Working From Home With ADHD

I’m Bonnie Mincu, Senior Certified ADHD Coach and founder or “Thrive with ADD.” The coronavirus forces sudden adjustments

It’s the first week of March, 2020, and the coronavirus is day by day increasing its impact on our everyday lives.  As an ADHD Coach, I hear firsthand how the spreading virus is affecting my clients in all sorts of industries.

You may be an employee accustomed to going to work each day, and are suddenly forced to work from home.  Maybe your child’s school is closed and you have no recourse, you are self-quarantining due to exposure to the virus, or your office shifted to telecommuting to take prudent measures.

If you’re in this situation with ADHD, you may struggle to maintain your work productivity.  Perhaps there’s no place to work undisturbed in your house, you’re afraid to risk contamination at the local Starbucks… or it’s just too quiet to focus without the familiar stimulation of the office.

Whether your telecommuting will be a short-term temporary situation or become a long-term lifestyle, here are a few tips for making sure you’re as productive as possible.

How to successfully work at home

Set up the Software

Have you been provided with a special laptop, or a new link to conferencing software?  If your organization had to make sudden adjustments for telecommuting employees, there may be some glitches in the set-up.

Take the time to make sure it works before you need to conference in.    Don’t wait until the last minute to find out you can’t log in to the meeting!

Choose Your Work Location

You probably already know whether you require quiet to work best, or if you focus better with some stimulation around you, such as in a Starbucks or library.  But even in your own home, where you work can have a real impact on your distraction factor and your mood.

Too much isolation can distract you with stimulation cravings instead of allowing you to focus on your work.  I’ve had many ADHD clients who’ve set up an office in their basement, and then find they can’t get started on their work down there.

Ease in With a Grounding Ritual

When you commuted to work, your travel time served as a transition between personal and work time.  Now you may find it difficult to begin working right after breakfast. 

The most common transition is to check email first thing.  This can lead to spending too much time on unimportant emails in the morning, rather than on more important projects.

Instead, begin your day with a ritual to “ground” yourself in what needs to get done.

Go over your planner, identify the actions that need to be done that day, and make sure you haven’t chosen an unrealistic amount of to-do’s.  Then slot them in between any conference calls and meetings, entering an estimated amount of time that you think each will take.

Pay Attention to How Realistic You Are When You do This!

If your to-do’s for each day aren’t getting completed, you’re probably being overly optimistic about time.  Write down how long each task really takes you to get done.

Turn Off the Productivity Killers

Attempting to be focused and productive when you get notifications, texts and app pings is like wrestling with one arm tied behind you.  These electronic “helpers” have contributed to everyone being overwhelmed, but they’re even more insidious for people with ADD / ADHD.

Make appointments with yourself to concentrate on working on particular tasks for a set amount of time, based on your own attention span.   SHUT OFF those devices during that working appointment. Put your phone in another room if necessary.

Increase your phone-off time by a bit more each day, and ending the addictive tic of constant phone checking will quickly get a lot easier.

Form an Accountability Partnership With a Colleague

If there’s someone you know who is also adjusting to working at home – perhaps a colleague at your own company – you could arrange to periodically check in with each other to stay on track.  It might involve an email you schedule to send at certain times, stating what you accomplished, what roadblocks came up, and what you’ll do differently.

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