How I Work When My Focus Comes and Goes

A Curated Resource Guide for Working With Chronic Illness

Jan 22, 2026

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you purchase through my link. That, in no way, affects my recommendation of these resources, as I already use them myself.

Job burnout is at an all time high, a result of unmanaged stress. Short deadlines, managers overpromising customers, problems that refuse to be solved, all accumulate as stress. That stress can affect focus. It’s hard enough for a healthy person to deal with, but when you have a chronic illness like an autoimmune disease or a disorder that causes difficulty with focus, it can seem impossible.

Dealing with autoimmune brain fog, I knew I had to inject structure and build a support system for myself. I had to write things down or I would forget. My mind was easily distracted if I didn’t have a list of tasks handy to remind me of what I should be doing. Developing a schedule to meet deadlines was a must.

Over the years, I’ve used many tools to capture ideas, prioritize tasks, schedule, and help me build. I have created different habits to reset my focus. This is a list of resources I use to keep on task and focused. Of the tools, most have free versions, but I do have paid accounts with many of them for the flexibility and additional features they offer. I will indicate below which tools I pay for.

I mention these resources not as a way to optimize, but as a way to build structure and support systems to help you deal with the days you aren’t so sharp, when your focus is splintered, when your energy is low, and you just need something to guide you towards progress. I will be updating this list as I explore. This post may become a paid post eventually, but for now it’s available to everyone.

Gentle Focus Resets (Off-Screen Supports)

Low-Energy Ways I Regain Focus

I decided to start this list with what helps get my focus back when it starts to wander. This may be the most important thing because I know if I don’t do something, that focus isn’t coming back for the rest of the day.

Herbal Tea Rituals

Making and consuming a cup of herbal tea is a great way to ground yourself, calm your nervous system, and create a routine that gently resets your focus at times of the day when you start to drift. I enjoy a good cup of peppermint, licorice, rooibos, hibiscus, rose hips, chamomile, or turmeric ginger tea.

If you don’t care for tea, I sometimes have decaf when I want something warm, but can’t deal with more caffeine. Try some hot cocoa, apple cider, or other warm drink. The physical warmth is calming. The daily ritual is grounding. (Shameless plug: If you find value in this post and you’d like to buy me a coffee, you can here. 👇🏽)

Buy Me A Coffee

Short, Unstructured Walks

Quite often, I pair my herbal tea with a short walk afterwards. A good walk outside gives me fresh air, allows my mind to process without the pressure of performance, and is a positive mood booster. It also improves cognitive function.

Gentle Stillness

If I notice my focus drifting, I’ll close my eyes and just exist in the quiet, noticing my breath without trying to control it. Or daydreaming. That’s a nice break in the day to let your mind wander before you corral it again and get back to work.

Stepping Away From Screens

Go look out the window. If you can, lie down for a few minutes. Reduce your visual and cognitive load for a bit before you come back to it. Without occasional breaks, your tendency to lose focus can spiral.

Sensory Grounding

This habit can go along with the tea ritual. It gives your nervous system immediate grounding feedback. Holding a warm mug, wrapping yourself in a warm blanket, using a heating pad, or getting exposure to fresh air and sunlight can ground you, reduce stress, and reset your focus.

Information Management

Tools That Hold Information When Memory and Focus Are Unreliable

I call these my external brain. My memory has two modes: the ability to recall the most obscure fact or inability to remember what I said ten seconds ago. Brain fog really does a number on the ol’ memory.

Airtable (Paid, but Free is available)

I love Airtable. I can have a database up and running in a minute. I use it for tracking projects, capturing ideas, scheduling content, capturing feedback from site visitors, and anything that needs structure without constant attention. I have a paid account because I use the automation features to schedule posts to social media, archive projects or tasks that are done, and more.

Google Docs (Free)

Google Docs is my scratchpad, my PDF generator, my go to app if I want to write something I intend to publish. I use the spreadsheet app to track my health, finances, personal projects, keyword research results for my websites, or anything that handily fits in a spreadsheet.

Apple Notes

If I’m only the go and/or only have my iPhone with me, Apple Notes is my go to app for quickly jotting down things that are important or I want to remember.

OneNote

I have used OneNote both for personal projects and work. It’s great for keeping local notes and lists (you can back the up to the cloud, too). I’ve mostly moved away from it in favor of other tools, but it really came in handy for me at one point in time.

Visual Task and Project Management

Tools That Help Me See Work Visually (When Words Are Hard)

Sometimes the words just aren’t clicking in my head and I need a visual. These resources help me understand status, progress, and priorities. Visual layouts are easier to process on distracted or foggy days.

Trello (Free)

Trello uses a basic Kanban board layout. I have been using it for personal projects for years, so when I discovered my last employer used it for bug and task tracking, I was able to jump right in. It really clarified where things were in the process, the status, and priority. We used checklists, due dates, and more. For simple Kanban style tracking, it’s powerful.

ClickUp (Free)

Clickup is even more flexible. It offers To Do Lists that you can view in either list form or Kanban board form. You can add status, due date, priority, date done, and even custom columns. You can create a dashboard to visually see status, an AI executive summary, what’s unassigned, in progress, complete, etc.

This resource also offers docs, whiteboards, organization in folders, forms, templates, timesheets, planners, and you can even import from other apps like Jira, Notion, Monday, Slack, Trello, and more.

