Ten Keys to Conquering AD/HD in the Office
by Sandy Maynard
If you’re ready to climb the corporate ladder but feel like someone tore the steps to success out of your company handbook, don’t worry. Women (and men) with AD/HD often encounter procrastination, communication, and organization problems both professionally and personally, but that doesn't have to mean you’re perpetually doomed to entry-level work. AD/HD can indeed cause problems at work, but here are ten ways you can conquer them:
Communicate ClearlyAsk questions to understand your assignment fully. Repeat directions that you are given to make sure you have heard them correctly. Ask for specific deadlines, so you know that what is being asked is really doable. If not, address the issue immediately. Do not wait until it is too late and you are forced to bring work home.
Get a Handle on ProcrastinationDon’t let perfectionism thwart your ability to get things done. Ask yourself how you can make it quick and simple. Try bulleting items in memos and calling instead of e-mailing.
Limit the Length of Phone ConversationsTime flies when we’re on the phone. A call that should take five minutes can easily turn into 45. Preface each call with a time limit by starting out with, “Hi, Thomas. I have only five minutes, but I wanted to give you a quick call to let you know…” The person on the other end will most likely respond appropriately by making their comments short and to the point.
Use Only One Time-Management SystemUse the same system for both work and everyday appointments. Choose one convenient location at work and one at home to put your planner or palm, so you always know where it is. This location is as important as the hook for your keys. You do have a key hook, don’t you?
Check Your Agenda Several Times a DayAll busy people need to do this. Set a timer if you think you might get engrossed in an activity and forget to go to a scheduled meeting. Make it a habit to check your schedule each and every time you get a cup of coffee, take out the garbage, or collect the mail. Habits form by consistency and frequency.
Work at Professional DevelopmentTwice a year, pick one professional/social skill to improve upon. For example, being a good conversationalist can be learned, but it takes practice. So practice giving others a chance to respond and wait for them to finish before reacting. Most of all, ask a trusted friend what areas she thinks you need to improve on to become more professional and socially adept.
Learn to DelegateDecide what others can do for you and let them do it. Moving ahead often means mastering the fine art of delegating. Draw up lists of things others can do to help you move things along, and things you must do yourself. This works well at home, too.
Keep Your Private Life PrivateDon’t broadcast your personal business at work, or let excessive family responsibilities and phone calls make a bad impression on your boss.
Let Your Work Stay at WorkLikewise, leave your work worries at your desk when you clock out for the day. All your responsibilities will still be there tomorrow morning, and you may even feel like doing them if you’ve had a chance to spend time on what's important to you outside of work.
Put Your Personal Health FirstLet your mental and physical health come first. Find work that is meaningful to you personally, and watch the weekdays fly by. Can’t cut the dullness or stress from your job environment? Nourish yourself at home with hobbies you enjoy. Take time for yourself whenever possible, using the weekends to rejuvenate your spirit—and use those vacation days!
Just Do It!
Want to stop putting off until tomorrow what you can do today? Procrastinate less with these five simple steps.
By Michele Novotni, Ph.D.
We all procrastinate. Unfortunately, folks with AD/HD procrastinate more than others. Although it seems harmless, procrastination causes conflict in personal and professional relationships. When we fail to complete tasks on time, others see this as a sign of disrespect, incompetence, or laziness. They assume we don’t care about their feelings.
To change this habit, realize that procrastination is a purposeful behavior. It lets us avoid doing something we would rather not do. And it works—for a while. At its root, such avoidance may be linked to a fear of failure, a fear of being imperfect, a fear of failing to meet impossible expectations, or a host of other psychological roadblocks.
Because procrastination is essentially a mind-set, cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques can help even chronic procrastinators break the habit. If you’ve been putting something off for days (or months), try the following steps:
1 Do something pleasant first. Once your interest is piqued, it’s easy to apply that positive involvement to the task at hand. Rather than follow traditional behavior-management cues and reward successful behavior after the fact, many people with AD/HD find it helpful to do something they love first, to “light up” the brain. After that, it’s easier to move on to less enjoyable tasks.
For my clients, these pleasant activities have included basketball, computer games, dancing—even taking a bubble bath. (Set a timer for 20 minutes to make sure you don’t get so absorbed in the pleasant task that you forget to do the necessary one.) Any stimulating activity you love will work.
Make yourself accountable
If you need external pressure to stick to a task, enlist a body double: someone who will sit with you quietly while you’re working on a boring chore. This lends an element of accountability, and will often curb the AD/HD tendency to give in to distractions or otherwise put off the thing to be done.
2 Create the right work environment. People who have AD/HD often function best amid unconventional surroundings. Experiment to find your best working environment. Instead of wearing earplugs to ensure silence, for example, you may find that you’re more productive when listening to loud music. If you use AD/HD medication, it’s generally best to schedule difficult tasks for times when your symptoms are fully “covered.”
