Best Apps for Productivity & ADHD for Bloggers & Digital Marketing

Intro

Spending all day sitting at a computer working in digital marketing or as a blogger can be challenging for the best of us. It can be particularly difficult when working from home, and without structure and set tasks, it is easy to get distracted by anything on the Internet other than your work.

With the growing awareness around ADHD, many people are starting to understand that their poor concentration and distractibility are more than just laziness but a symptom of a neurodevelopmental disorder which affects up to about 6–7% of people aged 18 and under.

James Smythe from Mighty Gadget has struggled for years due to this problem and is always looking for ways to overcome the challenges people face with motivation and productivity, whether they have ADHD or not.

Many employees and students with ADHD struggle with studying, starting work, maintaining motivation and getting distracted. This can be particularly challenging in the world of digital marketing, where you often have come up with creative content ideas for client industries you are not particularly interested in. Then, find the motivation to research and write the content.

James has found that developing a structured routine is important to his productivity, and using task lists is essential.

One trick with task lists is to create realistic goals, and this will often mean breaking down a job into sub-tasks, allowing you to get that essential dopamine boost from small wins and avoiding the dopamine-depleting issue of not completing one big task.

With the New Year upon us, James has helped us compile a list of useful apps other than well-known solutions like Google Calander, Keep and Todoist that can help build better working habits that will hopefully be useful in improving productivity and avoiding procrastination in the year ahead.

Many of the recommendations require a subscription, which limits the appeal compared to the likes of Google Calander/Keep. However, they typically have an impressive feature set that justifies the cost with improved productivity.

Pomodoro Technique

While this is not an app, it is a popular solution to help with focus that many people use in conjunction with task lists and calendars.

The Pomodoro Technique is a simple concept where you break down work into 25-minute segments with a 5-minute break at the end.

You simply:

1. Get a to-do list and a timer.
2. Set your timer for 25 minutes, and focus on a single task until the timer rings.
3. When your session ends, mark off one Pomodoro and record what you completed.
4. Then enjoy a five-minute break.
5. After four Pomodoros, take a longer, more restorative 15-30 minute break.

This, of course, will work well with breaking down your jobs into smaller tasks that you feel you can complete within each 25-minute period.

Pomodoro Apps / Task Lists / Time Management

The following apps have a mixture of features, with many of them integrating the Pomodoro Technique with task lists.

LifeAt (freemium with paid plans starting from $8)

LifeAt is a free online productivity platform that provides users with a comprehensive set of tools all within one system to boost productivity.

The features are broken down into focus and planning. For Mac users, integrating a mac time tracker can further enhance productivity by accurately monitoring time spent on various tasks and projects, helping to identify areas for improvement and optimize workflow.

Under the focus mode features, you have virtual workspaces, which create a unique digital workspace where the right ambience, soothing music, and pleasing aesthetics effortlessly blend to enhance your productivity. There is a Pomodoro timer built in, and it is also possible to have collaborative Pomodoro sessions where you sync up with other users and have access to chat and video tools for discussions, brainstorming, and casual chats.

The planner features are still in development, but this will include task lists, calendars with Outlook/Google calendar integration, Pomodoro time tracking and note-taking functions.

By centralising tools, reducing context switching, and enabling hyperfocus, LifeAt empowers productivity for those with ADHD. Its versatility across teams and individuals makes it an attractive option for solopreneurs, remote workers, and collaborative teams alike.

Amazing Marvin ($8 per month or $300 lifetime)

Amazing Marvin is a customisable online task management and productivity suite. It incorporates behavioural psychology principles to help users organise tasks, plan their day, track habits, minimise procrastination, and boost productivity. Key features include flexible task management options, calendars (with third-party calendar syncing), Pomodoro timer and tracking, time tracking, notes, reminders, focus features to reduce distractions, and gamification elements. The range of features is too extensive to fully list.

For digital marketers and anyone who struggles with concentration, Amazing Marvin offers robust project management capabilities to juggle campaigns and content while maintaining focus. Its flexibility enables optimising planning and workflows for the demands of creative work. Features like time tracking, reminders, and focus modes can mitigate procrastination and scattered attention.

TickTick (Freemium with premium plans for $36)

TickTick is an intuitive yet powerful task management and productivity app. Key features include flexible task lists, calendar integration, reminders, notes, habit tracking, and focus modes, including a Pomodoro time. There are also some gamification elements with achievement scores based on the number of tasks you complete on time.

