I went through 700 reddit comments and collected 131 ADHD pro-tips!

https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/ioi1my/i_went_through_700_reddit_comments_and_collected/

created by beatadhd on 07/09/2020 at 22:53 UTC*

9585 upvotes, 337 top-level comments (showing 25)

So there was that awesome Reddit thread[1] with a bunch of ADHD'ers sharing **real tips** that have changed their life.

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/ifsln9/lets_share_lifechanging_adhd_tips_that_weve/?sort=top

I thought it was a great change from most advice on the internet which is written by non-ADHD'ers (and it's painfully obvious that it is).

I read through the 700+ comments and paraphrased, merged and categorised all the tips.

​

The 131 tips are split into the following categories:

General

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Enjoy the journey more than the destination, don’t be in a hurry to finish something you are doing, but always at least do something small everyday. Life is not a race, rather, it is an accumulation of smaller improvements to oneself. ~ **(**u/ksettle**)**

*People are in such a rush these days… You can’t expect to become a superhuman overnight. Focus on sustainability first and enjoy the journey.*

Cleaning

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Listen to podcasts/audiobooks when doing chores. My excitement to listen to a new episode of my favorite podcast motivates me to do boring stuff like dishes or laundry. (I personally listen to podcasts) ~ **(**u/dani-tp**)**

*Cleaning became so easy once I started using a “side” to stimulate my brain. I’m mostly watching TV shows when I clean right now (this also works for cooking!) .*

Memory

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Use Spaced Repetition to study for your exams, remember things about people in your life, and literally everything you can possibly make a flashcard for. ~ **(**u/beatadhd**)**

*Is it narcisstic to put my own tip as a favourite? Well who cares, it works! Spaced repetition is fantastic and honestly* ***feels like cheating****. There are a lot of free tools out there which work great. I’m currently using my own private tool\* 😉

Time Blindness

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Get an electric toothbrush with a timer. ADHD people have time blindness and it’ll make sure you brush for at least two minutes. ~ **(**u/insaxon**)**

*Yes. Two minutes can feel like two hours for me. Or I’ll brush for 20 seconds and think five minutes has passed. I can’t trust my brain, so I started using an electric toothbrush with a timer*

Distractions

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Use a noise-cancelling headset and listen to music/white noise/brown noise. Enables hyperfocus and blocks out distractions (“I don’t regret getting diagnosed late, but I do regret getting noise cancelling headphones that late in life.”) ~ **(**u/rn7889**)**

*Stop scrolling right now and go buy the noise-cancelling headset. A noise-cancelling headset + some noise like music/brown noise is essential if you have ADHD. Feel free to thank me later once your life changes.*

*If the headset isn't in your budget: Brown noise + earphones will get you 80% of the way there.*

Getting Things Done

**🌟 My Favourite:** Body doubling - if you need to do some work that requires focus without much fun, have someone in the room with you. They could be working too, or not. Just having them there makes everything just a little more interesting and a little more accountable. ~ **(**u/Creebjeez**)**

*I feel like a lot of people are missing some sort of accountability system in their lives. I don’t do body doubling but I use Beeminder to keep me accountable.*

Emotional Dysregulation

**🌟 My Favourite:** You’re allowed to let things go. Forget irrelevant things and forgive yourself. Ignore the awkward thing you did last week. Life will move on. ~ **(**u/bitetheboxer**,** u/optimisticaspie)

*Stop hating yourself. Don’t look at the future. Don’t look at the past. Look at the present. I used to always hate myself for being so unproductive. I realised how pointless that was and I started to focus on improving myself in the* ***present.***

Sleep

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Set two alarms when you get up in the morning. One to get out of bed and one for your medication. e.g: 5:30 AM wake up and take medication and then fall back to bed. By your 6AM alarm you’ll have waken up and your meds will have kicked in ~ **(**u/BizzarduousTask**)**

