Category Archives: Planning

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Effective Study Tips for Students with ADHD

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Clients and teachers often ask me for effective study tips that will help students with ADHD.  The study tips included here will help students of all ages prepare for quizzes, tests and exams.

Make a Plan

When you have ADHD, making a plan can be the most difficult and important part of studying. Difficult because it may go against your nature of acting in the moment.  Important because it can make your studying less stressful and more effective.  Experiment with this concept.  Next time you have a test, think about how long you should study.  Break your studying into time chunks over several days if possible.  Put the time into your calendar, planner, phone or somewhere else that you will see it.

Implement Your Plan

I can hear your protest now.  “But Laura, I can make a beautiful plan, but I won’t implement it.”  Once you have made your plan, it can feel a little overwhelming to implement it.  Focus on the first time chunk.  What day will you start your studying?  Where will you go to study?  What is your reward when you finish.  Do what it takes to implement your plan, even if it seems like a very small step.  Getting started will help you gain momentum.

Read Your Notes

You are thinking, “of course I’ll read my notes”, but I mean for you to read them aloud.  Especially if you are an auditory learner, this can help you study more effectively than if you try to read your notes silently.  I have one client who has been reading multiplication facts aloud to himself for a couple weeks.  Just one set of facts each evening (3×3, 3×4, 3×5 … 3×11) two times through.  This client reports that this simple act of reading the facts aloud is already helping with his middle-school math class.  Could this strategy help you to study vocabulary?  math?  other subjects?

Take Breaks

Taking breaks can seem to be counter intuitive to my clients.  Many would rather push through all of their work and hope that hyperfocus helps them study.  By taking even a short break, you can give yourself a chance to rejuvenate and recharge to get ready for more studying.  A brisk walk can help even more.

Let me know your thoughts on these effective study tips.  What are your favorite study tips for students with ADHD?  What works for you?  Share here and help others learn from you!

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Prioritizing Helps with ADHD

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ADHD can make it difficult to prioritize.  If a task is important, but not interesting, it can be difficult to make it a top priority.  Read on for suggestions on ways to improve your prioritization skills!

If you have ADHD, I recommend that you commit to spending 5 minutes each day making a quick plan.  Once each week, spend 10 or 15 minutes.  If this is a task you dislike, set a timer so you know you’ll be free when the buzzer sounds!

When planning your week and day, make sure you are working towards your top priorities.  Ask yourself a few questions regarding each meeting, task or other assignment to help you decide what are the highest priorities in a given day or week…

  • How will this task or meeting move me towards my goals?
  • Is this task or meeting important?
  • Does this task feel important just because it is urgent?
  • Is there another way for this task to get accomplished?

If you commit to asking yourself these questions for at least 3 weeks, experience tells me that you’ll see a positive change in your prioritization skills. Are you ready to commit?  Leave us a comment and let us know your plans!

PS – We have an exciting call coming up on Monday, June 14, 2010.  Turmoil to Tranquility:  Tools for Increased Productivity.  Register today to make sure you don’t miss out on the call or the recording!

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6 ADHD Coaching Strategies: The recording is here!

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Last week, I offered a teleclass to share 6 ADHD Coaching Strategies. So many people ask me how ADHD coaching works that I wanted to share some strategies to illustrate some of the strategies I use as an ADHD Coach.

If you were not able to listen to the teleclass, I hope you’ll have some time to listen to the recording of Recording: 6 Strategies to Apply ADHD Coaching Techniques.

I shared the following strategies that you can apply to your work, family and personal goals:

  1. Ask Insightful Questions:  For more information, check out my post titled Ask Insightful Questions – Just Like a Coach!
  2. Practice Active Listening
  3. Focus on what works for YOU
  4. Build in accountability for yourself
  5. Build structure into your daily life
  6. Plan – even if only for a few minutes each day.

After you have a chance to listen to the call, leave us a comment with your feedback.  Hope you enjoy it!

Recording: 6 Strategies to Apply ADHD Coaching Techniques

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Use Your Planner Effectively

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If you have time management or organization challenges, chances are you will benefit from using your planner more effectively.  I would like to share a few tips that I have seen work in my experience with coaching individuals with ADHD.

  • Select a planner that works for you.  See the article I wrote last year on this topic for more tips on selecting the right planner.  It includes a checklist of characteristics that you can take with you when you shop for that perfect planner.
  • Schedule time each day for planning.  If that sounds overwhelming, start with a small amount.  Can you spend 15 minutes this weekend planning next week?  Can you spend 5 minutes at the end of each day planning for the next day?  I am sure you have been told you should plan for a longer amount of time than this.  Sure, 30 minutes would be great, but that can be really overwhelming especially if you haven’t been doing much planning.  I encourage you to take small steps.
  • If you use a physical planner (as opposed to an electronic one), find a space in your office and/or home where you will always put your planner.  Still afraid you will lose it?  You could always purchase a backup planner to ensure you are never without your planner.
  • Look at your planner every single day.  Set a reminder in an electronic planner like Google Calendar that will send you an email every day.  The daily email can be great to help you remember.

How do these ideas resonate for you?  Which ones will you try?  Leave us a comment to let us know how you are doing!

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