of my superpowers. When people ask how I manage running multiple businesses and multiple client engagements simultaneously, my half-joking answer is always “ADHD and insomnia.” Hyperfocus is real. When I’m in the zone, I can go 6-8 hours without surfacing. My brain runs at 3x speed (and so do my audiobooks).

The flip side is also real. On the wrong days, I will take 10 attempts to remember to put on socks. Time blindness is not a metaphor for me (my alarms and reminders are constantly pinging). And names? I remember your face, your dog’s name, what you ordered at dinner in 2019, that you wear 9.5 Brooks Adrenaline sneakers, and your vibe. Your name? I’m going to need a memory jog. Shout out to Beth from Bill for my favorite memory jog of all time.

So I found tools that worked and built workflows/systems. They hold me up on the bad days and supercharge the good days.

And before you scroll past because you don’t have ADHD: even if you don’t, you almost certainly deal with focus drift, context switching, and the particular agony of knowing you had a great idea and watching it evaporate. This stack works for any professional brain running on too many tabs.

(Note: There is a future post coming on the physical workspace setup. Today we’re only going digital.)

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The Toolbox

Transparency first: There are affiliate links below. My rule is I don’t promote anything I don’t actually use. These are all in my daily rotation. Using my links is a free way to support this newsletter, often giving you a little discount and costing you nothing extra.

🗓️ Motion — Task and Calendar Management

[They killed their affiliate link system, but enter your email here and I can send you an invite with free credits]

Motion was one of the first tools that made me feel like my brain could actually work with a system rather than against it. I’ve been using it so long I’m on a legacy plan, which tells you something.

Here’s what makes it different from every other task manager I’ve tried (and I’ve tried all of them: Asana, ClickUp, Monday.com, Apple Notes, Trello, Notion, the full list): Motion auto-schedules. You put in your tasks, your priorities, your deadlines, and it builds your day for you. It also alerts you if something is going to miss a deadline. For someone with time blindness, that warning system alone is worth the subscription.

The AI-generated daily agenda is the feature I use most. Every morning, it’s waiting for me: today’s tasks, what’s coming up, what’s overdue. I use that to set my top three before I open anything else.

It also handles my booking pages for all my businesses/clients, so I don’t need a separate Calendly/Timewise account. Yes, even the Microsoft calendars pulled in. Each client gets a booking window tailored to their engagement. It respects my existing workload when someone tries to schedule. That part still feels like magic.

There are a bunch of new features, like AI Assistants and enhancements, but honestly, apart from the AI builder for new projects that links tasks, I still use it the same way I did when I started.

🧠 Littlebird — The Morning Briefing I Didn’t Know I Needed

Code: J6FD24JY for two months free - https://littlebird.ai/

This one is newer, and I’m still piloting it, with one caveat: it requires significant privacy permissions because it essentially watches your screen and the connected platforms. I’ve only tested it on one machine for that reason. Know that going in.

What it does: If you’ve ever been on a website, thought “that was cool,” and then spent 20 minutes trying to find it again, Littlebird remembers it for you. It’s basically an external memory layer, which, for my brain, is amazing. It “watches” everything that is happening on your screen, so when you forget, you can reprompt your memory.

Routine I programmed: Littlebird automatically generates a follow-up tracker every morning at 8:45 AM. It scans across my project management tools, email, and meeting notes. Then what surfaces is who I’m waiting on, who I still owe something to, and any high-priority items that came in overnight. My morning triage starts here.

My favorite part: if I got an email at 11 PM that needs a response by 10 AM, Littlebird flags it. Since I only check email in structured windows (more on that below), this is the safety net that prevents things from slipping through.

📋 Granola — Meeting Notes With Less Chaos

Link for free month: https://www.granola.ai?via=katherine-lehman

I spent years with sticky notes and notebooks scattered across my desk. I love taking manual notes, even with a transcriber running. Granola replaced most of that.

It works alongside your calls and lets you take physical notes while it transcribes in the background. The gap: the transcription isn’t always complete, and it’s not the most accurate tool for reviewing exact wording later. But for capturing the highlights of a meeting while I’m in it? It’s genuinely good. Adding my thoughts or links shared during the call is very valuable.

What I love most is the call template feature. I have templates set up for client calls, partnership conversations, discovery calls, and 1:1s. The structure is preloaded, so my notes land next to my repeat questions with the common agenda items, rather than becoming a wall of text I never revisit.

🎙️ Otter — When You Need the Full Transcript

1 month of Otter Pro free: Click here for your free month

If you are in back-to-back calls, a recorder is a must if you have ADHD. For follow-ups and for all the context switching.

