I’m an adult and I have ADHD, and this is how I manage the disorder in a productive and positive way

First of all, I apologize if this is not in line with the rules of the sub, but I believe it is relevant to the topic of the discussion and I think it could be of help to some of you. I am not a medical professional and what I’m about to describe is my personal experience. Please be careful not to take this as medical advice. Anyway, I’m an Italian guy and I’m 25 years old. When I was a child, I was diagnosed with *ADHD primarily inattentive type*, which means I have never been hyperactive and irritable, on the contrary I have always been thoughtful and introspective, and more than anything else I have always had problems sustaining my attention: I struggle completing tasks during which I have to focus because my brain goes astray and starts wandering. I’ve learned to cope with the disorder by developing strategies and techniques that allow me to maximise my focus and my productivity while minimising distractions and procrastination. I’ve learned these strategies primarily from others who live with the disorder, from personal research and trial and error and above all from my experience with meditation and mindfulness. **Mindfulness meditation.** The first thing you should do, if you live with ADHD or think you might have it, is to start practising mindfulness meditation. It has been scientifically demonstrated that the regular practice of mindfulness meditation, associated with psychotherapy, can significantly improve cognitive functions, concentration and impulse control in subjects with ADHD. By training your ability to be focused on the present moment, you can significantly improve your attention and concentration, even in the most boring and tedious tasks. I have noticed a huge improvement in my concentration and in my impulse control since I’ve started practising meditation. My purpose isn’t to proselytise, but I feel compelled to let you know about this because it improved the quality of my life so much. There are countless free guided meditations for beginners available on YouTube, so there really are no excuses. The most difficult thing is making it into a habit. In order to achieve this, it’s essential not to be too harsh on yourselves: what matters the most is showing up and being consistent. This is what I do: the first thing I do in the morning, before checking my phone or getting out of bed, is meditating for 5 minutes. Don't worry if your mind constantly wanders: you just have to acknowledge the thought, accept it and gently bring your attention back to your breath, without dwelling on it. You can, and you should, gradually increase the duration of your sessions as you become more confident, but always remember that the aim of the exercise is not necessarily focusing on your breath, but rather training your ability to focus on a single thing, and that’s what matters. In order to train your ability to focus, alongside the practice of meditation, you should also eliminate distractions while you’re working and create an environment that fosters your productivity. **The importance of your bedroom.** Your bedroom is where you rest, practice sexual activities and change clothes, while your desk is where you do your job, study and watch porn. I’m not being judgmental, everyone watches porn, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that, due to a psychological mechanism called *classical conditioning*, which was discovered by Ivan Pavlov more than 100 years ago, our brain unconsciously creates an association between the environment where we are and the activities we carry out in that specific environment. Therefore, if we do too many things in the same environment, our brain can’t make these associations because they are too many and it becomes confused, and this results in difficulties falling asleep at night and concentrating during the day. This is particularly true for people with ADHD, because our brains are more easily conditionable and our attention is already wandering. That’s why you need to separate these environments and make them functional to the activities you carry out in them: your desk and bedroom should be tidy, organised and well lit. **Batching.** Batching is a technique that consists in grouping tasks that require your attention and in carrying them out one after another, during the same block of time, without any pauses. For instance, you can dedicate the entire morning to responding to all the pending emails, then take a lunch break, and finally dedicate the afternoon to replying to phone calls or messages. This technique is particularly indicated for people with ADHD, as it exploits the beahvioural conditioning mechanisms: once you start, the beahviour is activated and maintained, and the brain continues to make the effort that is required almost automatically. **The Pomodoro Technique.** The purpose of the Pomodoro Technique is to boost your productivity and concentration by means of a simple, repetitive method that involves 5 steps: 1. Choose the task you want to carry out. 2. Set the timer to 25 mins and focus exclusively on the task at hand without interruptions. If you receive a phone call or an SMS, you don’t answer it; you just keep working on the task. 3. Once the timer goes off, stop and take a 5 minutes break. 4. Once the break is over, start again from step 2. 5. Every four cycles, take a longer break that goes from 15 to 30 minutes. I personally prefer to set my Pomodoros to 45 mins, because in my experience 25 mins aren’t enough, and sometimes 5 mins isn’t enough for a break. It’s very important not to make mistakes in setting the time, because if the time intervals aren’t right, the whole technique won’t be as effective. If the time intervals are right, the technique works: the regular, rhythmic ticking of the clock helps you focus better and make the most of your time. Ticking sounds are extremely effective for helping people with ADHD to focus because they stimulate our brains organisation systems, thus increasing our ability to concentrate. Ticking sounds have a similar effect to those of video games, which is why many of us love them so much. In video games there are alarms and notifications that constantly compete for our attention, stimulating our brain systems organisation, thus increasing our ability to concentrate and maximising our focus. That’s also why so many people with ADHD love strategy video games like strategy and chess: they can be boring for many people because they require a lot of organisation and planning, but for us they are engaging and fun. There’s no dearth of apps that generate ticking sounds, which you can use to make the most of this technique. **Breakdown Big Tasks Into Small Chores.** Another essential thing you need to do in order to manage ADHD is to learn how to break down big tasks into smaller, simpler and less boring chores. It’s a simple method that’s extremely effective for people with ADHD because it exploits one of the fundamental systems of our brain: the *brain reward system*. The brain reward system is a set of brain areas whose primary function is motivation and reward. The brain reward system is extremely important for the management of attention deficits because it regulates pleasure and gratification. Many people with ADHD have an underactive brain reward system, which results in difficulties finding pleasure in boring repetitive tasks. By making things less boring, we can stimulate the brain reward system, increasing our ability to concentrate on a single task. If you break down a big task into multiple smaller and simpler tasks, you’ll find that the big task won’t be boring anymore and you’ll find the motivation you need in order to complete it. For instance, if you want to clean your house but you find it boring and you keep procrastinating, you should make a list, break the task down into simpler tasks and make them more specific. Instead of saying *I need to clean the house*, which is too boring and generic and would make you procrastinate, you should make a list along these lines: * Take out the trash * Take the bins out * Shovel the snow from the driveway * Vacuum the floors * Mop the floors * Wipe the dust from the furniture * Clean the shower and the bathtub etc. By making the single tasks more specific and simpler, the big task won’t be boring anymore and you’ll easily find the motivation you need to complete it. If you break a big task down into smaller tasks, you will also feel a sense of satisfaction every time a task is accomplished, because every time you complete one of them, you will receive a reward, thanks to the release of dopamine and endorphin. This technique is called *micro rewards*. There’s no dearth of apps that you can use in order to exploit the brain reward system. Tried and tested.

I’m an adult and I have ADHD, and this is how I manage the disorder in a productive and positive way

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