Edge Foundation Blog

Editor’s Note:  This month we are pleased to publish a guest post by Kathleen Nadeau, Ph.D.  Nationally recognized psychologist, Kathleen G. Nadeau, Ph.D., has many years helping children, teens and adults to learn better planning and organizational skills.   Dr. Nadeau is the brains behind, Skoach, an integrated online time management and task planning tool.

Figure out why you procrastinate, then match your strategy to motivate accordingly.

Procrastination can be caused by several things. You may procrastinate because you don’t enjoy a task. You may procrastinate because a task is large and challenging to organize. Or, you may procrastinate because you aren’t sure how to accomplish the task.

1. Procrastination due to dislike of an activity

If you procrastinate because you don’t like a task, look for ways to increase task appeal such as:

* Make it into a game, and keep score.
* Make it into a game, competing with others.
* Listen to upbeat music while doing it. Schedule a reward immediately after you complete it.

2. Procrastination due to overwhelm

If you’re avoiding a task because it is lengthy and overwhelming, then “divide and conquer”:

* Break the large task into separate, short-term segments.
* Then check off each segment as an accomplished short-term task.

3. Procrastination due to inertia

If you procrastinate because you have difficulty initiating a task, create something to react to. Tasks that can be reacted to are easier to begin than those that you must initiate yourself.

* Work on the task with others – then you can react to their questions, emails, etc.
* Establish a deadline with your supervisor.

4. Procrastination due to lack of organization

Sometimes we procrastinate on beginning a large project because we haven’t organized the task and don’t know where to start. If you can’t seem to get a project organized:

* Think through the task.
* Talk with your supervisor or collaborators to plan it.
* Break the larger task into do-able segments.
* Create a list of resources and supplies needed to accomplish the task.
* Create a timeline for the task.
* Then schedule the first segment of the task.
* Create an email or text reminder for this segment.

5. Procrastination on difficult tasks

Not all tasks can be made easy, but if you find a task particularly difficult, you must analyze how it can become easier.

* Do you need help?
* More training?
* More practice?
* More assistance from other?
* Analyze what is making the task so difficult, and then get the help you need to succeed.

6. Procrastination at certain times of day

More challenging tasks should be done at whatever time of day you seem to feel more focused and energetic. Take note of your daily rhythms, and then try to schedule the most avoided tasks for the time of day when you’ll have more energy to tackle them.

Problem-solve and apply your solution

To combat patterns of procrastination, select a task that you keep putting off. Then look at the list of possible solutions above and choose one that you think is most likely to be helpful.

Pick one (or more) of these solutions, and keep track over the next few weeks. Are you getting things done on a consistent basis? If so, keep up the good work! Your new solutions will soon become habits that require very little effort to maintain.

Final note for severe or chronic procrastinators
Some people seem to have a generally low level of motivation and tend to put off all tasks that take energy or effort. These people are classic “couch potatoes” that would rather do “nothing” than anything at all. If you fall into the couch potato category, you may actually struggle with chronic, low level depression.

Others are couch potatoes due to chronic sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, or poor physical fitness. If you feel as if everything is too much trouble, then get a medical check-up to see if depression or some other health problem is playing a role in always putting things off.

ADHD, Depression and Why it Matters

ADHD and Depression II: Types of Depression

ADHD Depression Busting Tool Kit

There’s a lot of talk these days about information overload.  You may have missed our post about tips to handle information overload. The core idea to managing information overload is to prioritize what you want to see and choose when you want to be reading it.  When you bounce around from site to site or get lost down the Twitter rabbit hole you may be learning lots of interesting trivia or wasting valuable time.

There is no right or wrong way to manage the flow of information.  The key is setting up a system that works for you.  Most information sources, like The Edge Foundation, have a variety of ways you can use to manage the content coming your way.

Email Newsletters

Email Newsletters — With sites that are delivering useful but not breaking news, like the Edge Foundation, you may choose to subscribe to their email newsletter.  What’s great about this type of subscription is you’ll get a weekly (or in Edge Foundation’s case) a monthly summary of what’s been happening on your favorite content site.  One email gives you highlights of the best of the content produced by a site.  And in the case of the Edge Foundation, you’ll get inside information about coaching specials our research studies and other news you can use.  We hope you’ll consider clicking on the link and signing up today!

