Have ADHD but WFH? 🧠 What tips can you share with me please?

[Suteki]

The only thing that works for me is working to a deadline that other people know about. EG it has come from a manager, or I have told colleagues I will get X over to them by Y date.

The biggest issue I have is… well, starting! Once I’ve started it seems better. But some days, I simply cannot start at all. The ADHD procrastination is real, and huge.

The second biggest issue is the famous ‘I can’t do the thing because I have the thing!’ or in other words - if I have a 2pm meeting then there isn’t a chance in heck of me being able to get started with any meaningful amount of work in the morning.

Please help! I’ve told myself that November will be when I finally crack this!

Here is a list...I don't do all of this everyday but I should.

Keep hydrated. Eat a proper breakfast and lunch.

I have one of those planner pads where you write down your whole list including meetings/calls but then pull out the top three things to get done.

I also have a whiteboard that I put my priorities on sometimes.

I use a visual timer for 30 mins at a time then take a break.

Movement breaks - stand up and stretch.

Background music to keep part of my brain busy and give me a signal that this is work time.

Getting started with a small achievable task to build a sense of achievement.

Change location around the house when I'm no longer productive in my office. This includes sitting on the sofa with my laptop with something comforting on TV in the background sometimes.

Daily walk outside. Hard to fit in on busy days though.

Little rewards. I'll do this and then make a cuppa etc.

Communicating with my boss - this is what I am doing today etc.

I always have a notebook handy and take notes on all calls and conversations so I can check back on details and actions that I now have to deliver on.

I totally sympathise with (and recognise) the 'I can;t do anything because of The Thing. I get terrified that is I start something in the morning before a meeting, I will forget the meeting, so the entire morning is taken up Remembering The Meeting.

I find it helps to work when I am good at working. I have a job that doesn;t require office hours, aslong as it gets done. I have effective bursts of productivity between 6am and 9am and again between 4pm-7pm most days (which doesn;t work if you also have small DC, I realise) and I get a lot of work done then and take day time off often.

I also block whole days for things. So I try to have meetings on one day a week, so I know that is my meeting day, Perfectly happy to take them from 7am to 10pm if it's meeting day. Then I have project work days when I do quiet screen tasks and half a day a week, and weekends for home stuff - cleaning shopping etc.

Everyone who is getting cross: remember that rejection sensitive dysphoria can be a feature of ADHD so many people posting will feel hurt and criticised at things that others might not.

I thought of another one - make your pre-work routine as easy as possible so you are not using up energy on it.

(I have 3 kids to get to two different schools - 2 with ASD. I should get clothes out, bags and lunches etc done the night before so that I don't feel like I have done a day's work before I even get to my desk.)

Agree with all the above. I wanted to add that while I usually need silence to focus (very mentally intense job), I often don't WANT silence! I can't use music with lyrics, or even really classical music as I follow the melody, but I sometimes use a "coffee shop" noise in the background, which can help me to concentrate. There are videos on YouTube.

Focusmate! 3 free sessions a week usually gets me ‘started’ enough to carry on. This way I can usually ‘melt’ the power of The Thing and plough through sone of the perceived tricky areas.

What I would like is a real life FocusMate. Where I arrange to meet up with a friend where we both work in the same house or library or wherever. I’ve thought about hiring a communal office space but I would just ignore my work and want to talk to everyone instead :D

rejection sensitive dysphoria. So there’s a name for it…!

Thanks for all the great ideas on this thread.

Anyone on here line managing? And expected to produce a load of project outcomes and content too?

I’ve realised I can line manage a team and keep on top of that set of constantly changing daily issues and admin and be available to the team all day OR I can carry out projects and produce content at the standard and volume required, which requires a lack of interruptions. Not do both though. So I think I need to find a new job which is stressing me out.

I agree with list making and alarms on phone for either type of work though and I appreciate everyone’s tips. I hadn’t thought about the link between exercise and concentration before.

I'm in Ealing, London and would love to find a RL wfh accountability buddy.

I don't know if I have ADHD but definitely a lot of the things mentioned chime with me.

The things I do:

• have a 'long' to-do list. Decide in the morning what I'm going to do from this, and write it in another shortlist. I also do a mini-list on the same page of the meetings I have that day. That cuts out a bit of the 'can't do the thing because I have the thing' as I keep seeing it safely contained on the list for later.
• listen to fast music
• imagine my manager saying to me 'what exactly have you been doing', in a bewildered way. I like him, don't want to disappoint him, and it gives me a mini kick up the arse as I never want him to say that to me.
• have a walk when I really am at the end of doing anything useful because of lack of concentration.
• Pick one from the list, do it, move on to the next. For bigger projects I try 'you can just work for a solid hour on it, don't move or look at anything else, and then get up and get a coffee'. Otherwise I just find endless reasons to get up, move around, check unimportant emails.

