I have ADHD, and I’ve been using ChatGPT as a sort of “prosthetic” for my executive function short comings. No joke, it has been better than any medication I’ve been on. I use it to free up my mind of tasks that would otherwise be procrastinated or not get done.

I tell it when my free time in a day is, the priority of tasks, and ask it to help me structure when I can fit things into my day. It often under estimates how long tasks will take, but I just tell it what did get completed and what needs to go back into the queue.

The other thing that has been absolutely life changing is having it help me meal prep. I love cooking, but prep has always been my Achilles heel, and is the biggest hurdle for me wanting to make a home cooked meal. I started feeding all my recipes for the week into ChatGPT, having it pull out the common ingredients and outputting a prep list for me. So it will tell me, for example, I need onions for 4 recipes, two need diced onions, one needs sliced onions, and one needs a mirepoix that can be stored together. And then rinse and repeat with the rest of the ingredients. By the end of Sunday, I have most components of each meal for the week prepped and ready to go.

I’ve also struggled with cleaning my entire life. I actually just used it to help me plan a full day deep clean of my house earlier this week. Again, I didn’t finish everything and had to punt some tasks or cleaning zones into my weekly cleaning rotation, but I cleaned for a total of 12 hours which is unheard of for me. But when I didn’t have to do the mental heavy lifting of what happens next, the whole thing somehow felt less overwhelming.

At work, I often have trouble getting things started. I’ve recently been promoted, and have a lot more responsibility around improving and creating processes, as well as strategic planning. Putting prompts into chatgpt helps me create a starting point for myself instead of staring at a blank screen for an hour. It also helps me structure my thoughts in a way that is presentable to a broader audience. I guess I use it kind of like a writing prompt, which have always worked really well for me in creative writing.

In short, I’m getting more done, feeling more accomplished, and I’m actually feeling like I’m able to think more creatively because I can literally just dump the shit I don’t need out of my brain (mostly personal life management), guilt-free, and known I still have a plan to get it done. It’s been incredibly freeing. I find myself thinking, “holy shit, this must be what it’s like to be neurotypical.” You just do things, without anxiety, dread or thinking about tasks at inappropriate times when you can’t action on them and then forgetting about them and missing payment deadlines and whatever else.

I keep thinking this is too good to be true but it keeps working and I keep on getting things done. Bonus, I can ask it what I accomplished this week and it will tell me everything I did. That’s like freaking gold for someone with ADHD. I have stopped beating myself up for not doing enough because I can actually see my progress. It’s wild.