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

hello brains you ever find a really great strategy and then completely forget it exists when you need it yeah me too it's actually why I started this [Music] channel the theory was I would put all of the strategies that I learned somewhere where I could actually find them again this channel hundreds of videos later I realized I needed a way to narrow those down to the strategies that I actually still use the ones that I know really work for me so we partnered with notion to create a free template to help you do just that my team and I buil buil this out in notion and found it super easy to collaborate on and even to make it available to you to use the template you do need to sign up for notion but it's free and it's super easy and fast to sign up and then you can use the template you can check that out I'll put a link in the description below I'll talk more about that at the end of the video but for now I wanted to put five of my absolute favorite strategies that I use all the time that I've talked about in videos on this channel and I wanted to put them in one video this one one body doubling body doubling is used all the time in the ADHD Community it is one of the absolute best tools and best of all it's free sometimes it cost you the cup of a coffee though I actually use body doubling so often that I have a virtual office for how to ADHD with a giant body doubling table front and center in the main room where somebody can go and sit and work on whatever they want to work on and if somebody else wants to join they can for a body doubling session but at the very least they're in an area where they know that somebody might see them working and that alone can be enough um I actually have a video about it I will cut to that explanation because I'm very tired and that will make more sense body doubling is a productivity strategy designed to help us stay focused on what we're trying to do a body double is a person or even pet who is present with us while we work this provides a gentle form of accountability their presence serves as a reminder of what we're supposed to be doing so we're less likely to get distracted body doubles are typically passive forms of accountability they're not there to make you stay on task their role is just to sit quietly with you while you work you you can ask someone to be a body double for you to sit in the same room and read or knit or any other quiet thing they want to do while you work or you might ask if somebody wants to body double with you meaning they work quietly on their task while you focus on yours body doubling doesn't have to be done in person you can also do it in a video call or a Discord server so if you ask somebody to body double with you or if you offer to be a body double make sure they know what you mean and make sure it's a good fit a body double isn't there to help you with the task but they also shouldn't totally distract you from it two monotasking I used to think multitasking was the best thing ever because you can get so much more done if you're doing a bunch of things at once not really that's not quite how it works there are some things that you can multitask at if they don't actually require your brain so I can fold laundry while I'm watching a TV show although I will probably be a little bit slower than if I was just focusing on the laundry but I digressed multitasking is something that people with ADHD are more likely to do but we're not any better at it and it's very difficult to switch quickly between tasks so one of the ways that we can be most effective is if we monotasking to be as overwhelming because you're not trying to do too many things at the same time do we have a clip we probably have a clip brains actually can't focus on multiple things at once which is fine if the tasks we're doing don't both require Focus but if the tasks we're doing do require Focus what's actually happening is that we're switching Focus back and forth quickly between them this leads to reduced work performance more errors and poorer decision-making we're actually more efficient and more effective if we monotasking something else instead of going to do it write it down and then go back to what you were working on two block out time in our schedule for each task and during that time do only that task three batch tasks together so instead of checking our email throughout the day we would check it twice a day four organize days or weeks by themes I do all my laundry on Sundays for example because if I try to do it as needed throughout the week I will will absolutely forget that I'm doing laundry and five dual class or monotasking when doing one thing at a time feels too restrictive we can pick two if we get bored of one we can switch to the other it might take longer but it's great for those of us who need more variety of course monotasking is easier said than done when you have edhd because our brains are naturally going to want to multitask we're going to think of all the things that we need to do at the same time so it's actually pretty difficult for us to monotasking easier is the Pomodoro Technique so as a subset of monotasking pomodoros are one of my favorite things to do basically you set a timer you decide what you're going to do while that timer is going and then you only do that anything else that pops into your head you can write down on something called a parking lot and when the pomodora timer is up and you're done with the 10 minutes 15 minutes 25 minutes however long you wanted to do it you can see if anything on that parking lot was actually that urgent or if your brain just was really trying to get out of doing the thing that you said you were going to do so I don't use the pomodora technique anytime I'm trying to be productive I just use it when I really need it when I really need that help with mono tasking with staying focused and I'm very protective of my Pomodoro I do not break the Pomodoro if somebody texts me I will say I am in the middle of a Pomodoro can I text you back if an idea pops into my head I write it down I stay with what I said that I was going to be doing because as soon as I break that it's not going to work anymore so that's how I use the pomodora technique three fill in the planks this one I came up with I did a video about motivation Branch it's a metaphor that I came up with where there's this bridge that takes us from wanting to do a thing to actually getting it done and let's call that motivation Bridge there's motivational planks you know what we definitely have a clip we don't always do what we intend to do between intending to do it and actually doing it there's a big Chasm that Chasm is bridged by we'll call this motivation Bridge ADHD brains tend to have trouble with tasks that are lengthy repetitive or boring on the flip side there are a few things that give ADHD brains a bunch of motivational planks things that are urgent things that are new or novel and things that are of personal interest so I'm tasks naturally include these motivational planks but for those that don't we can fill in the planks how one make it urgent creating artificial deadlines is kind of Hit and Miss for ADHD brains since we know on some level the deadline isn't real but accountability can help make