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds — With web-enabled mobile phones, putting your favorite blogs into a Google Reader can be a very useful way to manage your news.  You can check into your reader without turning on your computer.  That makes it really easy to scan the headlines while you ride the bus or have your morning cup of coffee.  Don’t know what RSS is.  Here’s a 4 minute video to watch that will explain it.

Social Media Sites

Social Media Sites — If you are active on Twitter or Facebook you can follow Edge Foundation in either of these places.  This is a way to listen to what’s going on in the background.  It can also be helpful if you are very active on Facebook to treat it like a RSS reader and scan all your information without leaving Facebook.  Word to the wise:  it can be a good idea to keep Facebook and Twitter for down time use only.  That means not following a news source on either site or you’ll find yourself justifying the time you spend falling down the internet rabbit hole as “work” and not getting any actual work done in the time you set aside to do it.

Content Aggregators

Content Aggregators:  Sites like NetVibes.com can help you stream all of your content including RSS, YouTube channels, Facebook, Twitter and more into one location.  The downside of these sites are that you have to have your computer turned on to use them.  Many people also like to segment the types of information they read into different types of channels — entertainment, work, school — and an aggregator works bestl when you put everything in there.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts can be a great way to keep abreast of a specific search term such as ADHD.  Set up Google Alerts to come as emails or in your RSS feed on an hourly, daily or weekly schedule.

How do you channel your information?  Did we miss your favorite content management method?  Let us know what works, and doesn’t work, for you in the comments.

Editor’s Note: Last night my daughter sat with me and talked to me about how frustrating she was that day having ADHD. She had just made another impulsive boo-boo and was being really hard on herself. I know from talking to successful people with ADHD that feeling discouraged sometimes is part of the package.

We talked about writing down the times that ADHD has been an asset for her so she can remember them on days like these. Like the time she was quick to notice her brother left his favorate sweatshirt behind, or when her out of the box thinking creates a new way of seeing a problem that didn’t seem to have an answer.

And here at Edge, we thought it would be inspriring to hear from other students who have found success using an ADHD coach. You know we are sold on coaching as a powerful way to channel your ADHD for success.

We encourage each of our readers to share their success stories in the comments. Our stories together can remind us all to keep our focus on what is possible in those moments we are discouraged.

Getting organized with ADHD coaching

ADHD coaching really helped me organize. I think it helped me the most in setting goals and making sure I got those goals done in a good way, in a motivational way. Before [I had an ADHD coach] all of my goals and all of my assignments were jumbled up in my head. Coaching helped me systemically put them into a schedule. - College Student

Learning strategies that get results

I’m already reviewing for exams a couple of weeks before I have them. I got this from coaching. Coaching has helped me see things more from a planning perspective – planning ahead and starting early helps make things much easier. I feel much less stressed now about exams, and things are much more doable. So now it is not just like memorizing everything right before an exam and then forgetting it, but doing reading as I go along so that I am actually learning the material when I review it a couple of weeks before a test. - College Student

I still look back and wonder how I was able to get through it. My grades were low, but it was not because I didn’t understand the material. It was simply because I was very disorganized and didn’t know how to study effectively. I lost assignments, I wasted endless hours “studying”, and I nearly drove my parents insane. Then, my mom called an ADHD coach. All it took was a 30-minute call once a week – just 30 minutes! We laid down plans and schedules to get myself back on track. My grades improved tenfold and best of all, I virtually eliminated my problem with missing assignments. With every call, I became better – my study skills improved, my organization was practically flawless, and my self-confidence and ability to motivate myself became fine-tuned. I truly can’t attribute my recent success to anyone but my coach. – High School Student

Astonishing your parents

ADHD Coaching has helped increase my overall organization abilities. It helped me get my room more organized ed. It’s still clean weeks after I did the major clean-up! My folks won’t even believe it when they come see me! And I’m also sleeping more. That’s helping a lot. - College Student

Reaching for the stars

I’m setting higher standards now because, coming into college, my expectations were, ‘Oh yeah; 3.6, 3.7 gpa, no big deal. Because, just coming from high school, that’s just the way everything worked… Now I’m thinking about the bigger picture and what I need to do to get into a good graduate school, and stuff like that. - College Student

