Unknown but Effective Ways to Deal with ADHD

ADHD is a complex disorder caused by multiple factors, making it difficult to identify the exact causes, yet it is common to be found whether in children or adults, in a class of 25 to 30 children, it is likely that 2 to 3 students will have this disorder.

Types of ADHD

• Impulsive/hyperactive ADHD
• Inattentive and distractible ADHD
• Combined type ADHD (most common type)

Common Symptoms

• Hyperactivity: fidgeting, inability to sit in a calm environment, excessive physical movement.
• Inattention: problems concentrating on tasks.
• Impulsivity: excessive talking, inability to wait their turn, acting without thinking, interrupting conversations.

Possible Causes

• Genetics
• Low levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
• Exposure to toxins at a young age (e.g., lead)
• Drug, alcohol, or tobacco use during pregnancy
• Trauma and traumatic stress
• Premature birth
• Brain injury

ADHD Pro-Tips

You will get better as you learn more strategies for coping with ADHD.

General

• Pack things the day before so you don't forget.
• Don't drink alcohol.
• Do Cardio before you need to do things that require sitting.
• Use text-to-speech generators to help you read webpages/books.
• Keep things at eye level (especially notes/to-do lists).
• Take a cold shower in the morning or turn it cold just for 30-60 seconds at the end of your shower.
• Go to a therapist or a psychiatrist if you can.
• Buy a whiteboard to sketch out things when your mind starts going into overdrive.

School

• Try Active Recall& Spaced Repetition to study for all your exams.
• If you're finding it difficult to start assignments early then only read & annotate the assignment brief early and go take a break after that.
• It's better to turn in an assignment that is 75% done. It'll drag your grades down less than if you never turned it in.

Relationships

• It's okay to be in a room with people and just let people breathe. You don't need to fill the silence.
• If you feel like you're overwhelmed during a conversation, breathe in slowly and fully exhale. And if you interrupt someone, own up to it and say, "I'm sorry to interrupt. What were you going to say?".
• Try to avoid the word 'but' when faced with a conflict. Instead, try to be constructive towards arguments/discussions with the word 'and'.

Distractions

• Disable all the notifications on your phone except for essential apps.
• Use website blockers for distracting websites.
• Use noise-cancelling headphones & try white/brown noise.
• If you can't stop yourself from texting someone right away but don't have time to deal with it, tell the person you'll respond when you get a minute.

Work

• Find a job that works with your system.
• Try self-employment and start a business.
• Reply to emails and messages when you read them.
• Be honest about your limitations and own your sh*t.
• Stop comparing your output and motivation to others.
• Don't do things that may cause you stress/excess pressure just because it's money.

Sleep

• Put your phone on the other side of the room and make your alarm super loud. Gets you out of bed and will make you turn it off so you don't wake other people up.
• Use a reminder app for starting your bedtime routine, not merely when to sleep.
• Try setting up commitments early in the morning. They'll force you to get out of bed.
• Set two alarms when you get up in the morning. One to get out of bed and one for your medication. e.g: 5:30 AM wake up and take medication and then fall back to bed. By your 6 AM alarm you'll have woken up and your medication will have kicked in.

Memory

• Park in the same place whenever you go to a common place.
• Keep a spare house key in your car and one outside your house.
• Keep important items in visible and convenient locations.
• Get a Tile.
• Tape your most often made recipes to the inside of your kitchen cabinet doors.
• Three-point check when you close the front door: Phone, wallet, keys.
• Use voice assistants. "Remind me to do X tomorrow at Y time"
• Use the mind palace memory exercise to help solve retention issues.
• Put your keys on your lunch. That way you can't leave without your lunch.
• If you need to remember to bring something with you the next day, place it right in front of the exit door (or use sticky notes).
• Have convenient, labeled spaces for things. Use a cheap label maker.
• Have rules for placement of the important things in your life.
• Create a second brain for yourself. You could use Notion, nTask, or Coda.
• Count your steps as you walk into a new room. It'll help you remember why you entered that room.
• Use a bowl to throw your keys, badges, and wallet into when you get home. That way you can't leave without all the stuff you need.
• Add a calendar entry for each scheduled thing unless it's routine like a 9-5 job. Make the calendar entry immediately while making the appointment. Do this for parties, birthdays, dates, finals, med refills, trash night, etc.

