I solve my biggest issue with taking my new ADHD medications four hourly by using NFC tags.

Everyone knows about my Autism & ADHD. I’m pretty open about it. Or, should I say, I whinge about it a great deal.

I’ve been getting help for the Autism side with regular visits to a psychologists and have been doing that since I was diagnosed nearly 10 years ago. Well, earlier this year (2025), I took the step of seeking help with my ADHD. The psychiatrist I’ve been seeing has been very cautiously ramping me up on the medication for all this time, but it’s been the fast acting (4 hour) stuff, and that’s been a problem.

Taking it in the morning hasn’t been much of an issue. I take other medications and it all sits together in a plastic tub, so I just roll through. The biggest issue is that “lunchtime” dose. I would set a timer for four hours and wait.

I got pretty good at setting a timer. There were a few slip ups, but I wasn’t bad at all. And often I’d remember later (probably when the drugs kicked in) and could just about tell what time I’d taken them, so I could set an alarm for that target time.

No problem except, when the timer goes off and you’re in the middle of a thought, typing, or you’re in the middle of a game, you just switch the timer off and say to yourself “Yeah, sure. I’ll remember.”

HUGE mistake in the “Hey! Squirrel!” set. If I remembered at all, it would be two or three hours down the track, and you’re day is done.

So, I started thinking, like I do, that there’s got to be a better way.

I watch a lot of YouTube. A LOT. And, as if my phone can read my mind, YouTube recommended me a video about ADHD ‘hacks and tricks’ video that talked about an alarm that you can only stop when you swipe an NFC tag. The premise is that you keep some form of NFC tag (an old credit card, maybe a grey “proximity card” that’s floating around in a drawer, or even buy a sticker) and keep it away from your bed. This prevents you from being able to turn your alarm off, roll over, and go back to sleep.

Great. That works for people who have jobs or school or uni or things they need to wake at particular time each day but that doesn’t work for me. Also, even with the lunchtime dose, you just set a second alarm, four hours after the first one.

But I am not that guy, sadly. At 53 and Autistic with ADHD, I’m never going to work again. I don’t have kids, so it’s not like I’ve got to get them ready, either. And my Autism keeps me awake at night until late, so I don’t always wake up at the same time.

And there was nothing out on the market.

Plenty of NFC based alarm programs, but no timers. Nothing in the realm of what I needed, sadly.

So I found a few NFC alarm clock programs developed by smaller developers and emailed them. I explained my situation and waited. And, I didn’t have to wait long.

Gabe Gonzalez from NFC Alarm Clock (got back to me almost immediately and said that he’d always meant to include a timer in his app, but never “got around to it.” He didn’t think there’d be a need for it, anyway. On getting my email, he got right to work.

And it happened.

There were a few bugs that got ironed out but he’s done a MASTERFUL job, I must say.

Sadly, this app is only available for Android phones. I’m sorry iOS people, you’re going to have to sit this one out.

So, how does it work. Well, for me, it works this way.

I bought some 25 mm (1″) round NTAG216 NFC Tag stickers off Amazon (like these) and I waited for them to arrive. I had some old pill bottles I was carrying around with single doses in them, in both cars and in a backpack I carry with me when I leave the house.

I stuck an NFC tag on each of of the pill bottles, one on the “main/full” pill bottle and one on each of the others.

The I created a 4 hour timer in the app, and registered all the NFC tags to that timer. This I start each morning when I take my tablets.

When the alarm goes off, I can’t turn the timer off until such time as I swipe any one of the NFC tags and, by that time, I’ve got my pill bottle in my hand. (You can set the app to make you have to swipe any number of NFC tags, and you can set the order in which they are swiped. I don’t need that feature, so I have bothered exploring that)

I take my tablets.

And, honestly, this has changed me. I am now starting to feel the cumulative effects of the medication helping me along. When I have stuff to do, I can feel myself not settling until I’ve done what I’ve needed to do.

I have, however, been caught out. I was in a hospital, visiting with my dad, when I went downstairs to get some lunch from the cafe. I didn’t take my bag (with my pills in it), and only took my phone and my tablet. Well, the timer went of, and I was stood waiting for what seemed like an eternity for the lift to come and take me the two floors up. Honestly, the whole time I was stood there, I looked and looked and looked for a set of stair. I still don’t know where they are. Otherwise I would have taken them.