Sidekick’s best features for focusing and ADHD
In a TikTok video, a couple is sitting on a couch smiling. A man is naming weird superpowers of his wife, and she provides details and reasons. Why she can bubble spoilers before even seeing what’s next with her own eyes because of the pattern recognition, or coordinate through the chaos of randomly lying around the room objects? They have thousands of viewers, and ADHD is apparently a hot topic right now.
Everyone heard at least something in TikTok, Instagram, Youtube or overheard a conversation about it in the cafe. So…
What’s up, doc? How to focus with ADHD?
Attention Deficit Disorder can either include Hyperactivity or not. It is a neurodevelopmental disorder that shows up in impulsivity, dependence on being stimulated, and easy distraction. These symptoms often persist throughout a lifetime, impacting various aspects of an individual’s life, including professional and social functioning.
Nevertheless, maybe the numbers in different studies vary they all agree that a huge percentage of adults are left undiagnosed. ADHD in adults is relatively new to the public because, at first, it was tied only to children and misconceived to self-annihilate with the process of growing up.
Sidekick’s founder walked this way in his own shoes. Dmitry Pushkarev was diagnosed over a decade ago. Knowing the way your brain works is a relief, a long-awaited opportunity to saddle it. By recognizing patterns, you can finally work together with anxiety, restlessness, and inability to focus not against each other.
There are some universal ways to focus with ADHD and to make it work, though not applicable to every individual, of course. Different strokes for different folks.
Narrowing the view
Keep potential distractions as further as you can. Out of sight — out of mind. It’s a well know fact ADHDers can lose track of something that isn’t placed in the perimeter of the visual approach. Create a God’s room from Matrix with nothing else but the subject of your work… at least create something close to this idea, so you won’t have a spare chance to get distracted by the shiny crystal ball on the desk or sweeping because broom happened to be close and you just can’t do anything until the room is clean.
Chunkies
Chop huge tasks into smaller pieces to create a step-by-step plan for finishing them. It will help to lower anxiety and not get overwhelmed by the volume of things to do. As well this way, motivation can stay longer, pushing boredom aside.
ADHD has plenty of struggles, one of which is called procrastination. The little devil on the shoulder whispering to leave something seemingly unmanageable. Because as far is the result, as challenging the start is getting.
Deadlines
How to focus better with ADHD is a complex question, that has a complex answer. So the next tip will be to set some frameworks, and they will become the couch of your inner team. Making sure to have stimuli. But beware of meeting the dark side of this one, usually walking next to great tasks. Giving anxiety and turning you into a stone with a tiny glimpse. It will be no better than having no sharpened finish line at all. But by implementing the chunky part, you can just give each step its own deadline and avoid becoming a rock.
Structure
In this chaos called life, which gets violently blinding sometimes, the structure can play a serious role of anchor. Something grounding. Create a short list of tasks you need to do, prioritizing the most important ones. You can create secondary priorities as well, whatever you want, but don’t make it overcomplicated and massive. Two more will be enough. They can be physically bulleted on paper or done in an adjustable task manager, but the point is they need to be in short-hand accessibility. This way, you can give up your worries to forget something.
Regular breaks
If you feel you just can’t do it anymore, just don’t. Set up a timer and swing to another activity or take a walk for a certain time span. Working and effort, after all, can be mentally taxing. Breaks are helpers in improving focus once you’re back to the task at hand. Addressing ADHD focus issues, it can be one of the most important practices.
Physical culture
Go do some push-ups, boxing, or just have a mountain trip. Hyperactivity is channeled. But if you think it won’t help those questioning “How to focus with ADD?”, you are wrong. Regular exercises are enriching your body with oxygen, meaning your brain is fed as well. With chemicals like dopamine and norepinephrine, a deficiency of which is regularly found in people with ADHD. Let’s not forget it can pump some self-esteem and bring some high-quality sleep.
Rest
Sleep is a necessity to humanity overall, but ADHD folks especially. Adequate sleep enables better management of daily tasks, work, and social interactions, leading to an improved quality of life. Why? The main character is hormone regulation, and it will affect everything else. Like:
- memory optimization
- emotional regulation. For example, balancing cortisol levels
- cellular repair, and maintenance
Technology and ADHD: How it started? How it goes?
