Just in case the player above isn’t working correctly, you can always listen in at Blog Talk Radio.

This seems to come naturally for parents of children with ADHD, but it is equally important for adults who have (or suspect they have) Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  When you learn more about ADHD, , you can best evaluate how to manage it.  You will also be able to learn best practices that others use.  Below I have compiled some of my recommendations.

Some general tips

• Check your sources.  Be sure they are based in sound research principles.
• Beware of extremes, especially when sources are talking about “cures”.  I recently saw an article that claimed to share the “cure” to ADHD and it really concerned me.  I do not like to see people being misled.  There is not a “cure” for ADHD, but there are many different options to managing ADHD.  Remember, if something sounds to good to be true, it probably is!
• Stay current.  Research regarding ADHD is ongoing so we can learn new information over time.

Recommendations for Educating Yourself about ADHD

Below, you will find a few options for educating yourself about ADHD.  Please check them out and add your suggestions in our Comments section.

• Center for Disease Control Symptom List:  http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html
• Video of Dr. Russell Barkley discussing ADHD Understanding and Management:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3d1SwUXMc0
• National Resource Center on ADHD:  http://www.help4adhd.org/
• Read Dr. Thomas E. Brown’s new book, “A New Understanding of ADHD in Children and Adults”.  You can see his Model of ADHD here:  http://www.drthomasebrown.com/brown_model/index.html
• Check out the archives of my Practical ADHD Strategies radio show and upcoming episodes to get tips and strategies about working with your ADHD.

What are your favorite ways to learn about ADHD?

• If you know that you are spending 3 hours on Facebook, you can save some time by shortening the time!
• When you see that you are super productive between 10am and noon, you can schedule your most challenging times during that time.

Below are a few ideas that you can use to figure out where your time goes.

Weekly Snapshot

Use a Weekly Planning Snapshot to keep track of your time in one-hour increments over the next week.  At the beginning of each hour, write (or type) how you spent your last hour.  Make it short; write for 30 seconds or less.  At the end of each day, look at how you spent your time.  Where did you spend your time?  What were your productive times?

Estimate Your Time

When you are planning your day, estimate the amount of time each task will take you to complete.  Add up the time you estimate.  Does the total equal more than the amount of time you have to work today?  If it does, you need to take some things off the list.

At the end of the day, compare your estimates to the amount of time your tasks actually took you to complete.  How close were you?  How can you adjust your estimates to be more accurate?

Notice

Yes, this sounds too simple to be helpful, but it can work.  Spend the next week consciously noticing where you are spending your time.  Tell your inner critic to be quiet and let you just pay attention to time.  At the end of each day write down or record what you noticed during the day.  Noticing where your time goes will give you new insight into time wasters and time savers that work for you.

Which one of these strategies will you try this week?

I recently had an opportunity to interview Dr. Thomas E. Brown about his new book,  A New Understanding of ADHD in Children & Adults: Executive Function Impairments (Routledge, 2013).  In this book, Dr. Brown proposes a new model of ADHD.  This model uses research data to explain that ADHD impairments are actually due to problems in the development of the brain’s executive functions.

The interview took place on my radio show, Practical ADHD Strategies.  You can listen in the player below.

The book has already received some great reviews…

“This book presents a highly useful and current summation of the major findings concerning ADHD and the role of executive functioning in it.  Clinicians, students, and laypeople will find here much valuable informationon the disorder, its assessment and diagnosis, and its management.”  ~Russell A. Barkley, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina

“A very intriguing read. Dr. Brown skillfully examines the diverse nature of executive functions, ADHD, and their overlap.”  ~Timothy E. Wilens, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Director of Substance Abuse Services, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Brown is Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders in the Dept. of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. In addition to his forthcoming book, he is the prize-winning Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults (Yale Press). He edited ADHD Comorbidities: Handbook for ADHD Complications in Children and Adults (American Psychiatric Press) and is author of the Brown ADD Scales (Pearson). He has presented symposia and workshops throughout the US and in 40 other countries. More information about Dr. Brown is available at his website: www.DrThomasEBrown.com.

Connect with Dr. Brown on Facebook and YouTube as well!  Facebook: www.facebook.com/drthomasebrown
YouTube: www.youtube.com/drthomasebrown

The 14th International ADULT ADHD Conference is coming to Detroit, Michigan

Reach Out for Connection,

Hope and Empowerment

If you’re an adult with ADHD (or you live with one) the Adult ADHD Conference is just for you! It’s the only live, in-person conference created exclusively for adults with ADHD.

It’s your chance to connect with leading ADHD experts, professionals and coaches who will provide you with trusted information, support and solutions.

This life-changing conference can be the difference between you… continuing to be frustrated…maybe even feeling helpless… from your unsuccessful attempts to overcome the challenges of your ADHD…

Or, experiencing a new sense of empowerment and hope made possible by the knowledge, support and solutions you gained from attending the Adult ADHD Conference.

There are viable solutions to dealing effectively with the challenges of your adult ADHD. And the support and solutions are yours for the taking at the 14th International Adult ADHD Conference. 

Wait a minute, did an ADHD Coach just admit that To Do lists are scary?  Why, yes I did just go there.  There are many reasons why people with ADHD may want to avoid making a to do list.  I don’t need to bore you with those reasons…  you already know them.  What I want to do today is to share 4 keys for creating effective to lists with the goal of making it a less scary process.

#1 – Create It

In order to have an effective to do list, you need to take that first step of creating the list.  Depending on your style and preferences, there are many different ways to create the to do list.  If you struggle with creating your to do list, try one of these unique ways to capture your to dos.

