ADHD and Planning: A User Manual for Your Brain

• What makes planning so hard for people with ADHD?
• Do calendars, kanban boards, and to-do apps even work for them?
• How can you set up SingularityApp to actually support an ADHD brain?

So here’s everything we found. Read on if you have ADHD, suspect you might, or just struggle with focus and concentration in general.

• What Is ADHD, Really?
• ADHD and Planning in Adults
• Setting Up SingularityApp for ADHD
• Wrapping Up

What Is ADHD, Really? 

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a condition where the brain’s executive functions are impaired — the very ones responsible for planning, decision-making, impulse control, and sustaining attention. Current estimates suggest that ADHD affects 2.5–6.8% of adults worldwide. That translates to roughly 139 to 360 million people.

And yet, despite those numbers, adult ADHD is still widely underdiagnosed. Many people don’t get identified until their 30s or 40s — if ever — because the condition was long considered a “kids’ thing.” Access to treatment also varies dramatically around the globe.

ADHD Symptoms in Adults 

In adults, ADHD looks different than it does in kids — less bouncing off the walls, more internal chaos. The main signs include:

• Attention problems — 10 minutes of work, 40 minutes of “somehow ended up reading about Viking ships”.
• Time blindness — only two time zones exist: “right now” and “eventually”.
• Working memory on low battery — it holds 3–4 items instead of the usual 7.
• Impulsivity — act first, think later.
• Emotional dysregulation — from thrilled to devastated in 0.5 seconds flat.
• Hyperfocus — 8 hours deep-diving the history of paperclip manufacturing instead of finishing your report.
• Pro-level procrastination — the deadline is on fire, but your brain urgently needs to reorganize the sock drawer.

That said, ADHD isn’t just “oops, I forgot” or “haha, I watch everything at 2x speed.” A proper diagnosis requires two key criteria. First, symptoms must have been present since childhood (before age 12). Second, they must be causing serious problems in at least two areas of life. For example:

• At work — blown projects from missed deadlines, losing jobs because of chronic lateness, most tasks left half-finished.
• In relationships — forgotten anniversaries, impulsive promises, inability to listen to your partner, sudden hyperfixations on other people, poor sense of personal boundaries.
• With money — impulse purchases of things you don’t need, maxed-out credit cards, inability to budget even a week ahead.
• At home — apartment in permanent disarray, fridge always empty, important documents lost somewhere between the couch and the closet.

A University of Florida study involving 52 students found that the biggest ADHD-related challenges were concentration (scoring 75 out of 100 in severity), time management (65/100), and organization (62/100).

ADHD and Planning in Adults 

As you’ve probably gathered, ADHD isn’t about being spoiled, lazy, or weak-willed. The brain of someone with ADHD is physically wired differently: the prefrontal cortex is less active, and connections between brain regions are disrupted. You can’t just “try harder to focus” when the attention system itself operates on different rules. So beyond medication, the main way to help yourself with ADHD is skills training and building what’s called a scaffolding system.

A scaffolding (or support) system is a set of external tools that take over the work your impaired executive functions can’t handle. This can include journals, planners, sticky notes, task managers, calendars, and — of course — digital planning apps.

Now let’s break down which specific cognitive challenges apps like SingularityApp can actually address.

1. Working memory
   The problem: Your brain holds only 3–4 items instead of 7, and even those are hanging on by a thread.
   The fix: Your planner becomes external storage. Capture the thought, free up mental RAM for the task at hand, and minimize the “oops, I forgot” moments.
2. Time perception
   The problem: The future feels like an abstraction. Only “now” exists.
   The fix: A visual schedule and reminders make time tangible. That meeting isn’t “sometime this week” anymore — it’s a concrete line in your calendar with a notification attached.
3. Prioritization
   The problem: Every task feels equally important — or equally unimportant. No idea where to start.
   The fix: A priority system and color-coded tags create external hierarchy, while smart filters hide what’s not relevant right now.
4. Impulse control
   The problem: The urge to drop everything and start something new / buy something / go somewhere.
   The fix: Writing down an impulsive idea in your planner creates a pause between wanting and doing. It gives you time to let the “I NEED THIS RIGHT NOW” fire burn out and evaluate the consequences.
5. Task initiation
   The problem: Starting a task is its own quest when you have ADHD — sometimes to the point of physical inability to “just sit down and do it.”
   The fix: Breaking tasks into micro-steps with subtasks and checklists helps you push through “starter’s paralysis” and actually get moving.

According to the University of Florida study mentioned above, using scaffolding systems — including planner apps — helps students with ADHD compensate for executive function deficits.

Planner Features and the ADHD Brain: What to Use 

Adults with ADHD tend to switch systems and tools frequently. This isn’t just about the thrill of a shiny new toy — it’s also about how the planner is configured and used. The very same features can either help manage ADHD challenges or create additional barriers.

Let’s look at what to lean into and what to dial back or skip entirely.

Bottom line: for someone with ADHD, a planner isn’t a productivity tool — it’s a survival tool. The key is learning to use simple features consistently and ignoring the ones that create cognitive overload, even if they look “cool.”

Setting Up SingularityApp for ADHD 

Brazilian researchers found that only 16.7% of people with ADHD still use their planner after 3 months. Even financial incentives don’t help. The issue isn’t “bad apps” — it’s the setup. When a system accounts for ADHD-specific needs and doesn’t create extra barriers, the odds of sticking with it go way up.