it real maybe instead of having one final deadline for a paper ask your teacher if you can have a deadline for each draft two make it new we can't always do new things but we can do them in new environments or in new ways do your homework in a hammock finally three make it personally interesting sometimes we don't get to choose the tasks we have to do but we can do them in a way we find interesting all these things making it urgent making it new or novel and making it personally interesting can give us more planks to help us get over motivation bridge I still think about motivation Bridge a lot if I'm struggling to get myself started on something if my motivation is lacking rather than trying to force myself to do the thing I ask myself like what planks are missing do I need to add urgency do I need to add challenge or do I need to make it easier sometimes it's about making it easier it's about lowering ing the bar because I'm getting too perfectionistic and that's actually getting in my way I have a song about that but here's a simple brain prooof method that I'll share with you do it badly do it terribly write three pages that no one would read you have so many reasons to do these things and none of you said you do them perfectly and do it badly do it terribly take a selfie that no one will see you have so many reasons to do these things way more important than doing them perfectly I understand perfectionism I even made this video but sometimes being perfect can mean just doing it at all you've got so many reasons to do these things and don't worry cuz there's no such thing as perfectly just done sometimes you just need to do something badly it helps with the procrastination especially when that procrastination is about perfectionism four exercise wait where are you going hear me out I know exercise is not the most fun thing in the world to do necessarily but it can be pickle ball is a thing exercise is something that I used to feel like I didn't have time for when I was really busy because I was thinking of it as something that was just for my body but it turns out exercise is really beneficial for our brains and not just brains in general but edhc brains in particular as I explained in this video wait for it cool science [Music] stuff so when you exercise what actually happens in your brain I spent a month and a half looking into it with the help of doctoral candidate Patrick La who happens to be researching the impact of exercise on ADHD scientifically speaking when you exercise there's basically a huge neurotransmitter party in your brain during exercise your body releases happy chemicals AKA endorphins you may have heard of them at the same time exercise also boosts dopamine and norepinephrine the same neurotransmitters that stimulant medication increases in order to help us Focus this all happens pretty quickly which is why you tend to feel happier and more productive for an hour or two after you work out it's also why you might sleep better that night and not feel as stressed but there's a long-term brain benefit too and it's something you've probably never heard of exercising increases production of something called bdnf bdnf is a protein that basically acts like fertilizer for the brain how it promotes neurogenesis aka the creation of new brain cells yes fellow nerds when you exercise you are literally growing your brain yeah exercise produces the same brain chemicals that are in our stimulant medication and so I'm not saying that we can necessarily replace our medication with exercise but we can supplement it with exercise and for some people with with more mild ADT they might be able to I personally use exercise because it makes me feel better it makes me feel better it makes me think better it makes me feel better about myself I don't love to exercise sometimes I'm very bored doing it but I invest in tools that either help me exercise or make it more fun because I know how important it is for my brain function it helps me prevent depression it helps me manage my anxiety it helps with my mood overall it helps my brain Focus there are so many reasons that I exercise and it's not even for my body anymore really it's mostly for my brain five put things at the point of performance I talk about this a lot on this channel but I felt like it was worth putting here again because it really is important for adhc brains we do get distracted we do have working memory challenges there are a lot of reasons why if we have to go hunt things down it's not going to go well for us and so putting things at the point of performance which I explain in this video the other thing I do is try to have everything at point of performance where you have everything that you need to per perform a task within Arms Reach of that task and so for this that means I need to get a cup so I get a cup I need water so I fill a cup with water the water's right here dump it in there and then everything that I need to make coffee is in here so I have coffee filters I have the coffee itself I have things to eat with the coffee everything is right here and that does a couple of things it makes it easier and faster for me to make it but it also means that I don't have to be like oh right um shoot I need coffee filters and Wander over to the fridge looking for coffee filters in here where did I put them and then I'm like oh right the fridge I needed to take that chicken out because that's probably not good anymore and so then oh right chicken my dog probably needs to go outside so now I'm taking my dog for a walk holding a coffee mug so putting things at the point of performance can help us be able to do whatever it is that we're trying to do I learned this as a server and I use it all of the time I'll cut to a clip here so you can learn a little a little bit more waiting tables when everything's really chaotic and you are scrambling to take care of the dinner rush you want everything where you need it to be so the coffee station has everything you need to make coffee the drink station has everything you need to make drinks there's ice there's cups there's the soda machine there's everything is right there and that's the only way I think any of us were able to do anything because if you had to run from one side of the restaurant to the other to take care of one order then nobody would get their food in time and everybody would be mad some sometimes having ADHD is a lot like the dinner rush at the restaurant where there's way too much to do all at once and you really need everything to be as convenient and accessible as possible you need efficiency because um otherwise everything falls apart really quickly there's a whole lot of like oh shoot I just remembered that I needed to do the thing you know and you have to do it in that moment the the less you have to run across the house to get all of the things that you need for the thing the better I think we have several Clips on this one where's the dog crate right there where are the dog treats right here I have now expanded having things at the point of performance past physical point of performance and to digital point of performance as well so yeah that's point of performance um I think it's really helpful for people with ADHD so that we don't wander off get distracted but also so that we know