Managerial Functions

• Set up a morning routine & a reset routine. A reset routine is something you do when you are feeling unfocused (e.g., meditation, exercise, journaling, music, tea).
• If it takes less than ten minutes to do the task, just do it immediately.
• If you start to feel frustrated for no reason, eat something and keep yourself hydrated.
• Set alarms using music rather than the default alarm sounds.
• Prepare something for the next day the night before.
• On tough days, try and accomplish just one thing for that day.
• Set a few non-negotiable laws for yourself. Pick those that improve your life the most (e.g., no phone in bed or at night/in the morning, no quick message check, read your goals every morning).

Time Blindness

• Set your phone clock 10-15 mins faster on purpose.
• Put appointments in your calendar 10-20 minutes earlier than the actual appointment.
• Set timers for activities you hyper-focus on. But set the timer for X minutes less than the task takes.
• For timers, use a watch rather than your phone to avoid getting distracted.
• Download an app on your phone that chimes and buzzes every half an hour during your awake time (keeps you aware of how much time has passed).
• Get an electric toothbrush with a timer.

Cleaning

• Whenever you lose something that you "put away," start keeping it in the first place you looked for it.
• To not get overwhelmed when cleaning, remember there are only 5 things you need to tackle: Trash, Laundry, Dishes, Putting things back that have a place, put things in a pile that don't have a place.
• If you can afford it: Get a cleaning person; It takes them 3 hours to do what you can do in 3 weeks. While they are there, use them as an accountability buddy (body-doubling) and sort out your misc tasks.
• Embrace chaos. Let your brain get distracted when you're cleaning.
• Have a dedicated playlist for cleaning (high tempo songs).
• Listen to podcasts/audiobooks when doing chores.

Other

• If you have an Android, put a widget from your to-do list app on your home screen so it's the first thing you see.
• Break tasks down into as many smaller tasks as you need for them to feel manageable.
• Try the Pomodoro technique.
• Try body-doubling.
• Try meditation.
• Lie to yourself to get started. For example, commit to cleaning 3 dishes. Once you get started, the momentum keeps you going.
• Remember that something is better than nothing. If you only get 26% of a task done then it's further than if you never started.
• Decide what you're going to do each day beforehand, make sure it's only 1 thing.
• When you take breaks, make sure your break isn't too interesting. That way you won't get absorbed in your break.
• Write to-do lists as a brain dump. And then order them in importance or the order you want to do them in. That way you don't pause while writing down tasks.
• Reward yourself when you get things done. Positive reinforcement is good and you'll feel like getting more things done.
• Change your environment and work from a place where there are fewer distractions.
• Change your alarm/timer sounds frequently, but use alarms and timers as much as possible.
• Treat timers and alarms like non-negotiable laws. When the timer goes off, doesn't matter what you were doing seconds ago, it's time to go.
• Don't feel bad about sucking at school/work. Forgive yourself for your limits.
• Try journaling as cognitive therapy to defuse emotional history.
• When a few things fall behind, reschedule them and move on. A missed deadline is not a catastrophe.
• If you are Vitamin D deficient then take Vitamin D supplements (see a doctor first).
• Eat plenty of protein and stay hydrated.

Systems Mentioned

• Active Recall
• Spaced Repetition
• Mind Palace Memory Exercise
• Pomodoro Technique
• Body-doubling

Recommended Apps

• Toggl
• Brain Focus
• Due
• Evernote

The Core Message

Understand that the future is still you. If you think you'll do something later, understand that future you is still you. Future you isn't more likely to muster up the desire to do the work. If you don't have the motivation to do it in the next 24 hours, then future you won't either.

Start working on letting go of shame. It depresses your motivation and only makes things worse. You wouldn't shame someone in a wheelchair for not getting things done, your difficulty is in your brain instead of your legs but it's no less real.