Personally the things hat have helped me out the most include:
Notetaking - I have grudgingly come to the conclusion that my memory isn’t…good, so I just started taking notes on everything and anything that I learn.
Active learning applied to life has helped me a lot, and being able to have one software for everything I need to remember helps too.
I switched through a few, but I’m settling on ObsidianMD for now on account of markdown apparently being the most accessible for transferring to different software if the need ever comes.
Developing an interest in mental health topics -
I find that by researching more about mental health and things I’ve been diagnosed with, I’m more understanding and less stressed out about the things I’ve done in my life.
A lot of people look at their ADHD diagnosis and try to ignore it, but for me, I need to have an understanding of how my body and brain works in order to cope with it properly.
With that said, I usually look up things on ADDitudemag and books that I find on sale.
Understanding self-improvement isn’t necessarily productivity -
This was one of the bigger things in my life I had to learn to understand, and to this day I’m still struggling.
Basically, just take the productivity rat race and put it in a corner for now, and start looking at yourself as a person and decide what will help you out the most.
For example, cleaning doesn’t have to be productive, it just needs to be done so you can walk from point A to B.
How about you? What helps you the most?
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Writing everything down. I have to write EVERYTHING down, immediately. Anything with a date/time goes into that day in my planner. Things without date/time go onto Google Keep on my phone. Then I figure out what to do with it all at the end of the day.
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Using a planner - yes, I know. It’s very hard to use a planner with ADHD. I finally figured out how to do it for myself when I was around 35. I still can’t use electronic calendars consistently. And I don’t need bells and whistles that some planners have, like goals and stuff. Just dates and times.
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Education and self-compassion. I learned a lot just by reading things online, and then later I also went to grad school and became a therapist (obviously you don’t need to do that in order to be able to educate yourself about ADHD). Once I knew more about ADHD, I understood just how much it affected my whole life, from childhood. And then I started to try and not be so hard on myself and treat myself with respect and understanding. It really helps.
Yes to writing everything down and yes to google keep. I am now trialling using ticktick and obsidian but google keep stays as its simplicity makes it the perfect tool for quickly capturing thoughts before they fall out of your head forever.
I also majorly thank myself for the few things I indexed when I started a bullet journal. Everything I need my driving test ref it is so satisfying to go to the contents page and find the page number where the ref number is written down.
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I’d agree with basically all of the things you said.
I’d add just general acceptance or at least trying to remind myself to accept that I need what I need, my brain works the way it does and progress is messy and not linear.
Part of that is also accepting that what works might not work forever. ADHD makes me constantly have to adapt my tools and change what I use to help keep myself organised. It is in my nature to flit from one thing to another and difficult to be consistent but rather than fighting it I think it is OK to go with it. For example, one month the bullet journal is my thing. I will rave about it, research it, proclaim it is saving my life and then all of a sudden it drops off and it is something else that is now the new thing. That’s okay.
Also…trying to train myself out of all or nothing thinking / complete on or off mode. For example, in the past I’d either madly tidy the entire house or gradually let it become worse and worse until it’s horrendous to live in. Actually letting myself mentally off the hook helps me be better at this. For example, I didn’t wash the dishes today? That’s okay, no biggie. I know I can do it… I’ll just do it tomorrow. Previously I’d allow one perceived failure to prompt me to spiral into never doing that thing again.
