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.

Transitions in the Workplace: ADHD in the workplace

Transitions in the Workplace: ADHD in the workplace


Transitions happen constantly in life and in a multitude of ways. There are transitions between jobs, months, weeks, days, tasks, meetings and conversations--just to name a few. With ADHD, these transitions can be a time when we lose focus, become stressed or otherwise become less than our best. On the other hand, working with our support team, whom understand the nature of transitions for those with ADHD, transitions can become a chance to re-center, re-focus and come back to our best center before going to the next element in our day. For this entry, let's look at the smaller transitions between tasks, meetings and conversations.

When thinking about your work day; are there times when you are transitioning from desk work to meetings? Are there times when you are transitioning between the tasks that make up a project? Are there times when you are transitioning from a computer work to phone work? These are common transitions in the workplace that many do without thinking however for those with ADHD it might be fret with the debris of possible distractions and stress.


Let's look at a type of transition: What are some of the things that need to happen while transitioning from writing a document to going to a meeting?

1. We must notice internally (with or without external prompts) that it is time to prepare to stop what we are doing.

2. We must gather and organize things that we were working on so that they will be ready for us.
3. We must notice it is time to go to the meeting.
4. We must gather the items we need for the meeting.
5. We must get to the meeting on time and sitting down.

The less we notice and attend to these elements of transition the more that overwhelm, stress and poor focus have opportunity to come into play. When we set up systems to help us recognize these elements, we bring calm, clarity and great focus to our transitional moments which aid in our grounding and effectiveness. There are many different systems to utilize to make transitions easier. However, each person has individual needs that will help them to be successful. Some people have administrative assistants to keep them on task while others employ watches with beepers. Your coach or success team can help you to identify your challenges and implement your transition system. The practice and mastery of these fundamental elements are the makings for very satisfying, effective and productive days.

Using Your Planner to Get Started with ADHD

Using Your Planner to Get Started

Sometimes getting started can be difficult. It may be that proper scheduling or planning hasn’t been done. It may be the complexity of the task. It may be a dreaded task. Today let’s take a look at the scheduling and planning piece.

I’ve noticed that some clients have trouble getting started if they are deciding in the moment or the day of; what to get started on first or how to get started at all.
A simple approach is starting to plan a day ahead. Meaning that in the morning or afternoon, you pull out your planner to schedule and plan the next day. You may have a checklist that you can input into your calendar on specific time slots to ensure your “to do” list is completed. You may have important meetings to that need a file pulled or printed. If you plan the day before you may eliminate that overwhelmed feeling and your feeling of being in control will be heightened. There is something about getting up with a plan or schedule already in place that takes off a burden that can send my ADHD clients into overwhelm if it’s not lifted off of them.
Don’t you usually sleep better too if you know you are ready for the next day? I know I do. And don’t you love the feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day when your to do list is completed?

The main thing about getting started is just getting clear on what needs to be done, getting moving and staying in forward motion. This is where your ADHD coach can come into action. You and your coach can set your plans in motion working around your ADHD and creating a solution that will work for you to succeed. Remember everyone’s ADHD shows up different so the plan above may or may not work for you however the goal is to get started and keep moving forward with your projects. So keep trying new ideas and keep your mind open to the possibilities around you for success with getting started on your projects.

Perfectionism and ADHD in the Workplace

Perfectionism in the Workplace

Perfectionism in the workplace can show up in odd and unexpected ways. Some may be thinking, “What is the problem with this? People who tend toward perfectionism turn out work that is such a high standard that it’s near perfect right? So if I try to turn out perfect work, the end result is that my work will be better quality – right?” This is the thinking of how it might be but it isn’t the reality of how it shows up. A person with ADHD and perfectionism may find that they are behind on work, missing deadlines and often not getting all the work required completed. Sometimes the quality of the work being done may be far from high quality; it may be low or of unacceptable quality. These situations may arise from perfectionism; so let’s take a deeper look.

Perfectionism from a workplace point of view may show up with the desire to be error free and produce excellent work however what usually underlies these desires is the fear of mistakes, acceptance by others or a fear of being negatively judged by others. One may, under self imposed stress, have difficulty starting a task or knowing what to do first because nothing seems quite good enough. One may have many false starts (starting a project and discarding the work) or starting it over and over again thereby running out of time and being rushed at the last moment to get something in that may result in an unacceptable quality of work. Perhaps there are 10 critical tasks that need to be done and one completes only two or three, although they are of exceptional quality, time and resources have been misallocated. Do any of these scenarios’s sound like your situation? You are not alone. Many have this perfectionism trait both with and without ADHD present.

