my high school world history class had an i clicker. that history teacher was extremely dedicated to teaching and did a lot of pushing to get it! she made a point to include different senses for things like bringing in an object related to the days topic and letting us touch it, so she wanted the clickers for another tactile thing and also to cut down on paper for frequent short and ungraded quizzes. she also had us get up and walk around a lot, all sorts of little things that help memorization. we were required to take notes but she didn't mind if you had trouble writing or drew a lot of nonsense on the paper, she uploaded the lecture's powerpoints online so that you could copy anything you missed - i think the main point was to keep your hands busy while listening anyways. looking back, it was basically the perfect class for anyone, ADHD or not. (now, if only every class were like that..)

Along the lines of keeping hands busy & the original topic post, I think that kind of behavior is something that most people do to some extent, and it increases when you want to express or regulate emotions or thoughts. Thats pretty generic sounding, but I mean like, clicking a pen to relieve boredom, biting your nails when youre anxious, basically any repetitive movement. In my experience its more prevalent in neurodevelopmental disorders, like adhd, schizophrenia, autism, and etc. in autism spectrum disorders specifically its a symptom. one theory is that part of this is a way to block or counteract stimuli, so people who are more sensitive to stimuli do it in greater frequency and length, and possibly also more likely to choose certain types of stims (repeating noises and words, hand flapping, rocking).

The difference of when its called stimming and when its called fidgeting is pretty arbitrary, I'm not sure it matters all that much. I dont really understand the classification of stereotypy either. I think its basically decided based on "these particular behaviors are uncommon in neurotypical people and therefore socially unacceptable" which is sad. Then theres tics and movement disorders which are i think more unvoluntary or involuntary?

Anyways, it sounds like your 'problem' is you get bored and your 'solution' is to do something with your hands I think doing this to concentrate is more common in ADHD because having difficulty concentrating is more common in ADHD (naturally!) Similarly it can reduce anxiety so it happens more when people are anxious, and thus more in people with anxiety disorders etc etc

Theres a lot of products made specifically for this besides the tangle toys, I bought a fidget ring thats a nice wide band and the inner band can be spun. you can also look around for just any old object, i love to fiddle with these rubber character straps my friend gave me as a gift so i ended up buying a bunch more. i discovered i actually like playing with car keys more because of the sound, but the sound annoys other people, so ill stick with the quiet straps, haha. To get other ideas you can look up sites about stimming (ideally from people who stim a lot, not the researchy people). I think theres a blog called "f yeah stimming" or something like that which lists a whole ton of them