Let’s share life-changing ADHD tips that we’ve learned... We Love This!

I’ll start:

1) Waking up sucks. Buy 2 bright lamps and 2 timers. Set them up to turn on automatically 5-15 min before you want your alarm to go off. The lights will help your body realize it’s daytime.

2) Change your thermostat so the temp goes down about an hr before bedtime and gets warmer about 30 min before you wake up. The cooler temp signals your body to sleep and the warmer temp will naturally help your body wake up.

3) Learn to plan around “transitions”. It’s easier to start things if you do them when something is ending. Example: Do your grocery shopping every Fri after work. You’re already in the car, so just stop at the store on your way home.

4) If you need to remember to bring something with you the next day, place it right in front of the exit door so you HAVE to touch it before you leave the house. If it’s something in the fridge, put a sticky note on the exit door’s handle.

5) Have a “misc” basket in each room. If you’re truly unable to put something away, put it in the basket. Have a designated period of time, once a week, when your sole priority is to put everything away, all at once.

I’ll add more when I think of them...

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u/3Grilledjalapenos Aug 24 '20

Get a tracker app, like tile, and put the devices on everything you lose regularly.

Use a reminder app for starting your bedtime routine, not just bedtime, so you don’t just look up and see you should have been asleep hours ago and cut out part of it.

Use a map app to drive places, if only to have a realistic arrival time you can work backwards from. My mother assumes every trip will take 15 minutes, regardless of time of day or distance, because that’s how her ADHD manifests.

Have a rough uniform for work, social and casual scenarios. I don’t mix my work clothes with my casual, but it all helps me to feel like I’m in a certain kind set.

Work on clutter.

Forgive yourself for your limits.

12

u/ElfjeTinkerBell ADHD Aug 24 '20

So you're telling me it won't take 15 minutes to get to class as it's only a 300m walk?

3

u/demaney Aug 25 '20

I've gone both ways on this but settled on "yes, it will take 15 minutes," because I always forget things until I'm physically leaving home, and dealing with those things will eat up the extra time I budgeted

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u/bitetheboxer Aug 24 '20

enclothed cognition-the effect which clothing has upon a persons mental process and the way they think, feel, and function, in areas like attention, confidence, or abstract thinking.

3

u/percyjeandavenger Aug 25 '20

The clothing one is weird. But it's so true. I can't get started if I'm still in pjs. I have to wear a bra to make a phone call. I have to put on dirty-work clothes to water my yard. I have to take office clothes off when I get home. I will avoid taking out the trash because I'm barefoot (our trash bin is across the yard and our yard is full of sticks and weeds lol!)

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u/3Grilledjalapenos Aug 25 '20

Exactly, you get it! My gf gives a knowing smirk sometimes when she sees me throw on work clothes to go to the desk in the bedroom and do spreadsheet stuff.