Thriving with ADHD: A Guide to Establishing and Sustaining a Productive Routine

If you’re one of the 8.1% of US adults that have ADHD, you know exactly how difficult and can be to maintain your daily routine. Distraction, interruptions, the be and flow of mental energy… it can seem like an impossible hill to climb.

That’s why today, we’re going to take a look at the most reliable and widely advocated tactics out there. This is what the real experts recommend to real people to help them get their workplace ADHD symptoms under control.

So settle in and let’s take a look!

Set Your Routine

Routine is everything. It is the backbone of keeping The ADHD mind focused, in control, and overwhelm-free.

Why?

First, you need to understand that the very name “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” is a bit of a misnomer.

People we ADHD aren’t necessarily suffering from a deficit in the ability to pay attention. That is a generalized over-simplification that has led to much stereotyping and little actual help. Instead, people with ADHD have a deficit in the ability to regulate their attention.

So yes, sometimes we are distracted.

But we also hyper-focus.

It’s better to think of it like this: A person with ADHD has trouble deciding the best thing to focus on right now.

So how does routine help?

Routine, done right, acts as the director of the movie playing in our heads. If we sit down and plan out a solid routine, it becomes an external support that keeps us on task.

So how do we build a solid routine?

1. Stick with a consistent schedule: Create blocks of time for each of your responsibilities or tasks and then do them each day in the same order. You might want to try chunking your time and designating each chunk to one (and only one) task.
   
   Doing this will establish a sense of structure and predictability in your day. That not only fights off that crippling overwhelm, but it also helps you make fewer decisions because completing each task automatically decides the next task for you, effortlessly. Every day, the moment I finish checking my emails, I open Slack. It’s automatic. It’s effortless. It’s routine.
   
2. Schedule breaks and personal time like it’s part of your job: I know this sounds weird, but I schedule dinner, family TV time, and reading-for-fun time right along with my work tasks. Why?
   
   One of the many dangers of ADHD is time creep. You start something and before you know it, hours have passed. Without my after-work routine, I might open Reddit for a quick scroll… and disappear into ADHD land until bedtime. I like Reddit, but not that much.
   
   By scheduling (and setting alarms) for ten minutes of Reddit time, one hour of TV time, one hour of reading time, (and so on), I ensure that I get to do a bit of everything every day.
   
3. Plan Ahead: Plan out one week at a time. By the end of Friday of this week, I have each day of next week time-blocked and ready to go (yes, weekends and evenings included). For someone with ADHD, the uncertainty of tomorrow can cause a total shutdown. Don’t let it happen. Always have a plan.
   
   Without it, I don’t think I could ever actually unwind or enjoy a weekend. The uncertainty would kill me.

Use a Planner

Let’s face it. Often what we really need is something that will tether us to reality. Time-slip, distraction, or hyper-focus… they all have one thing in common.

With each, we slip away from the reality shared by everyone else into a reality entirely our own.

That’s why a planner is so important.

Sure, it’s easy to create a routine in theory. But it’s even easier to drift away and never look at that routine again. A planner acts as our anchor point. we’ll use it to bring ourselves back from the ADHD void.

But what kind of planner? How should we set it up?

Let’s take a look:

1. Find the right one for you: I know that sounds vague, but it’s really the best advice out there. Experiment. No two ADHD minds are the same and no planner is going to work for everyone.
   
   Try digital. Try pen and paper. Try online tools. Use whichever planner you are most likely to use.
   
   And don’t get lured in by bells and whistles. It might look cool, but ask yourself: After a hell of a week when I forget my meds and I haven’t slept and my diet is shot… which planner would seem the least frightening to pick up.
   
2. Colorize It: ADHD minds are extremely good at letting things fade into the background. But they are also extremely good at noticing novelty. Color code areas of your life. Use a multi-pen to color code entries. Use apps that have color tagging features.
   
   Then, when you review your planner, take a second to tell your brain which color (and only which color) to look for. For example, when I need to find only my tasks related to content writing (coded in blue) I tell my brain that right now I am only noticing blue words. It’s incredible how the blue ink will jump off the page!
   
3. Review Regularly: A planner is only as good as its inputs. That means you need to check in and update it regularly. But, doing so too much is a sure path to overwhelm and burnout.
   
   Personally, I review once per week (I’m a GTD fan and it’s part of the weekly review in that system). Otherwise, I just update as needed when an event changes.
   

Take Breaks

There is a hidden danger in building a solid, ADHD-friendly routine that no one talks about:

It can work too well.

That’s right. You get so immersed in your routine that you hyper-focus right through meals or social engagements.

And you can become so dependent on your routine that you rigidly adhere to it, even when it’s in your best interest to break it.

So what do you do?

Take breaks.

Schedule them right into the routine.

Let’s look at some best practices.

1. Work with your natural rhythm: Pay attention to your energy levels and ability to focus throughout the day. Both will rise and fall as the day goes on. This could be due to your natural circadian rhythm, or it could be the waxing and waning of extended-release medication. Either way, you’ll want to know when you are at your best and at your worst.
   
   For me, my low points are 10 am and 1 pm. Every day. Like clockwork. (this is because I adhere to rigid sleep and wake times, which is another crucial ADHD management technique).
   
   So that’s when I schedule my major breaks.
   
2. Get away from screens: Go outside if you can. spending 10 minutes among greenery can work wonders for your ADHD symptoms. Even if you can’t go outside, spend 10-15 minutes away from any sort of screen (especially your phone!). If you have eye strain, try to look at something far in the distance.
   
   This is a great time for a snack, especially if you’re the type to forget meals.
   
3. Buddahist Catnaps: This is Kurt Vonnegut’s term for the act of reading a very short story. Read something light and short (again 10-15 minutes is the sweet spot). Read in a genre you love and read purely for entertainment. This is supposed to be a restful reward, after all.
   
4. Meditation and Visualizations: Close your eyes, get comfy, and… breathe. Following a guided meditation or a visualization, exercise is wonderfully restorative to a burnt-out brain. Try this: close your eyes and take a slow, richly detailed walk through your memories of a specific place. I use a walking path near my house or my childhood home. I find that 15 minutes of this is even more restorative than a 30-minute nap (for me at least).

Go Easy and Forgive

I’ll be honest. You’re going to fall off the routine bandwagon. It happens to everyone. And whatever happens to everyone, happens to those of us with ADHD twice.

When it does, forgive yourself. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s not the end of the world.

So go easy on yourself. Then pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back to it. Remember to maintain that growth mindset and keep up the positive self-talk.

These tips and tactics are just tools for your toolbox, after all. even the greatest carpenter sometimes drops their saw.

Good luck and happy routine-ing!