• Hands On Learners:  Use flip chart paper to capture all of your current to dos.  The big movement might get your ideas flowing.  Post it on the wall of your cubicle or office.
• Mind Mappers:  Use a mind map to capture all of the to dos that are in your mind.  A good free one is www.xmind.net.
• Want to keep it simple?  Write everything down in a spiral notebook or composition book.  Use a post-it note to mark your page.
• On-line Accessibility:  Workflowy is a lice, simple list making tool.  Since it is web-based, you can access it anywhere.
• Your Planner:  If you already use a planner, this is a perfect place to capture your to dos.  If you aren’t using a planner, get my free guide here:  Planner Guide

#2 Delete From It

After capturing your list, identify items you can delete from the list.  If you are afraid of forgetting something, start with just deleting one thing from your list.  Think about the time you will save!

#3 Prioritize Your List

Understanding your priorities is a big part of effective to do lists that I’ll be discussing over at ADDclasses.com on February 12, 2013.  When prioritizing, you may be tempted to prioritize the entire list before getting started. If you can do this, go for it.  If you are stuck at this point, go through your list and identify  3 – 4 top priorities.  Is it due today or tomorrow?  It’s a priority.  Is it big and coming due soon?  Taking a step on this item is a priority.

#4 Start

Getting stuck on where and when to start working with your to do list is common with ADHD.  There are so many priorities where you can focus, it gets difficult to take step on on that first item.  I want to give you permission to just start something.  Worried that you are working on the wrong thing?  Try to move past that and start working.  You might discover that something else would have been a better place to start.  In the meantime, if you are making progress working on another priority, it isn’t wrong at all.  You can still make productive progress to accomplishing things on your to do list.

What do you think, can these keys work for you?

Setting priorities is a challenge with ADD / ADHD.

Your to do list is long, everything is important and it can be downright overwhelming.  Join me over at ADDClasses.com as I teach strategies to help you tame your to-do list with effective prioritizing.  First, I’ll teach you how to capture your to dos.  Then I’ll be teaching prioritizing strategies that you can use in both your personal and professional lives.

Listen over the telephone or internet!

Register before the class begins and you will be able to listen to a free replay until 2/19/2013.

• I want to keep things fresh.
• Routines are boring.
• I’m too creative for a routine to be helpful.
• I can’t maintain a routine, I have ADHD!

I contend that the benefits of having some routines in your life will outweigh the doubts and challenges noted above.

Why do I need routines?

Working memory challenges often accompany ADHD.  This means that it can be hard to remember what you want to do next when doing something like getting to bed at a good time.  A routine can help you remember the order in which you want to complete all of the steps involved.  Using a routine can help you develop good habits, remember those steps and get them done more efficiently over time.

Everyday tasks are BORING.  I get it and won’t argue.  Unfortunately, the reason we call them everyday tasks is that they must be done… every day.  Or at least most days.  Put boring with the tendency to become distracted, and you can see why it is difficult to get those everyday tasks done in a reasonable amount of time.  When you get distracted and sidetracked on doing different things, you spend more time than you want.  By giving your mind a routine or checklist to focus its attention, you can help reduce that natural tendency to be distracted.

What types of routines?

Routines and checklists can have an impact on your daily life from getting ready in the morning to paying your bills.  Examples of routines include:

• Getting ready for your day from shower to out the door
• Getting started for your workday
• Checking your email at any time of day
• Making meals
• Paying bills
• Planning a party

How can you establish a routine?

• Join me for a free teleseminar over at Attention Deficit Disorder Resources (www.ADDresources.org) to learn how to Use Routines and Checklists to Manage Your Day.  I’ll be teaching you more about routines, checklists and ADHD.
• Establishing a routine is a process.  You probably can’t do it overnight.  Start with something you do every day and track how you currently do it for a week.  THEN decide the order you want to do it moving forward and how much time you plan to spend on each step.
• Write it down.  Document your new routine and post it somewhere that you will see it AND refer to it every day.
• Make it interesting.  In order to keep your routine from invoking boredom, do something to keep it interesting.  Racing the clock can be helpful.
• Simplify where possible – no need in completing extra steps!

For more on these and other strategies, I hope you’ll join me over at www.ADDresources.org for the teleseminar, Using Routines and Checklists to Manage Your Day!

So, in answer to my question above, NO, routines are not too boring for someone with ADHD!

Join me for this live class at The Community House (Birmingham, Michigan) February 5, 2013 from 7-8:30pm.  The focus is on developing strategies for overcoming the procrastination that very often comes with ADHD.

Procrastination impacts the productivity of adults and children with ADHD. Join me for an interactive session where you will learn to improve productivity in your everyday life by implementing strategies for overcoming procrastination. Each participant will develop a realistic action plan to begin overcoming their challenges immediately.

Class will be held at The Community House located at 380 South Bates Street, Birmingham, MI 48009.  Their phone number is 248.644.5832.

Register at The Community House website:  http://bit.ly/ProcrastinationADHD

Join me for this helpful (and free!) webinar hosted by Attention Deficit Disorder Resources at www.ADDresources.org on January 22nd at 9pm eastern (6pm pacific).

Routines and checklists can help you easily manage your days, but it is easy to get overwhelmed trying to do too much at one time.  ADHD can make it difficult to efficiently finish (and even start) everyday tasks.  During this webinar, I will be sharing strategies, tricks and techniques that have been helpful for my clients when trying to make their routines more manageable.

During this webinar, you will learn…

• Why routines and checklists can help maintain calm and increase productivity (and time for fun).
• How routines can make an impact for you on a daily basis – from getting ready in the morning to paying your bills!
• Simple strategies to implement routines and checklists in your everyday life!

Register today at Attention Deficit Disorder Resources: http://bit.ly/ADHDRoutines