The part of my brain that needs to be interested in something to do it is actually very stupid and easily tricked. Sometimes when I’m stuck all I have to do is literally pretend I find the work engaging.

Not going through life alone. I dont necessarily mean you need a significant other. But someone who cares for you and is willing to help hold you accountable.

And TAKE NOTES!

I had a really great boss a while back. I was a team lead and he noticed that I’d have a hard time remembering things. Like, he’d give me 5 tasks to do, and I’d only remember 2 or 3 of them. I’d just space out, or my priorities would be fucked up. So he’d come back hours later “hey, did you do this thing yet?” “Oh, I forgot about that”.

Eventually, he decided to “force” me to carry a little notebook and had me write the tasks down. He’d start talking to me about the things we needed to do and suddenly go “oh, you should write this down”.

Now 10 years later, its a strong habit for me. Anytime I talk to someone at work, I bust out the notebook and just start taking notes. Then later in my office I’ll consolidate the notes.

It’s helped me out a ton. That boss giving me reminders and helping me to build the habit is one of the greatest skills he taught me. Thanks to him, my second marriage is much better because I can actually listen to my partner (yes, I take notes when my wife and I are talking about bills and plans and chores).

Between writing things down and having someone who would help give me reminders and feedback on my successes and failures, ive definitely grown so much more than I ever could alone.

Double speed audio.

I have real difficulty with listening to people speaking slowly. By the time they finish the sentence I have lost the start, so unless I actively hold their sentence until it is done I often lose meaning or misunderstand.

Listening at double speed allows me to keep up without losing what was said. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts while doing most chores and it has been a game changer.

I do what I call “productive procrastination”.
I allow myself to procrastinate by doing something else instead that’s also necessary to do.
Of course, “necessary” is a slippery term.
But what definitely doesn’t fall under it is doom-scrolling, day-drinking and wikipedia rabbit holes.

This actually lets me be pretty productive throughout the day, as long as I have tasks I can push back endlessly.
Like, I haven’t brought my finances and investments in proper order in over 10 years.
Which probably cost me a 5-digit amount in lost profit over that time frame.
But I’m fortunate enough to not feel it and accept things like this as my ADHD tax.
It would take a couple hours, but would involve decisions and it never becomes urgent.

Once i was in an executive position i hired people who are not afraid to oppose me, and who have abilities (like planning of sorts)that i lack.

I have a job working with teams to improve processes. I think a lot about waste and efficiencies, what end users will actually do or adopt, making things easier / faster, etc. Now I think about these things all the time in daily life, apply them to my ADHD, and iterate endlessly:

• If I put a thing I need to do a thing I hate behind another thing, I’m guaranteed not to dig it out. Tetris the things so the limiting thing is easy to grab. I.e., watering can, vacuum
• If I need a thing for multiple tasks or multiple locations and keeping misplacing the thing or not wanting to go get the thing, get more things and put them in all the places. I.e., gloves, sponges, tools
• Figure out what I need to do the thing I don’t want to do as efficiently as possible. I.e., Good sponges and scrubbers for dishes, vacuum that is easier to pull out/put away

Also, radical acceptance of the things that are limiters.

• High sensory levels and distaste for dampness- gloves for dishes, gloves for gardening, gloves for cleaning
• Not going to put all my clothes away consistently ever, design a dresser situation that supports clothes piling without blocking access to drawers

Look at your life. Sit there and think about the things that bother you. Now, think about just how many of those things that you actually have the power to change. Do those things, and don’t worry about the others. Life goes on.

It’s much easier said than done, I know, but I’ve found just not worrying about big things helps me focus on what matters to my life. Lexapro helps.

• Alarms and timers for everything.

• Custom sounds for phone to be 10dB higher than normal, to ensure I hear them and don’t just block it out as noise.

• Putting things that need taking care of later somewhere visible, like my laundry directly in front of my bedroom door so I have to do something with it just to open the door.

• Having autism, too, so the ADHD problems just naturally balance out.

Loud, energizing music will calm you by feeding a steady stream of dopamine.

Sadly this is also why I can fall asleep at a party after a coffee.

My kids do “the board”, write a checklist for the morning on a whiteboard.

I use the heck out of the phone calendar, and set alarms in both home system and work computer to make me stop and focus.

A “we have food for” list on the refrigerator.

To some extent, just aligning my schedule to fit my better hours, which are in the afternoon. I don’t go to work so early, because I’m kind of useless before lunch anyway.

I mainly struggle with the executive dysfunction part. I found that preparing anything at all helps, even just opening the document I need to write on another screen will mean that whenever my attention next detaches from whatever else I’m doing, I will automatically latch onto what I’m supposed to do as the next thing.

This is the only way I managed to make progress on my bachelor’s thesis.

Being accountable to someone. Also my least favorite ADHD lifehack.

Noise canceling headphones and white/background noise or music. Rather than true “white noise” I prefer deeper stuff like cosmic or other low wavelength noise.

If you really like doing something such as watching a new episode of your series on YouTube, but hate something else like exercising, combine the two. Only watch that series, while exercising. Then you’ll start looking forward to the exercise because you get to watch your series.

Set an alarm for an hour and a half before you wake up. Pop the Vyvanse then go back to sleep. Makes it so much easier to get out of bed once the meds start hitting.