How ChatGPT Can Support Your ADHD Brain Every Day
Before AI taking over the world, let's try it out!
I will be the first one to admit that I had my fair share of concerns about technology and AI ever since I watched the first season of Black Mirror. However, AI is here and it is here to stay. How can we craft our lives to work with the volatility and uncertainty AI will introduce? Let’s try it out first with a healthy dose of curiosity. Learning by doing definitely applies here.
As someone who tries to help ADHD folks to live their best life, I immediately realize the immense potential of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, in helping with ADHD brains. From knowing the potential to actually crafting prompts, I was inspired by ADHD Jesse’s newsletter which included Ted Yav's ADHD Coach ChatGPT prompt, as well as the logic and structure provided in this Chinese AI newsletter.
Trust me I am not the most tech-savvy person, so the approaches I am going to share here are accessible to the general public, aka no complicated setup or coding required. And no it doesn’t take 30 minutes to read, most of this post includes prompt and output examples.
1. Replicate Your Own Prioritization of Daily Tasks
As someone who is stubbornly independent, I know I won’t be able to follow the random prioritization ChatGPT came up with. There I was, stuck on my defiant nature. Until I figured out my own prioritization logic while dialoguing with ChatGPT.
In order to get ChatGPT to prioritize tasks the same way I would, here is what I did: give ChatGPT my to list, list the energy details for each task, define the logic of prioritization (feel free to use mine or define your own), have ChatGPT output a table of prioritized tasks and time estimates.
By typing out energy details, it helps me to get a closer look at each task and the ChatGPT prioritization helps me to have a clear picture of my day.
Prompt Example:
Here is my to do list for today:
Write Newsletter - High Energy, & Net Energy Positive
Watch MMTCP Lecture - Low Energy & Net Energy Positive
Cook Braised Pork - Low Energy & Net Energy Negative
Paperwork - High Energy & Net Energy Negative
Help me figure out the proritization order based on the energy logic: Net Energy Positive & Low Energy > Net Energy Positive & High Energy > Net Energy Negative & High Energy > Net Energy Negative & Low Energy
Output as a table with one column as the task name, and another column as your best estimate of how long each task might take. The whole table should be in the correct order using the energy logic I provided.
2. Make Tasks Fun
Now we have our daily tasks, how do we get ourselves motivated? ADHD Jesse has the famous 4C principles to make tasks more interesting for our ADHD brains. I have my own 5 “Make It” Principles adapted from 4C and Ted Yav's ADHD Coach ChatGPT prompt. You can plug in your own make-it-fun tips for ChatGPT.
Prompt Example:
Here are my 5 'Make It' Principles:- Make it fun (attract, make it interesting and engaging)
- Make it new (introduce novelty or creativity, following curiosity)
- Make it collaborative (take a class, body doubling, do it with people)
- Make it simple (start by breaking the task down, do not overcomplicate, start by taking the smallest step right now, and find the easiest entry point. Adjust expectations for example, if you cannot lift weights today, try walking; if you cannot do 30-minute meditation today, try 10-minute meditation)
- Make it use of my natural strengths (love, appreciation of beautify and excellence, love of learning, spirituality, humility)
Can you randomly assign one of the 'Make It' Principles to the Watch MMTCP Lecture?
3. Encouragement & Help Us Unstuck
Hooray, we have made the task fun, let’s get the extra push to start right now. This is where all the fun begins! Ask yourself: Who inspires me? Who embodies the energy I want to cultivate? What encouragement styles do I like? Swap those names in the style setting prompt. I know for me I like mindful encouragement with a dose of spirituality and love.
[Style Setting]
Use an optimistic, loving, creative, mindful personality with emojis, like a mix of Oprah Winfrey, Tara Brach, Rumi, Sharon Salzberg, Michal A Singer, Eckart Tolle, George Mumford. Out put one paragraph, using emojis and make the language playful, fun, mystic, loving, and vivid. Do paragraph breaks often.
Please encourage me to get started on writing my newsletter!
What if you are stuck 15 minutes after starting the task? Biting your nail but can’t make any progress. You can get help from ChatGPT by simply telling it what is going on.
I am stuck on worrying that I cannot cover all perspectives of this newsletter I am writing about.
4. Externalize Working Memory of Routines
ADHD folks struggle with working memory. Have you ever intrinsically designed your morning and night routines only to forget they exist three days later? With ChatGPT, we can externalize that working memory and have AI remember our routines for us.
For example, I used ChatGPT to remember my morning routine which is loosely based on Miracle Morning. No more derailing from my morning routine because my groggy morning brain can not even remember what day it is. (Full disclosure: I probably only do 3-4 things from this morning routine on any given day).
Can you as my personal assistant remember that my morning routine includes the following: Scribing, Silence, Visualization, Affirmation, Sunlight& Stretch, Reading, and Walk?
What is my morning routine? (I just ask that in the morning)
Feel free to swap in your own morning routine. We can also use a similar prompt to externalize the working memory of night routines, weekly cleaning routines, etc.
5. Tips on Working with ChatGPT
ChatGPT loses the nice warm tone really quickly, use [style setting] prompt often.
Try not to use long prompts, instead break them into chunks to help ChatGPT stay on top of which steps and functions we are using it for.
ChatGPT can get wordy, you can just tell it ‘Let’s focus on this step’ and copy-paste the step you want it to focus on.
Highly recommend using a character-setting prompt at the beginning of the conversation which helps with the language and purpose of the whole conversation.
[Character Setting]
Hello, ChatGPT! My name is XX. You are my ADHD coach, give yourself a fun name. Please help me achieve my dreams and complete my daily tasks.
I personally cannot wait for the day when ChatGPT can handle long prompts and recall information better. If it can connect with Kindle API and help me pull recipes from hundreds of cookbooks I own, that would be my meal prep dream come true.
If you want to learn more about what a future with AI might look like, I highly recommend these two podcast episodes: Why A.I. Might Not Take Your Job or Supercharge the Economy and Freaked Out? We Really Can Prepare for A.I. (What I remembered from them: humans might be the real problem here. Companies are driven by profits so they are likely to jump on the wagon of using AI. Gradually AI will take over more decision-making for productivity and efficiency sake. We might lose our ability to judge if AI’s suggested solutions and proposals are actually good because it is good at presenting its case. And many other positive things, but my brain obviously has a negative bias).
What do you think of ChatGPT and AI in general? Comment down below!
Very interesting and helpful! Thank you for sharing :)