From the 90s until the present day, technological progress and the Internet itself pushed the limits of intercepting people’s attention for different purposes, including the personal interests of bloggers and content-makers, to big ones like corporations or the government. Full-scale war for views.
Browsers are designed to fool you into losing track. Crying far and wide, ad banners started crawling under the skin. Tiktok, Twitter and Youtube. Entertaining pieces like music videos and films becoming shorter and shorter gave birth to a generation lacking interest in long formats and the term fake ADHD. Imagine how challenging it is for those who have experienced attention deficit from the very beginning.
But it has a hidden side. While the Internet evolved, ADHD studies were digging deeper into the issue. Their simultaneous advancement became interconnected. Information grew in accessibility, and communities were founded. It seems surprising that media for the past few years raised awareness about ADHD significantly. There was a boom in apps and focus tools for ADHD folks promoting help and the popularization of self-diagnostic tests. And, what’s more important, validation. But after all, it was anticipated.
Though some of them are pretty shady, gems are found in plain sight.
Sidekick
When Sidekick’s team originated years ago, the first insight about the browsers’ profit-centric nature was devastating. No other way was found but to change this business model and deviate from monetizing users’ attention to something genuine, it wasn’t an easy way for sure.
In fact, the potential of browsers for being handy working tools wasn’t tapped enough. Besides thousands of apps and plugins being out there ready to solve almost any task, their jam in browser functioning in most cases created the same old unmanageable chaos.
By combining this knowledge we pledged to develop something new. Made it our dogma to bestow you with a superpower. Ability to focus. Our team consisting of neurodivergent ADHD folks and their opposites created Sidekick, the partner that exceeded even our expectations. The ruminating question “How to focus when you have ADHD?” is not a stranger to us either.
Time passes fast, today it is ready for a wider audience. And it’s really raising our spirits with every life-changing feedback we receive.
With Sidekick you can take a new long-term journey of finally getting a productive web session one after another.
Customizable Interface
Isn’t it irritating when you look at the browser and all the time catch thoughts about its rigidness crossing your mind? People with ADHD can’t focus well when there’s something tickling the eye. Sidekick gives you an opportunity to fine-tune its interface and personalize the working space the way you like it. The new tab page is all yours, whatever you need you can place here, widgets, frequently used pages, you name it. Fonts that are easy and pleasing to read, colors that won’t blind you. You’d like another key combination for a shortcut? Proceed. These and many other features for optimizing your experience.
It’s not too much, just enough to keep your mind quiet.
Shortcuts
Yes, hotkeys and shortcuts aren’t a breakthrough, but our browser suggests you to get to know them all from the very start and customize them for your own comfort. Time is pricy, save resources for something meaningful or pleasuring instead of hollow mouse roaming.
Tab Management
Tab management is one of the core issues in the world of browsers. Likewise for users with ADHD. How to focus on the train of opened tabs? Sidekick’s features are dedicated to organizing and decluttering your workspace. Plain and convenient tab groups will save you time in keeping related ones together. Sure, the most important tabs you can always pin and on the contrary — suspend those that went idle. Our AI-based tab suspender knows which to offload and keep open. This will keep your and your device resources for better performance.
No need to open multiple windows anymore. For cross-editing, instant replies, filling to-do lists and whatever your imagination can add we added a split-view. Productive multitasking. It will not be completed without mentioning sessions.
Sessions and Workspaces
Sessions keep the mess away. Eradicating tab clutter by grouping, saving, and opening tabs separately for different purposes. One session — one task. Tab strip-free, your research can wait.
For the same reasons, Sidekick created Workspaces. Just on a bigger scale. Private life, side projects, and different clients will get each their own place. Place and apps, cookies, tabs, and settings, to be distinguished not only by a different name.