One of my clients knew that she worked best under pressure. Unfortunately, this meant she’d begin to work on projects only the day before they were due, no matter how involved the task. She’d either turn her work in late or exhaust herself by pulling all-nighters. We solved this problem by having her set her own deadlines for completing portions of the project. This way, she could still work under pressure to finish each portion “on time”—and would have the entire project completed by the actual deadline.
3 Eliminate negative self-talk. What we silently say to ourselves about doing the task at hand has a strong impact on how (or whether) we do it. People with AD/HD tend to beat themselves up by playing and replaying negative messages in their minds. Instead, try telling yourself positive, but realistic, messages—and see what happens. Once you replace “This will take forever, and it’s so late already …” with “I might not be able to finish this today, but I can do the first two steps within the next 30 minutes,” you’ll see that it is easier to begin.
The messages you send yourself when you complete something on time can also be powerful deterrents to future procrastination. Procrastinators are used to feeling guilty about missing appointments and deadlines and turning in work that doesn’t measure up to their ability—and they don’t enjoy that feeling. Once you begin experiencing the relief you feel after finishing something well, it will be hard to go back to the guilt.
4 Just get started. Merely to start a task—even if it’s started poorly—makes it easier to follow through. Next time you find yourself avoiding something, take a “first sloppy step.” If you need to write something, for example, start by typing random letters on the page. It is gibberish, but at least you will no longer be looking at a blank page.
5 Take one step at a time. Break large tasks into pieces. One of my clients came to me several months after her wedding, worried because she still hadn’t sent out thank-you cards for her gifts. She felt guiltier about it by the day, and she was approaching the problem by thinking she had to find a block of time when she could sit down and write 150 cards. I gave her “permission” to write and mail only five cards a day until she was finished. This helped her begin—and, eventually, finish—the task.
If a project can’t be completed piecemeal over several days, keep up your momentum by focusing only on the next doable step. Write this step on a sticky note and post it within your line of sight. Put on your blinders, and focus on this rather than on the task as a whole. When that’s done, move on to the next step in the same manner. Before you know it, you’ll be done.
By Michele Novotni, Ph.D., former president of the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association and a psychologist at the Wayne Counseling Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

Running Late…Again?
Little changes to your routine go a long way toward helping you show up on time, every time.
I'm late, I'm late for a very important date. No time to say hello, good-bye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.
These famous lines from the 1951 Disney movie Alice in Wonderland make me wonder: Does the White Rabbit have ADD? He sure seems to have trouble sticking to his schedule.
Time management is a big problem for people with ADD. Everyone is late on occasion, but many ADDers run behind schedule more often than not. They are late to meetings. They stand up their friends. They pick up the kids late from school. They leave others waiting as they scramble to finish last-minute tasks or find misplaced wallets, cell phones, or keys.
Use what works
You're probably not late for all of your appointments. Some people who would never dream of being late for work are frequently late for social appointments. Think about the strategies you use when you are on time, and use them for all of your appointments, personal and work-related.
ADDers don't intend to be inconsiderate or disrespectful. But because of chro- nic tardiness, they're often perceived that way. That misperception is one of the reasons why people with ADD have trouble maintaining good relationships with friends, family members, and co-workers.
What it means to be "on time" ADDers often think they should arrive at the scheduled start of an appointment or meeting. Big mistake. It's always safer to plan on arriving 15 minutes early. That way, if you run into traffic or experience some other delay, there's a good chance you will still make it on time.
When setting a time to get together, take a lesson from effective salespeople: Underpromise and overdeliver. That is, say you'll be there by such-and-such a time, but get there early.
If you're worried that you might become bored if you have to wait, bring along a book or magazine—or plan on using the time to write a letter, make a phone call, or take a walk.
How long does it really take? Time yourself on frequently traveled routes. You may be surprised to find that your "10-minute" trip to the grocery store really takes 20 minutes. Stop underestimating your transit time. If you're planning a trip you've never made before, look up the route on an online service, like www.mapquest.com , to find out how long the trip will take. If you'll be traveling during rush hour, add an extra 20 percent to your estimate.
Not one alarm, but two Starting with the time of your appointment, work backward until you figure out when you need to leave your home or workplace. Set an alarm clock or watch (or a cell phone or computer) to go off five minutes before that time—and a second alarm to go off five minutes later.
If you get derailed…
To promote kinesthetic learning, “bury” a fossil in a Rice Krispie treat and have a child pull it apart with his hands to “dig” for the special item.
When the first alarm sounds, stop whatever you're doing and jot a quick sentence or two on a sticky note indicating where you left off. Try to be out of the door before the second alarm sounds. If you need help making these calculations, take a look at ADD Planner (www. addplanner.com ) or a similar program.
