My Top 5 Favorite ADHD Strategies — and our FREE ADHD Toolbox 🧠 🧰 Notion Template!

I just realised all the study hacks that youtubers used to give are more applicable for ADHD people

Sometimes I feel that my ADHD has ADHD

I put on "clean with me" videos whenever I need to say do the dishes. Help me not feel alone, which helps me actually do the thing. So I guess that's (at least similar to) body doubling?

A tool that has worked absolute wonders for me is what I call my dopamine farm. Early this year, I spent a couple of weeks training Pinterest to show me particular types of images that give me a big hit of dopamine. Of course, the specific image types will vary from person to person, but in my case it’s electric guitars and basses, sci-fi art, anime, Art Deco, 80s pop art and cute and/or colorful animals. Whenever I need help motivating myself to do or not do something, I go to Pinterest, scroll for a few minutes, feeling the dopamine build up in my brain and suddenly it’s a lot easier to do or not do the thing. Hopefully, others will find this useful.

Timestamps: 0:55 Body Doubling 2:30 Monotasking 5:19 Fill in the Planks 8:03 Exercise 10:31 (Put things at) Point of Performance 13:29 Using Notion

In case this helps someone, when I was in school, I could not write a paper out of order (title, opening paragraph/statement, body, conclusion). But many times you don’t really know the opening until you write the body. Most people would tell me to just start with body if I was stuck on the opening. Didn’t work. What did work, was making the most obvious opening statement possible, then going back to correct it later. Most of my first drafts started with a literal “This paper is about …”

For me the best way is to create urgency. But it is very hard to fool myself with set up deadlines. Haven't really found a working system for myself. But inviting someone over for diner or just have a drink is pretty effective for cleaning my house.

I agree with monotasking, for anything that requires attention. BUT, for anything with significant wait time involved (cooking food in the oven, waiting for laundry to dry, etc.) that is the ideal setup for multitasking. Especially if there's a timer bell involved to help me remember to switch tasks. The challenge is to pick a secondary task that can be done within the timer countdown for the first task. This can be really fun, as I race to complete it in the minutes I have! I might try to clean the kitchen before my laundry gets dry, for example. Or I might sit and do some planning or journalling in the time it takes to bake a cake. This helps me limit how much time I spend on the secondary task, and therefore prioritize the bits of it that are most important to get done first. If I don't get around to mopping the kitchen before the dryer goes off, well maybe mopping won't happen today then. But if the dishes are washed and the counters are clean then that's good progress anyway! And I might not have started on it if I didn't gameify the countdown race.

I waited tables and bartended for over a decade and I agree that all the chaos is reminiscent of whats going on inside our ADHD brains. After many years outside of the industry, I have finally stopped having recurring nightmares about waiting tables and having everything going horribly wrong!

A good one I do is set a timer on my watch to go off every 5/10 min. If it goes off and I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing I stop and redirect. Side note, living alone sucks! I'm not that good at being accountable to myself.

I am 38 and I have been diagnosed with ADHD only this year. Everything comes together now. Watching your videos and listening to problems that you bring up and how you suggest solving them means everything to me. I finally hear points that I have always had in my head and tried to solve on my own. Brings me so much joy to realize that I am not “broken” and that this something that so many people struggle with. Your compassion in approaching this is so valuable. I couldn’t express how needed these words are and for how long I dreamt that someone would “understand” and believe that it isn’t something that I am making up. Thank you so, so much.

What really helps me is to, once in a while, sit down with pen/paper and look around my apartment. I'd look around and see for example dirty clothes on my sofa. I'd ask myself, "why are they on the sofa?" Well, because the laundry basket is full. "Why is the laundry basket full?" Because I haven't washed anything. "What is stopping you from washing your clothes?" It's a lot of (mental) effort to sort the clothes into lights / darks / etc. before washing. "How would you make this easier in the future?" By having multiple laundry baskets, one for lighter colored clothes and one for darker colored clothes. Basically I ask myself why things aren't done in my house and try to come up with solutions so that it's easier for me to do the things in the future :)

Body-doubling is my favorite, most helpful hack (aid)! It never occurred to me that a pet could be a body-double. 🤔😺🐾

Oh my gosh. Yesterday my neurodivergent group watched one of your strategy videos and we were talking about how we can’t remember the strategies! So the timing of this video is perfect 😂

Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against depression and anxiety. Saved my life.

I actually made my dopamenu on Notion which was from another video you suggested because I always struggle to remember what my hobbies are and how I could actually spend my time besides going on my phone

I love Notion. It took me a few tries to get past the "how the heck does this work... ugh it's too much" feelings. But once I actually sat down with it and messed around with various templates and editing them to fit what I want/need, I love it. It's the first organization style app I've actually stuck with for more than a few days.

Wow! Ironically, I found your channel through the Notion template library. I've had ADHD my whole life. I've developed my own coping skills. But, now, my 12-year-old daughter is struggling with ADHD. Her brain is different from mine, and my coping tools aren't working for her. I've only watched a few videos so far, but I've picked up some great tips I've added to my "share with Marlee" list. By the way, one of my own coping mechanisms is that I never tell someone that I "will" do something. I always do it and then tell them what I did. If it's a future thing, I can tell them "I've added it to my calendar/task list." Obviously, I have to do what's on my schedule, but I don't make commitments that get forgotten when a squirrel runs past my window.

My number one trick for house chores or yardwork, though I appreciate that it won't work for everyone or every situation, is Don't Sit Down. If I let myself take a little break after starting the laundry or loading the dishwasher I will inevitably fall down a YouTube rabbit hole, or get engrossed in a video game and I won't be able to switch back out of those modes. If I don't sit down between tasks then my boredom avoidance will find something for me to do. Maybe it will notice the clutter I've become blind to or it prompt me to wash the dishes before they get out of hand. For me it's just a whole lot easier to get things done if I build up and maintain inertia.

My adhd diagnosis was just confirmed by my therapist and phycologist! It’s such a relief to have answers! Thank you for posting! It is super helpful!