If you have ADHD, it is good to learn how to cope with its symptoms. Doing so will help control the symptoms of this disorder and help you become more organized, productive and in control of life. This is important because Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can present challenges across all areas of life as a person with this disorder has a functionally different brain from other people. That said here are tips for managing adult ADHD:
Organize Your Tasks
ADHD makes it hard for a person to get organized as it often causes inattention and distractibility. One of the best ways to get organized if you have this disorder is to break all your tasks into smaller steps. Breaking tasks especially big, complex ones into smaller parts will make it easy for you to finish tasks that may have looked overwhelming at first as this will make the tasks seem manageable. Remember to rank the tasks you broke from the most important to the least important.
Use a Day Planner or a Calendar App
Day planners and calendar apps are very important if you have ADHD as they will help you remember deadlines and appointments. This is very beneficial because people with ADHD have trouble meeting deadlines. If you decide to use electronic calendars, set up automatic reminders so that you will not forget scheduled events. On the other hand, if you use a day planner, keep all notes and lists of appointments, deadlines, projects and scheduled tasks inside it.
Deal With Some Tasks on the Spot
It is a good idea to deal with a task that takes 2 minutes or less on the spot instead of choosing to do it later. Doing this will help you avoid procrastination and forgetfulness. So, it is good to know how much time different tasks need so that you can deal with others on the spot.
Manage Your Time and Stay On Schedule
A person with ADHD has a problem with time management. This makes such a person miss deadlines, lose track of time regularly, underestimate the time needed by tasks, procrastinate or doing tasks in the wrong order. Adults with ADHD could end up focusing on a single task at the expense of other tasks (hyper-focusing). They don’t know that time passes.
To deal with time management problems, use timers and give yourself more time than you need. Timers will enable you to know when it is time to complete a certain task. This will make you more productive and help you know that time passes. Apart from using timers, giving yourself more time than you think a certain task needs will help you have extra time to complete a certain task if you have not completed it.
Minimize Distractions
Distractions can greatly affect those with ADHD and it is good to think of ways to minimize them. Regulate any distractions that can distract you to increase the time you spend on tasks. Identify your distractions and try to deal with them. It could be other people or electronics.