Key Points
- The best apps for ADHD can help those with the condition manage stress and stay organized.
- Some of the best apps people with ADHD can use include focus timers and task managers, stress management games, and learning apps.
- Consider factors such as purpose, ease of use, features, customization options, and availability when choosing an app for ADHD.
- Using the right app for your type of ADHD can help improve focus, productivity, and reduce stress.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can make even the simplest tasks look like moving a mountain.
People affected by this disorder often find it hard to concentrate, stay organized, and follow through with their tasks. Managing stress can also be complicated, but luckily, many apps can help those with ADHD stay on top of their game.
Whether you want some help with task management or to relieve stress, check our ranking of the best apps for ADHD you can download and start using today.
- #1 Best Overall: Focus To-Do — Pomodoro Timer & Tasks
- Best for Stress Management: Keep Your Cool – ADHD RPG
- Best for Learning: Acellus
- Best for Concentration: ADHD New Age Study Music
- Best for Stress Relief: Super Fidget Spinner
#1 Best Overall: Focus To-Do — Pomodoro Timer & Tasks
- Languages supported: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish
- All ages
- Designed to help you focus on work and study: Focus Timer + Task Management
- Detailed Report: Support statistics on project time, pomodoro time, and tasks
- Manage your work, study, and life: Support project planning and task scheduling
- Synchronize within all devices: Data cloud backup, multi-platform synchronization
- Features themes, white noise, and user-defined timers
Focus To-Do: Pomodoro Timer & Tasks is one of the best apps for adults with ADHD who need some help with their executive functions.
This app’s highlight is the combination of a focus timer and a task manager. To boost your productivity, you can schedule tasks and set reminders and alarms. The task scheduling function can help you estimate the focus time required to complete each point on your to-do list.
The default Pomodoro timer splits the focus time into 25-minute intervals, but you can customize it by reducing or increasing the focus time interval and the break length. This feature makes it easy to stay focused and boost your productivity.
Daily and weekly reports and charts can help you track your progress, see how many tasks you completed in a determined time interval, identify when you are the most productive, and adjust your schedule accordingly. The only downside is that the alerts don’t work sometimes.
This app is compatible with Apple and Android devices and comes in seven languages, including English and Spanish.
Check out Focus To-Do: Pomodoro Timer & Tasks on Amazon.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| You can divide the tasks into work, study, and personal and schedule them using the easy-to-use task manager. | The app may fail to send all alerts, so you should check your schedule at least a few times a day. |
| The Pomodoro timer is fully customizable. | |
| This app is available in seven languages and is very intuitive to use. |
Best for Stress Management: Keep Your Cool — ADHD RPG
- Languages aupported: English
- Easy to play
- Clear interface
- Made in England
Keep Your Cool — ADHD RPG is a very simple app, but one of the best if you need help learning how to manage ADHD-induced stress.
In this game, you take on the role of Doris, a downtrodden employee who tries to cope with her unsympathetic boss, a stressful coworker, and ADHD while completing all her tasks to avoid getting fired. You must use various tools and strategies to keep Doris’ health meter high and her stress meter low.
This free app is ideal for both kids and adults who find it hard to manage ADHD-induced stress, and you can play both on mobile and on a Windows PC. The main downside is the amount of ads you’ll have to deal with.
You can find Keep Your Cool — ADHD RPG on Amazon.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| This app helps you learn how to manage ADHD-related stress. | Numerous ads disrupt the game. |
| The game can entertain users of all ages. | |
| This app is compatible with Apple, Android, and Windows devices. |
Best for Learning: Acellus
Acellus is one of the best apps for children with ADHD who find it hard to adapt and learn in a conventional school system.
This app is nationally accredited, and you can use it to homeschool kids while ensuring they’ll get a regular high school diploma rather than a homeschool diploma. The app’s best highlight is that kids can use it to study at their own pace and receive personalized feedback and instructions to help them achieve their studying goals.
Acellus currently covers all K-12 core content areas, exceptional education and advanced placement courses, career and technical education, and exam preparation.
The app is compatible with all operating systems, including iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. While not the most responsive app out there, it is one of the best options for students with ADHD.
Acellus is available for download on Amazon.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| This app is nationally accredited and suitable to use for homeschooling. | The app has some bugs, and it freezes sometimes, requiring students, teachers, and parents to log out and then back in again to keep using it. |
| Courses cover all K-12 areas and additional education needs. | |
| Some classes are developed specifically for neurodivergent students, including students with ADHD. |
Best for Concentration: ADHD New Age Study Music
- Languages supported: English
- Focuses the mind for work or school
- No internet connection needed
- No headphones needed
Whether you need to work or study, the ADHD New Age Study Music is the best app to use to improve your focus and boost productivity.
When first listening to the app, you may think it’s just upbeat music. However, the audio is based on sound therapy techniques developed to help people suffering from ADHD refocus their brainwaves and concentrate on the task at hand.
According to the app developers, these sound therapy techniques should help you focus on your work or school assignments without the aid of additional medication.
