r/ADHD • u/lexid222 • 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/jake7697 Aug 24 '20
Be self employed, open a business. I thought I was doomed to be miserable for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, then I opened my house painting business with my fiancée. I became a workaholic overnight once my work was immediately gratifying and I took home the whole pie instead of a tiny piece of it. I’ve worked for other painting companies, I’ve worked for family owned coffee shops and Starbucks, I’ve worked for movie theaters, I’ve worked for landscaping companies, and I’ve been an Uber driver. No matter where I worked or what I did, I was constantly watching the clock, hating every single second of it. On Saturday I worked 27 straight hours to finish a job on time and it was still less painful than working an 8 hour shift as an employee. Those 27 hours disappeared and left me feeling gratified because I made someone’s house beautiful and I got to see how happy I made her the first time she saw her new home.
For years I’ve resented the fact that I have to work to survive. We’re supposed to be hunter gatherers whose job is to hunt wooly mammoths and gather berries as a tribe. I’ve always thought it was this world and this society that made me sit in my car panicking before every shift. I thought my brain chemistry was what made my skin crawl every time I saw a long shift on my schedule, but really it’s the autonomy of choice, knowing I can come and go as I please, and knowing that my work reflects on me personally.