What does an ADHD planner that adapts to you actually do?

Why do ordinary planners stop working with ADHD?

Most planners assume you'll be the same person tomorrow. A plan built on an average day breaks on the days either side of it, and by the third broken week the app comes off the phone.

There is some evidence behind that experience, though less than you might expect.

• Emotions swing more. A 2020 meta-analysis of 13 studies found emotional lability much higher in adults with ADHD than in adults without it.^[1] A week-long study that asked adults to rate their mood eight times a day found stronger and less stable irritability and frustration in the ADHD group.^[2] That study included only men, and it measured swings across hours rather than from one day to the next.
• Focus is less well studied. We have not found a study that measures day-to-day swings in focus in adults with ADHD, so it is fair to be sceptical of any claim that it has been measured.
• Fit seems to matter. Lab research on one long-standing model of ADHD found that people with ADHD slowed down more than others when a task's pace was too slow, and made more errors when it was too fast.^[3] Those were reaction-time tasks, mostly with children, so they point in a direction rather than prove how real days work.

A fixed plan has no way to hear any of this. It only knows the date and the deadline.

What does "adapts" actually mean?

In BALAY it means four concrete things.

1. You check in. Two taps: Flat, Foggy, Steady, Charged or Manic. You can do it once a day or several times, and skipping days doesn't break anything.
2. Tasks carry an energy cost. Each one carries the energy it's likely to take, as well as when it's due.
3. The list reorders. When you check in, the list reorders so the ones you can start today are at the top. A foggy morning brings something small up; a charged afternoon brings up the task that needs you at your best.
4. The score only rises. The daily score is a number out of 100 that only rises through the day. Matching your energy is the biggest single lift in it, so on a low-energy day rest counts, and skipping something never takes points away.

The score counts small wins because research on what keeps people motivated at work found that, of all the everyday events in a working day, making progress on meaningful work did the most, even when the steps were small.^[4] That research was with office workers rather than adults with ADHD, and it was published in a business magazine rather than a peer-reviewed journal.

It also learns. For the first few weeks the score runs on gentle starting targets while it learns your rhythms. After that it measures your days against your own patterns.

What adapting doesn't mean is the app deciding for you. On a paid plan Sumi can break a task into steps. You accept the steps, edit them, or ignore them. Nothing is applied to your list without you saying so.

Wellness insight, not medical advice. Check with a professional for anything health-related.

How do other ADHD planners adapt?

Each of these adapts to something different. At the time of writing:

• Tiimo is a visual planner with mood check-ins that, in its own words, help you adjust your routine to match your energy and focus, and an AI co-planner that helps you create and prioritise tasks. It runs on iPhone, Android and the web, and has a free version.
• Structured lays your day out on a timeline. Its Energy Monitor lets you give each task an energy level and warns you when a day goes over the limit you set, and its Pro plan reschedules missed tasks for you.
• Sunsama is built around a guided daily planning routine that helps you avoid overplanning: you decide how long each task gets, and aim to end the working day at a reasonable time. It has no free plan, by choice, and offers a 14-day trial.
• Lifestack reads sleep, recovery and focus data, from Apple Health and wearables, and drafts a schedule around the energy it predicts.

None of these is the wrong answer. They differ mainly in who gets the final say on how your day is going: a sensor, a budget you set in advance, the clock, or you.

Which kind suits you?

• If you wear a tracker and would rather not think about your energy at all, a planner that reads health data, like Lifestack, asks the least of you.
• If your trouble is putting too much into a day, an energy budget like Structured's or a planned working day like Sunsama's puts a ceiling on it.
• If you know how you are better than a wrist sensor does, and want the list to follow, that is what BALAY is for.

For how to plan around your energy with or without an app, see the guide to managing your energy with ADHD. For a wider list of apps, see which ADHD apps actually help adults.