where our stuff is if we're trying to drag things from one place to another it's more likely they're going to get lost it's a lot easier to find what we need when it's right where we need it it's also a lot easier to put it back speaking of point of performance the template I was telling you about at the beginning of this video is currently pinned to My Bookmarks bar where I am likely to need it all five of these tools and the videos and more tools as well are in the template that we built out on notion it's called ADHD toolbox and I am super excited about it because I don't know why I didn't make this thing sooner so this is notion notion is basically whatever you want it to be it's a great place to build out templates or to use templates that other people have built out and I'd heard a lot of really wonderful things about notion I have a lot of fellow creators that I know use notion and there's somebody on my team that uses it all of the time but I was really surprised at how easy it was to create exactly what it was that I wanted to create basically if you can imagine it you can create it and that's what I did I imagined what would be helpful if I had a place to keep my tools and we were able to build that pretty quickly Tada our template so this is my adhc toolbox it's divided into five categories my toolbox tools I want to try tools I'm currently testing tools that might work if and tools that aren't for me I'm super excited about how this is turning out this template is meant to be used individually although you can collaborate on it with somebody else if you'd like to have some help building it but it's meant to be your personal ADHD toolbox it's meant to be a place where you can keep the tools that you've found that work for you the tools that you found don't work for you so that you don't waste any more time on them and the tools that you're currently testing as well as things that you want to try and tools that you've tried and don't quite work but might work if if you had the resources or if you had the support or if there's something else that you might want to tweak about them to get them to work for you and you know make sure that the things that we're trying are going to work for us as best as possible to use the template you do need to sign up for notion but it's free and it's super easy and fast to sign up and then you can use the template you can check that out I'll put a link in the description below so yeah let me show you how this works I found it really helpful to bookmark mine so that I can go right to it whenever I need it while I'm working I like having things at point of performance that's one of the strategies that I really like I started off with the tools that I talk about in this video but you can add your own I put little call outs little notes to to how to use each section so for my toolbox drop tools here that you know work for you that way you can easily access and remember them when you need them one of the things I like to search by is tool type or area of life or this is my favorite what this helps with if I'm having a hard time focusing that day I can just look at the ones that help with focus and these are the tools that help me with my focus you can also look uh by favorites then you have tools I want to try so we can do all the things just not at the same time drop tools you'd like to try here so you don't forget about them this is something that I want to try um tiny Hood parenting classes so that when I have my baby I am not trying to figure out how to take care of a kid at the same time as actually taking care of a kid uh this is essentially scaffolding which is a really good ADHD strategy tools I'm currently testing I'm working on Babble improving my Italian tools that might work if drop tools here that could be a good fit but aren't functional for you yet include what you need to be able to use them I find this really helpful because a lot of tools could work for somebody with ADHD but we might need more resources we might need more accountability we might need to tweak the system a little bit and so I don't want to write them off entirely but they aren't working as is we need something so for me that's a reward system for doing life admin tasks you can put in the notes in description like what the tool is this was a system I created where I got points for doing life admin stuff like checking the mail one point for taking any action toward it three points for doing some of it five points for completing it so if I just go to check the mailbox like I'll I'll get a point if I check the mail bring it in and sort it cool three points if I actually do what I need to do with all the mail in the pile then I would get five points and the points convert to money toward costume jewelry this is a tool that I tried and we have little questions for each one so for tools that would work if what barriers did I run into while testing this tool what support would I need to be able to use it and what else could help so fill out the questions if you want to for each tool depending on what section it's in and then we have tools that aren't for me sometimes tools just aren't worth the cost maybe they don't work or they aren't worth the resource they require drop them here so you don't waste more time or resources on tools that aren't worth it and have more to spend on ones that are I've just started filling these out I just have one in each of these sections you can see here but eat the Frog first this is something it's a common productivity tool that is often recommended for people but for people with adhc it often doesn't work really well to start out with the most difficult thing first um basically doing the hardest or most unpleasant task first so that everything after that is easier it often doesn't work for us instead it'll kind of just make us procrastinate on everything so sometimes we need to start with a win to be able to ramp up our our momentum or do something that's a little bit more fun first so that we can get ourselves to our desk and get started and not feel so discouraged so you can take this template and do what you want with it you can add your own tools you can put tools you want to try tools that you know work for you or that don't work for you and you can even add your own automations if you know notion you can do a lot of cool things to tweak it and make it your own but this is the base template and it is absolutely free I hope you like it thank you to my brain Advocates and all my P on brains for supporting this seven plus year journey of learning to work with our brains not against it and collecting tools to help us with our ADHD I hope you like this video please let me know in the comments below what tools work best for you I'm very very curious you might even remind me of a few that I forgot about to include in my own template like subscribe click all the things and I will see you next video bye [Music] friends [Music] what

Channel: How to ADHD

Views: 283,635

Keywords: add, adhd, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, jessica mccabe, how to, attention deficit disorder, mental health, neurodiversity, adult adhd, how to adhd, mental health awareness

Id: 51pOP8-wURk

Length: 19min 9sec (1149 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2023