Shortcuts to Success?

Are you in search of some tips and tricks to get over some of those issues that you face when it comes to your ADHD?  Although there is never an easy “shortcut,” there is still a lot of advice to be offered in making your life a little easier.  As Thomas A. Edison once said, “The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.”  Although it may not be easy, putting in the time to achieve goals when it comes to getting on top of your ADHD is very worth it in the long run.  This is why we will refer to these tips and tricks as “workarounds” rather than “shortcuts.”  Because in reality, there is no easy fix or “short” way to improve.  

Where We Struggle

Examples of places where you may struggle and could use those extra pushes include having a difficult time estimating time, getting started, having transition points while doing work, and allocating appropriate amounts of time on important tasks. This has to do in part with the way our brain works.  Another issue is that you may tend to misread the actual amount of effort that people put into different types of activities. It may appear that some people (“normal” or more appropriately “neurotypical” folks) do not have to try as hard to make progress on tedious tasks.  However, most people do struggle with tedious and boring tasks, they just have the ability to recall, in the moment, why that task is vitally important and bring to mind their longer-term goals/objectives.  Essentially, neurotypical folks have the ability to start their engines without warming up first. ADHDer brains are like a vintage car that needs priming and warming up before it gets going down the road.  

Have the Right Intentions

Before getting to the actual tips and tricks, we need to know that to get things done, a person has to have strong intentions. Intentions are the precursor to attention. If we do not have clear intentions then our focus will flounder. Likewise, if we set ourselves up with inaccurate or unrealistic expectations about how “easy” or “difficult” something is or should be, then we are really setting ourselves up for disappointment. Realistic expectations are better than unrealistic ones.

Love Your ADHD

Everyone needs assistance, guidance, and help. Whether you have ADHD or not you need a calendar, reminders, friends to keep you on track, etc. Virtually no successful people get there alone without some type of help from others or tools. This is where the common sense, part of Edison’s quote comes in handy. We have to use our common sense to understand that shame is a seductive emotion.  While it feels real and valid it often is based on our perceptions rather than facts.  In Psychology, these are called cognitive distortions (for more on these see this article: https://psychcentral.com/lib/15-common-cognitive-distortions/).

I implore you to rid yourself of shame, doubt, and insecurity. These states of mind will kill your motivation and zap your energy. Worse yet, they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. They create debilitating states of indecisiveness and paralysis. When clients tell me they feel like they get stuck and can’t move forward, usually, some kind of shame cycle is involved. We need to break the cycle of shame and it starts with loving ourselves, including loving your ADHD. Yes, I said it, love your ADHD. You are ADHD.  After all, it’s neurobiologically how you were built, so embrace it! Practice radical acceptance. Accept the negatives as opportunities for growth and learn from your mistakes.

Pay more attention to your strengths and positive attributes as well, rather than wasting your time feeling bad and trying to rid yourself of problematic ADHD tendencies that are outside of your control. Spend your time instead focused on what you can do about it, how you can move forward, and employ strategies for success.  

So, what kinds of constructive and solution-oriented actions can we take? Here is where these ADHD hacks, or “workarounds” can come in handy.  They can allow you to utilize your strengths, attributes, and creative problem-solving abilities in many ways.  A few of my favorite are listed below.  

