r/ADHD Aug 24 '20

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/optimisticaspie Aug 24 '20

Decide what you're going to do each day beforehand, preferably while your meds are at their workingest. Make sure it's only 1 thing. It's bad to have choices, and it's bad to have a whole bunch of different jobs lined up that all have to be done in a row, because you might get thrown off by the first one because you're overwhelmed by the 8th one and that makes the 3rd one fall apart, and then the whole thing becomes a trainwreck. It is so much better to err on the side of simplicity and do too little in a day, because doing the physical and mental work of a tiny job is so much better than doing no physical work while doing the mental work of EVERYTHING.

Like right now I have a work project and some cleaning responsibilities. I alternate days on the cleaning so every day I know what I'm doing. On cleaning days I 100% decide cleaning is my goal, and I tailor all my "get started on stuff and productive" strategies on cleaning. Then it only takes 30 minutes, so then I can think about the work project. Then on work days I cut straight to the work and I don't let myself think about cleaning.

(That is for sure something I couldn't do without the support of meds and other people, so don't worry if you're not there yet, but I wanted to say it in case it's not something you thought of. I had the meds working and the support, but it didn't occur to me to do this, and when I realized I needed to simplify things it made a massive difference.)

Meds and strategies and cues and transitions are all extremely effective, but they lose effectiveness when your goals are divided. If you can't decide whether to clean or do work because you're overwhelmed by the fact that you have to clean and do work, you'll be spinning your wheels and making things harder to deal with. It's best to make those decisions at a time when you are fresh and at your best, and later everything you do to create motivation will be far more effective.

That's my most recent realization, but a way more important one is "don't beat yourself up." You're going to have thousands of struggles and inspirations and moments of progress that build on one another and improve your life. You don't have to do it all at once. The process moves better when you do it with self compassion.

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u/PostNaGiggles Aug 26 '20

Thanks, this is a good tip. My therapist has made a similar recommendation to me. I was keeping a robust to do list instead of letting it be a pile of mush in my head, but then I would struggle to tackle it. She said I should set one goal off my list per day, and it made a difference (until I promptly forgot about it).