Simple Productivity Tools for ADHD Students

Using simple productivity tools, the speaker achieved a 4.0 GPA at Georgia Tech, with Audible, Reminders, Recorder app, Pocket, and YouTube playback speed control.

### 5 Simple Productivity Tools for Managing ADHD
* 🎧 Audible: Listening to audiobooks allows for **multitasking** and **easier consumption of non-fiction content**.
* 🔔 Using voice commands for reminders is more **accessible and immediate** than traditional methods.
* 🎙 **Google Recorder**: The app transcribes audio to text, making it **easier to capture thoughts quickly**.
* 📚 **Saves articles for later reading**, with customizable formatting and **offline access**.
* 🎓 YouTube Playback Speed Control: Watching lectures at **2x speed** helps maintain focus and retain information better.
* 📈 Impact: The user credits these tools, particularly the **playback speed control**, for achieving a **4.0 GPA in machine learning** at Georgia Tech.
* 💡 "So for me, my top five productivity tools have one basic principle, which is to **make a slightly difficult task as simple as possible**."

I've seen so many productivity gurus talk about using Notion with AI set up with their Google Calendar, then linking it to Evernote, and having all of these managed in some really complex system. For someone with ADHD like myself, these systems are either too complex or too difficult, or just too rigid for it to be useful for me. So for me, my top five productivity tools have one basic principle, which is to make a slightly difficult task as simple as possible. One of these productivity tools I truly believe even helped me get a 4.0 GPA at Georgia Tech as a master student in machine learning. So without further ado, let's start with the first tool, Audible. The reason why audiobooks are great is because I really want to read to gain that knowledge, but I'm always too lazy to read. Whenever I try to read at night, I just end up falling asleep, and rarely do I find time to be like, Oh, let me just pick up a book and start reading it. Now, there are of course some exceptions for

example I really like this book called Harry Potter methods of rationality, and there's also a lot of science fiction books that I really enjoy. However, I'm talking about those non-fiction books that sometimes are really difficult to digest at the start. Audible is amazing because I can do other things while listening to an audiobook. I can wash my clothes, I can watch a game, I can do other mundane tasks that don't require that much brain power, so I can use that brain power on Audible. It's not to say that I don't read a physical book; in fact, I've noticed that sometimes listening to the audiobook helps me get entrenched to what the book is talking about, and if I'm still curious, I can then pick up the physical book or the ebook to continue reading. Moving on to number two, reminders or Siri. Maybe not all of you, but I'm sure some of you can relate about being forgetful. The problem with maintaining some tracking system or some calendar or some notepad is, in my opinion, it's just too difficult.

to log whichever employment or whichever entry that I have. I'm also too poor for a personal assistant to help me with all of these things, so Siri is kind of my discount dumb personal assistant, but what's amazing is I always have my phone with me, and it is available at all times. Instead of going onto some app and then logging whatever entry to give me a reminder, what I typically do is I just say, Hey Siri, give me a reminder to do XYZ tasks by a certain date at a certain time. The next feature is actually only exclusive to Google Pixel, so I ended up actually getting a Google Pixel phone for this, and it's called the Recorder app. I heard about this from the tech YouTuber MKBHD, and he said that not only can it intelligently transcribe your audio to text, but it can also discern different speakers as well. It can figure out what you're trying to say, and it can intelligently figure out the sentences. Sometimes you just have thoughts in your head, and you just want to get it out.

it saves me so much time where I have to wait for myself to complete typing something. On average, people speak at around 110 to 150 words per minute. Now, of course, there are some amazing people who can type at that speed, but for me, that's not the case. So, this app is actually amazing. Okay, moving on to the fourth tool, Pocket. I'm not sure how popular it is nowadays, but I do remember a point in time where it was super, super popular. For those of you who don't know what it is, it is a simple tool where you can save any article that you want to read for later, and it can also be saved online, which is super useful for two huge reasons. The first thing is, of course, if you have no Wi-Fi, no network, you can just open up the Pocket app, and you can read all of the offline articles that you previously saved. The second thing is that I love their formatting. You can customize the text that you want for the article. It generates the article completely without any of the

distractions, and it just makes the reading experience so much better. For those of you who made it this far in the video, I did talk about earlier in the video that there was one productivity tool that did help me get my 4.0 GPA at Georgia Tech. This is it. It's a super simple tool, but I found it to be incredibly useful. I'm going to be honest. In the past, I hated going to lectures or just listening to lectures in general. The reason is because at the third lecture, the Prof talks about something like, Oh, this happened with my dog, and then they just talk about irrelevant stories that don't even matter. And sometimes they fill their lecture with things that don't even matter for the exam. And I understand most of these University professors are not there to be teachers. They are there to work on their research, and lectures are kind of like their side thing. This is really bad, but I would get so bored that I would end up watching some basketball highlights or just

watching some TV show or movie just to tolerate being able to attend that lecture. That would cause me to not do one class because inevitably they'll say something super important and I'll miss it. Because I'm watching some basketball highlight or some TV show and I just wouldn't be paying attention. Now, fast forward to today where I found this extension called YouTube playback speed control. But actually it can be used for all types of videos. Now, previously you had to go into the UI, click some button, and then you can control the speed of the video. But with a simple press of a button with this extension, you can actually increase the speed to whatever speed that you want. And typically, I make every video that I watch at 2x speed. This is absolutely amazing because I can literally watch the lectures in half the time, rewatch if there are things that I don't understand, and watching it that fast keeps me engaged at the highest level. Because I know that if I'm not paying attention, I'll miss a key detail 'cause the video is

going by super fast. This is the key tool that has not only helped me retain information faster but also helped me get A+ in most of my classes where I have to cram lectures and rewatch to retain information for midterm or an exam. Okay, so those are the five simple tools that I use to get productivity out of things that are potentially difficult tasks. If you enjoyed the video, please subscribe and like so I know to make more of these types of videos in the future.

5 productivity tools that *actually* work for an ADHD Student (4.0 GPA) in 5 Minutes

George Wang

Simplifying Productivity for ADHD: My Top 5 Tools

Using simple and accessible tools, like Audible, for audiobooks helps in gaining knowledge while doing other tasks.

Reminders or Siri are great for staying organized and on top of tasks, especially for those who are forgetful.

Tools for Personal Organization Without a Personal Assistant

Siri can be used to set reminders and tasks, serving as a budget personal assistant.

The Recorder app on Google Pixel transcribes audio to text, making it a time-saving tool for capturing thoughts.

Pocket allows users to save and customize articles for later reading, even in offline mode, providing flexibility and personalization.

Increasing Productivity with a Simple Tool

A tool for controlling playback speed on videos has significantly improved the creator's productivity.

The tool allows them to watch lectures at double speed, saving time and helping them stay engaged.

By being able to quickly rewatch and understand the content, the tool has helped the creator maintain a 4.

Tips for Retaining Information and Acing Exams

Using a key tool has helped to retain information quickly and achieve top grades.

The video offers five simple tools for improving productivity and tackling difficult tasks, including cramming for exams.

Viewers are encouraged to subscribe and like the video for more content like this in the future.

5 productivity tools that actually work for an ADHD Student (4.0 GPA) in 5 Minutes

5 productivity tools that actually work for an ADHD Student (4.0 GPA) in 5 Minutes