I run both simultaneously. Granola captures my handwritten notes and is my in-meeting layer. Otter captures the full transcript and is my accountability layer. When I do my end-of-week review, I pull both together to make sure my account of what happened is accurate. It sounds redundant until you’ve had a conversation go sideways because two people had completely different memories of what was decided.

If I’m doing deep research or prepping client recommendations, being able to search exact wording from 15 calls back is genuinely invaluable. Having an audio quote of something someone says has also saved a project more than once.

🤝 Dex — My External Memory for People

Affiliate link: https://lnkd.in/eex84kQr

My memory works on association. I remember your face, your dog, your weird take on something you said in a meeting, and sometimes even the exact song playing when we met. Your name? That part I need help with.

Dex is a supercharged, AI-assisted contact management platform I now use as my external brain for relationships. It connects to LinkedIn, my email, and my calendar. It auto-updates contacts, and lets me log notes about how I met someone, what we talked about, and what we have in common.

My favorite feature is the “where I met them” field. At conferences and events, I spend more time reviewing connection notes and scrolling LinkedIn than most people spend preparing a presentation. Dex means that work is already done. The Copilot lets me add everyone to the “Shoptalk 2026” group and start drafting follow-ups quickly.

I also built a workflow that pulls my Otter meeting notes directly into Dex contact history. So before a follow-up call, I can see the full context of every conversation I’ve had with that person. Dex will even send pre-meeting prep docs to your email with full context. It’s the kind of thing that makes people feel like you genuinely pay attention. (I do, I just also need receipts.)

⏱️ Flow App — Pomodoro Timer With App Blocking Built In

https://www.flow.app/ — Mac only

I used Cold Turkey for years to block distracting websites during deep work. Then I found Flow, a Pomodoro timer that has app/website blocker built in. So I stopped paying for two things and started paying for one.

Flow is clean, simple, and has a Commitment Mode that makes it harder to weasel out of a session. I can see my focus statistics over time. It links to my calendar and task flows, so I know what I’m supposed to be doing and how much time I have. The countdown is its own form of accountability.

📵 Opal — App Blocking for My Phone

30 days free: https://applink.opal.so/invite-friend?rc=PKG22&rNme=KTcreativity&rId=Upk1H92IcIbKMY64nQtKwY3GNRn1

I have fallen into the “pick up my phone to authenticate Salesforce, and now I’m on Instagram” trap more times than I will admit. Opal stops that.

During work hours, my iPhone switches to work mode: three icons visible, everything else locked behind Opal. It genuinely cuts down on the scroll reflex that your hands develop without your brain’s permission.

🗣️ Voice Dictation — Because My Brain Outruns My Typing

Testing two right now:

Wispr Flow: https://ref.wisprflow.ai/katherine-lehman — 14-day free trial

Willow Voice: https://willowvoice.com/?ref=TOGN68 — 1 month free

My brain moves fast. My hands can’t always keep up. Voice dictation lets me capture ideas, update databases, and draft notes in real time without losing the thought.

Both Wispr and Willow are significantly better than any native dictation tool I’ve tried. I haven’t committed to either yet, so I’m inviting you to try both. You can let me know which one wins.

🗃️ Notion — The Smart Container

You know what Notion is. I use it as a database layer and a loose partner CRM: client work tracking, content planning, partner management, and home projects. The real value is that Notion talks to most of my other tools. It’s not the place where I work. It’s the place where work is organized so that when I need something, I can find it. The Notion Clipper extension is great for collecting inspiration on the go.

🗃️ Claude— The Accelerator

Being able to update Notion from Claude Cowork was an instant game-changer. Now that Claude talks to all the systems above and more, many of my updates don’t need to happen in each platform. It does a great job of speeding up my usage of these platforms.

Honorable Mentions: My color-coded Google Calendar that rules my life, Hubspot, Microsoft Outlook for Mac (yes, seriously, I have so many inboxes), and Google Drive.

How It All Fits Together: A Day in the Life

For context, I run multiple businesses, including a fitness business. Most mornings start at the gym, teaching, or with private training clients.

First: The power of “The Parking Lot.”
As you will see below, I have designated time slots for activities such as content, partner development, programming, and personal development. When a fun article or some notes come up during the week, I try to designate them to the parking lot (Notepad, Claude, Notion, depending on the project) and address them when it’s time. I’m not perfect, but I’ve worked up to being about 75% successful.

Typical Weekday:

5:00-7:00 AM — Fitness clients. Before I leave the gym, I voice dictate notes into Claude. Those updates flow into my Notion databases, updating their workouts and adding notes to the “fitness content” planning session for their next session. Littlebird is watching the whole thing (and my Google Voice texts), then flags any client reschedules or reminders I need to address during my later admin block.

