An ADHD task manager for managers and team leads

Why managing is hard with ADHD

A manager's day is a string of context switches. Research on task switching shows a cost every time,¹ and a study of adults with ADHD found a specific difficulty with shifting attention between task sets.²

After each meeting, part of your mind is still in it.³ With ADHD, that leftover attention and a 25 minute gap can easily add up to nothing done before the next call. Promises made in meetings are also easy to lose, because working memory lets go of them when the next topic starts.⁴

Where it gets hard

• Action items that evaporate. "I will send that over" is forgotten by the next call.
• Dead gaps. Twenty minutes between meetings, spent in the inbox.
• Your own work at 6 PM. The strategy document starts when everyone else has left.
• A personal list on a shared screen. Everyone sees "book therapy appointment".

A day with NoRush

One possible day, as an example.

1. 8:50 AMPlan before the first call: finish the hiring brief, review two proposals, send notes from yesterday.
2. 9:00 AMOne-on-one. Meeting Mode turns on by itself because you chose "remember". The new tab shows only a clock.
3. 9:20 AMYou promise to send a document. Alt+K, "send Jo the budget doc 5m", Enter. Nothing about your list is shown.
4. 9:30 AMCall ends. "Meeting over?" Your task returns, with a 20 minute gap. You take the 5 minute promise first.
5. 1:00 PMA 50 minute block. The hiring brief, with the disc timer in view.
6. 5:55 PMHeads-up before the end of the day. You close it and move one proposal to tomorrow.

The features that matter most for managers

• Meeting Mode for the half of your day spent on calls.
• Alt+K capture keeps working during meetings, for action items.
• The bubble restarts you in the gap between meetings.
• The finish time counts what really fits around your calendar.

Three things that help, with or without NoRush

• Capture the promise while you are saying it. Not after the call. During.
• Protect one block a day. A recurring calendar hold for your own work, defended like a meeting with your boss.
• End meetings five minutes early. That gap is where the notes get written and the next thing gets loaded.

Where NoRush is not the right tool

NoRush does not read your calendar, so it does not know when your meetings are. It detects calls when you open the meeting page in your browser. It is for your own tasks and has no way to assign work to your team.