Living With ADD Can Be Well Managed
Living with ADD can be a daily struggle just to complete everyday normal responsibilities and tasks. It can often cause havoc in your personal and professional life. But, life gets much better if you know how to manage your day in such a way as to head off some of the common stumbling blocks ADD often presents. Below are some useful tips and suggestions on how to manage your day to day life to make your life easier while living with ADD.
Get Organized – Schedule Your Days and Evenings
It doesn’t matter if you use a day planner, phone app, or computer calendar just get organized. Get into the habit of scheduling all your daily activities and appointments, this will keep you organized and on track as you complete one activity and move on to the next. And while it may sound tedious to have to schedule a stop at the dry cleaners or picking your son up from baseball practice at five o’clock along with your already busy schedule, it really will keep you focused on the task you need to complete so you can move on to the next. As you complete your task check it off your schedule so you won’t have to rely on your memory later, and then look to see what comes next on your schedule.
Set Reminder Alerts
Set up reminder alerts on your smart phone or computer for the important events in your daily schedule. For example, when you schedule in a doctor appointment, set the reminder alert for ten minutes before the time you need to leave by to get to your appointment on time. Reminder alerts will help you not to forget important events and get there on time.
Don’t Overbook
Life can be hectic and it often seems there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done that we need to do. Well some times that is just the case; don’t over schedule your day. Make sure when you are creating your schedule you are leaving enough time in-between to get there and actually complete your tasks. When you schedule your day try to prioritize your tasks in order of importance and convenience. In other words if you need to pick up your dry cleaning that day and have a doctors appointment that is nearby the dry cleaners schedule picking up the dry cleaning as your next task after your doctors appointment. Planning your schedule in this organized way will keep you from running back and forth all over town, save time, save money (gas), and even relieve stress.
Organize Your Home
According to medical experts in the field of ADHD, getting your living environment organized will help with relieving stress and anxiety often associated with ADHD. You don’t need to tackle this in one day, start with one room at a time. Schedule thirty minutes a day in your daily task schedule to work on organizing your home. Start by dividing the room into sections and begin by eliminating clutter, simply putting things back where they belong is a good start. Do not keep things that are broken or you don’t use, donate them or throw them out. Continue scheduling organizing time into your task schedule each day until you have organized every room in your home. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day, just work on it daily and it will get done in due time. Once your home is organized keep it that way, schedule 15 minutes a day in your day planner to put things back where they belong.
Keep important Items in the Same Place
Try placing a tray or basket in the entry area of your home or on the kitchen counter top to put your keys, sunglasses, wallet, purse, and out going mail in, this is so you will always know where they are and is very helpful in keeping you on schedule. You can also do this on a cocktail table in the living room to keep your cell phone, TV and electronic equipment remotes in.
Create a Mail System
Depending on your personal or families needs schedule collecting mail into your day planner on a set day or days and time. Discard the junk mail immediately. Create a file or particular space (basket) where you can store your mail daily. Keep all important mail in this same place, such as bank statements, bills, checks, and important correspondence. Once a week separate the mail into piles, separating bills to be paid into one pile in the order they are due by. Writing the due date on the bills return envelope will help you know when they’re due at a glance. Create a separate file for each of the other important mail such as; car insurance, health insurance, banking statements and other important mail that you need to keep.
Keep it Simple
In your personal and professional life, keeping things simple is best. Don’t accept extra work or projects until you have completed your current responsibilities. If you must take on a new task or project take notes on what the new project requires and schedule the deadline into your daily planner.
The same is true for your personal life; don’t begin new projects at home until you have finished the current one you are working on. This is also true on taking on more responsibilities at home, don’t take on more than you can realistically accomplish it only sets you up for frustration and disappointing a loved one or friend. It is hard to say no, but you must realize that sometimes you have to for all concerned.
Take Care of Your Body and Mind
Eating a healthy diet, getting proper amounts of sleep and exercising are all important parts of managing ADD. There is some research suggesting that exercise of a particular type, such as karate, judo or yoga may stimulate certain parts of the brain related to ADD. Yoga in particular can be very beneficial for people with ADD because it not only is a great form of exercise to make your body healthy, it is also good for your mind because it is also a great source of meditation, which is very helpful to people with ADD.
