Edge Foundation Blog

A special thanks to Edge Foundation Executive Director, Robert Tudisco for inspiring this article.  Robert was an adult when he received his ADHD diagnosis.  Since that time he tackled his ADHD head-on and shared what has worked for him.  Robert is a frequent contributor to Attention Magazine and ADDitude Magazine.  The material for this article was taken from one he wrote for adults in the workplace.

Introspection is the key

Medication and coping strategies do not cure ADHD, but they can go a long way toward managing its symptoms.  There are a ton of strategies out there you can try, the key to making any of them effective is to look deep inside yourself and honestly appraise your strengths and weaknesses.  Take the example of your where you study.  How you set up your study environment can make a big difference in either contributing to your ADHD challenges, or playing to your strengths.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Understanding why a system didn’t work for you can provide you with valuable information about designing a system that will.

Identify your distractions

Start by figuring out what distracts you and work to eliminate those distractions.  Are you prone to audible distractions, visible distractions, or both?  Are you distractible some times more than others?  For instance, sometimes silence can help focus.  And other times silence can intensify the distracting noise in your head.  Try experimenting with white noise or music to keep the part of your brain busy that wants to wander.  Understanding what distracts you can be very empowering because you gain an element of control over things that have previously made you feel helpless.

Curb internet distraction

While the internet can be a very useful tool for research and in some cases productivity, it can also be black hole for wasted time.  EVERYONE is distracted by the internet.  It’s too easy to click on a link that appears to go to a related topic until you are so far afield from where you need to be you’ve forgotten what you are supposed to be working on.  Plus, the stimulation of the click, refresh and status update check can get your mind running like a hamster on a wheel.  When you find yourself distracted by the internet, turn it off.  For example, if you are working on a paper that you know you will have a hard time sticking to – take control and turn the internet off!

Identify a productive place

Designing a safe and productive place does not always mean a place within your own home or office.  Learn to experiment in different settings to see whether or not they are helpful to your productivity.  For instance, no matter how much you minimize distractions in your home or office, there may always be subtle reminders of other projects that you have to do.  Some people clean their house when they should be studying.  If you are one of those people, heading to the library may be the ticket to focusing.

Pick your prime time

Are you more productive in the morning?  Are you less productive in the afternoon?  Do you get more done in the study hall before everyone gets there and starts whispering or at the end of the day when things quiet down?  The answers to these questions can be invaluable in making the most of that prime time.  Figure out when you are most productive, and then spend that time on the things you find hardest to focus on.

Get support

Regardless of how hard we try to work around our problems, we may often find that the biggest obstacle we face is ourselves.  When that is the case, don’t be afraid to think WAY outside the box and even outside of yourself.  Don’t be afraid to seek the help of a coach who can work with you to develop a system of structure and accountability that can work for you and get you to where you need to be.

When you start thinking about productivity as a state of mind instead of a destination, you being the important step of taking control of yourself.  Empower yourself to success.  And remember, you are not alone.

Last week we wrote a post about executive function and ADHD inspired by John Medina’s book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Each of Medina’s 12 Principals are based on scientifically-proven facts about how our brain works.

Take a look at the 12 rules and you’ll see that much of what he talks about are familiar Edge Foundation topics. Want to get a great preview of what his book covers? Visit Brainrules.net where Medina has free, on-line tutorials covering the important information from each chapter.

We agree that the principals outlined in the book are important insights into living to your full potential with ADHD.  When looking them over, we noticed a few common themes we’ve shared in the posts we have written over the last couple of years.  Here’s our take on each brain rule and how it plays out for ADHD:

Exercise – Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power.

Treating ADHD with exercise
Spark: Reduce ADHD symptoms with exercise
ADHD and anxiety:  Non drug treatments everyone can try

Survival – Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too.

Wiring – Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently.

Executive function and ADHD success/
Succeeding despite learning disabilities/

Attention – Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things.

Fidgeting helps ADHD people stay focused

Short-Term Memory – Rule #5: Repeat to remember.

Long-Term Memory – Rule #6: Remember to repeat.

Sleep – Rule #7: Sleep well, think well.

ADHD students need to take their sleep seriously
ADHD and sleep
ADHD, anxiety and the sleep connection

Stress – Rule #8: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.

Improve your focus with water

Sensory Integration – Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses.

You can do more to manage ADHD
Fidgeting helps ADHD people stay focused

Vision – Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.

Gender – Rule #11: Male and female brains are different.

Girls with ADHD face special challenges

Exploration – Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.

Did you read the book or learn anything here you didn’t know about how the brain works?  Let us know in the comments.

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.