I just started using this a few months ago and this is honestly my favorite new app because it feels kind of all-in-one.

Automation

Tools That Reduce Repetition and Mental Overhead

Zapier

I use Zapier in conjunction with Airtable to post to social media on a schedule, automatically reschedule recurring posts, and archive one-off posts. Keeping everything in Airtable and automating with Zapier makes it easier by allowing me to store my content all in one place. Before, I would have to schedule in Meta Business for Facebook and Instagram, X, and any other social media platforms I’m on. It’s been a total gamechanger and time saver.

Writing and Cognitive Support

Tools That Help When Words, Focus, or Momentum Aren’t There

ChatGPT (Paid, but Free is available)

As a solopreneur, ChatGPT is my team. When my brain can’t remember a word, when I need to organize or clarify my thoughts, when I’m stuck, I use ChatGPT to support my writing. The best use is as a partner to help you think, not to do your work for you. Anyone can churn out AI generated writing. Only YOU can give it that personal touch. I give it the topic and my thoughts, ask for a logical outline, tweak the outline as needed, and write my posts myself.

As someone who is better at writing than marketing, I’ve created an agentic AI marketing team that helps me brainstorm ideas to market my business.

When the brain fog is so thick that I can’t focus or think straight, I use ChatGPT to help cut through the fog and develop easy to implement tasks based on my goals to keep me making progress.

I’ve also used ChatGPT to help me vibe code some projects. It’s great for presenting a vague idea and getting clarity on what you really want to do. When you’re dealing with real fatigue, it helps cut through the decision fatigue, getting one or two paths that you can choose from and refine later. It’s not without its issues, however. It does hallucinate and I have, on occasion, been better at debugging issues than it has.

In addition to work, ChatGPT has made it so much easier to manage my health, specifically Type 1 Diabetes. It helps me figure out carbs, how much to bolus, and whether split bolusing is a good strategy for that particular meal. It makes the work of having to be my own pancreas a little less daunting.

Claude (Paid, but Free is available)

I found Claude to be pretty good at vibe coding as well, but due to more stringent constraints on memory and usage for paid accounts, I ultimately chose ChatGPT.

Design Tools

Tools That Reduce Decision Fatigue Around Design and Presentation

It’s hard to think up designs some times. I have some artistic talent, but I’m not a designer. These tools help me create great looking graphics without burning mental energy on choices.

Canva

I use Canva just about every day. Most of the time, I start from scratch, but if I have no ideas in my head, their templates are the best. I use it for social media posts, logos, memes, videos, and most definitely for fun. I don’t use other graphics programs anymore unless I need to do something that can’t be done on Canva.

Publishing Platforms & Hosting

Tools That Let Me Pause My Efforts For a While Without Everything Falling Apart

Consistency is important, but there are times when I NEED to pause. The one thing consistent about autoimmune disease and chronic illness is that it’s incredibly inconsistent. Publishing platforms allow me to build at my own pace, pause when needed, while still doing work and earning money for me.

Substack

As I write this, I’m brand new on Substack, but I’m wondering why it took me so long to start this. There’s so much potential here. I used to write prolifically and stopped for a while. I’m writing again and enjoying it more than I thought I would. Based on what I’m seeing, older posts can float to the top again and get new life, so this is definitely something worth pursuing for the chronically ill, where consistency looks a little bit different. Daily is good, but so is once a week. I’m really looking forward to building something here.

WordPress

WordPress makes it so easy to quickly set up a website. You can go from idea to prototype in a day or so, depending on the complexity of your idea. I use WordPress for most of my business and hobby sites. I’ve used it for client sites. It takes a lot of the maintenance work off your shoulders and allows you to just create. I use plugins like Elementor to design my pages and Updraft to back things up on a schedule.

KnownHost.com

KnownHost has been my webhost for 12 years. Their customer support and technical support is amazing. If you’re like me and you need something better than shared hosting, but not quite as complex or expensive as a dedicated server, their VPS accounts are a great fit. They’re flexible and good value for the money.

Sales and Delivery Platforms

Tools That Handle Logistics So I Don’t Have To

Gumroad

I could set up a WordPress site to sell and deliver digital products, deal with the hassle of collecting and submitting sales tax, etc. Or, I can just have Gumroad do it all for me while I focus on creating. I’m currently experimenting with Gumroad, but so far so good.

Etsy

After years of thinking about it, I finally dove in and opened an Etsy shop for my creative endeavors. It was a lot easier than I expected it to be. No sales yet, but I’m cautiously optimistic.

Tools I’m Currently Evaluating or Re-evaluating

Obsidian
Notion
Make
Evernote (I used to use, but haven’t in a while. I see they’ve added new features, so I’m taking another look.)

What I Choose Not to Use

Tools I Don’t Use and Why

I intentionally don’t use the following:

Tools that require daily consistency. I try to be consistent, but I DO like flexibility.
Systems that punish missed days. I DON’T like feeling guilty if I miss a day. Life is hard enough as it is. Just do your best.
Anything that assumes stable energy or attention. Chronic illness is a rollercoaster.

I need gentle structure, not guilt and punishment.

I hope you found this post useful. If you did, and are so inclined, please leave a comment.

If you discovered a new resource to solve that problem that’s been bugging you, yay! We Spoonies have to stick together and support one another. Please send a link to this post if you know someone it could help. Thanks!

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