How I fixed the most annoying thing about Claude in less than 5 minutes

While I’ve used every major AI from Gemini to ChatGPT, I’ve found that Claude continues to be my favorite, even if it’s a poorer value due to slightly more aggressive caps and higher starting prices for the subscription tiers.

What makes Claude stand out to me is that its session memory and recall tend to be significantly better than those of its rivals, making it arguably better for longer projects. I also find that its responses feel the most “human” and my back-and-forth feels more like a true collaboration effort than just a “yes man” tool. Unfortunately, being too human can also mean it rabbles, preaches, and often adds a lot of preamble that I didn’t ask for.

Recently, I heard about the community-made “I have ADHD” skill that has gone viral via online communities like Reddit. I’ve now been actively using it for about two weeks. This simple skill works with both Claude Code and Claude Chat, though the exact steps involved will vary.

As for what it does? Simply put, it’s designed to deliver answers in a much more straightforward way by cutting fluff and putting important details up front, as well as a few other adjustments that are easier to understand for a neurodivergent brain or really anyone who prefers to cut to the chase without all the formality of a conventional human conversation.

Setting up the “I have ADHD ” skill is actually super easy to do. The first thing you need to do is head over to the project’s official GitHub and download the skill.md file. From there, installing depends on what route you are taking.

If you simply want to use this for basic chatbot use, you’ll want to load up Claude Chat. Next, select Customize from the left panel, which opens a new page showing any existing skills you’ve installed.

To add this new one, simply click on the Add button (as shown in the image above). It’ll open a pop-up where you can click or drag the file. Follow the prompts, and you’re now good to go. To actually use the skill, you will need to type /i-have-adhd before asking your question, but you’ll only need to do this once per session as the skill will remain active for the entire conversation.

For Claude Code, the easiest way is to add the market repo using the terminal. You’ll want to type claude plugin marketplace add ayghri/i-have-adhd and then, after it responds, you’ll need to install it by typing claude plugin install i-have-adhd@i-have-adhd. Be aware you’ll likely need to restart in order for the changes to take effect. Just like with the chat method, you’ll also need to type /i-have-adhd to trigger the skill for your current Claude Code session.

As you can see in the screenshots shared above, Claude’s default behavior tends to give you a huge dump of information, including infographics and more. Obviously, this will vary depending on what model you use, which was Opus in this case.

While a lot of the core information ends up similar, the “I have ADHD” skill follows 10 core rules that can make life easier for many of us with ADHD:

1. Lead with the action/point.
2. Number multi-step tasks.
3. End with a one concrete next step, if applicable.
4. Suppress tangents.
5. Restate every turn so no important details are forgotten.
6. Use specific time estimates (minutes, not vague answers like “in a bit”)
7. Make wins visible.
8. Matter-of-fact errors.
9. Cap lists at 5 items.
10. No preamble. No recap. No closers.

As you can see, the “I have ADHD” response starts by confirming the core claim, then what problem Kant was trying to solve. From there, it talks a bit more about how it works for those who want to dive a bit deeper. Unlike the skill-free response, though, it’s all laid out in a way that makes skimming much more natural and doable here.

While I still prefer Claude in its “raw form” over Gemini or ChatGPT, this simple fix really helps me cut to the chase. Although the examples above focused on Claude Chat, I’ve recently been using Claude Code more and more for a few projects, and I’ve found the skill equally valuable here.

In fact, in some ways it’s clear this skill was designed with programmers in mind, though again it has enough flexibility to be used in other situations, like learning recaps and more. Another advantage of using the skill is that responses are usually shorter by default, so I’ve found I burn through my usage caps noticeably more slowly than I did before installing the skill.

I highly recommend trying this skill for others looking to make Claude a bit more of a straight shooter that doesn’t get stuck in the weeds. Just be aware that every ADHDer’s experience varies, and some folks actually prefer massively detailed data dumps. That means it might not be for you, but it takes minutes to try, and if you like it, you might find it hard to go back to vanilla chats with Claude.