It has been my mission,   to discover what techniques for getting my essential life tasks finished actually seem to work for people with ADHD. I have found several antedotes for the poisen of overwhelm and lack of productivity.

First, change your self talk immediately! Few things are as damaging as the stories that we with ADHD tell ourselves.  Instead of  “I will never get the job done”, begin saying, “ I will get some of this done right now, no problem at all”.

Second, Get real with your abilites and pick a task tolerence time for yourself.    Ask yourself, “how many minutes would I for sure be able to handle doing this task?”   Most people with ADHD can do anything for a few minutes at a time – no problem.  Decide what your task tolerence limit is. For me, I can do anything for 10 minutes, even the hard things like laundry, or straightening up my stuff.  If it is really difficult, like opening the mail, I will break that down into 3 minute sessions.

Third, Use a timer or countdown clock online ( I like the online countdown clock atwww.online-stopwatch.com).  Set your timer for the number of minutes you decided on, start the timer and begin repeating your mantra “ I can do this, I can do this yes I can, yes I can”!  If you start to daydream or become distracted or discouraged, just look at the clock and remember you totally get to stop, after your timer goes off!  I am usually shocked how much I can do in ten minutes of uninterrupted task time. Today for example, I cleared off a pile of clothes and junk from a surface in my home office. It turns out that 10 minutes is all it took to organize and put away a weeks worth of piled clothes, papers and other miscalaneous stuff!

Fourth, Decide how much time you get off for doing a little on a task.  I am allowed 20 minutes off for every 10 minutes I spend doing my tasks. That might seem like a lot, but I would have easily burned right through a half an hour just procrastinating or doing something else. In fact as usual, I am writing this blog entry as a reward for doing a 10 minute office clean up.  I find that setting a reward-time timer is also essntial.  Without timers, I would be lost in internet space, or find myself three hours later writing a million word essay instead of a short and useful blog.

Getting tasks done around the house and at work used to really be overwhelming for me.  I found that for myself and for many of my clients with ADHD, setting a timer, using my mantra and giving myself reward time really works.

In fact, my reward time is almost done, so I will set it for another 10 minutes and see how much I can get straightened on my desk, then I will use my next reward time to finish and polish up this blog entry.  In any case, I have one very clear surface in my home office, and I got another blog entry done, not bad for about 30 minutes work.  My ADHD really works for me!

Let me know what you want to accomplish in 10 minute Power Bursts.

You will probably just make it

Any adult who has ADHD will not be surprised when they hear someone say that their life is in turmoil. That is often a good description of someone with the condition, an ADDer or ADHDer. They find the following types of behavior or words to be commonplace in their life – procrastination, impulsive, poor time-management, easily distracted and inattention (actually-surplus attention). In fact those words are par for the course with many who have ADHD.

And of course if you do keep putting things off, if you tend to rush into things or find yourself running late or going overtime, your life can be pretty frustrating at those times. But there is a way through the difficulties.

The good thing about being an adult with ADHD is that you can understand the condition; you can have it explained and ask relevant questions. You can then consider strategies which are designed to help you make it through the day. And there are strategies which work. The first is quite simple. It’s in the heading of the article.

If you look at a task you have to perform and you calculate it will take an hour, double that time and thus give yourself the freedom to reach your goal without bumping up your stress meter. It sounds simple and it is but it works. If you have time-management problems and tend to get side-tracked or procrastinate, give yourself more time. Expand your time boundaries.

Another thing which is important to adults with ADHD is that they can consciously make decisions. An adult can look at the options and make a choice. And these choices, these strategies apply equally as well in your personal life as in your professional duties.

You don’t need to be an expert in human behavior, and you do need to follow some simple and tested rules. The first is to make a list of tasks you have to do. This of course is simple but then comes the tricky bit. You have to prioritize the tasks. You have to make a list of your tasks in order of importance

You see one of the characteristics of an ADHDer is they get to the end of the day and they haven’t done one or more of the things they needed to do. Now if the undone tasks are low in priority then that’s not such a bad thing. But if the unfinished task is important, your day could get even worse.

Once your list is done in order of priority – the most important tasks at the top – you make a plan. What do I need to do get those important tasks completed? That could mean setting an alarm clock, allowing plenty of time to finish the task and allowing for travel, meal breaks, tiredness, etc. Then you are armed for battle. You have a plan which is based on a list with tasks in order of importance. You’re ready to go. You’re ready to conquer your ADHD hiccups and make your day go exactly to plan.

Women Running Late

Adults ADHD in California – what is the main complaint?

Attention Disorder Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is believed to affect about 8% of children and about a half of these sufferers will continue with the disorder when they grow into adults. So ADHD is a significant part of the life of millions of people and of course their disorder will impact on their family, friends, teachers, fellow workers, etc.

