Tips

If you feel like you may have adult ADHD you should consult a medical practitioner to be properly assessed and diagnosed. However, some of the tips below may be useful in your everyday life:

Organisation and Planning

  • Learn to effectively and consistently use a diary or electronic calendar – while this is laborious to begin with, once checking and updating your diary becomes automatic you won’t find it inconvenient anymore. This helps reduce the number of things you have to hold in your mind during the day, freeing your mind for more important matters.
  • Work on problem solving skills. A good model for problem solving skills is:
    • Clearly identify the goal
    • Identify small steps required to achieve goal
    • Identify obstacles to individual steps
    • Brainstorm possible solutions to the problem and the consequences of those solutions
    • Pick the most desirable solution and form a concrete plan to achieve goal.
    • Develop a priority system for your mail and papers. For example, you may have a ‘high priority’ tray at home for bills and other important things.

Reduce Distractibility

  • Work on your attention span. To do this, set a goal to stick at an activity (whether it is work or study) for a period of time that you know you can achieve. Then increase this time consistently each time you go back to that activity. It is important that during the time you have allocated you maintain your attention. Attention can be practised and improved just like other skills.
  • Have a designated work space free from other distractions.

Adaptive thinking

  • Think positively. Identify times and situations where you feel negative about yourself and question the negative thoughts. Ask your friends and family what they think? Do the negative thoughts and your friend’s thoughts match up? If not, can you think of a more positive way to think about the situation?
  • Reward yourself when you achieve goals. Rewards are very powerful motivators. Do not punish yourself if you trip up along the way. Think carefully about what went wrong and reform your plan taking in new circumstances.

Concentrate on social skills

  • Practice active listening – this means listening to someone intently until they have fully expressed themselves. Often, we think we know what a person is going to say before they have finished and we find it hard not to move on to the next part of the conversation. Waiting for them to finish allows them to feel understood and stops you from making embarrassing mistakes if your assumption was wrong.
  • Slow your speech down – especially when we are very excited or happy, it can be easy to start speaking too fast and lose your sense of what is appropriate or inappropriate to say. If you feel this happening, slow yourself down and think about what you are saying.

Live a healthy life

Living a healthy life benefits all areas of life, including difficulties associated with ADHD.

  • Make sure you get a proper, restful sleep every night.
  • Try to eat a balanced diet of fruit, vegetables, and meats.
  • Exercise regularly. Half an hour a day of exercise can have benefits in all areas of your life.
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