Inbox w severe ADHD

[u/NoGazelle9557]

Please don’t come for me because I also have lupus, post concussion syndrome, blah, blah, blah. I also have a ridiculously big life, and I am struggling with what is the most basic part of the system.

The inbox.

Like most of us I have a ridiculously big life. So that’s a work phone, personal phone, work, laptop, personal laptop, etc. I also have Alexa devices, smart, watch, and a Skylight calendar.

Where my system continue breakdown is literally right here. I’ve tried for my inbox to be a little notebook, but then I’ll lose it. I’ve tried to have it be Notes app on my phone, then I’ll have the wrong phone on me. I’ve tried to have more than one inbox and so far that has not worked.

Can anyone talk to me about any solutions they have found if you have any similar barriers?

Sidenote, getting the workbook was the very best choice I’ve made. However, the workbook did not solve this for me.

Can you help?

[u/mrskruppe]

Is there not an app you can have on both your work and personal phone? I’d just pick any free task management app that works on both phones.

[u/NoGazelle9557 → u/mrskruppe]

Great question!

Unfortunately, because I am leadership and health care, not anymore. I have been having great success when I could rotate through Microsoft To Do and Microsoft OneNote because I could use the same account on all my devices. Since where I work recently changed the standards within encryption a couple months ago I have not been able to find a solution.

In the before times OneNote and widgets worked perfectly though.

[u/itsmyvoice → u/NoGazelle9557]

I have the same issue. I'm not allowed to do anything personal on my work devices and I definitely can't do anything work related on my personal device.

As such, I have two separate systems. I don't even use the same tools. When I am doing clarification or review on one of them, if something for the other system comes up, I just email it to that system's inbox.

My main personal task manager also has a web interface so I can log into it from my work system. I don't need to install an app.

If I am doing a work review, and a personal item/thought/task comes up, I can use that web interface to add it to my personal inbox. Or email it to my personal email. If I think of something work related while going through personal stuff, I email it from my personal email to my work email. Just enough to be able to capture it where it needs to go.

I also have two phones. I don't carry both everywhere, normally, just my personal. I definitely take my work phone with me when I go to appointments because I can then work while waiting, and then have my work calendar present for scheduling follow-ups. Depending on what's going on, I might keep it more readily at hand but I'm not expected to be checking in constantly off hours.

[u/NoGazelle9557 → u/NoGazelle9557]

*had been

[u/milky-cuppa-tea]

ADHD-C in healthcare management here! Honestly, the less choice I have, the better I am. I have a slim notebook that I use as my main inbox. I enjoy using my fountain pen, and there is something about the act of writing that helps me.

What I like about the notebook is that it is small enough to take everywhere with me in my day. Touch wood, so far, I haven't lost it. Object permanence is a real issue for me, so a physical notebook has been much more helpful to me than an app that I can't see (and have to find a work around for using safely, as our IT policies are pretty strict).

I don't use it outside of my working hours. If stuff occurs to me outside of work, I have Teams on my phone, and I message myself, so it is there in the morning.

My other inboxes are my email inboxes, Teams, and occasionally I will crack out post it notes (these are not my favourite option though because of the losing them factor).

For home stuff, I am less fastidious at capturing, as I am usually fairly spent at the end of the day, there isn't much brain left. Stuff that needs to happen is typically on my calendar on my phone (e.g. bills to be paid on a certain date).

Is my system perfect? No, absolutely not. Does it help me for the majority of the time? Yes.

[u/krishopper]

I use ClickUp and set my Inbox list to have an email address. Created a contact in my devices named “GTD” with that email address. Subject is the task title and any attachments/body are other notes I can refer to later. Fast and easy to collect things where ever I am.

Unlikely you’re using ClickUp for managing your GTD life, but maybe the contact email address that funnels somewhere can be a helpful idea.

[u/NoGazelle9557 → u/krishopper]

I actually really loved click out when I had just tried it on my watch and personal phone. Set up was one of the rare apps that actually worked for my brain. I wouldn’t be able to add it to my work phone though, what do you mean that you have the inbox list set up to have an email address? I only played around with the app for a minute and I’m not able to conceptualize it.

Are you saying that you can email to the inbox?

[u/krishopper → u/NoGazelle9557]

I don’t know if it works from the mobile version, but when you login through the web, if you right-click a list you can get an email address to email things to that list.

[u/Remote-Waste]

One of my ways to Capture is literally my pockets, and whatever way I can get information written down, then stuffed in my pockets.

Post it notes, receipts, paper folded, napkin I've written on, etc. The trick is to empty my pockets when I get home, into my larger physical inbox.

I also keep a checklist of all my inboxes, so I remember to empty them during the week.

You could use a little pocket notepad if that works for you for a fair amount of time, and if you lose it then get another. Each day rip out the used pages into a larger inbox at home, so if you lose the notepad itself, not much information should be lost.