In recent years rapid progress has been made particularly in dealing with adults who have ADHD. Professionals are better at diagnosis, understanding the full spectrum of the disorder, as well as treatments be it with medication, psychotherapy, coaching or other alternatives.

With adults, one of the major signs of their disorder is their inability tokeep appointments. They may hold down a steady job but being late on a number of occasions puts their employment at risk. Or it can show up in everyday life like meeting someone at a restaurant, attending a family gathering or even collecting your child after school. If the ADHD adult does not put systems and structures in place, then poor time-keeping may often be a feature of their lifestyle. But does not need to be so.

The interesting aspect about tardiness is that it can be overcome. It would be nice to say cured, however, we will have to settle for ways and means to reduce or eradicate your being-late behavior.

You can be proactive with physical reminders. Your email program on your computer will react if you have added details of an appointment. You can get up in the morning and turn on your computer and see your whole day. Bingo, the details come up as to where you have to be today and at what time.

Lugging your computer around everywhere may pose some problems. Some alternative choices that can help are mobile phones, clock radios and portable email receivers which can all be programmed to make a sound and/or show a text message which will remind you of your appointments and schedule. Get into the habit of giving yourself these physical reminders. And don’t be afraid of being early. If lateness is a an issue, set your arrival time to a bit earlier which will help guarantee you will not be late.

One relevant point is to check the reason or reasons as to why you are late. If you can look beneath the lateness and find its true cause, you may be able to remove or alter your being late. Are you late for work because you dislike your job? If that’s the case you may want to try to find work which is more stimulating.

Not having an interesting job is pretty much the same as not wanting to go to a meeting or get-together. We all have to go to places and events we’d rather avoid, yet once you know why you are turning up late, (as an example- you have little interest in your destination), you can tackle your lack of enthusiasm. Find out why you are late and then do something practical to challenge or remove that cause.

The good thing, if that’s the expression, about being late is that the problem can be managed. Sit down with pen and paper and plan your week. List the appointments you have for the next few days. Make notes about how you will travel and when you will depart. Put this plan in a prominent place. Check it daily and follow your own directions. You can be on time every time.

If you find it difficult to tackle this on your own, a professional specializing in ADHD can help you move beyond where you are stuck and help you reach your goals.

Business Women with Deadline

ADHD Symptoms

The ADHD brain has problems doing all sorts of things and we’ve really only just starting to find this out. The ability of scientists such as neurologists and neuroscientists to take photos of the human brain and then analyze what is happening, means we are better able to discuss, define and treat people with ADHD.

The brain is divided into sections and one of these is known as the pre-frontal cortex. Photo imaging or a kind of x-ray of the brain shows that there are differences in the structure of parts of the brain between someone with ADHD and someone who does not have the disorder. Knowing these differences is a major step towards better understanding and thus the treatment of the patient be they a child or an adult.

Referring back to that part of the brain known as the pre-frontal cortex, we know that this part of the brain is linked with executive functioning which manages the following activities – problem solving, attention, reasoning and planning. Now with imaging you can see that the brain of a person with ADHD is likely to have problems with the above activities and will need help.

If the ADHD brain has problems when it comes to planning, then the life of that person will have potential difficulties and hardships. Planning takes the ability to prioritize, forward think, manage time, and factor in consequences.  If you can’t prioritize or you get times confused by thinking that five minutes is really an hour or two, then planning successfully is difficult to impossible. You simply don’t consider  how to successfully judge the real time it takes to complete a task.

Likewise with paying attention, reasoning and solving problems. With the ADHD brain these tasks can be difficult when a person is not interested.

Because ADHD with children tends to get more publicity than the disorder experienced by adults, we need to understand that the brain of a small growing child can be shown to be different when you consider an ADHD child or a child without ADHD.

ADHD symptoms don’t disappear as children grow into adults, the symptoms tend to change from being seen externally to being experienced internally. It is important to understand that distractibility can be an on-going problem for ADHD sufferers.

Distractibility is the primary reason and clear illustration as to why ADHD brains cannot fixate or think logically when it comes to time. When the brain is not functioning normally, when the chemical balance inside the brain may be an imbalance, then the ADHD child or adult gets their timing skills out of line. They think they have been working on a task for a few minutes when in fact they have been absorbed for much longer.

Medication and cognitive behavior therapy have long been a part of helping those with ADHD. Both these methods of treatment can be prescribed to assist the sufferer to better manage their time-keeping.

Rewarding positive behavior is one typical form of treatment. Setting simple tasks, staying with the ADHD sufferer to keep them on track and then rewarding them for using time-keeping successfully is another way to improve the performances of a person with ADHD.