ADHD and Working from Home 🤯

[RCJH8610]

Hello everyone! I’m not sure any of you can relate, but I am a creature of habit and routine/structure is really important for me to be able to function at 100%. As an educator I have been at home since March and due to the pandemic I haven’t gone out much. Working from home March-June was really tough, but I managed. Fast forward to September and I am still working from home. It has been physically and mentally exhausting trying to manage time between work, home life, family life..... I feel as though everything has merged together and I am unable to be as organized and efficient with my time or production as I’d like. Any tips or advice on how to better manage my time and overall productivity would be greatly appreciated! ❤️

Thank you in advance! 😊

-Jackie

[pippapeach]

This is extremely relatable for me! I'm a full-time student and also staying home, so definitely in a similar boat. First, if I may be so bold, I'd like to advise that you give yourself a little grace. It's a pandemic, it's a huge lifestyle change, and it's completely understandable and normal that your time management and productivity have been affected. Second, let me begin the practical tips with a disclaimer - this is what has worked for me, and may not work for everyone. Sometimes a trick works one week, but not the next.

Find a scheduling method that works for you - I tried planners my whole life with no success, tried phone apps, and finally sat down one summer and tried to sketch out my "ideal planner." Turns out, my brain responds well to vertical planners that go hour-by-hour; the academic planners with paragraph-type chunks never worked for me. I also use my phone timer to keep track of time.

If there was an environment that you worked well in pre-pandemic, try to recreate it at home. Personally, I do way better in coffee shops, where random strangers would probably judge me for having a stack of unopened textbooks and Netflix up and running. Coffee shops are closed right now, but I've found that if I use an ambient noise video for a coffee shop, sit in my armchair, and use headphones with my study music (yes, on top of the ambient noise), I'm able to get into that productive groove.

On the note (ha!) of study music, I stumbled upon music that I use exclusively for studying and writing. Over the last 5-6 years (yay grad school) it's built into almost a conditioned response - listening to that music is a pretty big cue for me to get to work. For me, it's San Fermin band; I've also used video game soundtracks and classical. This one may not work right away, but it's a good tool to keep in your back pocket.

A quick trick I use when I'm feeling overwhelmed with where to start is to turn whatever I need to do into a new game. I've turned a day of cleaning into "cleaning bingo," and just the novelty of a random draw telling me what area to clean was enough to get my brain engaged and productive. I've done similar things with random number generators, random spinner websites with a task in each section, pretty much anything that will give some interest.

Finally, I've resorted to classic 1st grade classroom tricks. Simple charts with rewards are my friend. I have a calendar to mark off whether I take my med each day and exercise. If the whole month is marked off, I treat myself to something small, like a cup of coffee or an hour flopped on the floor doing nothing. I've used the same logic with other methods - I've used parenting type apps just for myself and my to-do list, giving myself points towards little rewards. There's also an app called Habitica that I used for a while - it turns a to-do list into a video game format, and you get points and rewards when you complete a task.

This is a monster reply, so sorry for the amount of reading. Again, please be kind to yourself, as this is a really stressful time and it's completely normal to feel like productivity is down. Even with all these methods, I have days when nothing gets done. I also have days when my crowning achievement is writing one paragraph for my research, when I had grand plans to write five pages. This is what has worked for me most of the time - I hope it's helpful.

[RCJH8610 in reply to pippapeach]

Thank you for your tips and tricks! I will definitely try these out. 😍🙌🏼

[jonghee]

In terms of reliable/good sources of legitimate remote job openings, check out virtualvocations.com or flexjobs.com. There is a monthly subscription for membership, but I have found it to be worth the cost, as this fee is used to keep the site ad free, and filter out spam and fake job postings. Therefore, all the job openings are legitimate. They also have tips and articles about working from home and time management strategies. Hope that helps. Good luck and stay safe 💌