7 tools to make day-to-day work easier for ADHD creatives
Creative work attracts a high number of neurodivergent people, but many of the systems it relies on still assume one way of working. Meetings, deadlines, inboxes and project management tools often prioritise long periods of focus and tidy processes. These tools are here to help make day-to-day creative work easier to manage.
It’s estimated that around 20–50% of people working in the creative industries are neurodivergent, compared to roughly 15% of the UK population overall. The wide range reflects missed or late diagnoses, as well as people choosing not to disclose at work.
In practice, that gap shows up in everyday ways – starting tasks, managing time, staying focused and keeping ideas organised – all things closely linked to executive function. The tools below won’t fix structural issues in the industry, but they can make the work itself easier to navigate.
Milanote
Good for: Moodboards, early concepts, visual research and planning
Milanote is closer to a pinboard than a document. You can drop in images, links, notes and half-written thoughts, then move things around until patterns start to emerge. It’s particularly useful if your thinking is visual or associative rather than step-by-step.
Are.na
Good for: Long-term research, inspiration and slow-burn thinking
Are.na is deliberately slow. There’s no feed to keep up with, no algorithm deciding what you should see next. References are stored in simple channels, in the order you add them. That makes it easier to collect ideas over time – and just as importantly, to leave them alone until you’re ready to use them.
Grammarly
Good for: Writing in motion – Slack, emails, Docs, captions – without stopping to tidy as you go.
Grammarly sits inside most of the places creative work actually happens – from Google Docs and email to Slack and your browser. You don’t have to move elsewhere to tidy up your writing. That’s helpful when ideas are moving quickly and stopping to proofread would mean losing your place.
FigJam
Good for: Working through ideas with others before they’re fully formed
FigJam gives you a large, forgiving surface for arrows, questions, rough sketches and half-ideas. It’s especially useful when you’re figuring something out with other people and clarity only arrives mid-conversation.
Dia (in-browser workspace organiser)
Good for: People who never close tabs because they’re “all related”
Dia lets you group tabs inside projects, rather than keeping everything in one endless strip. You can switch contexts, close a whole brief at once and stop relying on your memory to juggle multiple threads at once.
Google Docs Voice Typing
Good for: Ideas that arrive fully formed, just not in written sentences
Built directly into Google Docs, Voice Typing lets you speak first and edit later, which can be helpful if your thoughts move faster than your typing. You focus on getting the thought out, without worrying about how it reads. No new workflow, no setup spiral.
Pomodoro Timers
Good for: Making it easier to actually get started
It sounds simple, but an online timer can give work a clear beginning and a natural stopping point. You’re not committing to completing the task – just to paying attention for a short stretch, which can reduce the friction of getting started. That’s often enough to get an idea moving, or to return to something you’ve been avoiding without turning it into a whole production.
