If you’re trying to do thing A but your brain can’t stop thinking about thing B, take out a notebook and write down all your current thoughts on thing B. Trust yourself that when you get back to it, you will be right where you left off. Then do thing A.

For example, trying to work on a paper but you can’t stop thinking about the season finale of your favorite show you just watched.

Doesn’t always work but helps a lot.

If you feel like you’re struggling to accomplish a task, take a moment to think about your stimulation level. Are you understimulated or overstimulated? Sometimes just acknowledging it is enough, everyone has their own techniques.

For example, if I’m trying to work and I’m understimulated, I might throw on some metal music or something like that. If I’m overstimulated, probably means I should sit in a dark room for 5 or 10 minutes until I feel better before trying to do anything.

Everything goes in the calendar. Especially regular but infrequent things like birthdays. I set reminders a few days to a week before so I have time to adjust plans / buy presents or whatever.

If I’m having trouble motivating myself to do something, I commit to doing a bare minimum amount. For example going to the gym if I’m feeling unmotivated I might commit to just doing one exercise. Dishes maybe I’ll just wash one plate / pan. Once I’ve used that to get over the initial hurdle I’ll usually be able to ride the wave and complete everything.

Being accountable to someone. Also my least favorite ADHD lifehack.

Don’t punish yourself for not succeding in something, punish yourself for not putting the effort

Loud, energizing music will calm you by feeding a steady stream of dopamine.

Sadly this is also why I can fall asleep at a party after a coffee.

Myself, my wife and all 3 kids have adhd. Shared Google calendars are mandatory.

Does methylphenidate count as a life hack?

If I think of something I need, I usually just order it on Amazon prime right then, that way I don’t forget latter and accidentally run out of garbage bags or something.

So empty….

I mainly struggle with the executive dysfunction part. I found that preparing anything at all helps, even just opening the document I need to write on another screen will mean that whenever my attention next detaches from whatever else I’m doing, I will automatically latch onto what I’m supposed to do as the next thing.

This is the only way I managed to make progress on my bachelor’s thesis.

Noise canceling headphones and white/background noise or music. Rather than true “white noise” I prefer deeper stuff like cosmic or other low wavelength noise.

Double speed audio.

I have real difficulty with listening to people speaking slowly. By the time they finish the sentence I have lost the start, so unless I actively hold their sentence until it is done I often lose meaning or misunderstand.

Listening at double speed allows me to keep up without losing what was said. I listen to audiobooks and podcasts while doing most chores and it has been a game changer.

Lists. My notes app puts in work. I make lists for everything. I set alarms for everything. I write things down while I’m thinking about them because I will forget. I ask for things in writing because I will misremember what was said. I have a white board stuck to my fridge so that I can write down when we’re out of something or running low. Oh. And basketball nets over the hamper.

Audiobooks have been an amazing hack for me to stay focused on every day household tasks. Listening to an interesting book engages my upper level thoughts (monkey mind) and makes things like folding laundry or dishes much more engaging. I still have a tendency to just fuck off when it’s half done but I can keep in motion and stay in the groove and circle around again after doing other necessities.

Simply the act of writing something down, with an actual pen on actual paper, really does help with memory. I know it’s a really common thing to suggest, especially in school and classes but I completely skipped it then and only started doing this in the past decade so it’s new to me. I’ve noticed such a dramatic difference in my recall of things that I wrote down vs things that were said to me, even if I never look at the notepad again.

Also, I absolutely hate this, but having less free time. I have less free time now than I ever have before and I’ve been astonished at how much I’ve been getting done. Every day I have pressure to do as much as I possibly can within a small window of time and it’s been great for my ADHD, but I resent it and grumble about it and wish it didn’t work so well.

My kids do “the board”, write a checklist for the morning on a whiteboard.

I use the heck out of the phone calendar, and set alarms in both home system and work computer to make me stop and focus.

A “we have food for” list on the refrigerator.

To some extent, just aligning my schedule to fit my better hours, which are in the afternoon. I don’t go to work so early, because I’m kind of useless before lunch anyway.

Once i was in an executive position i hired people who are not afraid to oppose me, and who have abilities (like planning of sorts)that i lack.