How To Get Things Done, According to People With ADHD

“Imagine flipping through channels on a TV—that’s how my brain feels like most of the time,” said Elita Reign, a costume designer based in Los Angeles. She normally starts doing an activity only to lose track and start thinking about something else. 

Sending an email goes a little something like this:  She’d open her email app, realize she didn’t copy the email address from Instagram, open Instagram to get the email address from her DMs, see a clothing ad on her feed, click the clothing shop’s profile, spend the next 20 minutes looking at clothes, remember that she was sending an email, go back to finish it, figure out the right word to use, open a browser to do that, realize she has 54 tabs open, spend a few minutes closing them.

“I can wholeheartedly say that this is what every single task feels like to me. Almost every day, when I’m brushing my teeth, I remember other things I have to do, and start doing them with the toothbrush hanging from my mouth,” she said. 

Reign attributes that to her ADHD.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental condition that affects parts of the brain that help people plan, focus, and execute tasks. It impacts 11 percent of children and almost 5 percent of adults in the United States. 

According to the US National Institute of Mental Health, it’s marked by a pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with a person’s daily functioning. It can also impact one’s professional life, interpersonal relationships, and self-esteem.

Behrad Zand, a small business owner based in Laguna Niguel, California, who also has ADHD, said that even he’s confused by his level of focus. He sometimes feels like he’s in a mental stupor. 

“It’s as if my brain is in a low state of consciousness, drifting, struggling for information to stick,” he told VICE.

Other times, his brain seems to be going too fast. 

“For example, reading is a struggle because my brain skips words or lines, or I’m often starting a sentence over, or my brain will, in anticipation, fill words in that it naturally assumes would be there.” 

This makes it difficult to understand what he’s reading, and forces him to reread sentences multiple times. But Zand said there’s another side to ADHD that many may not know about. 

“Instead of being stuck in a cognitive haze, I experience something called hyperfocus,” he said. 

In that state, Zand is able to focus on a subject or task for hours and hours without so much as eating, drinking, or using the toilet. 

“Getting into the zone with an ADHD brain is incredibly difficult, but not impossible,” Zand said. 

There are prescription medications and therapies available to help people with ADHD, but many who experience it have also taught themselves a few practical ways to deal. Below are some tips for focusing and getting things done, from people with ADHD.

Having ADHD and trying to focus is like a game of finding anything interesting or inspiring about the task at hand, said Connor DeWolfe, a content creator based in Troy, Michigan. He said it sometimes feels like a desperate search for any stimuli he can grasp onto and run with. 

Laura Flick, an entrepreneur based in LA, said that doing the easiest tasks first helps create momentum for getting the more difficult tasks done.

But what if the easiest task is… boring? 

 If the easiest task just won’t cut it, Zand suggested working on something enjoyable or exciting first. 

“If it’s reading, I usually begin by reading the chapters or sections that are personally cognitively enticing first,” he said. 

“Since we ADHD folks often have a hard time remembering things that are out of our sight, the most helpful life hack I’ve found is adding the reminders or to-do list widget to the home screen of my iPhone,” said Reign.

She writes everything she has to remember on the widget because she sees it every time she looks at her phone. She also writes tasks down on a standing whiteboard on her desk, so they’re always in her line of vision.

“These are the most effective ways I’ve been able to plan my schedule, because planners don’t work for me since I forget to open them.”

Flick also said that seeing all the things she needs to get done makes it far more likely that she’d actually get them done. But instead of just checking things off a to-do list, she designed a spreadsheet for her daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. 

It also helps to write things down, not so much so you can remember to do them later, but so that you can stop thinking about them now. 

“Keep a notebook with you at all times and just write whatever pops into your head that you want to remember later,” said Flick. “That gets it out of your head and onto paper so it won’t be adding to all the thoughts you’re already having.” 

Zand said that sometimes, what hinders him from beginning a task is an unusually high amount of nervous restlessness. When that happens, he does something “physically funky” to get that excess energy out of his system. 

“For example, sitting on the couch and shaking or wiggling my leg in the air until I feel physiologically or psycho-somatically at ease.” 

If you’re not quite a leg-wiggler yourself, Zand said that exercising or taking his dog for a walk also works. 

Reign said that the best way for her to maintain focus is to couple momentum with set goals. For this, she uses what she calls “The Rule of 17.” 

“When you need to clean, pick up 17 things. Once you’ve reached 17, you’ve likely lost count or built so much momentum that you just keep going. When I do things like study, I use numbered chunks. For example, I’ll study a certain number of flashcards at a time and not stop until I’ve reached that number. I often use 17 for that as well. Something about that number just works.”

Some people with ADHD struggle with what Reign calls “The ADHD Waiting Room.”

 “Let’s say we have an appointment in the afternoon. We will spend all day waiting for the appointment and be unable to do anything else because our perception of time is off,” explained Reign.

To prevent wasting hours of her days, she tries to schedule things close together, so that she’s not left with a lot of waiting time in between. 

Flick said that the ADHD struggle varies daily. On some days, it’s no problem for her to concentrate and complete her tasks. On others, she feels paralyzed by even the smallest ones. 

“On those tough days, it feels like one of those dreams where I am running and getting nowhere. I am telling myself all the things I ‘should’ be doing instead of laying on the couch. I used to tell myself that I am lazy, that I should just get up and do everything I need to do,” said Flick. 

Now, she’s learned to extend herself some compassion. 

“I learned that my brain just works a little differently and I need to cater my life around that. Once I did that, it only benefitted my productivity and the relationship with myself,” she said. “Shaming yourself into doing tasks is, in my experience, only making the situation worse.”

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