Reading this thread, I'm so relieved to find it's not just me. I also suspect I have ADHD, but I'm in two minds about diagnosis. For now, I just want to be able to apply some of this stuff to help me work better. I find a mixture of things helps:

• a big, dated to-do list spreadsheet with due dates that I can sort by
• a 'for today' to-do list taken from the big one
• pomodoro technique

For both to-do lists, actions start with a verb and are quantifiable, not just "work on the project" but broken down into "identify the resources needed for the project", "book in a meeting with Bob to discuss aspect A of the project", "email Valerie to ask her experience of aspect B of the project" etc, so "do the thing" is turned into tick-offable, not overhwelming steps. I also use:

• headphones and binaural sounds (we have a work subscription to Unmind, which has lots to choose from)
• telling someone what I will have done by the end of the day/week/before X meeting
• if the deadline meeting is in my control, making it closer than I'd ideally like to kick-start the deadline panic (this one probably isn't great, but it helps when I need that boost)
• dictating emails and first draft documents via the accessibility features. If you pause for too long the mic times out, so you have to keep momentum. Even if it's drivel, I find it easier to edit than writing the words from scratch.

Great tips here. I don't think I have ADHD but I definitely have trouble focusing on work when WFH.
I have actually just decided to work in the office. Even though it makes things trickier from a family home life perspective.
But when I do have to WFH the only thing I can add is I have found office background noise or coffee shop background noise on YouTube really useful.

I was thinking this too!!

Crikey OP I could've written your post! What works for me perversely is having tons to do and putting myself under pressure. So I look at what needs doing in the next few weeks and add them to my work list. I set myself targets to do stuff by a certain time. Other than that I'm shamelessly placemarking for tips.

@latelydaydreams living the reclaim app, sorted my schedule for this week yesterday, thanks very much! It's very helpful knowing exactly what I need to do, all worked out for me, as I get overwhelmed with an ordinary list and never know what to do first, so don't start anything

@Sparklfairy

Good- I hope you get on well with it.
Having let it drop that was my first thought at 8am. I was much better when using it. So am now back to it. I only have the free version at the moment, but seriously considering the upgrade!

I can’t see reclaim in the App Store- is that how your app is spelt?

I used it in my browser (reclaim.ai) and synced with google calendar, which I have on my phone so all the reclaim scheduling (and any rescheduling!) comes up straightaway there.

always think that doing 1 minute of a task you're putting off is perfectly achievable. then allow yourself a break to do something else (useful) then come back to it a bit later and do 2-5 mins. It's like it kickstarts you. Also find the easiest possible part of whatever it is you have to do e.g. if you have to write an essay or something, open the document, and write the title, set up the page etc. Or write the email for the piece of work that you need to send over. Or start with the contents or something easy. By sectioning the work into tiny achieveable chunks (e.g. 1 min, 1 sentence, or 1 min 1 line of a spreadsheet, or logging 1 receipt for tax or something) then doing those mini versions repeatedly takes the scare out of it to the point that later you will be fine doing 10 mins, 20 mins, an hour. Just ensure it's regular e.g. you do 1 min then more later / tomorrow or whatever. Also the Atomic Habits book is really good for inspiration! and uses something akin to this 1 min method.

Thank you Sparklfairy

@BringingMyWholeShelf

I’ve just downloaded the reclaim app.. this is great

I have one of these www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225147117890?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=CjwKCAjw5P2aBhAlEiwAAdY7dKbF1p0uUqDkNRtUK2gmEKY6pM-cieLQmGY70fzc1OcnVxdhQxGwVxoCKXMQAvD_BwE

also binaural beats on youtube seems to help

also picking one task the night before so I'm not stuck in decision paralysis

The best thing that works for me is an app called Lock Me Out - I'm sure there's lots similar, but it means that I can't access anything on my phone! You can have app specific permissions, so I have the phone app always available in case of school emergencies.

I also get distracted by all the things I spot in the house that I need to do. The suggestion I had from a short lived therapy attempt was for my to do list to just be a splurge of everything that occurred to me just to get it out of my brain, and I've found that really good. It means that rather than doing an easy non-work task "while I remember" I can leave it until the end of the day and know I won't forget.

I find punk the easiest music to work to, which my DP finds hilarious.

Echoing all the comments on timers / pomodoro / promising to get something over by X.am.

(Following for more ideas!)

Following with interest!

Not least because I've been faffing for most of today, i have plenty of tasks on my to do list but i feel like the most productive thing i can do today is some exercise (after 3 weeks of feeling ill). No meetings til 5 so i could definitely get away with it.