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Our story
Built for one brain
I made the Self Journal for my own mind and put it on Kickstarter in 2015. People with ADHD started writing to say it worked for them. Two years later, at 31, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I'd designed a tool for a brain I didn't understand yet.
Cathryn Lavery
Systems before a diagnosis
I studied architecture in England and Scotland and moved to New York alone at 23, first as a summer intern and then, after my master's, as an architect. While I worked at architecture firms I was also designing systems to manage my own mind.
One of them became the Self Journal. I made it for me. It runs in 13-week sprints, so the finish line is always close enough to see.
Growing up, I constantly heard I had potential. But it felt like everyone else had figured out how to do life while I was always running to keep up.
It's perfect for my chaotic brain, it's virtually exactly what I would've designed for myself.
I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and general anxiety, and had a hard time keeping track of anything.
Best Self is laid out like my brain is wired. It just fits.
The people who wrote in
In 2015 I put the Self Journal on Kickstarter with a $15,000 goal. Backers pledged more than $322,000. Afterward, I noticed a pattern in the people who were finding success with it.
A lot of them mentioned ADHD. At the time I thought, "Oh, that's interesting," not realizing I had undiagnosed ADHD myself, and that's why it was working so well for them.
I am a little ADHD and there are a million things running through my head at any given moment.
This journal has really improved my ability to organize my day and my priorities as a graduate student with ADHD.
If you have ADHD like I do and need something to guide you through your day, this is it!
I'm a productivity junkie and have quite a case of ADHD (one thing may have led to the other!)
I have ADHD so really helps me have some structure to my day.
It helps me keep my ADHD-INTJ brain out of my head and working toward my real-life goals.
I struggle with ADHD which makes school all the more challenging.
A long term goal never holds my attention, but the short little wins are available each day.
As a student with ADHD, the Best Self Journal helped me to conquer issues associated with my disability (like procrastination, poor organization, poor time management) and stay on top of my deadlines.
From 45 BestSelf reviews that mention ADHD, word for word.
A divorce and a diagnosis
My marriage ended in 2017. That same year, at 31, I was diagnosed with ADHD.
While I was going through the divorce I read research on ADHD and marriage. One U.S. study of 1,001 adults found that people who reported an ADHD diagnosis were nearly twice as likely to have been divorced as similar adults without one.
I'd designed a tool for a brain I didn't understand yet.
Had been divorced
Adults who reported an ADHD diagnosis
28%
Similar adults without one
15%
Biederman et al., Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2006. 1,001 U.S. adults; diagnosis self-reported.
A system for connection
I wanted to build a system for connection, so I'd be better at it. That's where our relationship products came from. The Intimacy Deck came out in 2019, developed with psychologists and relationship therapists. Each deck plays like a game and gets people talking.
See all our conversation decks, or try the digital game decks on your phone.
Making time physical
My phone is a productivity app graveyard.
I like the idea of making time physical and seeing something in front of me. My phone is a productivity app graveyard, and that's why I need something physical. Even now, in 2026, as I write this, with AI and everything else going digital, I still need a paper journal on my desk. That's the thinking behind the Self Journal, our conversation decks and Helm.
What we make
Here's how to
Manage yourself
Planners and pads that put the plan on paper, where you can see it.
Here's how to
Manage your relationships
Card decks that play like a game and get people talking, for couples, families, friends and people you've just met. See all our conversation decks.
Here's how to
Manage your relationship with technology
Helm is a solid brass key that locks the apps on your phone until you get up and tap it again. Helm for Mac does the same on your computer.
Selling it, and buying it back
2020 brought the pandemic, a supply chain collapse and a buyout of my business partner. By 2022, after COVID, a first baby and postpartum while running the company, I was exhausted. I sold BestSelf to private equity.
In February 2024 I bought it back. After seeing life beyond an exit, I realized the grass wasn't greener. I missed the creativity, problem-solving, and creating the products I wanted to see in the world.
That same year we launched Helm, a solid brass key for your phone. Pick the apps that pull you away, tap your phone on Helm, and they stay locked until you get up and tap it again. It has no battery.
The record so far
- 2015 The Self Journal launches on Kickstarter with a $15,000 goal and raises more than $322,000.
- 2016 BestSelf wins Shopify's Build a Business competition.
- 2017 Wins Build a BIGGER Business and rings the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Cathryn is diagnosed with ADHD.
- 2019 The Intimacy Deck launches. BestSelf ranks No. 318 on the Inc. 5000.
- 2020 Pandemic, supply chain collapse, and Cathryn buys out her business partner.
- 2022 Cathryn sells BestSelf to private equity.
- 2024 Cathryn buys BestSelf back in February. Helm launches.
- 2026 More than 1.4 million Self Journals sold in 72 countries, and more than 600,000 orders shipped from bestself.co.
I run BestSelf from Austin, Texas. We've sold more than 1.4 million Self Journals in 72 countries, and I still design for my own mind first. If yours works like mine, here's how each of our tools helps with ADHD. The longer version of my story is in the founder's story of how I turned my own ADHD into BestSelf Co.
