Visual Structure & Adult ADHD with Sara Olsher of Mighty + Bright

In this episode of The Adulting with ADHD Podcast, I am thrilled to welcome Sara Olsher, Founder and CEO of Mighty + Bright (aff). Sara shares her journey of creating visual schedules to help her daughter cope with anxiety and how this led to developing tools that assist both children and adults with ADHD. Discover how visual charts can simplify daily tasks, improve communication and enhance productivity for neurodivergent individuals.

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Summary

In this episode, I interview Sarah Olsher, founder and CEO of Mighty and Bright. The discussion centers on the power of visual schedules and charts for neurodivergent adults, especially those with ADHD. Sarah Olsher shares her journey from developing visual tools for her young daughter during a difficult time to creating practical, visually engaging systems for adults. The conversation explores why analog visual aids often outperform digital reminders, how breaking tasks into manageable steps can reduce overwhelm, and the importance of customizing tools to individual needs. Sarah also highlights real-life success stories, the value of collaboration with mental health experts, and the creative process behind developing new products for diverse needs.

In this episode

"Anything that is out of sight is out of mind. And I had all the things set up on my phone, but if it didn't like pop up and stay there, and sometimes even if it did, I wouldn't actually do it. And so the idea is that sometimes digital is not actually as good as analog is for a variety of reasons, but some of it is that dopamine rush that you get from actually physically checking things off of a to-do list, which is why so many of us like to-do lists."

• Introduction to Sarah Olsher and the origins of Mighty and Bright

• The effectiveness of visual schedules and why analog tools can be more helpful than digital ones

• How visual charts support neurodivergent adults and improve communication in partnerships

• Real-world success stories from adults using Mighty and Bright’s tools

• Tips for getting started: breaking tasks into small, manageable steps and using visual cues

• Recommended resources and tools that complement visual charts (e.g., goblin.tools, reminders)

• Common misconceptions about visual aids and why tangible tools often lead to better results

• The creative process and collaborations with mental health experts to develop new products

• Plans for expanding into memory care and elder care visual aids

• How to connect with Mighty and Bright online and on social media

Transcript

[Sarah S.]
This is the Adulting with ADHD podcast, self-empowerment for people with ADHD.
Today, I'm very excited to have with me Sarah Olsher, founder, CEO of Mighty and Bright. Welcome to the show, Sarah.

[Sarah Olsher]
Thank you so much for having me, Sarah.

[Sarah S.]
Very excited. Before we jump in, do you want to give our listeners a brief introduction of who you are and how you got into this work?

[Sarah Olsher]
Sure, yeah. My name is Sarah Olsher and I started creating visual schedules when my daughter was two because I went through a divorce and my daughter was showing a lot of signs of anxiety and I was trying to figure out how to help her. And I took her to a therapist for toddlers and when the therapist was going on vacation, she made this like construction paper calendar and basically said, if you don't show kids what to expect using a calendar, it really erodes trust. And it made me think a lot about all the things that were going on in my child's life that nobody was talking about. Uh, and so that was my first visual schedule that I created was a co-parenting calendar for kids and that was 10 years ago. And I know, over time it's changed a lot. I created a whole bunch of things that were for kids, but as time went on, I started to realize that there are so many adults that really need things visually displayed and just like right smack in front of your face. So I started creating them for adults and that's when it really got.

[Sarah S.]
That is no surprise to me.

[Sarah Olsher]
Me neither.

[Sarah S.]
Yeah, right? Could you explain how visual charts work and why they are useful for neurodivergent adults?

[Sarah Olsher]
Absolutely. So basically, anything that is out of sight is out of mind. And I had all the things set up on my phone, but if it didn't like pop up and stay there, and sometimes even if it did, I wouldn't actually do it. And so the idea is that sometimes digital is not actually as good as analog is for a variety of reasons, but some of it is that dopamine rush that you get from actually physically checking things off of a to-do list, which is why so many of us like to-do lists. Unfortunately, the mental labor that goes into creating said to-do list is really overwhelming and the idea basically is we've done all of the mental labor for you. Creating anything from adult chore charts where we've categorized everything into different sections so that it's easy to execute and it's easy to see, you know, which things are cleaning related, which things are meal related. And this is also helpful to display what it is going on in your life so you if you are partnered, you don't have to have a verbal conversation with your partner about what things are being done. And that way, you can more easily divide the labor in your household without spending three hours working on a spreadsheet that you then are no longer interested in executing by the time you finish.

[Sarah S.]
Yep.

[Sarah Olsher]
So yeah, we like to put them in any place that is the center of your household, but we also have charts that work for bathroom and like you can literally stick it on the mirror. In my household, we keep them everything on the fridge just because that is like always in front of my face.

[Sarah S.]
Nice. Can you share a success story where visual charts helped an adult manage their daily tasks?

[Sarah Olsher]
Oh, totally. Yeah. Like last week I did some interviews with customers, Mighty and Bright customers because I like to make sure that what we're doing is actually helpful and if there's anything that's not working that we can improve on it. And there was a woman that I was talking to, she is neurodivergent and her husband is not, but he is very like I shouldn't use the word rigid, but he just had ways that he thought things should be done. And so they have our adult visual schedule set up, which is a task chart. They actually had two for division of labor. They had two of our task charts that they used with grown-up chores and then they had a weekly calendar and a daily chart. So she was able to move these magnets with different tasks on them off of the chore chart and onto the weekly list so that her husband could see that she actually was planning on doing something. It just wasn't going to do it that day. And so it basically made it so their communication was better and it helped keep her on track in a way that made her feel successful and it made her husband less anxious that she was forgetting things. So it really just helped them. They went and had a whole conversation about it in therapy and that's how it ended.

[Sarah S.]
That's cool.

[Sarah Olsher]
So it helps a lot....

[Sarah S.]
That's huge. Wow, I love that so much. If you're in a partnership or any other situation where you could take advantage of something like this, how would you even get started with the visual chart?

[Sarah Olsher]
I think it depends again whether you're in a partnership or not as far as what I would recommend and also like how overwhelmed you are. So the grown-up chore charts come with three sticker sheets that are all divided up into different kinds of tasks. That can get overwhelming if your ADHD is like really intense for you. So if it is, I would recommend starting with our one of our collaborations with Casey Davis, which is for closing duties.

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[Sarah Olsher]
Because when we created that layout of that sticker sheet, basically how all these work is there's reusable stickers on a sheet and they're all organized in a way that makes it really easy to implement it in a few minutes. So you peel off the stickers that you're going to use and you attach them to magnets and they work with a variety of different boards that we magnetic board. And so that one has it set up so that there's basically like five tasks that you do every night before bed as a kindness to tomorrow's you. And that one's really great if you get overwhelmed by things because it's all about the dopamine and all about the easy wins. So if you have five things that you're successfully doing to prepare for tomorrow each night and you're able to like make that clicking noise as you move it from to-do to done, that's going to be a really great way to get started. And I think it depends on whether or not you have kids