SingularityApp, for instance, has all the right features — from a calendar to a built-in Pomodoro timer. Let’s walk through the principles that make planning in this app as ADHD-friendly as possible.

Principle 1: One App to Rule Them All 

With ADHD, every switch between tools is a chance to get distracted and forget why you opened the app in the first place. The University of Florida study found that students with ADHD who used a single unified system covering both personal and work tasks performed significantly better.

How to set it up in SingularityApp:

• Use your Inbox as a funnel for everything — put the quick-entry widget on your phone’s home screen, use voice dictation, set up email forwarding. Any task, thought, recipe, tutorial — capture it or forward it to your Inbox.
• Process your Inbox once a day — create a morning or evening ritual of quickly reviewing everything that’s piled up. Delete the junk, move reference material to a separate notebook, and route actionable tasks to your calendar and projects.

Why it works: It cuts down cognitive load from context-switching. Your brain doesn’t need to remember where you wrote what — everything’s always in one place. Fewer failure points = higher chance you’ll keep using it.

Principle 2: Simpler Is Better 

Complex all-in-one systems are catnip for the ADHD brain: you can play with them, bury yourself in settings, and procrastinate endlessly under the noble guise of “I’m setting up my system!” Actually using these elaborate setups day-to-day? That’s where things fall apart. There’s constant choosing (folders or tags? tags or priorities? kanban or sectioned list?), remembering, and reorganizing. Before long, maintaining the system itself becomes a source of mental overload and drains your already limited energy.

How to set it up in SingularityApp:

• Use a simple structure — create 2–4 projects by life area (e.g., “Work” and “Personal”). In each area, keep a maximum of 5–7 single-step tasks and 3–5 sub-projects for multi-step work. Everything else goes into “Someday.” Every two weeks, do a quick review: what’s become relevant, what can be deleted.
• Stick to one labeling system — don’t use tags, priorities, emoji, deadline flags, kanban, and five other notation methods all at once. Pick one and commit. For example, you can set your “Today” view to kanban mode and sort your day into three columns: “Must Do” (1 task) / “Important, But Nobody Dies” (3 tasks) / “If I Have Energy and Time” (5 tasks).

Why it works: Your brain doesn’t waste energy deciding how to label a task, where to file it, or which emoji to use — lightbulb or exclamation mark. A simple structure doesn’t overload working memory and doesn’t trigger resistance.

Principle 3: Loose Structure Beats Rigid Plans 

ADHD means unpredictable productivity swings. One day you can power through 4 hours of deep work, another day you knock out 40 hours’ worth in 8, and the next you’re lying there like a wet noodle. A rigid minute-by-minute schedule is going to backfire.

How to set it up in SingularityApp:

• Plan in broad blocks. In the calendar, block out time for activity types, not specific tasks. Instead of “12:00–12:25 — shade the horse’s left leg,” go with “12:00–2:00 — drawing.” When the block starts, you can assess your current state and pick a task that matches your energy level.
• Break blocks into Pomodoros. If you’ve got a long activity block scheduled, fire up the built-in Pomodoro timer. Working in 25–30 minute bursts with 5-minute breaks keeps you from falling into a hyperfocus black hole and losing track of time, while also taking the edge off boring or difficult work.
• Create a “switch list.” Make a list of 5-minute tasks for your Pomodoro breaks. Think simple activities: wash a dish, water a plant, do a few squats, stretch, pet the dog. The less brain engagement, the better.
• Plan for bad days. Don’t forget about productivity swings, and don’t force yourself on “boiled noodle” days. Make a deal with yourself: on bad days, you’ll only tackle the single most important task (the red-tagged one, the high-priority one, or the one from your “Must Do” kanban column). Cancel or reschedule everything else. SingularityApp has dedicated options in the task completion menu for this: “Mark as cancelled” and “Done for today.” Both let you clear tasks from your “Today” view without guilt — either shelving them for later or pushing them to tomorrow.

Why it works: Flexibility reduces anxiety and lets you adapt to your current state. Controlled context-switches keep you productive without burning out. No sense of failure when plans change, which means less reason to abandon the system.

Principle 4: If You Can’t See It, It Doesn’t Exist 

Another way to compensate for impaired executive functions: make tasks and plans visible. Remember the first rule of ADHD Club: out of sight, out of mind.

How to set it up in SingularityApp:

• Keep the “Today” section always visible. Pin the tab in your browser, put the widget on your phone’s home screen. This is your “desktop.” Everything current should be in your face at all times.
• Use manual archiving to see your progress. Turn off automatic archiving of completed tasks. At the end of the day, review and manually archive what you’ve done so you can physically see the work you put in. The ADHD brain struggles with dopamine regulation and tends to discount achievements, so visual proof that “I did this” is critically important.

Why it works: Visual triggers compensate for memory and attention problems. What’s visible exists for the ADHD brain. What’s hidden is forgotten forever.

Wrapping Up 

For someone with ADHD, a planner isn’t about productivity — it’s about survival. When your executive functions are impaired, an external system becomes much like glasses for nearsightedness. A properly configured planner compensates for memory gaps, time blindness, and prioritization struggles.

The keys are simplicity, flexibility, and visual anchors instead of elaborate schemes. And the most important thing of all — give one tool at least 3 weeks of daily use before making any judgments.