*What a great lifehack.* *I’ve been doing this the past few days (except I don’t wake up at 6AM) - it works pretty well. Also I throw my phone on the other side of the room so it forces me to get out of bed.*

Relationships

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** For maintaining eye contact: Imagine a red dot on someone’s nose for intense focus. Bridge of the nose for paying attention. ~ **(**u/asmugone**)**

*Haven’t tried this one but I used to have trouble with eye contact a few years ago so this stood out to me. I’m pretty good with eye contact now, but I’ll be trying it over the next few weeks anyway.*

Work

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Learn to say no to taking on things that you know may cause you stress and excess pressure just because it’s money. It is not worth it, just put the boundaries that will save your mental health in the first place and you won’t have to deal with the fallout later. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. ~ **(**u/Somewhereonabike**)**

*God yes… ADHD people have a dangerous habit of overcommitting to stuff. Personally I think I just forget that I’m already working on X, Y and Z. Sustainability is important - don’t overcommit.*

School

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Visit your school's inclusivity and disability team. They will hopefully have policies for helping people with ADHD ~ **(**u/beatadhd**)**

*This is something I never took advantage of while at University, but I probably should have. A few assignment extensions when my meds stopped working would have saved me from countless all nighters…*

Executive Function

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** On tough days. Use the 1-thing theory. Just try and accomplish just one-thing for that day. e.g. Clean the kitchen. ~ **(**u/soggysocks63**,** u/GoodGuyVik)

*A bit less life-hacky compared to the others but I’ve found that getting started is a lot easier when you only have a single priority.*

​

Nutrition/Medication

​

**🌟 My Favourite:** Use a 7-day pill organiser with AM/PM slots and put your medication and supplements there. ~ **(**u/ImprovedMeyerLemon**)**

*I know a lot of people have issues with remembering if they took their medication. This is an easy, simple and cheap fix.*

Comments

Comment by execdysfunction at 07/09/2020 at 23:51 UTC

1386 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Are you ADHD jesus? Can you walk on dysfunctional water?

Comment by KraftyVentures at 07/09/2020 at 23:50 UTC

400 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Wow. Just wow. Thank you for hyperfocusing on this for all of us. This is going to be so helpful whenever I remember it exists.

Comment by [deleted] at 08/09/2020 at 02:28 UTC

1 upvotes, 6 direct replies

Well, that's going straight to the ~~pool room~~ sidebar. :D

Comment by temporarily_sad at 07/09/2020 at 23:21 UTC

333 upvotes, 5 direct replies

This is very very nice. Saved as well. Will take me at least 5 days to go through though

Comment by theappletea at 07/09/2020 at 23:37 UTC

157 upvotes, 3 direct replies

This should be the top post of all in this sub, imo. Here's my upvote for your hard, FOCUSED work.

Comment by techie_boy69 at 08/09/2020 at 00:20 UTC

130 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Well I read 5 tips and saved it for later ....

Comment by Parastormer at 08/09/2020 at 01:19 UTC

99 upvotes, 4 direct replies

Three point check when you close the front door: Phone, wallet, keys ~

4 point: Mask.

The numbers of times I stomped back home for this because it wasn't in my daily routine is mind numbing.

Comment by Melsura at 07/09/2020 at 23:30 UTC

47 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Ty so much for putting this together! Saved 😊😊

Comment by drkgodess at 08/09/2020 at 01:35 UTC

45 upvotes, 1 direct replies

So what were you supposed to be doing when you compiled this list?

