Noticing Your Environment with A.D.H.D.

Information Management: Noticing Your Environment

This week when thinking about information management we are going to think about the environments that surround us daily. For those with A.D.H.D. our environments could be an enabler to our minds moving away from the task at hand. Your environment may mean your work space, your school space, your car, your bedroom, your home; basically any space you find yourself trying to accomplish a task from your to do list. Your job this week is to notice what is working for you and what isn’t. So thinking of it environmentally, what physical arrangements are conducive to your effectiveness at completing each task?

• When you are working or studying at a desk, what visually supports you to get your work done or what might be getting you off task?
• What sounds are in your environment? Is it silent, noisy, music, television, how loud?
• Do you work better by yourself, with a team or just by having someone in the room with you?
• Does your chair support you to sit upright and focus and is your keyboard in the right space?

Another thing to notice is your energy patterns, many people with A.D.H.D. have varying energy patterns through the day where certain tasks are better suited for certain times of day or evening. Personally, I like afternoons better. I have harnessed the energy from the morning and can create better in the afternoon. I know of others who love the morning and find as soon as their feet hit the ground they are pumping out great work. Everyone is unique with this you just need to notice what is true for you.

Some tasks just can’t get done without a person present. This is quite normal for someone with A.D.D. Similar to shadow coaching, when it comes to clearing the desk, organizing or filing ~ sometimes having a person in the room (main qualification that someone in their presence you feel good about yourself) even if they are working individually on their own thing, just having them in the room helps you to get those things done.

As you go through this week, log what you notice into a journal then strive to implement a new change each day or each week to manage your environment more effectively.

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Organization in the Workplace

When it comes to organizing those with A.D.H.D. / A.D.D. might start with some simple basic things that will help get our mind organized. With A.D.H.D. / A.D.D. , sometimes our minds are distracted to the point of overwhelm, so we will start with organizing our minds.

There are many ways to organize our minds:

• On the basic level, research continues to support the idea that about 30 min of daily aerobic exercise is great for adding focus, mood regulation and mental energy.

• We already believe that fish oils are great especially those that have been processed in such a way that the molecular structure is small enough to penetrate the blood brain barrier.

• There is great value in being aware of what your preferred learning modalities are you visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Gaining this knowledge can alleviate frustrations.

• There’s the environmental factor where we might consider the home, office or school environment. When possible selecting or adapting these environments to support us to be effective. We can do so by being aware and learning about the impact of sound on our concentration; music, silence or other types of sound may help us to focus and create an organized mind environment.

• There is the tactical or practical hands-on business of organizing time, information and stuff.

The process of starting to get organized can often overwhelm someone with A.D.H.D. / A.D.D. One method we find useful is the basket method. Get 5 baskets then mark each one with one of these – file, trash, give away, return to owner, don’t know need to talk to someone. As you start organizing your room everything goes into a basket. At the end of the day, the giveaway and trash baskets must be out of the house. A trip to Goodwill and the garbage can take care for these baskets immediately.

We have found that someone with A.D.H.D. / A.D.D. going through this process, it is critical to have someone on your informal support team or a professional organizer with you. Remember this is someone whom in their presence you feel good about yourself. Getting organized is tough business, however if you are in an environment of feeling good about yourself it makes this process that much better. The function of your support person is to help you talk through the stuff you are unsure about and keep you out of overwhelm. Organization can help you go from frustration to focus to gain more success in life, school and work.