I’d Love Your Input for an Upcoming "Tips" Article
Monday October 6, 2008
Article Topic: Succeeding at Work
Sometimes the work environment can present challenges for an individual with ADD or ADHD. I want to pull together an article with practical tips readers can use to make work more successful and fulfilling. As with the Sleep Tips article, the best advice comes from those who have been there, done that - struggled and found success.
1. As an adult with ADD/ADHD, what have been your greatest struggles in the work environment?
2. What strategies have you found to be most helpful to overcome any areas of weakness?
You can contact me directly at add.guide@about.com or respond in the comments section below. There is also a place you can post in our ADD/ADHD Forum.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Comments
Hi there,
I’ve been visiting your site each week, and I’ve been wondering if ADHD isn’t terribly over-diagnosed. After looking at the symptoms — I would bet that throughout an average day most people feel bored (inattention), hyper (after coffee or a donut), and impulsive (to alleviate the boredom!).
As a college professor, I have met many students who have been diagnosed with ADD. They have told me that they felt they were just normal, anxious kids (mostly boys) who were bored with school not because of a disorder, but because school was incredibly boring. They felt that they should not have been given the medication.
What are your thoughts?
Devlin,
Sure everyone goes through periods of inattention, feeling hyper or reacting impulsively. For an individual with ADHD, however, these issues are so persistent that they significantly impair functioning across settings – at school or work, at home, in social relationships, etc.
The decision to take medication can be a very personal one, but for those struggling with maintaining focus and concentration or trying to gain control over restlessness or impulsivity medication along with organizational strategies and perhaps even counseling can make a big difference.
There are certainly other conditions like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, etc. that can share many similar symptoms to ADHD. I would also agree that a boring, non-stimulating classroom can definitely exacerbate ADHD symptoms. Conversely, an environment that is exciting, stimulating and interesting improves an ability to focus.
You may want to visit our forum to get a better idea of issues those with ADHD deal with daily.
http://forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=messages&webtag=ab-add
Devlin,
I am sure yours is a viable concern, & perhaps some ARE incorrectly diagnosed as ADHD -for instance, they might have a health condition that presents similar symptoms. When someone is diagnosed with ADD, it is through careful professional analysis of input from the subject or parent and at least one additional source. Indeed, there are probably “quacks” in this world, but the majority of diagnoses are probably legitimate.
The technical description of ADHD includes the requirement that the subject have pervasive impairment that prevents them from functioning fully in more than one area of daily life. Perhaps, especially if taking meds, the students who have made these observations are not “feeling” the impairments as much because the symptoms are reduced due to treatment. They probably are experiencing a natural process of questioning it due to being a young child
without much control during the diagnosis stage. A certain “mourning” is also common with acceptance for adults and older kids.
Additionally, when the person learns strategies or other compensations for the potential interferences that disrupt daily life to a high degree, they might be considered technically to no longer have ADHD, yet still have those same tendencies.
I am an adult with ADD, and while I am acquainted with my shortcomings (as well as gifts) and “areas of opportunity”, I still struggle with certain things. Hopefully, I will get to a point where I don’t forget things, or have great difficulty concentrating in noisy situations, or flit from subject to subject to the degree that it makes my work less productive -yet I will always consider myself ADD. It is more a personality trait to me, part of who I am, and I can remember all too well how I felt in school.
Good luck to your students, and bravo for asking for input from ADDers.
Keath,
The most difficult thing for me has been organization (lack of) Procrastination, not writing things down -incl. getting side-tracked before I COULD jot it down, and running late because I have underestimated time constraints are the main subtexts under disorganization.
1. I am seldom late now, but this is due to forcing myself to add time to my “optimistic” time estimates allotted to a task. The World-will-stand-still viewpoint didn’t work for me.
2. I must remember to have my notepad & calendar with me and religiously notate and also remember to actually LOOK at my notes.
3. I still procrastinate terribly about less savory tasks but my notes & calendar-watching help keep this in check.
Probably the second most difficult thing for me remains tuning out distractions, especially multiple people talking in close proximity. If I am on the phone, I can give a clue to others around me by covering one ear
and they get the hint. I’d love to hear the strategies of others in this arena.
Thanks, and I’ll watch for the article
Keith,
The problems my son has in the workplace(he works at all pets club, a store) even though he is very knowagable about things, reptiles, puppies, feeding instructions etc. His work thinks he is not suited to work out on the sales floor, even though he has covered for people, and read extensively about what animals they carry. He feels very degraded when he is allowed to work on the floor when someone is out, then told he is not suited and put back into taking care of puppies where he has no interaction with the public.
I was diagnosed with ADHD 11 years ago and for the first time gained an understanding of a hitherto unnamed source of frustration and failure in my life. To get a good education on Clinical Analysis of this disorder as well as Nationally accredited Diagnostic Criteria, I would recomend reading “Delivered From Distraction” by Dr. Edward Hallowell.
I work at home.
I have trouble putting in a good 8 hours a day and too often work nights and weekends. I also forget promises to clients — sometimes significant promises — that I haven’t written down (and sometimes I forget to write things down).
A scheduling trick that works for me is to schedule the full day in 4 2-hour blocks of 45 min, 45 min and 30 min. That is, power down on one project for 45 min and then, regardless of what I have gotten done, change to a second project for 45 minutes — then go for a walk or watch TV or do anything else I want to do for 30 minutes.
When I first started this way of scheduling I felt guilty because I was actually planning not to work for 2 hours a day — then I figured that made me productive than most people anyway.
I am self employed.
I find that I need a timer to keep me on task. I have a timer that I can set with 2 alarms that it will continue to cycle through. I usually set one for 45 min and the other for 15 min. I attempt to work exclusively on the task for 45 min until the first timer sounds. I then do something that I enjoy more for the 15 min. The timer automatically goes back to the first timer and begins timing another 45 min period.
Sometimes I am unable to focus for 45 minutes, so I need to use a shorter period of time for the main task timer. (Maybe 40 minutes on unpleasant task & 20 minutes on enjoyable task.) Each timer can be set for any period of time, but I keep the sum of the two timers at 60 min because I tend to plan my day in hours.
The timer also has a pause. If I get off task during the task time I try to remember to pause the timer. The timer keeps a running tally of the number of cycles that it goes through, so I can see at the end of the day how many “hours” I stayed on task.
The timer I use is a NuLine stopwatch (Model JS-506). In some environments the timer beeping could draw unwanted attention to yourself, but it works for me.
Disorganization, boredom, distractibility,and forgetfulness are my greatest difficulties at work. I do service work on weekly accounts, and although outside, the routine nature of the job gets very tiring for me. Using a “Daytimer” brand pocket planner has helped a lot, a calendar, and daily to do lists. Lately my son-in law is working with me and he helps a great deal. He understands ADD, as he is also, but he is much better at organization than I. We get along great, and the commaraderie helps alleviate the boredom. He gently prodds me on when I get too far off task, and our playful sarcasm livens up the day.