ADHD and Smartphones

Key wellness / self-care strategies & productivity tips (from the subtitles)

Break the “trigger → action → payoff” loop

The speaker describes the cycle as:

• Trigger: phone is nearby / you get bored
• Action: grab the phone and start an app/game
• Payoff: boredom goes away (entertainment), but you end up procrastinating and not getting work done

Make the phone harder to access during focus time

• Move the phone away from you (another room, drawer, couch, etc.)
• The goal is to change your immediate impulse—when it’s out of reach, you’re more likely to notice your response and stay on task.

Use “Do Not Disturb” / reduce incoming interruptions

• Put the computer on Do Not Disturb so:
  • messages don’t interrupt
  • notifications don’t pull you back into checking

Do a short experiment to test effectiveness

• Try the approach for about half an hour
• Track how much more you get done
• Reassurance: you don’t need dramatic, fear-based thinking about missing urgent events—just trial it.

Respond to the “it doesn’t work for me” objection realistically

If it “doesn’t work,” the issue is usually that you:

• don’t physically get up to retrieve it, or
• reach for it immediately anyway, so the habit loop continues.

Presenters / sources

• Ryan McCray (also referred to as “the ADHD nerd”)