Attention Different | Adulting with ADHD Work Through Your List, Don’t Just Make One with Llama Life’s Marie Ng
💡 What happens when you build a tool for yourself… and suddenly thousands of ADHDers want it too?
In this episode of the Attention Different Podcast, we sit down with Marie Ng — founder of Llama Life, the task management app designed specifically for ADHD brains — to explore her journey from corporate burnout to self-taught developer to accidental entrepreneur.
Marie shares how she taught herself to code by watching YouTube videos during the 2020 Melbourne lockdown, originally just trying to build something to help herself manage ADHD time blindness, executive dysfunction, and the never-ending cycle of making lists she couldn't complete.
But when she posted an early prototype on Twitter, strangers immediately asked: "Where can I get this?"
What started as a personal coding project became Llama Life — a to-do app built around momentum.
From open-plan office struggles to a beautiful story about how the ADHD community rallied around her when she needed it most, Marie's story is one of purpose, resilience, and building something that actually serves the brain you have — not the one society expects.
✨ Highlights
- Why short timers (1–5 min) work better than 25-minute Pomodoros for ADHD brains
- How Parkinson's Law (work expands to fill the time given) applies to micro-tasks
- The genius of total time tracking to prevent overcommitting and shame spirals
- Why she can't "eat the frog" — and why building momentum with small wins is the real secret
- What it's like to run a business while managing RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria), customer criticism, and the emotional weight of building in public
- How body doubling (even virtually through social media accountability) kept her going
- The ADHD tax — when fighting for $2,500 feels harder than just letting it go
- Why surrounding yourself with ADHD friends changes everything
- Her late adult diagnosis in New York after years of corporate masking, and what radical acceptance looks like now
📺 Watch the full episode at YouTube.com/@attentiondifferent
🔗 Connect with Marie Ng
- Instagram (Personal): @threehourcoffee
- Instagram (Llama Life): @llamalife.co
- Download Llama Life: Search "Llama Life" in the iOS App Store or Google Play
We are Attention DIFFERENT not DEFICIT An advocacy and edutainment podcast centered on radical acceptance and neurodiveristy. Attention Different aims to de-stigmatize and build community by exploring the intricacies of living life and "adulting" with ADHD in the modern world. We periodically feature experts, special guests and influencers in the ADHD community.
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