Book Reviews: ADHD Time Management Toolkit by Sophie Brooks

Greetings, 

I've got something different for you all today, and it is a book that hits really close to home. As someone who was given their own diagnosis with moderate ADHD in the last year, this was a book that found me on my personal social media pages. I've been on a pretty incredible journey with this diagnosis, and others: GAD (General Anxiety Disorder), Dyslexia, and OCD.  

When you include some trauma from my childhood, I was desperate for answers. I've read so many books/articles on ADHD and Anxiety this year. All of which have been helpful in understanding just how important my mental health is. I have so much more to say about all of that, but this toolkit put a lot of things into perspective for me, and it is a pleasure to share this review for Sophie Brooks and her book, ADHD Time Management Toolkit For Adults.  

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Overall Rating: ★★★★★

Overall Description:

If it feels like time and organization are your enemies right now, it’s time to change the narrative. Ready to welcome focus and productivity into your life? Then read on...

...There’s good news, however—this is possible, and you can direct yourself toward a life in which you can plan your day effectively, focus your attention when you need to, and complete every task without staying up all night to do so.

This clear and comprehensive guide will show you exactly how to do it—and it will do it all with your ADHD brain in mind. Inside, you’ll discover:

- A deeper understanding of how your brain works and how to shift from a place of self-blame to one of self-awareness

- How to identify your unique issues with time and spot your top “time traps.”

- Effective tools for combating time blindness (no matter how much of a problem this has been for you in the past)

- Practical advice for letting go of shame, guilt, and perfectionism

- Why advice to “just do it” doesn’t work for you… and what you can do instead to overcome task paralysis

- The secret to using dopamine rewards to kickstart your motivation (and how to overcome the challenges you may face along the way)

- Clear guidance for building a distraction shield—so you can maintain your focus no matter what

- How to build anchoring routines you can stick to even when life throws you curveballs

- The power of body doubling… and exactly how you can use it to great effect

- Why an organized space will support your brain… with practical advice you can actually follow

- The ultimate plan for turning a chaotic family morning into a productive and timely routine

- And much more.

You might think you have no hope in the fight against time, but if that’s the case, it’s because you’ve been following advice designed for the neurotypical brain.

The ADHD brain works differently, and if you want to take charge of your time and productivity, you need to speak to it in a language it understands… and when you do, you’ll start to feel the stress and fatigue melt away and realize you’re far more capable than you’ve been led to believe.

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My Review of the Book:

If you are an adult with ADHD, or even someone who struggles with feeling overwhelmed and scattered a lot of the time, it's time to grab this toolkit. I can honestly say that “ADHD Time Management Toolkit for Adults” by Sophia Brooks is no boring textbook that tells you a bunch of medical jargon your brain will struggle to keep up with. It is a helpful and encouraging guide written by someone who is obviously familiar with the ADHD struggle all of us ADHDers deal with daily. 

I was stunned because this little gem knew almost exactly what my life felt like every day, and I related to the struggle she conveyed on the page in so many ways. Sophia Brooks understands the reality of what people with ADHD feel every day and is not ashamed to be open about the impact it has had on her life. I felt seen and understood, and I’m a pretty complex dude even without my ADHD struggles. 

This guidebook is filled with information that is relatable and easy to accept. The way she offers it to the reader made all the difference for me. I have read more books on ADHD than I will openly admit in this review, and this one is in my top 5 for sure. I understood everything she wrote and could find practical strategies I could apply to my own life. That meant something to me. 

Just to give you a few tidbits of what she covers throughout this Time Management Toolkit for ADHD, here are a few of my favorite aspects of the book. 

• Useful Tools that didn't overwhelm me.

• She fact-checks everything from beginning to end. 

• Practical exercises that were easy to connect with and easy to follow.

• Written for people with ADHD in mind, the recap section at the end was really useful.

• Reinforcing her advice with proven facts and then summarizing it. This was such a good mix of content. 

One of the biggest strengths of the book was the fact that she offered her advice from the foundation of how people with ADHD can easily be thrown off course and literally lays it all out there for the reader to connect with. Brooks' tone throughout the book was supportive and encouraging. I genuinely believe that people with ADHD need more of that. 

The 13 exercises explained in her book are useful and do not require the reader to change everything about themselves to survive in a neurotypical world with a neurodivergent mind. In fact, she encourages the reader to let go of that stereotypical mindset and embrace the creative differences between the two. Instead of pretending to fit in, Brooks advocates for acceptance of oneself, while providing tools that ADHDers can use to help us function more efficiently.

I encourage anyone who struggles with ADHD life, or anything that causes anxious thoughts, to take a look at this one. If you are looking for a practical, step-by-step guide to help you stop feeling scattered and start getting more done, this may just be the toolkit you need.

This book truly makes you feel like Sophia is a friend walking with you through managing your day, staying focused, and actually getting stuff done. Even when everything else seems to be falling apart around you, it's a reminder that you are not alone, because we aren’t.