What should a reading log look like if you have ADHD?

Why not just use a streak app?

Streaks reward an unbroken chain. ADHD reading rarely comes in unbroken chains: it comes in bursts, then a gap, then another burst. A streak counter turns every gap into a failure, and a failure you can see every time you open the app is a good reason not to open it. A log that only counts what you did cannot shame you for what you did not.

Paper has another advantage: it cannot notify you, show you a feed, or suggest a better book while you are reading this one. Our toolkit lists a paper reading log as a narrative-only card for exactly that reason. If you prefer an app, best reading trackers compares the main ones; turn off any streak or challenge feature you can.

What goes in each column?

How do you use it without it becoming a chore?

1. Print one page and fold it into the book you are reading now. If you read on a phone or e-reader, keep it next to the charger.
2. When you stop, fill one line. Thirty seconds. The hook column matters most; if you only have time for one column, write the hook.
3. When you pick the book up again, read the last hook first. That is your recap.
4. When the page is full, file it in a folder or photograph it. Do not start counting totals unless you enjoy that.

The hook column is a small piece of retrieval practice: you pull what just happened out of memory and put it in words. Recalling material tends to help it stick better than rereading it, which Roediger and Karpicke showed with students and prose passages in 2006. (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006) The log will not fix memory, but it gives you something to come back to. Why you forget what you read explains the rest.

What about reading goals?

If a yearly number motivates you, keep it, but set it low enough to beat by October and raise it if you want. If it starts to feel like a debt, drop it. The log works with or without a goal. Build a reading habit with ADHD covers goals that bend instead of break.