My Brain Doesn't Work in a Straight Line. I Finally Found a Tool That Gets That.
I've tried every productivity tool out there. LittleBird AI is the one that finally gets how my brain works
Here’s something nobody tells you about being a solopreneur with ADHD:
The problem usually isn’t motivation.
It’s not that you don’t care. It’s not that you don’t know what needs to get done.
The problem is that your brain is running seventeen tabs at once, you genuinely cannot tell if you’ve been working for 20 minutes or three hours, and by 2pm, you’ve done a lot of things but somehow none of the right things.
Sound familiar?
I talk about this openly because I think many of us are living it but not saying it out loud.
I’m Gretchen. I run Schoser Talent and Wellness Solutions, a consulting firm focused on building healthier, more human-centered workplaces. I also co-host a mental health podcast called Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads, where my co-host and I dig into the real stuff: not the polished version of life, but the messy, honest, “my brain won’t cooperate today” kind of conversations.
And across both of those worlds, I wear somewhere around ten hats on any given day.
HR technology consulting. Client work. Podcast production. Content creation. Community building. Business development.
I love all of it. I also know exactly how quickly it can tip from purposeful to completely overwhelming.
The Part Most Productivity Advice Gets Wrong
I’ve tried a lot of systems over the years.
Planners. Frameworks. Apps. Time blocking strategies. Color-coded calendars that looked beautiful and lasted approximately four days.
Most of them share the same flaw: they assume linear thinking.
Step one. Step two. Step three.
But that’s not how my brain works. And honestly? It’s not how many creative, high-capacity people think, either. We don’t move in straight lines. We move in spirals, in bursts, in sudden clarity at 11 pm and total fog at 10 am.
What I needed wasn’t a stricter system.
I needed something that could think alongside me.
What LittleBird Actually Does (For Real, Not Marketing Speak)
A few months ago, I started using LittleBird AI, and I want to be honest with you, the way I always try to be:
I don’t recommend things I don’t believe in. I’m not here to sell you something shiny.
This one is different, and I’ll tell you exactly why.
LittleBird helps me do three things that have genuinely changed how I function day to day.
It helps me set up my day with intention. Not a vague to-do list. An actual plan that reflects what I need to get done and when. I start my morning knowing what I’m walking into instead of opening my laptop and immediately getting swallowed by whatever is loudest.
It tracks how I’m actually spending my time. This one surprised me the most. I thought I knew where my hours were going. I did not. LittleBird showed me the gaps between where I thought I was spending my energy and where I actually was. That kind of clarity? It’s uncomfortable and completely necessary.
It keeps me on track. For a brain that drifts (and mine absolutely drifts), having something that helps me stay anchored to what matters without making me feel like I’m failing every time I get distracted has been a quiet kind of relief.
It doesn’t feel like a rigid system. It feels like a thinking partner that understands I’m a human being, not a productivity machine.
Why This Matters Beyond Just Getting Things Done
I want to say something here that feels important.
There’s a version of productivity culture that teaches us to squeeze more out of ourselves. More output. More efficiency. More, more, more.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
What I’ve experienced with LittleBird is something closer to sustainability. To mental clarity. To end the day feeling like I actually showed up for my work instead of just surviving it.
As someone who teaches burnout prevention and psychological safety in the workplace, I pay attention to whether tools are built for people or built for performance metrics. You can feel the difference.
LittleBird feels like it was designed by people who understand that a scattered, overwhelmed brain isn’t a broken brain. It just needs better support.
That matters to me. A lot.
If Any of This Sounds Like Your Brain Too
If you’re a solopreneur, a creator, a small business owner, a caregiver, or just someone who has a lot going on and a brain that doesn’t always cooperate with the plan…
This is worth trying.
Use my referral code: 85RTGZKJ
We both get 2 free months of Plus. No pressure, no strings. Just a genuine “this helped me, and it might help you too.”
At the center of everything I do (the consulting work, the podcast, the conversations) is one belief:
We don’t need more pressure to perform.
We need better support to be human.
Sometimes that support is a conversation. Sometimes it’s the community. And sometimes it’s finding the right tool at exactly the right time.
This has been one of those tools for me.
Gretchen Schoser is the owner of Schoser Talent and Wellness Solutions and co-host of Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads, a mental health podcast with 4.5 million downloads across 160+ countries. She writes about mental wellness, workplace culture, and the very real experience of running a business while being a whole, complicated human.