Focus Mode and Distraction-Blocker
Some days are spent jumping from simultaneous youtube videos about true crime to reading the basics of electrodynamics. How to concentrate with ADHD? It’s time for Distraction Blocker to shine: you can configure redirection from the most addictive and distracting sources to the pages essential for task accomplice. Also, you can additionally block all notifications or hide apps with a single click on the corresponding button. Poof! Visual noise has disappeared. Now you can go into full-focus mode! But yet again, don’t forget to set a duration to drain not all your energy.
Built-in Task Manager and To-Do List
Remember a classic sticker trick? Sidekick’s to-do list lets you do it without extra movements — just pin a task to your desktop. Farewell, forgetting. Split-view is especially helpful here when you need to drag something directly from a chat or let off ruminating thoughts asap to free your mind.
What about time management? A built-in calendar will keep you up-to-date with a schedule. No doubt, you can set due dates and reminders so you won’t get lost in the time. And saves a little bit of space without downloading side-trackers, calendars and etc, making your browser an all-in-one weapon against distraction. Bringing some more light to the question “How to focus?”. ADHD articles mention lots of time-managing techniques. Pomodoro timer found its way into Sidekick too because finding a balance between leisure and work can be too much for a person equally easy to hyperfocus or distract.
Ad-Blocker and Tracker Blocker
Do you know anything noisier than web advertising? Our team understands that they are not only stealing your precious time, crucial for focusing, with visual distractions. They decrease overall browsing experience and performance speed. Moreover, they’re one of the many tools for harvesting information on you as a person. That’s why we are preventing any third-party involvement, along the way making Sidekick 3x faster than Google Chrome and other popular browsers.
Built-in Apps
Impossible to go without the most used and useful apps that help to organize your life and plans. Notion for multiple different databases and plans, Tick Tick if you find our task manager less convenient or just don’t want to change, Grammarly to help instantly clear your dyslexia footprint. Didn’t find the one you need? Customize it.
With all said above it is a powerful tool, enhancing focus ability and productivity in a healthy way.
Off we go!
Easy to see how you can incorporate basic tips with Sidekick and be back into your everyday life. How to stay focused with ADHD is personal, but patterns are showing that experience is pretty similar to finding the one from the core ones and adjusting for yourself. We definitely created our browser with care and paid a lot of attention to the details. We even included a course of acquaintance that will lead you through all the features after the browser is installed and launched. Everything else is in your hands, but you can always reach for our help.
To conclude, it is inevitable to say that the right tools are life-changing, as boring as it sounds. So when considering opting for a better future, pay attention to how much effort you need to make for easy tasks using the new equipment and does it really cost your time.
FAQ
Optimizing the workspace is a huge thing. It usually involves a few strategies. First, declutter and organize the space to minimize visual distractions. Second, personalize the workspace, for example, using calming colors. Third, create designated areas for different tasks to help maintain focus. Finally, reduce noise distractions. Sidekick covers every step of the mentioned ones, though if you need to block sound noise it’s better to bring noise-canceling earphones in. It’s working both for ADHD and ADD. How to focus on what is important? Try this.
Integration with popular productivity apps is a so-called win-win. It seamlessly eases the workflow avoiding a constant app marathon. They’re all in one place, so memory overflow isn’t threatening you by slowing down all processes. Efficient task completion, isn’t it what we all need? ADHDers get their favorite instruments, time (so crucial for a short attention span), and focus.
Tailored tools and features for the unique needs of attention deficit users can be provided by different technologies. Sidekick’s focus mode helps minimize distractions, while its customization options create a comfortable personal space. Then built-in task manager, timer, various apps, and extensions can help them keep track and balance projects and personal time.
Significant role in helping ADHD folks to organize their swarming thoughts and rushing ideas play task managers and any tools to pour overwhelming flow in shorthand access. Sidekick’s built-in instruments and features are created for building needed structure. You can pin the main task to be always in sight, turn on split-view for simultaneous task management and leave all the excess thoughts for later in the notes. One more life hack is to customize a new tab page to display relevant tasks, and notes.
You definitely will find something that will help you specifically. Sidekick suggests numerous features to find that one, but more likely a few. Thanks to app integration and built-in instruments like task-manager or Pomodoro timer, and our star-like focus mode.