ADHD coaching stops the last minute scramble

Grades weren’t really an issue for me ever, but the way I go about getting my grades is better… because of the going through on a daily basis, not waiting until the last minute. - College Student

Hearing more positive feedback

People have commented, ‘Wow, you’re really producing this semester,’ or, ‘Wow, you’re -‘ I don’t want to brag, but – ‘further ahead than everyone else,’ or whatever. I might not have heard [comments like this] last semester. – College Student

Giving perspective – you are not alone

I would say [to my coach], ‘Look, I’m having this problem, right?’ Or we’d be like, ‘Here’s a goal. Why aren’t I reaching that goal?’ ‘Oh, it’s because of this problem.’ And then you know what he’ll say, ‘Well, some people like yourself with ADD, they would try x, y, and z.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s really helpful to know what other people kind of like me in similar situations are doing and how they solve their similar problems.’ – College Student

An ADHD coach is an angel on your shoulder

Besides the benefits, I think the relationship. Developing a relationship is very helpful in keeping you; it’s almost like developing a relationship with an angel on your shoulder or something. It’s just kind of nice to have a good relationship with someone that can help you. - College Student

Reduces stress

Some people feel less stressed after they’ve sort of planned out what they’re going to do about something they are stressed about. Because it takes away the question of, ‘Oh, how am I going to do this? Oh, this is how I’m going to do it. I feel less stressed about it because I know I can get it done.’ – College Student

[Now I'm] in control, not of myself but of my daily life and of the situation; daily experience. Probably less stressed and more confident in my abilities to get the things done that I need to get done, again, in a timely manner. - College Student

An ADHD coach builds your confidence

I was going to say, ‘Confident. Everything is doable.’ [Smiling] Yeah. - College Student

Learning skills to last a lifetime

I was able to compensate until I reached grad school where I hit a wall and began to struggle with classes, scheduling, organization, and school/life balance. I [was] doing well academically but performed poorly in the field – showing up unprepared and missing deadlines. Sometimes the ADD habit of speaking-before-thinking got me in hot water. At home things were a disaster: it seemed impossible for me to keep up with life tasks like laundry, dishes and cleaning while working and studying. [Medication, therapy and academic accomodationns] didn’t address time management and didn’t help my social issues, disorganization, or the home/life balance disrupted by ADD. Before I started coaching, I was afraid I’d fail out of grad school. After a few months of coaching, both my Dean and my advisor congratulated me on my improvements. I’m actually getting honors in my evaluations, which is much more than I’d ever hoped for. I am also learning skills like time management and home/life/work balance, which will help me for the rest of my life. - Grad Student

Feel more in control of your life with an ADHD coach

I became noticeably more organized [with the help of my ADHD coach]. I went from constantly missing homework assignments my first three years of high school to missing no homework assignments my senior year. I could easily find worksheets and packets in folders instead of looking around in my backpack or my room. I got into my first choice college. I believe the study and organization skills I learned with my coach have helped immensely in my first semester of college. I now feel more in control of my schoolwork and grades. - College Student

Share your success

Now it’s your turn.  We hope you’ll share your success stories in the comment section!

For a more in depth success story read One ADHD College Student’s Success Story

Last year we wrote about the importance of healthy sleep habits and ADHD. A few facts worth repeating:

• A just-published study by researchers at Columbia University shows that teens who stay up later are more prone to depression and suicidal thoughts.
• People with ADHD have twice the rate of insomnia and sleep disturbances as people who don’t have ADHD.
• Irregular sleep habits can actually increase your anxiety symptoms.
  Sleep deprivation is also linked to memory and concentration problems and can actually exacerbate hyperactivity symptoms.

When you consider that people with ADHD have much higher levels of depression than the general population , and shorting yourself on sleep increases depression, it seems like a no-brainer to practice healthy sleep habits. If going to bed on time every night can help reduce depression, why are you still pulling all nighters?
So while you are busy sticking to all of your New Year’s resolutions, why not add one that can boost the likelihood you’ll be able to keep them? Go to bed on time every night! And don’t forget to turn off your computer and phone so you won’t be tempted to text or surf at night. One quick text or tweet can easily turn into a late night.
If you are having trouble sticking to a regular bedtime, even when you intend to go to bed on time, a talking to an ADHD coach can help you reduce the distractions, obstacles and last minute fire drills that rob you of life-giving sleep.