Long texts, email and forms with ADHD

The text is asking for too much at once

A long email asks you to hold the thread in your head, spot the request, remember the date, and decide what to answer. That is several tasks dressed as one. Attention that comes and goes will drop one of them, usually the date.

The fix is to split the text into the tasks it contains and do them one at a time. What is this. What does it want. When. Then answer. Each step is small enough to finish before attention moves on.

Start with the question, not the first line

Reading from the top is the slow way into a long text. Reading for one question is faster and holds attention better. Before you open it, decide what you need to know: is there a deadline, do I have to reply, is money involved. Then skim for that.

A summary that answers those questions up front is the same trick done for you. Zimplfy's Summarize gives two lines on what the text is about, then a checklist of what it asks you to do, with dates and amounts copied exactly. Read the checklist. Decide. Open the rest only if you need it.

Make the text smaller

A wall of text has no edges, so there is nowhere to stop and nowhere to come back to. Give it edges.

• Narrow the window so lines are short. Shorter lines mean more line breaks, and each one is a tiny checkpoint.
• Turn long paragraphs into lists where you can. Copy the text into a note and press Enter where the ideas change.
• Use a reading view or reader mode in the browser. It removes everything around the text.
• Increase the text size. Fewer words per screen is fewer words to lose.
• Mark where you are. A cursor, a highlight, or a finger on the screen all work.

Let the voice hold your place

Reading aloud is often described as a help for decoding. It is just as much a help for attention. A voice keeps moving when your eyes wander, and the marked word shows where to rejoin. You can look away, come back, and still be in the text.

Pick a pace that is slightly brisk. Too slow invites drifting. Zimplfy's Read aloud marks each word as it is spoken and offers three speeds. Space pauses. Esc stops.

Forms: one field at a time

A form is a long text that also wants answers. Do not read it through first. Go to the first field. Read only the sentence that explains it. Fill it in. Move to the next. If an instruction is unclear, select it and ask for the plain version instead of rereading it a third time.

Answer while the thought is still there

The reply you compose in your head on the way to the keyboard is often better than the one you type. Typing is slow enough for the thought to go. Talking is not. Say the reply, let it be tidied, send it.

With Zimplfy you hold the dictate shortcut (⌃⌥D on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+D on Windows), speak, and let go. Repeats, filler and half sentences are removed and the text lands where your cursor is. The order of your thoughts is kept; the mess is not.

Build the smallest possible routine

Systems with many steps fail quietly. Keep it to one: when a long text arrives, summarize it before anything else. The checklist tells you whether to act now, later, or not at all. Put the "later" items in the one place you already check. Everything else gets archived.

Where Zimplfy fits

Zimplfy lives in the menu bar or the system tray and works on selected text in any app. Press ⌃⌥R (Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows) for Summarize, Explain, Read aloud or Rewrite. Hold ⌃⌥D to dictate. Nothing to open and nothing to paste around, so the step between seeing the text and dealing with it is as short as it can be. The free plan gives 30 text actions a day plus a daily voice allowance, no account. The web reader at /read does the same in a browser.

Try it in your browser