I think that the best examples I have heard regarding this is a story of two graduate students. One was a perfectionist and the other strove to write well enough for the task at hand and within the time allotment. They were both writing articles to be published in journals regarding their studies. The perfectionist ended the year with one well written article while the other student wrote numerous articles in that same amount of time that were good enough for publication. The student with the most published articles was approached by a book publisher. He was given an advance because he was viewed as the top expert in his field. The perfectionist was not made an offer.

So perfectionism is not anything to be desired or sought after but rather it’s something to be let go so in the mix of things one is able to freely discern what tasks need to be done in a good enough fashion and what are the handful of things that need to be done to an exemplary level of quality. The reality is in the human realm of work and productivity, perfectionism is only an ideal that is not attainable in human reality.

Social Skills in the ADHD Workplace

Social Skills in the ADHD Workplace

Social skills are often a critical part of how effective we can be in the workplace. They are a measurement of how we are perceived as a contributing member of the team. Some social skills can be learned from great organizations such as Dale Carnegie Organization or Toastmasters. Others that typically might be caused by ADHD symptoms may need addressing with an ADHD professional. These include, but are not limited to, symptoms such as impulsivity (causing one to blurt out things while others are speaking) impatience, irritability or lack of focus (not focusing and therefore not understanding or remembering what others are/have said.)
Let’s start by looking at some of the things that Toastmasters might be able to help you learn. For around $75- 100 per year membership, you can choose the well known track to learn to be a public speaker or you can select the lesser known track of leadership development. Some members chose to do both.

In the public speaking track, you begin by getting in front of a group of people (usually 6 – 24 people or larger) and your first assignment is called an icebreaker. You get up and talk about yourself, a topic you know better than anyone else in the world. This way even if you make a mistake, no one would know because you are the expert on you. I have known many people at Toastmasters go from being unable to speak before the 6 person group, go on to become very effective speakers in large groups. Many people are there simply to overcome their social fear and discomfort. One could expect to learn how to make better eye contact, how to prepare a simple presentation, how to notice social cues in the audience and adapt accordingly, how to engage ones voice and body in delivering the message.
On the leadership track, one might expect to learn how to inspire others, persuade or excite them to take action, to get practice in prioritizing and organizing tasks and to meet new people.

So given that social skills can make such a huge impact on our experience in the workplace and with relationships, it is worth some investment of time, energy and money to improve your ability to understand and adapt to the social cues in the workplace. For the communication challenges that seem directly caused by ADD symptoms, some other areas to explore might include proper medication and/or working with a coach or therapist on skills training and handling any fears or emotional issues that are interfering with having social grace. You may also want to develop a more clear sense of daily purpose or a purpose in ones work and life. As a bonus with Toastmasters, chances are high that you will also make some great friends that are on the same journey.

Information Management in the Workplace for ADHD

Information Management in the Workplace

In today’s workplace there are many forms of information management techniques. Some of the most basic still work even in our world of expanding technology. You will still find file cabinets in every corporate office in America because your basic paper filing system will always exist, even if we
want to go “green” and get rid of it.

However there is a multitude of other ways to store your information for easy retrieval. You may store it on your personal computers, internet cloud or portable hard drive. For those with ADHD it is imperative that you work to find processes that work for you for the gathering and retrieval of information. ADDer’s tend to gather information but lack the processes needed to retrieve it at a moment’s notice. When we are thinking about information management, we need to consider a few things:

1. Is this information I will use daily; monitoring it for change?

2. How often will I need to access this information and in what form (word, excel, access)?

3. Will I be accessing this information from my personal computer, handheld device or a multitude of locations?

4. Will I need to have this information in my back pocket at all times?
Remember there are pluses and minuses to each of information storage choice.
If you have penmanship that is hard to decipher, you may want to stay with digital options for information storage. The typed word tends to be easier to read for you and anyone you may share this information. However, if the data is input on a personal computer, you will need to have access to this computer all the time to retrieve this information. You will also need to be cognizant of backing up your hard drive or run the risk of virus or corrupt files. The advantage of the personal computer is the large keyboard and monitor. These make it easier to type and read information.

The handheld device is a much more mobile device but the keyboard and monitor are small and sometimes difficult to use. It may be so difficult to enter data that you may not enter it at all thus losing important information.

Lastly, if we chose to enter the data on the internet cloud system (internet data storage), we might find flexibility to enter and access the data on many devices yet not like the discomfort of the data being stored on something so physically assessable. In my practice I choose the internet cloud as a second backup for some data however most is stored on my pc and my assistant’s pc which is backed up on regular intervals.

As in any project or task, I think of one of the conversations with a recent client who was deciding what information to include in a presentation. When I asked him well, it depends on what outcome you want, what is your objective. He said “Great question, I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

When it comes to all the systems and tools that are available, first you should decide what the reason or outcome you desire to achieve with the tool and this will narrow the selection choice for you.