Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a mental health condition that can manifest in different ways like compulsiveness, inattention, hyperactivity, or a combination of these traits. Living with this type of condition makes every activity challenging in your daily life. ADHD is often found in kids and will likely impede their mental development early on.
There’s no cure or preventative measure that can help people afflicted with it. Fortunately, there are some techniques and strategies one can do to make the symptoms more manageable and still be able to function properly in everyday life. Here are some of them:
Create a To-Do List
Suppose you spend most of your day mulling over what to do during the day but do very little by the time dinnertime arrives. In that case, you probably need to be more organized, and if you already have an organization plan, you probably need a new strategy for organizing your day. If you’re on the former, one thing you can do is to write down your schedule every night before you go to bed.
This will make you more motivated to do the first thing on your list the next morning, and from that, you can steamroll your list later during the day. Whether you have to go to work or do chores all day, it’s always better to list your priorities instead of having them just in your mind, which will make you lose focus or forget everything.
That said, if you have written them, make a habit of consistently looking at your list every time you finish a task so you’ll always know what to do.
Organize Your Space
If you’re always dealing with anxiety, one thing you can do is to make yourself busy. You can do this by organizing or rearranging your personal space. Not only will it make your room or workspace clean, but it can also help reduce anxiety. This is helpful if you’re always losing things, as you can group similar things in a container or drawer. People with ADHD tend to lose a lot of things due to inattentiveness or being out of focus, so organizing your space will help a lot.
Eliminate Distraction While Driving
Distractions while driving pose a danger for everyone, especially those with ADHD. People with ADHD tend to focus more on distraction than a regular person. Mostly, it’s fairly okay, but not when driving. When you’re driving, you need to focus on the road to avoid driving into somewhere dangerous and into other vehicles, but with people with ADHD, this can be hard to do sometimes.
We may be unable to remove the distraction from outside the vehicle. Still, the least we can do is remove any distractions inside our cars like bobby-head dolls, dangling accessories hanging from the rearview mirror, or even stickers on your dashboard.
Manage Your Finances
People with ADHD can sometimes be forgetful to the point that they miss due dates for their bills. One thing you can do about this is to create a calendar and put it somewhere you can always see, like sticking it on the door of the fridge or in your bedroom’s mirror. You can also use online banking more to make things easier for you.
If you’re having problems remembering deadlines, you can set the alarm a day before your due date. If you’re keeping a list of schedules, you can also put up your deadlines there, so it’s easier to remember. There are apps in the play store that you can install on your phone to help you remember your due date.
Manage Your Time
The trouble with time management is a common effect of ADHD, and many people suffer from it. For a person with ADHD, it’s easy to frequently lose track of time, miss deadlines, procrastinate, underestimate the amount of time needed for a specific task, or even find themselves doing things out of order. This is even worse when it comes to medications.
If you’re taking medicines such as Vyvanse for your condition, make sure to follow the intake time and instructions given. If you’re low on funds, consider getting an ADHD prescription discount. This way, you wouldn’t miss a dose due to insufficient finances for your meds.
It’s common for them to be hyper focused on a single task and not get other things done. These difficulties are frustrating, and sometimes, they have unintended consequences. How do you deal with that? One thing you can do is to do the oldest trick in the book, which is to have a clock; a wristwatch if possible. It might sound simple, but it’s very effective. Before you start a task, you can read the time aloud or write it down and do the task itself.
This will help you keep track of time and know how much time has passed. You can even use a stopwatch or alarm to keep track of time more accurately. You can also make schedules and have alarms 15 minutes before the allotted time so you can have time to prepare.
Final Words
ADHD can be debilitating to a lot of people suffering from it. Although a lot has been known about the condition, there’s still no cure or preventative measures for it, and all we can do is to live and bear with it. Fortunately, the tips above can help our time with the condition become more bearable and still function as normal citizens of society.
