ADHD and Technology: Helpful Tool or Constant Distraction?

Technology is a bit of a double-edged sword when you have ADHD. My phone can remind me about appointments and my next clients, store reminders, set alarms, and make sure I don't forget things I would otherwise probably forget.

However, it can also completely steal my attention. I can pick up my phone to check one thing and, a few minutes later, find myself reading up on potoo bird mouth for the next hour. If you've never seen a potoo bird, I can assure you that this was a very important piece of research at the time!

How Technology Can Help With ADHD

There is no doubt that technology can be incredibly useful when you have ADHD.

I rely heavily on my calendar and reminders because I know that simply remembering something isn't always enough. Having an appointment written down, with an alarm to remind me about it, means I don't have to keep trying to hold it in my head.

My phone also gives me somewhere to put things as soon as I think of them. If I remember that I need to do something while I'm in the middle of something else, I can add it to my reminders rather than relying on myself to remember it later.

For me, these are genuinely useful tools that make everyday life easier.

When Technology Starts Competing for Your Attention

The problem is that the same technology that helps us manage our ADHD can also provide an almost endless supply of things competing for our attention.

There is always another notification, message, email, video, article, or social media post waiting for us, and when your attention is already easily pulled towards something interesting, it doesn't take much to get distracted.

You can open your phone to check the time and end up scrolling through social media. You can sit down to answer an email and suddenly find yourself looking at something completely unrelated.

Before you know it, half an hour has disappeared.

This is one of the reasons I don't think technology is simply "good" or "bad" for ADHD. A lot depends on how you choose to use it and whether the technology is helping you manage your attention, or constantly competing for it.

How I Manage Technology With ADHD

I rely heavily on my calendar and reminders, but I don't have notifications turned on for everything because my phone would never stop pinging.

I've also found that I need to be quite deliberate about when I use my phone and when I don't.

Each evening, I have a period of time when my phone is switched off and placed in a different room; this means I'm not constantly tempted to pick it up, check something, and then disappear down another digital rabbit hole - it really does make a huge difference.

Having the phone in another room also removes the temptation to keep checking it, rather than relying entirely on willpower to ignore it when it's sitting beside me.

Making Technology Work For You

Technology isn't going anywhere, and there are plenty of ways it can be incredibly useful for people with ADHD. Calendars, reminders, alarms, voice notes, and other tools can all take some of the remembering and organising out of your head.

At the same time, it is worth paying attention to whether your devices are helping you or simply taking over your attention.

For me, the answer has been to make sure I use technology deliberately for the things that genuinely help me, while putting some boundaries around the things that regularly distract me.

Otherwise, you can start the day planning to be productive and somehow end up spending an hour researching the inside of a potoo bird's mouth.

I speak from experience!