“Workarounds” for Making Your Life with ADHD a Little Bit Easier

  1. Alarmy – It’s an alarm app that forces you to actually get up and go take a picture of something, like a picture hanging in your bathroom for instance, before it allows you to shut off the alarm. This helps with the habit of hitting snooze 1,000 times, or worse, shutting off your alarm and going back to sleep.
  2. Use Siri – By using voice command on your phone or apple watch you can quickly input To Do lists and add reminders without having to open up your phone. How many times have you opened your phone to do one thing and then find yourself clicking on other tabs, apps, and notifications? We can find ourselves going down a rabbit hole very quickly with technology.
  3. Muse headband – I use the Muse headband which is a mindfulness/meditation device. It has helped me create distance from my emotions and think before acting. It uses a proprietary algorithm to track your EEG brain waves and is designed to provide real-time feedback. The background scene, like the sound of a beach, gets louder as your focus wanes and gets quieter the more focused you are on your breath. This is helpful because it provides stimulation and makes meditation into a more active, engaging experience.
  4. Grammarly – I use this app to help with emails and writing tasks. It’s an add-on app for chrome and it helps with correcting your grammar and spelling. It even works within Microsoft Word.
  5. Boomerang for Gmail – This add-on helps to remind you of important email messages. It can send an email back to your inbox and remind you of important emails.  You can schedule emails as well. This is helpful if you want to for example, draft an email at midnight, but want to be sure to send it at 8 am the next day.
  6. Watch half episodes and Autoplay on streaming services – Have you noticed that Netflix tries to get you to watch episode after episode? This can lead to binge watching shows. The trick that I found is to stop watching the show halfway through instead of waiting until the end (where inevitably they end on a cliffhanger). Also, disable the autoplay functionality where you can.
  7. Power smoothies – I am constantly forgetting to eat. Therefore, I start the day with a power smoothie full of brain-boosting stuff – bananas, berries, almond milk, coconut oil, flax seeds, hemp seeds, veggie-based protein powder, spinach/greens, and almond butter.  
  8. Use Nightshift mode on your iPhone – Swipe up to reveal this button. Blue light has been shown to keep your brain awake at night because it simulates sunlight. Turning on Night Shift mode adjusts the light on your phone to not make it harmful to your sleep cycle.
  9. Temptation bundling – Use doing dishes as mindfulness time.  Use this or another mindless activity as a time to reflect on the day.  Another example could be practicing mindfulness while you are waiting for your coffee to be made.  
  10. Ebooks – These are great when you have a hard time focusing on reading an entire book. You can listen on Audible.com or get a Kindle Ebook with narration enabled.This is great for students with textbooks to read.
  11. Speech to Text – within Google Docs you can enable speech to text. This is a helpful way to write papers and get your ideas down on a page. Go to Tools, then Voice Typing, and allow it you access your computer microphone. Mac computers also have dictation built in.
  12. Line of sight Memory Hack – Put things intentionally in your way. A sticky note near your door handle, on the bathroom mirror, your gym bag in the way of the door, etc. etc. This will force you to move the item that is in your way and thereby remind you that you need to do something with it. Bingo!
  13. Location-based Reminders – The Google Calendar app on your phone will do this. There are other apps as well that have this functionality baked in. Take advantage of it. It will remind you when you enter the house to do something like taking out the garbage.
  14. Alexa – This neat device can read your calendar, play music, order groceries via Amazon pantry, and all sorts of cool things.
  15. Brush your teeth at 9 pm – Are you a late night snacker?  Guilty as charged! Brush your teeth at 9 pm to avoid eating anything past that point. Eating certain kinds of food too late in the evening can impact the quality of your sleep. By brushing your teeth you signal to your brain that it is time to stop eating and get into bedtime mode.  
  16. Shower timer – Put a waterproof timer in the shower.
  17. Tile – Never lose your things again with Tile. It’s an electronic tracking device that you can attach to your purse, backpack, wallet, keys, phone, etc. When you attach a Tile to these items, your phone can ping them and alert you when you are getting close to finding them.

 

If you enjoyed this article, make sure to check out Aaron’s recent interview and contributions to PsychCentral.com! Featured in the following articles:

ADHD and Adults: Systems, Strategies and Shortcuts that Foster Success

https://psychcentral.com/lib/adhd-and-adults-systems-strategies-and-shortcuts-that-foster-success/

ADHD and Adults: Innovative Tools to Help You Get Things Done and Thrive

https://psychcentral.com/lib/adhd-and-adults-innovative-tools-to-help-you-get-things-done-and-thrive/

 

Aaron is a Certified ADHD Coach at Potential Within Reach and the co-host of Attention Different, an ADHD podcast. He helps individuals with ADHD and Executive Functioning challenges to bridge the gap between their current performance and their potential. Find out more at potentialwithinreach.com, and attentiondifferent.org.