Digital Wellbeing with ADHD: Rethinking Screen Time

Many people with ADHD are told that the answer to digital overwhelm is simple: use less, try harder, have more self‑control. But most digital wellbeing advice is designed for neurotypical brains, and can leave people with ADHD feeling ashamed, stuck, or even more distracted.

In this practical and playful session, digital wellbeing expert Dr Alex Beattie flips the script. Instead of trying to 'fix' your phone use, he offers a more ADHD‑affirming way to think about focus, rest and connection in a digital world.

This workshop is aimed at people with ADHD who feel frustrated, curious or motivated to rethink their relationship with their screens.  You’ll leave with a more compassionate, flexible toolkit for shaping your digital life in ways that trust your lived experience and support how you actually want to use technology.

What you’ll learn

By the end of the workshop, you will:

• Understand why mainstream digital wellbeing advice often backfires for people with ADHD, and why this is a design problem rather than a personal failure.
• Rethink ‘screen time’ by shifting from a focus on raw numbers to how, when and why you use digital devices in your everyday life.
• Explore ADHD‑friendly ways of supporting focus and rest – including body‑based, social and sensory strategies – that work with your attention patterns instead of against them.

• Experiment with a range of tips and tools for unplugging and managing screen time so you can find levels of change that feel fun, realistic and sustainable.

About the speaker

Dr Alex Beattie (he/him) is a leading digital wellbeing researcher in Aotearoa New Zealand and recipient of a Marsden Fast-Start grant for the Saving Screen Time project. His current work focuses on ADHD, screen time and unplugging, with a particular interest in how people create small, creative 'hacks' to survive the attention economy. Alex is a senior lecturer in information management at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington, identifies as neurodivergent, and is passionate about neurodiversity‑affirming approaches that treat people as experts in their own lives, not problems to be fixed.

When: Wednesday 21 October 2026 12 pm - 1 pm

Where: Online via Zoom 

Cost: Free to attend with a donation option

Places: Limited to 100

Book here: https://www.adhd.org.nz/viewform/527993