ADHD folks, how do you cope/manage at work?
Sep 28, 2018
17 Comments
Diagnosed at the end of college. Apparently my attention span is equivalent to a 5th grader.
It seems like every piece of technology makes it harder and harder to focus these days. It was easier to manage my disease back when Slack didn’t exist and it was just email.
Are there any resources that have been helpful to you?
I don’t want to take medication because it really messes with my mood, but my career progress is being materially affected by the disease and I’d like to find a way to manage it more effectively.
comments
Having said that, before starting medication, I had these alternatives:
1. Sleep - Absolute 8 hours undisturbed sleep every day. Period. (Applies even more emphatically if you are on medication)
2. Mindfulness - Probably the only real alternative in terms of effectiveness at this point but we all know how hard it is achieve and even more so for ADHDers
3. Coffee (didn’t workout too well in the long term as it’s way too easy to develop resistance and was too acidic for my stomach)
4. Pomodoro technique of time management. Work in 25 minute bursts of focus with 5 minute breaks in between. No phone, no emails nada, And then an hour break for lunch and possibly more (YMMV) to batch process all the emails and messages.
5. Fish oil capsules (they worked to an extent but not as effective)
But I repeat, I never found any alternative as effective as the medication at the right dosage. With the right dosage, you will be in the zone and you will never look back. It’s worth spending time to optimize the dosage as you don’t want have regrets later in your life for not trying to level your playing field earlier and unleash your potential. So, don’t waste your time.
I would suggest trying to find work you are truly passionate about. That - combined with medication - should really help.
I just think it’s important to mention it’s not purely a physiological thing. What you’re working on matters too.
In addition to medication:
- I close Slack/Outlook for 30-60min periods when I need to focus and catch up on messages after
- Listening to music is pretty much a requirement if you have an open office plan (I listen to "focus" category playlists on Spotify)
- Decide what task you want to work on for the next unit of time (15/30/60 min) and try your best to focus exclusively on that - context switching kills my productivity
Feel free to pm if you want to talk more :)