As an adult with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) it may be challenging to keep yourself on task, even with your daily routine. Sometimes it may be hard to manage getting ready in the morning for work or school, difficult to remember everything you’ll need for the day, challenge managing relationships or other social demands. Let’s discuss five tips you can use to help manage your ADHD.
Watch the Clock
Did you ever notice how time seems to fly when you are working in the garage or spending time in the living room or even in the bathroom? If you had a clock in those areas to keep you grounded, you might be more efficient in your usage, no pun intended. I’m not talking about having a small appliance clock somewhere in the general vicinity, I’m talking about having a large decorative display clock which you can hardly miss to help you keep track of how much time you are spending in your various activities. In fact, when you first start your task, you might even call out the time out loud for your own ears to hear, to make it easier to remember what time you started the task and how much time has elapsed. This may sound funny to you, like you’re talking to yourself, but it is tremendously helpful!
Use Timers and Reminders to Help With ADHD
Did you ever turn on the water to refill your pool, or turn on the oven to preheat it, or turn on the stove to warm up the oil or the milk, and forget to turn it off? Did that create a mess which takes even longer to clean up afterwards? Wouldn’t it be much more efficient to press the button on your smart phone and say “ok Google/hey Siri, set timer to X minutes.” Its so easy now to set timers and reminders on your smart phone, and is an amazingly efficient use of time and tech!
Priority Lists Keep You Focused
When I was in college, way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I kept a folded up piece of paper in my shirt pocket. This small rectangle of paper served as my “to do” list and it worked well for me and still does. You don’t have to use this arcane method, but you definitely want to keep a priority list of tasks, from high priority to lower priority. If you’re using paper and pen, you can use columns as your priorities, so the first column can be highest priority, the middle column medium priority and the last column low priority. If you’re using an electronic system like your smart phone, a priority numbering system like 1, 2 or 3 could work well
as the tasks will automatically get reorganized to show the priority level. You then will want to set a regular routine of checking your To Do list each morning and periodically throughout the day to check off the tasks that are complete.
Also, as a side note, other people will give you tasks to complete. It works well to enter that task right away according to your own priority, rather than theirs.
Time Drains to Avoid
Today our method of communicating even at work has become less and less by voice over telephone, and more and more by email or text message. The problem is that now we spend so much time checking email that we often lose time for other important tasks. What sometimes happens however, is that we switch from checking email to just checking one more time any new posts on our Facebook page, or twitter feeds etc and we drain our time like nothing else can. If you are able to limit how much you check your email in your day, that may save you lots of time. If
however, you work from home or must stay connected to your email all day, then moving app icons to different locations, or burying them inside folders and hiding them is places which make them harder to get to can help you stay focused.
Give Yourself Extra Time
A lot of times we try to squeeze in as many things are we possibly can and so we create an impossibly tight schedule for ourselves. Often we don’t give attention to scheduling detail because of our other stresses and our ADHD. Sometimes if we have to meet someone right after another meeting, we will not give ourselves a cushion in case we get late or hit traffic, etc. Always give yourself a 20% cushion. So if drive time is 30 minutes, say that you’ll meet in 36 or 40 minutes, rather than 20! That will help you feel more relaxed, less stressed and it will be safer for you and others as well.
ADHD has no cure in itself, but can definitely be managed using a few well thought of interventions. These interventions will eventually become habits with enough practice.
For additional help you can find many resources (such as articles, apps, podcasts, and webinars) to help you manage your ADHD at Psychiatry.Live.
