The ADHD Guide: Getting to Work on Time

Those who have adult ADHD rely on routines to get through what they need to do, to free up time for what they want to do. Mornings can be especially tough. Even an ingrained morning routine is hard to follow when you may not feel fully awake. The following are strategies that will help speed up your morning:

Two alarm system

Get two alarm clocks. If one alarm clock fails to fully rouse you, consider placing a second alarm out of arms reach – such as on your dresser- so that you are forced to get out of bed to turn off the alarm.

ADHD, Productivity Tips

A Parent’s Guide to Getting Your ADHD Student to School On Time

The key to getting out of the house on time starts the night before. Since kids with ADHD may have sleep issues, a solid sleep routine can help your child be successful with their morning routine.

Begin the sleep ritual early. Turn off any electronic devices well ahead of bedtime. This can be challenging if your student is up late studying, but aim for an early bedtime as much as you can. A sleep app like SleepyTime: Bedtime Calculator can help your child determine what time you they need to get to bed based on when they need to wake up. Taking a hot shower before bed can help the body get into sleep mode. Some kids with ADHD like to settle down with a book on tape or on Audible, but if that is too stimulating a white noise machine or app can help your child tune out noise and settle into sleep easier. If possible, try to avoid evening sports or lessons as these may overstimulate your child, making it more difficult for them to fall asleep. Try different strategies until you come up with a sleep routine that works well for your child.

ADHD, Kids, school

How to Help Your Student Own their Responsibilities

August is here and that means the beginning of the school year is just around the corner. You are probably already submitting school forms, buying school supplies and clothes. Help your student get a head start toward being able to own their responsibilities with these invaluable tips from organizing consultant, coach and ADHD specialist Leslie Josel.

Leslie notes that children are capable of managing responsibilities depending on their “brain” age, not necessarily on their “chronological” age. Therefore, we cannot expect that at age X all children will be capable of mastering the same tasks. Leslie Josel works with the parents and with the children who struggle with learning how to own their responsibilities. Leslie guides the parents toward raising children who are problem solvers not just direction followers.

ADHD, Kids, parenting

Goal Setting Strategies for Adults with ADHD

Many adults who have ADHD are curious, intelligent, resourceful, imaginative, genuine, hyper-focusing, out of the box thinkers. This is especially true when they are working on something they find novel and exciting, interesting and fun! But when it comes to tasks they find horribly mundane and boring – ADHDers often can’t get going, they struggle, they get distracted and derailed. Even getting through daily responsibilities can be tough. They may set huge goals (or too many goals) for themselves but just can’t execute on them. They may have great intentions but come up short. Sometimes, they get discouraged and frustrated, and give up on setting goals altogether. This is not caused by a lack of effort; it’s caused by brain chemistry!

If this sounds at all familiar, help lies in customizing time management strategies to work specifically for you and making those strategies part your daily routine.

There are some things in our lives that energize us and some things that sap our energy. Only you know what types of activities recharge your batteries – thus making you more mentally available to get work done.

Think about your best days, your most energy filled, most productive days. What helped you feel so good? Were you well rested? Did you get to exercise? Did you have a great conversation with a friend? The answer is different for every person. When we are aware of what energizes us, we can seek to optimize that energy and harness it toward more productivity.

ADHD, Goals, Productivity Tips

ADHD Kids and Summer Vacation

My son (who has ADHD) didn’t want to go to the end of school beach party with all his friends. The last day of school assembly and all the end-of-year excitement just wore him out. HE JUST WANTED TO GO HOME. I was torn. He would not see many of his friends next year because they were attending different middle schools. I wanted to enjoy the festivities with the other 5^th grade moms. He’ll have fun once we get there, I thought to myself. But to the contrary, my son had been more irritable and anxious lately. He’d had trouble falling asleep. He was argumentative and he picked fights more than usual.

We did not attend the beach party that day. Transitions are tough for kids with ADHD. The end of the school year, moving up to middle school are both huge transitions. My son knew he’d had enough and I am proud of his self-awareness. We went home. A couple of hours later that day, he was bored (of course!) and asked for a playdate (with someone who had gone to the party and was still there). Sigh.

Parenting ADHD kids is tricky terrain in the best of times.

ADHD, Kids, summer

The Insider’s Guide to Summer Vacation Sanity

All moms know that as soon as everyone gets used to the family routine or schedule, the schedule changes. For families with school aged children, perhaps the most abrupt change comes with the end of the school year. The school year hums along one minute, busy as usual, and then all of the sudden it’s June! The last few weeks of the school year are a flurry of projects, exams, end of year parties, and graduations, and then abruptly the school year is over, and the children are home with nothing to do. I can just about count the minutes before someone in our house says, “I’m bored…”

If you didn’t spend the month of February planning vacations, summer camps and enrichment activities for your children’s summer don’t despair! There is time yet to establish a summer routine that will work for you and your children.

Some families start the summer by brainstorming a list of activities, both indoor and outdoor. They post the list in a public spot in their house. Periodically, one member of the family chooses an activity they would like to do. Maybe your son wants to go bowling and chooses that as his special outing one week. Maybe your daughter wants to go to the driving range and hit some golf balls. Maybe you really want to take your children to the art museum or on a hike. Maybe your toddler would like everyone to go to the zoo. Everyone can have a turn to do something they like and hopefully you’ll have more buy-in when it’s your turn to pick.

Kids, summer, summer camp, teens

What makes you an ADHD specialist?

To be an ADHD specialist requires many hours of study. As a life-long learner, I am glad that Simplify Experts values learning and education. To support my learning I am a member (called a subscriber) of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD.)

ICD is very focused on its mission: to provide education, research and strategies to benefit people challenged by chronic disorganization. Members include professional organizers as well as mental health professionals and academics.

ADHD, Professional Organizer