Life hacks

The Principal Therapeutic Coach at The Divergent Edge, Dani Bultitude, shares her top tips for managing ADHD in day-to-day life.

1 Task management system Don’t kid yourself that you will remember to do ‘the thing’. You won’t. Write down everything you need to do: this can be an electronic task management system that syncs from your laptop to your phone. Or a visual system, such as a whiteboard, or a notepad that is carried with you. Please note that the notepad will often go missing and then you may end up with three notepads, many loose scraps of paper, and no idea

2 what you need to remember. Calendars Record where and when you need to be somewhere. Sync your phone calendar to your partner’s or children’s calendars, and your email. Check it every day.

3

Stop procrastinating Nobody ever built a house without breaking the build down into pieces of work that need to be done.

Start with a small bite-sized piece. 4 Then another. Then another. Simplify

Don’t host your kid’s birthday party at home. Go to a bowling centre and limit the numbers. Delegate

Do the things you are good at and remember, ALL of the jobs are 6 not yours.

Outsource

Get a cleaner, stock the freezer with some ready to eat meals and hire a virtual assistant to sort out your invoicing.

7 Exercise It creates dopamine and will make doing everything else that

8 much easier. Don’t try harder, do differently.

For example, buy socks in the same colour so

9 they don’t need pairing. ‘Hook’ tasks For example, turn the light on in the laundry when you put on a load. When you walk past on your way to bed and go to turn out the light, that’s your prompt to put the load

10 in the dryer so it doesn’t go mouldy. Stop worrying about what other people are doing They aren’t worrying about you.