Guest blog by Edge coach, Beth Prosser

You know that water is essential to life. But did you know that even mild dehydration impairs your ability to focus? Estimates are that 75% of us are chronically dehydrated, so it’s likely that this applies to you.
Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to get a drink. By that time, you’re already mildly dehydrated. Here are some other warning signs:

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Dry mouth, throat, and/or lips
• Dark urine
• Heat intolerance
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• If, when you pinch the skin on the back of your hand, it drops back slowly

Don’t let dehydration affect your ability focus

Here are 5 easy ways to keep dehydration from affecting your focus:

1. Make getting a drink part of your break routine. Keep a bottle of water in your backpack so it’s convenient wherever you are.
2. Bring a water bottle with you every time you get in the car. Finish it by the time you get to your destination.
3. Set a daily goal, and use a checklist to track the amount of water you consume. You may be surprised at how little you’re actually drinking.
4. Watch your caffeine intake, since caffeine actually dehydrates your body.
5. Keep lemon or orange slices in the refrigerator and use them to add flavor to your water.

I’m not suggesting that water can cure ADHD. But staying well hydrated gives you one more way to fight it.
I had a dreaded “brain shutdown” in my martial arts class the other night. I also had a headache, less energy than usual, got lightheaded after a few strenuous drills and failed the skin pinch test. Looking back on the day I realized that I had consumed very little water. Was the brain shutdown a coincidence? I don’t think so. I guarantee I’ll be well hydrated for the next class.
Have you ever found that your attention lags when you are dehydrated? We’d love to hear from you

We are pleased to offer this guest post on ADHD healthy habits from Edge Coach, Beth Prosser.

How is it possible that someone with ADHD can focus for hours on something that’s interesting?  It’s a common misconception that people with Attention Deficit have a deficit of attention.   It would be more accurate to say we have trouble paying attention appropriately.  This intense concentration we sometimes experience is called hyper-focus.  It’s the other extreme.  Sometimes it’s as inappropriate as not being able to focus at all.

The ideal solution is to arrange your life so that the things you tend to hyper-focus on are things that bring you closer to your goals.  For example, if you are an artist, it would be advantageous to get lost in a painting and oblivious to the world for six hours.  But if you’re an accounting student and you have a final exam tomorrow morning, getting lost in that painting is probably not going to result in a good grade.

Here are seven strategies to help you manage ADHD hyper-focus:

1. Identify the types of activities you tend to hyper-focus on.
2. Don’t start any hyper-focus prone activities close to bedtime, or before doing something you’re likely to procrastinate on.
3. Make it a point to be aware of your mental state at all times.  We often don’t even realize it when we’re hyper-focused.  Being aware of when you’re in it is the first step towards getting out of it.
4. Practice being fully present.  Use mindfulness exercises to stay in the here and now.
5. Use timers and alarms to be cognizant of how much time has elapsed since you started the activity.
6. Change your physical position to help break a hyper-focus as soon as you recognize it.
7. Plan milestones in your projects.  Stop every time you reach one.

Hyper-focus can be a wonderful gift if it’s used constructively, for things we truly want to focus on.  It can be a curse if we hyper-focus on things that don’t matter at the expense of everything else.  Controlling it is the tricky part.

Editor’s note: Do you hyperfocus?  We’d love to hear what you are passionate about and what do you do to keep the rest of your life in balance.

Dear coach,
My boss just wrote me up for lateness.  I really want to get to work on time, but I just can’t seem to make it.  How do I make my boss understand I’m trying?
Signed,
Better Late Than Never

Dear Late,

Yes, being chronically late can be a problem when you have ADHD.  Instead of focusing on getting your boss to understand why you are tardy, it’s more useful to consider ways to get yourself to work (and school) on time.  You can do it!  It just may take a little experimenting to find what works best for you.

There are three main reasons people with ADHD are usually late.

1.  Getting up late.

Yes, getting out of bed on time in the morning can be hard.  Especially if you are cutting your self short by falling asleep later at night than you should.  (For tips on how to get to sleep on time, see ADHD & Sleep.)  Here are a few things to try:

• put your alarm clock across the room so you have to get up to turn it off.
• use two alarm clocks, so you won’t be tempted by the snooze alarm.
• set your alarm for 15 minutes earlier than you think you need.  It may be that you are just underestimating how much time you need to get out of the house.

2.  Getting sidetracked

Do you jump out of bed with time to spare and still find that you are late out the door? Pay attention to what you are focusing on.

• Keep a checklist of everything you need to do before leaving the house.  And don’t turn on the TV, phone or internet until you get these things accomplished.
• If you take medication, take it first thing out of bed. That way it will start working before you leave the house.
• Set reminder alarms to keep you on track.  Figure out how much time you need to dress, eat and get organized.  Then set alarms to remind you that you need to have that task completed.  Use your phone or buy one of those reminder watches so your alarms are always nearby.
• Add in 5 or 10 minutes to your commute time so you have room for the unexpected.

3.  Being disorganized.

Do you walk out of the house only to realize you forgot your lunch or phone?  Do you spend needless minutes hunting around for your keys or shoes?