To stimulate the parts of the brain responsible for your attention deficit or hyperactivity, the audio in the app simulates a helicopter. Apart from that, modern New Age music can create the perfect background sound that will take your mind off of distracting noises.
This app only plays the focus music for around 45 minutes, but you can restart the audio as many times as you want. If the music doesn’t help or you need more support, you can also get in touch with an ADHD coach directly from the app.
You can find the ADHD New Age Study Music on Amazon.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The audio in this app is developed specifically to help people with ADHD improve their focus. | The music plays for only 45 minutes per session, and the session length is not customizable. |
| This app plays modern New Age music, providing the perfect audio background to minimize outside noises and distractions. | |
| If necessary, you can contact an ADHD coach right from the app. |
Best for Stress Relief: Super Fidget Spinner
- Languages supported: English
- Over 25 different spinners!
- Easy gameplay, simply swipe left or right to generate spins!
- No In-App purchases - everything is free to play!
If you’re an ADHD hyperactive or combined type, the Super Fidget Spinner is another app that could help you relieve stress and improve your focus while working or studying.
This app’s role is to replace the traditional fidget spinner toy, and it comes with the advantage of making available 25 fidget spinner types directly on your mobile device. While fidgeting with the virtual spinner might not be as satisfying as using the real toy, it is a safer option for young children, for which the toy is considered hazardous.
Using the app might also be more discreet in the office if you don’t want your boss or coworkers to know that you’re struggling.
As far as the user experience goes, the app is intuitive to use. There is no time limit on how much you can spin, and you can share your score with your friends. The various spinner types also make this app incredibly fun. No doubt, it is worth a try.
Check out the Super Fidget Spinner on Amazon.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| It’s safer and more discreet to use than a real fidget spinner toy. | It’s not as satisfying to use as the toy. |
| You can choose from 25 fidget spinner types and spin them for as long as you like. | |
| The app allows you to share your score with your friends. |
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How to Pick the Best Apps for ADHD: Step-by-Step
When choosing an app for ADHD, there are five main considerations for most users.
- Purpose
- Ease of use
- Features
- Customization options
- Availability
Let’s see how each of these factors can affect your decision-making.
Purpose
When thinking about ADHD apps, the mind goes to task management and productivity applications. However, there are various types of apps for ADHD, and each type is developed for a different purpose.
Beyond task management apps like Focus To-Do: Pomodoro Timer & Tasks, some apps for ADHD are designed to boost your concentration or relieve some stress so that you can focus on the task at hand. Some apps are even designed to help kids and adults newly diagnosed with ADHD learn how to cope with this condition and manage ADHD-induced stress.
Ease of Use
No matter what type of app for ADHD you need, make sure it has an intuitive and user-friendly interface. This is particularly important if you want to download the app for someone else, such as your kid. People with ADHD find it challenging to focus on a task for a long time, and an app that is complicated to use might frustrate those with the condition.
Features
Some apps for ADHD, especially those designed to help improve your concentration level or relieve stress, don’t have tons of features — and that’s more than fine.
However, if you need a productivity or task management app suitable for ADHD, make sure it has lots of features. In addition to a comprehensive task management planner, a few features you might want include a Pomodoro timer, the possibility to set up alerts and reminders, and a built-in calendar.
Customization Options
If you need a task management app for ADHD, you should also consider the customization options. For instance, if the app has a Pomodoro timer, you should be able to customize the length of the focus sessions as well as the length of any breaks. You should also be able to use color codes to divide the various tasks into categories and set various kinds of alerts, each with its unique sound.
Availability
Last but not least, you should consider whether the app you like is available on your operating system. The vast majority of apps are compatible with Android and Apple devices, but very few work on Windows or macOS. If you want to use the app from both your mobile device and computer, check its availability beforehand.
What to Know Before Downloading an App for ADHD
Before downloading an app for ADHD, you should know that ADHD is an umbrella term that encompasses three different attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders.
People with ADHD inattentive type have very short attention spans, but they are not hyperactive. The best apps for this ADHD type are those developed to boost concentration. Listening to background music composed for ADHD, using a Pomodoro timer, and organizing their tasks into a task management app can help these people improve their focus and productivity.
People with ADHD hyperactive type have impulsive behaviors and need to move constantly, but generally, they don’t have issues with their attention span. Apps developed to help manage and relieve stress, such as fidget spinner apps, are the best for these folks.
Those affected by the ADHD combined type suffer from both hyperactivity and a short attention span. This type can fight the symptoms of this condition with a combination of apps developed for the other two ADHD types.
Using Apps for ADHD: What It’s Like
Using an app for ADHD can be a rewarding or frustrating experience, depending on the app you’re using. Someone with ADHD inattentive type might find it boring to use a fidget spinner app, for instance. Similarly, someone with ADHD hyperactive type might find it useless to schedule their tasks or use a Pomodoro timer for productivity.
Whether you’re affected by inattentive, hyperactive, or combined ADHD, using the right app for your type can help you fight the symptoms, boost your productivity, and reduce the amount of stress associated with this condition.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Ground Picture/Shutterstock.com.
