Beating the Clock: How I Use Home Assistant, Fastmail, and Alexa to Stay (Almost) on Time with ADHD

Oh boy, let me tell you, as someone with ADHD, staying on top of things is like trying to herd a bunch of hyperactive squirrels. So naturally, one of my ongoing missions in this wild homelab/self-hosting adventure has been to keep my personal data as locked down as possible. You know, keep the nosy ones out! This has mostly translated into breaking up with Google, little by little, while still keeping my setup usable. I mean, I’m all for privacy, but I’m not out here trying to make my life more chaotic than it already is.

The big privacy headache for me? Email. Look, I jumped on the Gmail train when it first rolled into town. Remember when Google’s motto was, "Do no evil"? Yeah, I fell for that. But even from the start, I knew there was no such thing as free. "Free Gmail" basically means, “Hey, Google, sure! Feel free to scan my emails, just send me some relatable ads in return.” Ew. I never felt great about it, but I stuck with Gmail. Why? Convenience, mostly.

And Google’s ecosystem? Oh, the convenience was too good to pass up. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive—everything just worked together in a nice, neat little package. Plus, as someone with ADHD, those Google Nest Hub voice notifications for calendar events were like my lifeline. You know, the ones that tell you an event is coming up in an hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and then five? Yeah, without those, I’d be drifting through time like a confused space traveler.

But here’s where things get spicy. I decided to see if I could replicate the same vibe but with Fastmail (which I love, by the way) and Home Assistant. I’ve got Proton Mail, too, but for some reason, Fastmail just scratches the right itch for me.

So here’s the ADHD-friendly mission: I wanted an automation that could fire off notifications to my Amazon Echo—I know, I know, I should be using a local speaker, but baby steps—at 1 hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and 5 minutes before an event. And yes, I’m still working on being on time, but one problem at a time, OK?

First, I set up the CalDav integration in Home Assistant using Fastmail’s info. Simple enough. The URL is https://caldav.fastmail.com, and you use your username and an app password (not your actual account password). Boom! Submit.

Then, I cooked up an automation with four triggers, based on the calendar: 1 hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and 5 minutes before each event. Next, I threw in a condition because, let's be real, I don’t want these things going off at 3 a.m. I set it to work only between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. (because, you know, sleep is important too).

Now, the fun part—variables. These help me calculate how much time is left and make sure my notifications actually say, "Hey, you've got 15 minutes until XYZ event" or whatever. Here’s a little code magic:

And just like that, I’ve got voice reminders going off on my Alexa device, multiple times before an event. Will this finally make me less late? Well… that’s a whole different saga. But hey, at least I’m trying!