You need a “launch pad” by your exit door.  Set aside a special place near the door.  Collect all of the things you’ll need in the morning the night before.  If there are things like lunch that you’ll need to make in the morning, leave yourself a note at the launch pad, so you remember it in the morning.  Then at night, put everything there — keys, sunglasses, phone, purse, briefcase etc.  So they’ll be ready for you to grab as you run out the door.

You may have already tried all of these things, but are still late.  That’s where time with a coach can come in handy.  A coach can give you outside perspective about what’s not working and how to fine tune your routine to make it work for you.  ADHD and lateness often go hand-in-hand, but they don’t have to.  With a few simple tweaks to your routine, you can become a punctual person.

Do you have a question for the coach?  Send it to info@edgefoundation.org.  We’ve love to hear from you.

Ever tried to do two or more things at once?  Like doing homeworkand listening to your music?  Or listening to a talk and doodling your notes?  Did it work for you?

Those secondary “mindless” tasks (the doodling and the listening to the music) are what the Edge Foundation’s Executive Director, Sarah Wright, calls fidgeting.

A bored ADHD brain is a sluggish brain

“Everyone thinks of fidgeting as those restless movements we do when we’re bored, but really it’s more than that,” she explains.  “One of the things we know about an ADHD brain is that when it gets bored, it gets sluggish.  Literally.  In brain scans of people with ADHD doing boring repetitive tasks, we can see that pretty quickly the pre frontal cortex slows down.  One of the reasons stimulant medications are thought to work for ADHD is that they correct for this.  When compared to the general population, it is pretty clear people with ADHD just require a higher base level of stimulation to stay comfortably alert and focused.”

Fidgeting helps people with ADHD stay focused

Fidget to Focus is the book Sarah co-authored with Dr. Roland Rotz.  They make the case that instead of being a distraction, certain mindless tasks-like listening to music or doodling on paper or chewing gum or standing up at your desk-are really ways to help self-regulate and stay focused. Fidget to Focus was just featured in ADDitude magazine online.

She explains, “All adults self-regulate with sensory-motor activities.  When we get tired of sitting at our desks, we get up for a cup of coffee.  We switch on the radio in the car to keep us interested while driving.  We maybe splash some cold water on our faces to perk up.  Even as adults we need the right balance of sensory-motor stimulation to keep us in our comfort zone.

“Kids need more.  They need more frequent, more intense, and more variety of sensory-motor stimulation than adults does to stay in their comfort zone.  If you try to take those stimulating things away, they’ll just find something else.  And this is true for all kids, not just those with ADHD.  But because of the way the ADHD brain works, people with ADHD will essentially always need more stimulation than those without ADHD. It’s just a matter of degree.”

Three tips for self-regulating with fidgeting:

Sarah and her co-author emphasize three important points in Fidgeting to Focus that you can start using today.

1.       The great thing about fidgeting is that it’s perfectly natural.  Everyone does it.  The trick is to do it intentionally.  If you do it right, you can manage your ADHD symptoms in a way that’s totally unnoticeable to everyone else.

2.       It’s important to fidget respectfully: doing it in a way that works for you but that doesn’t bother the people around you.  For example, clicking your pen repeatedly during a meeting might not be so cool, but fiddling with a paperclip under the table would be soundless and invisible.

3.       It’s important to realize that a good fidget shouldn’t compete with the primary tasks.  For instance, if you need your eyes for reading, listening to music will be a better fidget than watching the TV.  If you need to listen, doodling or pacing will be a better fidget than being plugged into your iPod.

And ADHD coach can help you figure out which fidget help you focus, and which ones are getting in  your way.  We’d love to hear from you.  What fidget works for you?

Editor’s Note:

University of Central Florida study confirms fidgeting helps kids with ADHD concentrate as reported in the Orlando Sentinal, May 25, 2009.

There’s been so much attention the past few  days about whether Ritalin is effective for treating ADHD, you may have missed the news that fidgeting can help manage ADHD.  That’s right, fidgeting actually helps kids with ADHD stay alert.  Time Magazine reported last week that a new University of Central Florida study shows that ADHD kids move around in order to help them stay focused.  In fact kids with ADHD may actually learn better when they are fidgeting!

Teachers in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been experimenting with flexible desks that allow children the option to either stand or sit at them.  The New York Times reported that researchers from the University of Minnesota have been studying the impact of these flexible desks on the academic outcomes of children using them.

Finally, a study published in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology shows that doodling actually improves your ability to remember details, rather than indicating your mind is wandering.

Here at Edge, we know that fidgeting can be used successfully to help manage ADHD symptoms.  In 2005 our Executive Director, Sarah Wright, co-authored, Fidget to Focus:  Outwit Your Boredom: Sensory Strategies for Living with ADD.  Next month we’ll tell you more about this book that started it all! In the meantime, take a look at these reports – perhaps they’ll give you ideas of things to do at school or work to improve your focus.  An ADHD coach can also help you discover which strategies work best for you.

Did you already know that fidgeting was a way that helped you focus?  Tell us about it.  We’d love hearing from you about how you keep your edge!