RescueTime (Free trial then $6.50 a month)

RescueTime is an automated time-tracking and productivity analytics app. It runs silently in the background to monitor how you spend time on your devices, categorising activity as productive, distracting, or neutral. It then provides detailed reports and insights to reveal productivity patterns and inform better time management. Key features include automatic tracking across devices, productivity pulse, goals and reminders, focus features to reduce distractions, integration support, and offline tracking capabilities.

It doesn’t strictly have a Pomodoro timer, but it takes this concept to the next level with focus sessions, where it will block the sites that most negatively impact your focus.

For those with ADHD or people who struggle with maintaining focus, RescueTime promotes self-awareness of distractibility and scattered focus while providing tools to build better habits. Features like focus sessions, distraction blocking, and reminders empower users to optimise their environment and workflows for productivity.

Sunsama (14 day free trial, $16pcm when billed annually or $20pcm billed monthly)

Sunsama is an intuitive daily planning and time management app. It focuses on optimising daily productivity through features like calendars, to-do lists, and schedules customised to match one's routine.

Key features include daily planning templates, calendar integration, reminders, notes, timers and time tracking, and custom tags and filters to organise tasks.

It also integrates with many popular project and task tools such as Asana, ClickUp, Notion, Jira, GitHub, Todoist, and Trello.

While it doesn’t have a Pomodoro timer, it does have a focus mode.

Magic ToDo / Todobot AI (Free to use)

Magic ToDo and Todobot are free-to-use task management apps. The main thing that differentiates these from the likes of Google Keep is that they integrate AI features which can take a task and break it down into sub-tasks.

With both tools, they can use the AI features to estimate the length of time each task takes.

With Magic ToDo, you then have the option to use the AI features to continue breaking down each sub-task into smaller tasks with an unlimited number of nested tasks. When you are happy with your task list, you can optionally export it to a Todoist template or iCal file.

Productivity / Concentration

The following apps are more varied and aim to help with various aspects that can be useful in boosting our productivity.

Finch (free to use but with in-app purchases)

Finch is a self-care companion mobile app featuring a virtual pet that users interact with and care for through practising daily self-care activities. Its playful interface aims to make building healthy mental health habits engaging and rewarding.

Key features include mood tracking, habit/goal setting, breathing/meditation exercises, journal prompts, and adventuring with your Finch pet.

By gamifying and positively reinforcing self-care, Finch empowers consistency for those with ADHD prone to forgetting self-care. Its versatility provides value for solopreneurs seeking to optimise wellness alongside their work.

Focusmate ( 3 free sessions per week, unlimited sessions from $6pcm billed annually)

Focusmate takes the collaborative sessions concept of LifeAt to the next level with 25, 50, & 75-minute sessions that you can book with other Focusmate members where you will join a video call giving you a virtual coworking environment.

The idea is that it facilitates accountability and focus through online co-working sessions with partners. Users outline their objectives before each session, then work together in quiet focus toward their respective goals.

Key features include the ability to schedule sessions and integrate calendars, matched partners based on workstyle, and post-session reviews on productivity.

For those with ADHD who are prone to distraction, Focusmate provides external motivation to stay on task. The quiet but social coworking set up tricks the brain into activating its focus system. Scheduling sessions also encourages consistency.

Obsidian (Free for personal use but $8pcm if you want to sync between devices)

Obsidian is a powerful content creation app with a wide range of plugins to customise the features to your needs many of its features are similar to Microsoft OneNote but with the addition of

It integrates both note-taking and to-do lists with the ability to add links, which can then be used to create a visual graph showing the relationships between your notes.

With the sync features, you can keep track of changes with version history and work with a team to share your notes and files.

Once you have completed your notes, you have the option to publish your content on the Obsidian Publish site, allowing you to create an easy wiki, knowledge base, or documentation hub.

Habitify (Free basic plan, premium from £14 yearly, £24 life time)

Habitify is a habit tracker and productivity app focused on helping users build positive routines. Key features include flexible habit tracking boards, reminders, motivation tools like streaks and levels, and analytics on performance over time.

By encouraging habit formation through motivation and accountability, Habitify empowers consistency for those prone to distraction or forgetfulness. Its versatility provides value for creative professionals seeking to structure productive routines.

The free version lets you check in for up to 15 habits per week. The premium version features unlimited habits and additional perks.