My second brain, sort of
A practical setup for using AI to handle the executive-function tax that quietly burns out the brain doing the actual work.
Why I built this
I'm a late-diagnosed, high-functioning ADHD adult. The way I usually describe it: the brain is fast and pattern-hungry, which is the good part. The cost is the executive function — the prioritizing, sequencing, remembering, switching, updating. That part is a tax I pay every day on the cognition I actually want to be using.
I'd been using Sunsama as my daily planner for years. It matches how my brain wants to work: one focused day at a time, intentional pulls from the backlog, no infinite scroll of overdue tasks. Then AI got good enough to wire into it. So I did.
The result isn't "I save time." It's more of my brain spent on problem-solving and less on administrative overhead. Same hours. Different distribution.
The stack
Two surfaces. Native connectors. About thirty minutes of setup.
All of it connects natively now. Sunsama added an MCP server. Gmail and Calendar are connectors in Claude. Cowork picks up anything that needs to be done.
A year ago this required Zapier as a bridge. Worth noting only because the setup tax just dropped considerably.
What it actually does
Two main rituals. One in the morning. One at the end of the day.
Brain dump → prioritized day
I dump whatever's in my head into Claude. Half-thoughts, follow-ups I remembered in the shower, things I owe people, dread items. Claude scans my inbox and calendar, runs an Eisenhower-matrix-style prioritization across what I dumped plus what it found, and pushes the result into Sunsama as a planned day.
What used to be twenty minutes of staring at lists is now five minutes of typing.
Sweep → catch what I missed
Claude scans the day's emails and any docs I worked on, surfaces anything that needs follow-up, and either updates Sunsama or queues it for tomorrow. The point isn't completeness. The point is that I don't carry the "did I forget something" loop into the evening.
What a session looks like
Approximately, with the boring parts compressed:
Most of the cognitive work happens before I touch the keyboard. The dump itself is 30 seconds. The output is the day, planned, in Sunsama, with the right things at the top.
Why this works for me specifically
- —Sunsama already does the cognitive scaffolding ADHD brains need. One day at a time, intentional pulls, no overdue spiral. AI just turns up the volume on what was already working.
- —The brain dump is the unlock. Getting things out of my head and into a system I trust is the hardest part of executive function for me. Claude lowers that activation energy to almost nothing.
- —The tool does the part I'm worst at. Prioritization, sequencing, follow-through tracking. I'm great at noticing patterns and connecting ideas. I'm bad at deciding what to do first. Now I don't have to.
What I'd flag if you're trying this
- —Sunsama isn't required. The pattern works with any planner that has an MCP server or native connector. Sunsama just happens to fit how I think.
- —Cowork earns its keep. Claude is great for thinking. Cowork is where actions actually happen — picking up files, running tasks, executing the things the brain dump surfaced. Two surfaces, one workflow.
- —It's bidirectional or it's not worth doing. One-way "Claude pushes to Sunsama" isn't enough. Claude needs to read the current state of the day, see what's already there, and adjust. Otherwise you're context-switching between two systems instead of one.
- —This is solving my problem. If your brain works differently, the setup will need to be different. The principle — let AI handle the executive-function tax so the rest of your mind has room — is what's portable.
Tools mentioned: Claude, Cowork, Sunsama.