Even though you’re currently taking ADHD medications and even attending sessions with a healthcare professional, you still need to develop different strategies to help you deal with the difficulties you’re experiencing as a result of ADHD. Undoubtedly, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes are home to some of the best healthcare professionals that can provide the best care for people with ADHD. Embracing these tips for managing your ADHD as an adult can help you gain more control and make progress with most of your daily activities and goals. So, this article will be divided into different sections where you’ll learn tips to help adults with ADHD live a successful life.
Handling Daily Tasks
These ADHD coping strategies. You can develop strategies that can help you manage these tasks for yourself. So, take a look at some daily routines that you can develop to make the strategies a habit:
● Create a task list
Try to maintain just one list and keep it small and manageable. Simply tick off things once you’ve done them to enable you to track your progress. Add reminders about calls to make, grocery shopping and paying bills.
● Make use of a Diary/calendar
Put down all the appointments you have on your diary once you make them. Develop the habit of looking in your journal in the morning to identify the things you have planned to do for that specific day.
● Establish a Home Filing System
Make use of folders or dividers to help you in storing various kinds of paperwork like receipts, medical letters, bank statements, etc. You can also use labels as well as different coloured folders to help you easily recognise what you need. Regularly eliminate all the papers you no longer need to have.
● Create a “10-minute tidy” routine
Instead of feeling overwhelmed with all the tasks you need to do, you can spend 10 minutes daily on several tasks like filing paperwork, sorting posts, picking up laundry and several other tasks. Although this might not be enough to sort out all the things you need to do, it will still give you more sense of control – and it’s just 10 minutes!
● Use Reminder
Make use of visual reminders like coloured post-it notes on the front door or fridge door. You can also use the alarm on your mobile phone to remind you of all the tasks you need to do each day.
● Become more conscious of time
Actually, minutes can feel like hours to you and hours can feel like minutes. So, it’s crucial to always have a watch or clock close to you and regularly check your time. Fortunately, most smartphones come with time, so you can also check the time on your mobile device. This will help you not to be late for appointments.
● Place Important things in set places
Always leave essential things in your life like your smartphone, keys, wallet, etc. in the same place every day. This will save you the time you’ll spend searching for them.
● Do it now
Once you get an email, a letter, or text message, respond to it instantly instead of waiting to do it later only to forget. If it’s something you can’t do now, then add it to your calendar or daily task.
One more thing you should know is that smartphones are extremely useful in helping you to keep track of your appointments as well as your task list. Make sure you have a backup in the event that you lose your phone.
Tips for Managing Emotions
Most times, the moods of adults with ADHD can change rapidly; you might have discovered that you easily become angry and tearful. You may not have an idea why your mood has changed, and in some cases, you may feel that it was an overreaction to the situation. Such emotional outburst can result in feelings of guilt, embarrassment, or that you no longer have control of your feelings anymore. Some of the challenges you may have experienced before may be as a result of ADHD symptoms even without realizing the condition. To help you manage your emotions, you can use the strategies below:
- Take a deep breath and refrain from impulsively reacting to a situation.
- Walk away and return only when you’re now calmer.
- Take your mind off the situation and engage in something else like watching a movie or preparing a drink.
- Once you’re sure that you’re calmer, ponder on what actually happened and ways you can deal with it.
- It would be a good idea for you also to see a counsellor or psychologist to enable you to have a better understanding of your emotions and effectively manage it.
Tips for Managing Relationships and Friendships
While many adults with ADHD have successful relationships and friendships, there will always be a difficult time just like all relationships. Some of the social difficulties that adults with ADHD may have include: changing the subject, difficulty paying attention in the course of a conversation, blurting things out, and difficulty in taking turns. Some of the frustrations that friends and partners of an adult with ADHD will have to face when it comes to how to deal with an ADHD adult include forgetting special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, being late to meetings or forgetting to meet up.
One way to improve social skills is by learning about conversational and listening strategies. Make use of an electronic diary or calendar to help you recall social occasions, and to help with meeting up on time, make use of an alarm. Strategies like making use of time planners, weekly planning meetings, and task lists can be beneficial.
Managing Sleep
For adults with ADHD, sleep can really be a difficult thing to do. While you may have so much energy to work during the day, you may not be able to find sleep when night comes. You often find yourself thinking about anything and everything while lying in bed and waking up the next day can also be a big challenge. To help you sleep better, make use of the strategies below:
- Maintain regular bedtime to enable your body to become used to your sleep routine.
- Stay away from naps in the day time.
- As much as possible, avoid being too active before bed – try to work out a couple of hours before bedtime to help you burn off energy.
- You don’t have to take big meals or take lots of drinks just before bedtime. It can make it harder for you to settle and can even cause you to wake up in the middle of the night.
- It’s important to avoid stimulants like alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine (coffee, chocolate, and cola) before bedtime.
- You can easily settle down to sleep by engaging in winding down activities like listening to music, reading, listening to the radio, and other activities that will not actively engage you.
- If you discover that your thoughts are keeping you awake, you can distract them by repeating a boring word in your head.
- If you fail to settle to sleep, leave your bed and move to another room where you can relax until you feel tired and set to sleep again.
Now that you have some of the tips for managing adult ADHD, you are better equipped to take more control of your life. But don’t forget that having ADHD isn’t all about the negatives; there are also lots of positives about ADHD. As an adult with ADHD, it’s easy for you to liven up things because of your energy, sympathy, kindness, enthusiasm, unique problem-solving skills, and creativity. All these qualities are crucial and can make the workplace a better place.
Instead of only focusing on the negative aspects of having ADHD and ADHD coping strategies, equally look at the things you’re wired to excel at. Remember, you don’t have to do all this alone; you can get support from family members close to you, your partner and can get additional help from health, social care and education agencies. You can check out The ADHD Centre for more information about how to cope with ADHD.
