Novel ADHD Experiments
ADHD brains can be wonderfully creative at finding reasons something won't work:
“I tried that before.”
“That won't work for me.”
“I'll remember because it's important.”
“I'll do it later.”
“I need to figure out the best system first.”
And sometimes those thoughts contain useful information.
Maybe the system really didn't work.
But sometimes the information is old, the circumstances have changed, or the idea wasn't given enough of a chance to see what happened.
What if you tried something slightly different and paid attention to what happened?
You don't have to do all of these. In fact, please don't. Pick one that makes you curious and see what happens. Just notice.
Make it hard to forget
Put it in the way. If something is easy to forget, what happens when you put it somewhere you can't miss it?
Maybe medication goes beside the coffee pot.
Maybe the thing you need to take with you tomorrow gets put in front of the door.
You aren't relying on remembering. You're making remembering less necessary.
Tie it to something you already do.
What happens when you attach a tiny task to something that's already happening?
Wash a dish while waiting for the water to boil.
Wipe the bathroom counter while the shower heats up.
Wipe the stove while dinner is heating.
Put one thing away while you're waiting for the bathtub to fill.
When you flush the toilet, do two pushups. (From: Tiny Habits)
It's sounds ridiculous. That's part of the point.
What do you do every day anyway? Could a tiny task hitch a ride?
Make starting ridiculously easy
Do the smallest thing first. This leads to dopamine.
If you're stuck opening your laptop because it means starting work, maybe opening the laptop is the task. Can you do just that?
Ask yourself: What's so doable I can't not do it?
Yes, the double negative works here.
And then your dopamine point can come naturally:
Sometimes taking action creates momentum for more action. You don't necessarily have to feel motivated first.
Think about a large ship. It has to be moving before it can change direction. We can be the same way. Sometimes we need to get moving, no matter how small the first step, before we can start moving in the direction we want.
Give your tasks somewhere to go
Sometimes the hardest part of a task is deciding when to do it. What if you gave it a temporary home instead?
If you use a digital calendar, you might put all those undecided tasks on Sunday.
When you figure out when something actually fits, move it to that day and time.
Maybe it's:
the article you've been meaning to read
a task you know needs to happen, but you don't know where it will fit into your week
a phone call you want to make
a bill to pay, with the date it's due
checking whether your plants need water
painting your nails before a party next weekend
planning a date night
buying a dress for a wedding in July
Anything goes. You could also keep a running list, email yourself, or text yourself a link when you want to remember something.
The idea is simply to give your brain somewhere to put things until you're ready to decide what to do with them. Some people call this a "brain dump." Write it all down. All of it.
It's not about becoming more organized. It's about getting tasks out of your head without requiring yourself to make every decision immediately.
The point isn't finding the “right” system. There is no "right" system.
It's finding somewhere your brain will actually look.
Make your environment do some of the remembering
What could you arrange so that the thing you want to remember is almost impossible to miss?
The goal isn't perfection. It's making the desired action more likely to happen.
Because ADHD experiments don't have to work every time to be useful.
Use what already has meaning for you
Let your interests do some of the work.
Maybe art can represent a goal. Maybe a particular object can remind you of something you're working toward.
You use your plants as a reminder that: What I focus on grows.
A picture of a lighthouse can represent that you aren't responsible for what others do.
Ask “What's in it for me?”
Instead of:
I don't want to do this.
What if you got curious about:
What might I get from doing this?
Maybe you get steps.
A clean surface.A better workspace.
Satisfaction.
A little less visual clutter.
Freedom
One more thing off your mental load.
What's in it for you?
That's much more ADHD friendly than trying to convince yourself that something should matter when you have an interest based brain!
There is freedom from and freedom to.
What do you want freedom from so that you have more freedom to do something else?
What Worked Before?
One of the most useful ADHD experiments might be going back to something that used to work.
Sometimes we try something, it stops working, and we decide, “That doesn't work for me. It worked for a while but it didn't stick." And we firmly believe that.
But is that true? What actually happened? Did the system stop working, or did something change?
Did the routine become too complicated? Did the novelty wear off? Did life get busier? Did you get sick? Travel? Get a puppy? Move? Get married? a new job?
Did the thing it was helping with change?
And sometimes we simply forget that something worked at all.
ADHD can make it easy to think, “If this really mattered to me, I would remember.” But caring about something doesn't make it easier to remember it.
So rather than deciding that a tool works or doesn't work forever, what if you treated it as an experiment?
Try it. Notice what happens. Just notice. If it doesn't work, get curious about why. And if you remember something that worked six months or six years ago, it might be worth trying again.
Nothing works all the time. The goal isn't to find the perfect (remember: nothing is perfect) system. It's to discover more approaches that make what you want to do a little more likely to happen.
Who doesn't like options?
Try it and just notice what happens. don't talk yourself out of an experiment before you've tried it on!
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