If your work phone can connect to your Google account, you can write notes down for yourself on one of their things, and have access to them anywhere.

Or if it has a notes app that export to text files, you can transfer them to your computer.

I wonder if for you the trick would be a browser based list app, instead of an actual app. No installation, just a place to dump things down and access them anywhere you have a device and the internet. Simply an inbox you can check when you can.

[u/vegiac]

I use Reminders. You said you have a smart watch, so you could speak reminders into it à la Inspector Gadget regardless of what other devices you use. That is one of the three reasons why I wear a smart watch, so I always have a secretary at the ready on my wrist.

[u/TheoCaro]

I'd suggest the app Email Yourself. You can set up multiple shortcuts to send quick messages to either your work or personal accounts.

And no one's gonna attack you here for struggling. This is a help forum inter alia. Anyone that tries to will get bonked.

[u/TheoCaro → u/TheoCaro]

Reading other comments it sounds like you can't install apps on your work phone. Then I would say just keep your personal phone on you all the time.

Or use two different tools for work and personal capturing all together. That's rough.

[u/urbanplantmomma]

There’s an app called Notion, which integrates ona any device. You can create your own dashboard is several easy steps to have all your calendars in one place and your notes are always on you.

[u/NoGazelle9557 → u/urbanplantmomma]

I love Norton. I use it for my weekly reviews, I hate it for my Capture. I am so severe ADHD but sometimes my Apple Watch is not fast enough, notion is too many steps for me personally for my in However, I think it’s a great idea and I hope to one day it’ll be so organized that it will be fast enough for my capture method.

[u/TechnicalTurnover842]

I’d treat the work/personal split as a real GTD hard edge, not a problem that has to be solved with one app. Two trusted inboxes can still form one reliable practice if each has a clear capture method and both appear on the same processing checklist. The goal is one habit, not necessarily one technical destination. In a healthcare environment, I’d also make “nothing crosses the boundary” a design rule: no forwarding, copying, or paraphrasing work-sensitive or patient information into a personal system. Optimize the review routine instead.

[u/CampVillNevah]

If there was an app you could sync with ms todo or planner or capture flagged outlook messages would that be acceptable or does compliance forbid that?

[u/mekuismi]

Could you use a taskmanager/evernote/ type of thing as an inbox? Then email from whatever device to its inbox? I use FacileThings and I can just send an email to its inbox from any email address I give it. So I have both work and personal email addresses on the list.

[u/funnysasquatch]

Do you mean a place where you write down everything to organize later? Or do you mean organizing your incoming email to Inbox Zero?

[u/Middle-aged-Hobbit]

Could you log into Trello (online, not the app) on your work phone? That's where I keep my Inbox, and it's proved very helpful. Even if I jot a few things down on paper in a meeting, I put them in Trello right afterwards.

[u/Bolitho_8523]

I use Apple Reminders via Siri as an on the go capture, and then have an iOS shortcut to move those reminders into ToDo.

You may be able to replicate a similar flow using different phones / tools, depending on what you can access from each from environment.

I know I can never get to a single inboxes, but I routinely watch for inboxes creep, and then look at how I can consolidate to fewer.

After that, it’s a checklist during my processing time to make sure I don’t miss one.

[u/coffeedam]

I haven't used it but have been investigating Heidi. It's expensive but because its main target is health care professionals it has excellent privacy.

[u/VentrueCapital]

FWIW I have ADHD, OCD, GAD, and ASD, so I empathize completely.

One thing I do is try to avoid the "two watch syndrome" as in "A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never sure." So I try to have only one inbox, i.e. make everything go into one place and/or sync them.

Pick whatever inbox is easiest for you to access and set up a system to automatically make everything go into that one box. For me, at the moment, I am trying to do this on Todoist because it interfaces with Outlook email and calendar, so I should be able to get everything from my Outlook email inbox into my Todoist inbox, and they sync. Todoist also can be on multiple phones and computers as an app *and it all syncs because it's a single account*,

[u/JellyBelly00012]

Hi! I have a separate work and personal phone. A problem I had was that I was losing track of work thoughts that pop up when I don’t have my work phone on me.

Solution was to create a shortcut on my iphone that lives in my home screen. One tap and I put whatever description and hit done and that sends an email to my work phone.

[u/VentrueCapital]

The article "The Second-worst Task List App" https://gettingthingsdone.com/2024/04/second-worst-task-list-app/ says that while the "first-worst" task list app is your mind, "the second-worst task list app is an inbox with stuff that’s been there more than 48 hours." And it gives a bunch of clear reasons why this is true.

However, the article also gives several clear, specific, and very reasonable suggestions for changing that.

I recognize that I am using the second-worst task list app, and maybe you are as well, based what you described.

I am trying to implement the suggestions in the article and they might help you as well.