Comment by spaceoverthecupboard at 08/09/2020 at 02:12 UTC

42 upvotes, 5 direct replies

Reading all these tips almost brought tears to my eyes! I've been struggling with my routine (stay-at-home dad of four young kids), lately, and I feel as if my life's about to unravel, especially starting homeschooling for the first time, ever! Kids are loud and wild, and the wife (smart, Type A) doesn't understand how I get lost in my own mind so often. ("I've never met a bigger slob in my life!" "What the f!ck did you do all day while I was gone?") [sigh] Either way, thank you for your hard work wranglin' this all together. This may become my new, personal manual for life! (First-time Reddit commenter, btw.) 👍

Comment by dananky at 08/09/2020 at 02:17 UTC

38 upvotes, 0 direct replies

"You'll still feel like an imposter afterwards"

Fucking accurate. This has been my biggest struggle since diagnosis 😭

Comment by beatadhd at 07/09/2020 at 23:00 UTC

30 upvotes, 2 direct replies

If there is anything in the thread that goes against subreddit rules please let me know. I will remove those tips, but everything in this post is collected from the other mega-thread of tips.

Comment by mloclamX at 08/09/2020 at 01:27 UTC

60 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Lose alcohol and sugar???? You have a will of steel. -me the person who licks the sugar from the margarita glass

Comment by Alex_416 at 08/09/2020 at 00:49 UTC

30 upvotes, 1 direct replies

**🌟 My Favourite:** Use a 7-day pill organiser with AM/PM slots and put your medication and supplements there. ~ **(**u/ImprovedMeyerLemon[1]**)**

*I know a lot of people have issues with remembering if they took their medication. This is an easy, simple and cheap fix.*

1: https://www.reddit.com/u/ImprovedMeyerLemon/

Pro tip: if you get your meds in one month supplies, buy four. Especially if you take more than just one or two medications/supplements. Get 'er all done in one go instead of forgetting to refill it for days on end.

Comment by [deleted] at 07/09/2020 at 23:47 UTC

50 upvotes, 3 direct replies

Can i add, "use your windows, mirrors, fridge, etc. as white boards"?

The markers wipe off just the same.

Comment by [deleted] at 08/09/2020 at 00:03 UTC

27 upvotes, 0 direct replies

This is so helpful!! Mods should pin it or something.

Comment by xXNibiNoNekoXx at 08/09/2020 at 01:33 UTC

25 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Wow. This list just... This is why for so long I refused to think I had ADHD (even though my mom, brother and close friend have it) because I just did all of these habits automatically. Throughout my life I just learned coping mechanisms and just assumed everybody did things these ways. It took me until this year (I'm 27F) to realize that my behaviors fit so perfectly to ADHD. I just assumed I was an odd ball with wierd preferences and struggles. I'm still undiagnosed, but this just blew my mind. Thanks for putting it together! <3

Comment by yeeeetmu at 08/09/2020 at 00:59 UTC

20 upvotes, 0 direct replies

this is what hyperfocus looks like

Comment by Alex_416 at 08/09/2020 at 00:45 UTC

52 upvotes, 1 direct replies

So what were you procrastinating on when you did this? :)

&#x200B;

(Thanks)

Comment by [deleted] at 07/09/2020 at 23:16 UTC*

16 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by glitter-nd-sparkles at 08/09/2020 at 00:59 UTC

14 upvotes, 1 direct replies

@mods can this be pinned or archived at the top of the subreddit

Comment by averybabery at 08/09/2020 at 00:35 UTC

13 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Oh boy I can’t wait to save this post to read later!

Comment by Doingsooooogoooood at 07/09/2020 at 23:47 UTC

11 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Thank you so much....lost focus tryna read the original thread! Saved this post over here too!!

Comment by [deleted] at 08/09/2020 at 02:30 UTC

10 upvotes, 0 direct replies

When making an appointment on your calendar, put the exact time of the appointment in the subject, IE: "Dentist Appointment - 8am."

For me, I often forget the "8am" part and focus on what time I need to leave the house, so I tell myself that same appointment is at 7:30am...and then I sometimes get confused, forget I already took off the travel time, and continue to walk the appointment back. Having the exact time of the appointment in the subject of said appointment is a huge help when trying to remember if I already accounted for travel time (sometimes I will put an 8am appointment on my calendar for 7:30am proactively).

Comment by itsbigwheelsbitch at 08/09/2020 at 00:23 UTC

9 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Dude... I love you.