No silver bullet.
Just what actually works.

Inhale 4s, hold 7s, exhale 8s. Three cycles activate the vagus nerve and reduce state anxiety (Aktas & Ilgin, 2022, PubMed 36480101).

Documented techniques

• Easy · 72 hours of waiting, 5 min of setup per urge

  72h delay — neutralising impulse buys by letting the dopamine peak pass

  Protocol rule: any non-food purchase over £50 / $60 / €50 has to wait 72 hours before being confirmed. Principle, protocol, concrete tools, failure modes. Based on DBT distress tolerance and recommended by ADHD clinicians (Dr Hallowell, ADDitude).

• Easy · 25 to 90 min per session

  ADHD Pomodoro — why the classic version doesn't work, and what does

  The classic Pomodoro (25/5) was designed for neurotypical brains that can stop at the bell. For an ADHD brain, the method has to be adapted: longer blocks, assisted starting, tolerance for missed sessions. Full guide.

• Easy · 25 to 90 min per session

  Async body doubling — when nobody's available live

  Classic body doubling requires a real-time partner. Async body doubling works with pre-recorded videos (Dubbii, Flow Club Replays), YouTube streams, or offset work sessions. Less powerful than sync, but available 24/7 and sometimes a better fit for AuDHD folks.

• Easy · 30 to 180 min per session

  Body doubling — working in the presence of another person

  Body doubling is the practice of working in the presence (physical or virtual) of someone else. For many ADHD adults, this is the technique that unblocks flat tasks. Why it works, how to set it up.

• Medium · 30 min setup, 4-8 weeks implementation

  Building routines that hold — habit stacking, anchoring, progressivity

  ADHD routines rarely fail for lack of motivation. They fail because they're too ambitious, poorly anchored, or abandoned at the first slip. Practical guide: how to build routines that survive your brain, and especially how to resume them after a slip.

• Easy · 30 min minimum, 2h optimal

  Decompression after masking protocol — recovering after an intense day

  After a day of intense masking (meetings, social, sensorily loaded environment), the nervous system needs active decompression. Without it: meltdown, shutdown, or cumulative burnout. 4-phase tested protocol, from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

• Easy · 15 min to set up, daily use

  Externalise memory — the Barkley principle in practice

  The ADHD brain has weaker working memory than average. Neuropsychologist Russell Barkley drew a simple rule from it: anything that matters has to live outside your head. How to offload your memory concretely, without falling into tool chaos.

• Medium · 15 min read, progressive setup

  Managing hyperfocus — entering and leaving on purpose

  Hyperfocus isn't a superpower or a malfunction — it's a state that can be precious or destructive depending on what you do with it. Learning to recognise it, steer it toward useful tasks, and above all exit it without crashing. Practical guide.

• Medium · 30 min setup, 2-4 weeks calibration

  Plan by energy, not by the clock — match tasks to your state

  Classic hour-based planning assumes you'll have the same cognitive energy at 9am Monday as at 3pm Thursday. False for most ADHD and AuDHD brains. Learning to plan by energy level — high, medium, low — and match the right tasks to the right moment.

• Easy · 5 min (obviously)

  The 5-minute rule — starting when your brain refuses

  The 5-minute rule is one of the most effective tools against ADHD start-up inertia. Not for the reason most people think: not to 'knock out the task in 5 min', but to give your brain explicit permission to stop after 5 min if you want. That contract changes everything.

• Easy

  The decompression protocol — getting out of a too-dense day

  A simple, reproducible protocol for decompressing after a day of masking, sensory overload, or intense cognitive effort. 30 min, 4 steps, no special equipment.