Spacing & Testing Effects
Ebbinghaus (1885) showed memory decays predictably; spacing reviews against that curve durably consolidates learning. Roediger & Karpicke (2006) showed retrieval practice beats rereading.
Why this actually works.
Every technique in the library traces back to peer-reviewed cognitive psychology or neuroscience. No magic, just old, robust findings packaged into things you can actually do today.
Implementation Intentions
Gollwitzer's meta-analyses (1999, 2006) found if-then planning roughly doubles goal attainment across domains by delegating execution to environmental cues.
Interleaving
Rohrer & Taylor (2007) demonstrated that mixed practice produces worse short-term performance but dramatically better long-term transfer than blocked practice.
Dopamine & ADHD
Volkow et al. (2009) linked ADHD symptoms to reduced dopamine receptor availability in reward pathways, which is why low-stimulation tasks feel disproportionately effortful.
Pomodoro
Time-boxing has roots in goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham): specific, finite goals outperform vague effort, especially under attention-regulation strain.
Body Doubling
Co-regulation research (Porges' polyvagal work) suggests the presence of another calm, focused person stabilizes autonomic arousal, a mechanism well-suited to ADHD activation difficulties.