Getting out the door If you're among those who suffer from I-can't-find-it syndrome, the best remedy is obvious: better preparation. Think about what you'll wear, and lay out your clothes in advance. Place everything you'll need to take along by the door in cubbies labeled by day. Think about where you're going, and make sure you have good directions and the telephone number of the person you're meeting—in case you get lost or run into traffic.
Because they're so distractible, it's almost impossible for many ADDers to make it out the door on time. It can help to develop a system that stops you from doing "just one more thing."
Some of my clients find that they can avoid being sidetracked on their way to the car by reminding themselves of what they're doing, out loud and repeatedly: "I'm going to the car, I'm going to the car, I'm going to the car." Other clients use some sort of visual cue, such as the dial of a Time Timer device (www.timetimer.com ). Find what works for you.
Imagine failure—and success ADDers often underestimate the consequences of showing up late to important meetings. To counter this tendency, spend a few seconds imagining what the waiting person would think and feel. What would she say? What sort of facial expression would she have?
Now imagine the look of approval and the friendly greeting you get when you show up on time. Bask in that feeling of success as you move toward your goal.
By MICHELE NOVOTNI, PH.D., former president of the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association and a psychologist at the Wayne Counseling Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Dental Floss for Your Brain
I hate to floss my teeth. Flossing is boring, and it takes too much time. But whenever I think about not flossing, I think of what my dentist once said to me: "You don't need to floss all your teeth—just the ones you want to keep."
Exercise is like flossing. It can be boring, and it takes a lot of time. What's more, it can be difficult to do, especially as I grow older. But I know that exercise is one of the best gifts I can give to my ADD brain.
We all know that physical activity is great for the body. But exercise also increases blood flow to the brain, stimulating the release of compounds that the brain just loves, including growth factors and a substance known as brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), which promotes growth of new brain cells (neurons). These substances keep the brain operating at peak efficiency.
Dr. John Ratey, my longtime friend and co-author, has spent decades studying the psychological benefits of exercise. He'll tell you that regular exercise is a natural antidepressant and antianxiety agent. He'll tell you that prolonged, strenuous workouts raise bloodstream levels of endorphins, the naturally occurring opiates that diminish pain while boosting feelings of well-being. And he'll tell you even that walking can be enough to boost levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which regulates our sensations of reward, motivation, and attention.
Physical activities that involve coordination, and complex movements—such as martial arts, dance, and basketball—cause connections to form between neurons in the cerebellum. That's the region of the brain that controls, among other things, our social interactions. It's not going too far to say that exercising can, ultimately, help us make friends.
What does this mean for people with ADD? It means that we must think of exercise as an essential component of treatment—something that makes it easier to sustain mental focus for extended periods of time. Would you skip a trip to your doctor just because you had a tight schedule? Of course not. You shouldn't skip exercise either.
If your child has ADD, make sure his school doesn't discipline him by keeping him inside during recess or forcing him to sit in detention. When your child misbehaves, his penalty should involve something that is both productive and physically active, like raking leaves or running errands.
Finally, make sure that your child isn't banned from athletics because of poor academic performance. Both sports and academics are essential for a child's development. Do schools deny unruly children academic instruction because of poor performance in athletics?
It's best to exercise about 30 minutes a day. You don't have to run marathons or become a body builder. And you don't have to go to a gym; evidence suggests that brisk walking will do the trick, for both kids and adults. But whatever exercise you do, schedule your workouts into your daily routine. Otherwise, you may find yourself squandering your time in pointless meetings (which I think of as "adult detention periods"), when you could be out doing something much more beneficial.
Boost Brain Function By Eating More Fish
You may already know that fish contains nutrients that help prevent heart disease and other serious ailments. Evidence is mounting that these same omega-3 fatty acids also optimize brain function. Among other things, omega-3s boost the body's synthesis of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that ADD medications act to increase.
Although definitive proof is lacking, it's only logical to assume that boosting your consumption of wild salmon, sardines, and tuna might curb ADD symptoms. Don't like the taste of fish? Other good sources of Omega-3s include flaxseed and flaxseed oil, as well as fish-oil supplements. I typically recommend 2.5 grams of an omega-3 supplement for children each day and up to 5 grams a day for adults.
To make sure the fish oil supplement you take is free of mercury and other contaminants, pick one of the toxin-free brands listed at www.ifosprogram.com . For more information, I recommend The Omega Zone Diet by Barry Sears, Ph.D., or The Omega-3 Connection by Andrew Stoll, M.D.
Dr. Edward (Ned) Hallowell is a practicing psychiatrist and founder of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, Massachusetts. An instructor at Harvard Medical School, he is the author of 10 books, including the bestsellers on ADD, Driven to Distraction, Answers to Distraction, and his new book, Delivered from Distraction. Dr. Hallowell has AD/HD himself.