Free Resources

The ADHD Toolkit

Mental models, thinking tools, and principles built for a brain that doesn't work the way school told you it should.

Know Your ADHD 12 Principles 8 Thinking Tools Reading Lists →
Know Your ADHD

3 Quick Self-Assessments

Short, research-backed tests that show you something specific about your own ADHD brain. Free, no sign-up, no email.

Time Blindness Test

Time Perception

Estimate how long ten everyday tasks take, then see the gap between your guess and reality. Built on Dr. Barkley's time-blindness research.

Take the test →

ADHD Tax Calculator

The Hidden Cost

Late fees, lost AirPods, food delivered because cooking felt impossible. Fifteen questions add up what ADHD quietly costs you each year.

Calculate your number →

ADHD Coping Type Quiz

Your Archetype

Twelve questions sort you into one of eight ADHD coping archetypes, each with the brain science underneath the pattern and one thing that genuinely helps.

Find your type →

Principles

12 Principles for the ADHD Brain

Not rules. Not hacks. Foundational truths that change how you relate to your own mind.

01

You Are Not Broken

ADHD is a developmental difference in self-regulation, not a character flaw or moral failure. The system was built for a different brain.

02

Your Environment Is More Powerful Than Your Willpower

External structure does the executive function work your brain can't. Design your space before you discipline yourself.

03

Dopamine Before Discipline

Motivation doesn't come before action in the ADHD brain — it comes after the right conditions are set. Engineer the spark, not the willpower.

04

Time Is a Feeling, Not a Fact

ADHD creates time blindness — not laziness. The past and future feel equally distant. You need external time anchors, not more reminders.

05

Emotions Are Information, Not Weakness

Emotional intensity in ADHD is neurological. What looks like overreaction is actually underregulation. Work with the signal, not against it.

06

Novelty Is Fuel. Use It Deliberately.

The ADHD brain doesn't run on routine — it runs on new. Build intentional novelty into your systems before boredom breaks them.

07 FRUSTRATION

Name the State Before You Try to Change It

You cannot regulate an emotion you haven't identified. The pause to label what you're feeling is the intervention itself.

08

Progress Compounds. Perfectionism Doesn't.

Perfectionism in ADHD is often avoidance in disguise. Small consistent movement beats intermittent brilliance every time.

09 30%

The 30% Rule

ADHD adults are emotionally and executively about 30% behind their chronological age. Expect that. Stop judging yourself by neurotypical timelines.

10

Community Is a Clinical Intervention

Isolation makes ADHD harder. Peer accountability and being witnessed without judgment are not optional extras — they're part of the medicine.

11

Small Systems Beat Large Motivation

The size of your motivation is irrelevant if the system isn't there. A tiny reliable system will always outperform a big burst of willpower.

12

The Body Knows First

The ADHD nervous system lives in the body. Movement, breath, and sleep are not lifestyle choices — they're neurological necessities.


Thinking Tools

8 Tools for the ADHD Brain

Frameworks you can pick up and use today — each designed around how executive function actually works, not how it's supposed to.

DOPAMINE MENU

The Dopamine Menu

Motivation Tool

A personalised list of activating inputs that reliably trigger motivation in your specific brain — before you need willpower to do anything.

  1. List 8–12 activities that reliably shift your energy or focus (music, movement, novelty, cold water, conversation, etc.)
  2. Categorise by intensity: micro (2 min), medium (10 min), full reset (30+ min)
  3. Before any hard task, choose one. Activation first, work second.
Built as a personal deliverable on Day 2 of the REWIRED Phase 1 retreat.
BRAIN CALENDAR NOTES TIMER CAPTURE

The Externalization Lab

Working Memory Tool

Move the cognitive load out of your brain and into your environment. Your working memory is limited — your environment's isn't.

  1. Identify what your brain keeps dropping: tasks, plans, intentions, appointments
  2. Choose a physical or digital home for each type of information
  3. Build a capture habit: when it enters your head, immediately move it out
The Externalization Lab is a hands-on session on Day 1 of the REWIRED retreat.
PEAK buffer DEEP rest admin

Time Architecture

Time Management Tool

Design your day in energy blocks, not time slots. Build transitions and buffers that your ADHD brain can actually navigate — not a schedule that collapses by 10am.

  1. Map your natural energy peaks across the week (not the day you think you should have)
  2. Assign deep work only to peak windows. Protect them.
  3. Build transition time and buffer blocks between tasks — ADHD brains need switching time
EF7 Planning module on Day 2 of the REWIRED retreat.
impulse → pause → response

The Pause Button

Self-Restraint Tool (EF2)

A practised, deliberate moment of inhibition between impulse and action. Barkley calls inhibition the master executive function — everything else depends on it.

  1. Identify your top 3 impulse triggers (money decisions, conflict, excitement, frustration)
  2. Create a rule: for each trigger, you wait a defined period before acting
  3. The pause is the skill — it becomes faster with practice
EF2 Self-Restraint + Impulse Design Sprint activity, Day 1.
chest shoulders stomach legs

The Emotion Map

Emotional Regulation Tool

Identify, name, and locate your emotion in the body before attempting to regulate it. The ADHD brain skips this step — and that's why regulation fails.

  1. When activated: pause and scan — where in the body do you feel it? (chest, throat, stomach?)
  2. Name it precisely — not "bad" or "stressed" but "shame," "fear," "overwhelm"
  3. Only then: choose a regulation response that matches the emotion
The Emotion Map group activity is Day 2, Module 4 of the REWIRED retreat.
90d now

The 90-Day Intention

Planning Tool

One specific, meaningful commitment for the next 90 days — not a goal list. A directional intention with built-in flexibility that ADHD brains can actually hold.

  1. Finish this sentence: "In 90 days, I want to feel _____ about _____."
  2. Identify the one behaviour change that would most move that needle
  3. Write it down and review it at your Week 3 and Week 6 check-ins
Participants leave the Phase 1 retreat with a 90-day intention, reviewed at Week 3 and Week 6.
What went wrong? start failure pt

The Pre-Mortem

Planning Tool (EF7)

Before starting, vividly imagine the project has failed. Then work backwards to find out why. ADHD brains underestimate obstacles — this overrides that tendency.

  1. Imagine it's 3 months from now and the project failed completely
  2. Write down every reason it failed — be brutally honest
  3. Address the top 3 failure points before you start
Planning and Problem-Solving (EF7) is covered on Day 2 of the retreat.
shared task

Body Doubling

Attention Tool

Working in the physical or virtual presence of another person to activate sustained attention through social accountability. It sounds simple — the results aren't.

  1. Find a body double: a friend, colleague, or virtual co-working space
  2. State your task aloud before starting ("I'm going to write for 25 minutes")
  3. Work in parallel — no need to interact, just be present together
REWIRED cohorts continue as body-doubling communities after the retreat ends.

These tools come alive in three days.

At REWIRED, you don't just learn these frameworks — you build your personal version of each one, in a small group, guided by a psychologist.

Learn about the programme →