Click Gazette

ADHD as a high-variance OS

(context over cure)

ADHDers connect things that don't belong together. ALL OF US.

You're in a meeting about budget allocation and your brain serves up an idea about product naming. Ottoman history links to mushroom foraging links to - who knows what. Your brain filters less, so more gets through. More raw material for combinations nobody else is making.

You see the pattern before others see the pieces. Forest before trees. The typo on page 12 you missed? That's the cost of the trend you caught three weeks early.

Those half-finished projects, the abandoned hobbies, the graveyard of Duolingo streaks - that's rapid learning in action. The same brain absorbs new information faster than anyone expects. (Yes, even when you can't remember where you put your keys five minutes ago.)

This is the core framework from ADHD Assets the book.

"ADHD Assets" tells you to skim.

And that's by the design.

We built this book knowing you don't need to read it all.

It's called the Fast Track.

Page 5 literally says:
→ Skim the trait names
→ Read the 2-3 that fit you
→ Jump to scripts when you need them
→ Done in 30 minutes

No pressure to finish.
No pretending you'll read all 6 trait chapters when you only need yours.

We designed it that way.
Because whatever you skip in reading, you make up for 10-fold in the micro-coaching that comes with the book.

The book gives you the map.
Pick your route. Skip the rest.
Micro-coaching makes it best.

Could't resist the rhyme 🤫

"ADHD Assets" wasn't written in my voice.

Because ADHDers don't need more words.

We need fewer, better ones.

Stay with me or a second.

The book has no-nonsense messaging.

Low friction.

Direct.

You get the trait. How it works.
Where it helps, where it hurts.

What to do with it.

No wading through metaphors.
No extra cognitive load.
We did that on purpose.

And that's why we chose Yavo's voice as co-authors.
An not mine 😶‍🌫️

Yavor's voice is clean, efficient, direct.

Mine can be anywhere between dramatic and poetic.

But always intense.

Works great for making the neurokin feel seen.

Doesn't work for frameworks you need to use.

So we wrote it in his voice.

"ADHD Assets" uses direct, no-nonsense, low-friction language because ADHDers need clarity more than poetry.

So I let this one slide 🤫

That confident feeling when you tell yourself "I'll remember this."

You won't.

It's not pessimism. It's pattern recognition.

I used to believe my brain would hold onto important things. Phone numbers. Appointments. The brilliant idea I had at 2am that would change everything.

Gone. All of it.

What changed wasn't my memory. What changed was accepting it would never work the way I wanted it to.

Now I write things down immediately. Not because I'm organized. Because I've been burned enough times to stop trusting the lie.

That moment when you think "this is too important to forget"? That's the exact moment to write it down.

The more important it feels, the faster you should capture it.

Your brain isn't broken for forgetting. It's just doing what ADHD brains do - moving on to the next interesting thing before the last one gets stored properly.

The system isn't the problem. Expecting a different result is.

Write it down. Right now. Whatever you're thinking about that seems too obvious to forget.

Future you will thank present you.

Turn off most of your notifications. Seriously, just do that first.

I counted my phone buzzes once. Embarrassing number. Gloria Mark at UC Irvine has this research—takes about 23 minutes to refocus after each interruption. You do the math on how much focus that costs.

Why Willpower Won't Work

If resisting notifications feels impossible, that's probably the dopamine thing making distractions extra grabby. Not willpower. The science says so, but honestly it just feels like betrayal.

Willpower won't fix this. Remove the trigger instead.

Here's the Boring-But-Useful Part

Set up Focus mode. Let through family and calendar alerts. Block Slack, email, Instagram, texts.

• iPhone: Settings → Focus → Work
• Android: Settings → Digital Wellbeing → Focus mode

Takes 10 minutes maybe.

The first few days you'll still reach for your phone constantly. That's a tangent, sorry—point is, after a couple weeks you stop. That's it. That's the whole thing.

"ADHD books give you theory".

No, this one comes with ongoing ADHD coaching.

Most ADHD books end at the last page.

You understand the concept.

Then life happens and you're on your own.

We didn't want "ADHD Assets" to be just another book.

When we mapped the 6 core traits +
how they combine, where they work, where they hurt.

We INSTANTLY knew that wasn't enough.

ADHDers need more than concepts on pages.

We needed more than concept on pages.

So we built some ADHD micro-coaching flows.

6 traits × 3 levels each.

Which means:
→ You get the book
→ you pick a trait
→ you get all 3 micro-coaching flows on adhd-assets dot com

The flows help you work with the concept.

Integrate it into actual life.

Navigate the contexts of your traits.

Yavo and I tested every flow on ourselves.

Some we rebuilt many times because understanding a trait and living with it are a different thing 🤫

The book gives you the framework.

adhd-assets dot com gives you the micro-coaching.

Both launch on Jan 10th.

Assets isn't a positive spin on ADHD symptoms.

(that would be toxic positivity)

Here's what I mean:

Deficit framing says:
"You can't focus on boring tasks."

Asset framing doesn't say:
"Actually that's great! You're creative!"

It says:
"Your brain needs novelty to engage.
Structure tasks accordingly."

One pathologises.
One observes mechanism.

Does it always work? No.

But naming the mechanism gives us better options.
(and I'll die on that hill)

ADHD is different processing, we all know by now.
Maybe we didn't when we were growing up.
Maybe the labels got to us.

And maybe this sort of reframe changes what solutions we look for.

Your ADHD isn't the same as mine.

(even if most support acts like it is)

Every book, article, and tip list sees ADHD like one thing.

It's not.

Yours might make you brilliant in crisis and terrible at routine execution.

Mine makes starting impossible but finishing unstoppable.

We both have ADHD.

We need different support.

You can't personalize support when you're treating everyone as "ADHD."

That's what we mapped with "ADHD Assets".

→ 6 core traits.
→ How they interact.
→ Where they help.
→ Where they hurt.

It's the only way to build support that fits variety.

Generic ADHD advice will mostly miss.
(duh)

Look, the thing everyone calls your biggest problem might actually be useful.

When something grabs you, hours disappear. You forget to eat. Conversations go by and you don't hear them. That's hyperfocus. It's not a bug—it's how your brain responds to engagement instead of schedules.

The Real Problem

The tricky part isn't attention. It's direction. You can't summon the same intensity for spreadsheets that you get for projects you care about. Nobody can, honestly, but ADHD brains especially can't fake it.

What Tends to Help

Challenge helps. Urgency helps. Competition too, for some people. But sometimes it's just luck. I've stopped trying to force it.

When it shows up, protect it—close Slack, put your phone somewhere else. When it doesn't, shift to low-stakes stuff like emails. Don't fight it.

I keep a list on my phone of stuff I need to do, and half the time I forget the list exists. That's ADHD memory for you.

It's not regular forgetting. It's more like—okay, you know when you're standing in front of the fridge, door open, cold air hitting you, and you have absolutely no idea why you walked over? That. Constantly.

What's Actually Happening

Working memory is weird. It's not just about holding information, it's about what your brain decides is worth prioritizing. I don't fully understand it honestly, but basically your brain drops stuff that isn't interesting, even if it's important.

The attention thing is connected. I can spend four hours deep in a Wikipedia hole about medieval siege weapons—not exaggerating, this happened last month—but I can't do 20 minutes of expense reports. The pattern is consistent. Frustrating as hell, but consistent.

What Actually Helps

Anyway. Lists help. I know that sounds obvious. But they hold stuff outside your head so you're not trying to juggle it.

That's it. Just notice when you forget things this week. Don't fix it yet, just notice.