Full disclosure. I've never been diagnosed ADHD, but truly feel like I am.
I can't focus on one thing and skip to other things all the time.
And I keep losing thoughts or ideas. It happens mid-email, mid-meeting, mid-article. A thought appears, sometimes a good one, and the second I go to write it down somewhere it's gone. The capture window feels like maybe 10 seconds, if that.
I've tried a bunch of things and nothing has really stuck:
Notion — too much setup before I can even type the first word. By the time I've opened it the thought is already fading.
Apple Notes — fast enough but becomes a complete graveyard. No structure, no way to act on anything later, just an endless scroll of half-thoughts.
Voice memos — I actually like these in theory but I'm usually in an open office or on a call, so speaking out loud isn't always an option.
Todoist and other task managers — these want me to frame every thought as a task with a due date. That's not what a half-formed idea is.
The pattern I keep running into is that tools either do too much (require admin at the exact moment I'm trying to capture) or too little (plain text dump with no way to find or act on things later).
What I actually want is something where I can get the thought out in under 10 seconds without switching context, and then review and deal with it later on my own terms.
Has anyone actually solved this? What's worked for you, and what did you try first that didn't?