7:00-8:45 AM — Non-work things happen. The animals get fed. There is coffee. Someone isn’t wearing socks or can’t find a violin.

If I get to my desk early, I complete things from my Personal Tasks project in Motion (pay bills, book travel, book appts, etc.).

8:45 AM/9:00 AM — The 30-Minute Startup

I use a Mac Voice Control (“Let’s get to work”) to launch my morning stack automatically as soon as I sit down. It opens my first three programs. I review my Littlebird follow-up board, ask Claude for my morning briefing (which pulls from Dex and Notion for anything Littlebird didn’t pick up), and set my top three priorities in my Motion Agenda.

Then: 15 minutes of email and Slack triage. That’s it. Then it’s blocked until I need to work with a client on Slack.

9:30 AM — First Pomodoro starts. (25 mins on, 5 min break, 4 cycles)

Email is locked. Flow is running. I’m in Motion tasks. My Claude instance (I’ve named her Claire) takes voice dictation and updates databases in real time. Meetings happen, though I prefer mornings for deep work.

Midday (after 4 pomodoro cycles of 25/5) — Dog walk. Workout. Actual lunch. Screen break. Could be 15-60 mins. Confession: I am not always good at this. I sometimes use the 30-minute “long break” triggered by Flow as a screen break, or if I have meetings, I will push through until 1 or 2 pm. The fear of losing productivity with ADHD is real. The idea that if we stop, we won’t start again.
But on the days I do take a real break, the afternoon flows better. That’s enough data for me to keep trying to prioritize it.

Mid-afternoon (scheduled for 12:45, but retriggers when I repeat “Let’s Get to Work” — Second email and Slack triage. 15-30 minutes depending on the day/volume. Use the timer.

Afternoon - Work sessions are similar to the morning. Meetings, tasks, time blocks. Random thoughts go to a notebook on my desk or the digital parking lots I have designated.

End of day — “That’s a wrap.” Another reminder/voice command closes everything down. I do a final pass of email, Slack, and Motion. Anything that didn’t get done gets reassigned, not forgotten. Calendar invite looks like this:

Weekly Anchors / Time Blocks

Sunday — CEO Hour. I log in briefly to clear my inbox, review what’s coming, and recalibrate. My Motion reminders for this block:

• Review the top 3 priorities for the week

• Categorize tasks: $10K Tasks (strategy, client work), $100 Tasks (admin, ops)

• Kill or delegate 25% of what’s on the list

• Write one “Not Doing” list for the week

Monday or Tuesday - 1 hour - Partner Power Hour
I use this time to review my partnership obligations for both businesses, review pending partnerships, update and add new partners in my database, and make connections and introductions. I clear the inbox folder associated with partners, and make sure I review any stale partnerships highlighted by my Notion automations.

Tuesday Evening or Wednesday Morning - 1 hour Content Creation
For media, guest posts, Podcast prep, Linkedin, and this newsletter.

Friday Fitness Block 5 am - After my early Friday client, I do fitness programming for classes and workouts, content creation, or content review for 1.5-2 hours.

Friday morning 8am -10am — Personal Development Block (1.5-2 hours). Coffee chats, LinkedIn, #findajobfriday, and the article backlog I’ve been accumulating all week. Podcasts at 3x speed. Content notes. Sometimes, an audiobook on a long walk. If I skip this for too many weeks in a row, I notice my focus eroding. Too much output, not enough input, is how we stagnate. It’s not optional.

Friday 4:15-5:00 PM — Friday Shutdown. Voice command “That Friday Feeling” triggers motion, downloads folder, and inbox.
The goal: No open tabs (I save sessions to Tab Manager by Workona sometimes). Inbox zero. The weekend begins.

Okay, But Where Do You Actually Start?

If this list made you want to lie down: same. My life is busy. Your life may be busy in a different way. That doesn’t mean you need to follow this as if it were a script. Some of these items won’t work for you, but some might. This is a collection of 4 years of trial and error and saying NO to the “hacks” that didn’t work for me.

Start here instead. Open your AI tool of choice and paste this prompt:

“I need better control over my time. Here’s everything I’m currently doing [paste your task list or weekly calendar or voice dictate all your things]. Here’s everything I need to be doing [paste your actual priorities]. How should I structure this more effectively? What time blocks should I regularly schedule?”

See what it suggests. Then pick two things:

• 1-2 tools you think would address your biggest focus problem right now

• 1-2 recurring blocks per week that you protect and hardwire into your calendar before anything else gets in

The system only has to work 5% better than the chaos. It does not have to be perfect. I repeat this exercise every December as part of my annual review so I can continue to perfect it over time.

⭐ That’s all from me and the squirrel this week. Go make something happen.

Katherine / Chief Chaos Officer