I used to get sucked into finding new tools to help me be more productive, but keeping it simple and visible works for me.

I use Apple Reminders and leverage their smart tags to break tasks down by how long they’ll take, how much effort, and when they need to be done. I keep Reminders open on my iPad so I can always see it, and when I have 15 minutes to kill, I select a 15-minute or less task and knock it out. It works for me, and my whole family can add to it, so I never forget to do something.

A year ago, I discovered I have ADHD. Suddenly, everything fell into place. I've had many hobbies, projects, and ideas throughout my life, but I've rarely completed or stuck with them for long. I'm still working to develop a system that allows me to explore while helping me complete tasks over time.

I've thought about using medication but I don't want to depend on it for productivity. I'm curious, has it significantly changed things for any of you?

Apple Maps for 90% of my trips, though that’ll be 100% with iOS 17 and offline maps.

The voice prompts are so much better in Apple Maps. I feel comfortable in an unknown area, and that’s important to me.

Awesome, happy I could help!

Reminders with smart lists is great.

It’s hard when it starts at such a young age. I had it at home, church, and school. I didn’t start to change my thinking until my mid thirties, and even then it was painful because your entire reality starts to shatter.

They are listening; that's the problem. I've disconnected from almost my entire family because Trump has reached Dear Leader status with them, and you can't have a normal conversation anymore without insane levels of hate and nonsense being injected into the conversation.

The people at this level aren't living in reality. They like what they hear.

I was ignorant enough to support this kind of crap when I was younger. It's never too late to turn your life around; please stop voting for these people.

If you create the reminder within a smart list, it will automatically add the tag of that list to the item.

Example: I have three priority lists. If I tap/select the low priority list and make a new reminder, it will auto populate the tag for low priority.

This works with Siri as well.

“Hey Siri, add ______ to my high priority list” Siri will then add the reminder with the high priority tag associated with that list.

I hope that helps!

Spark is the only way I can effectively handle email at this point.

So this is where I’ll disagree.

Android is not a good choice for my use case. Signal is excellent, I use it every day, but it’s not great when you factor in that I need to get elderly and non-tech savvy family to all download an app to talk to you. I might get some, but I won’t get all of them. The remaining ones deal with SMS, which I already said isn’t reliable where I am. Now factor in MMS messages, and they need to deal with degraded quality because I’m there. This changes in iOS 17, so it’s a short-term issue for them, but still a long-term problem for me.

Keeping tabs on my parents using Apple health and find my, can’t do the same with Android. Yes.m, they can share their location with Google Maps, but they don’t use Google Maps, so now I have to get them on that and help troubleshoot if something stop working.

FaceTime calls, again, possible but not easy for them to set up, so now we need another app.

Lifetime of device and cost of ownership. Without loading a third party version of Android, Apple still provides longer support, which means my phone lasts longer, cost me less, and leads to me contributing less e-waste back into the environment.

I like Android, I use it everyday, and sure, I could switch back, but I would lose more than I would gain. I would love if Apple would be willing to adopt a common standard, but they won’t do that unless it benefits them. Look at me, I’m in their ecosystem an unwilling to leave because my experience immediately deteriorates when I do.

So yeah, while messaging is a part of it, it’s not the whole picture.

That's a fair question.

I’m tech agnostic; whatever fits my need is what I use, and I can easily change devices and operating systems without skipping a beat. My entire family and nearly all of my circle are in the Apple ecosystem; it just makes it easier to communicate and keep tabs on my parents. For those that aren't using iMessage, Signal is the preferred app.

I still use Android for work, but the only thing I miss about Android is notifications. Apple can’t seem to get notifications right.

The only time it’s an issue for me is when the other person isn’t willing to message me on another app instead of trying to use SMS. I get horrible cell service where I live and my only options are iMessage or an app like Signal /WhatsApp/Messenger.

So this is when adding someone with an Android to a group conversation that was taking place using iMessage can cause some irritation.

That’s been my experience as well. Reporting them does nothing, but if you call them out on their BS, Facebook suspends you.

As long as hate drives engagement, this will never change.

I always assume they will tailgate me, and so far, I’ve never been wrong.

I love hearing that other people prefer a simple approach. All too often people recommend overly complex systems that could be daunting to someone who’s looking for help. Start off simple and then add complexity if you need it.

I, too, only have that option at work. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with OneNote, but I think it’s a bit too busy for me. As I get older and understand my ADHD and Autism more, I find that a minimalist approach helps me remain productive.

Keeping it simple works for me, so I stick with Apple Reminders and leverage smart tags to keep everything organized and give me an “at a glance” view. I can open Reminders and see things categorized by:

• level of effort
• estimated time to complete
• category (home, school, kids, etc)

I’ve tried a lot of other tools in the past but too many options keeps me in a constant state of tweaking instead of getting things done. Plus I like being able to just say out loud what I need to add to my list and share it with my family without them having to get another app.

Notes are a bit trickier for me. I still use OneNote for work (and hate it), but I use Apple Notes for home and Goodnotes for school. I’ll probably end up going Apple Notes for the same reasons as Reminders, but I’m still hesitant for some reason.

Yes.

I replaced the one on my iPhone 6 myself and that helped tremendously.

I’ve had an iPhone 12 Pro since launch and I ended up getting a replacement from Apple last year when the back cracked so naturally the battery was replaced, it was at 89%, and the difference wasn’t as noticeable but my battery did last longer.

I appreciate the reply, and I agree.

It’s sad that people jump to the conclusion that my kids are being kept from the world and I’m doing them harm because I don’t let them go to public gatherings on holidays. My kids attend school, they go to birthday parties, parks, pools, all the usual things kids do.

Sure. At a super high level, I review business processes and find inefficiencies such as bottlenecks and time sucks and design solutions to optimize them.

As a career, you’ll commonly see positions in this field listed as a Business Analyst or Process Improvement Analyst. Almost every industry hires for these roles so you can work almost anywhere.

Interesting, you’re telling me to learn statistics, and then you skipped over the leading cause of death for children in the United States.

Try incorporating empathy in your life, and understand it’s not about you. If you don’t have the same concern as others, you don’t have to resort to insults; you can accept that someone else feels differently without trying to hurt them.