ADHD

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How to get structure/routine and maintain it (feddit.de)

submitted 11 months ago by nichtsowichtig@feddit.de to c/adhd@lemmy.world

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Hi there. Things have spiraled out of control lately, I don't have a stable job at the moment and when I do, I mostly work from home.

I urgently need to establish some kind of routine and find a way to follow it. Productivity isn't even the priority as I do have a good amount of free time. Problem is that I don't use this boredom effectively at all.

I wanted to know if there are books/guides that could help ADHD people establish routines and how to keep them up. I'm autistic too, which means I greatly benefit from routine.

Thanks for any kind of advice!

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[–] jeffhykin@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I'd say 3 things

To establish a routine, I had to let go of everything else. Like, the checklist for the whole day was just the routine and it stayed that way for weeks. Sounds like you're in a good position to do this which is great to hear.
Shape the environment to enforce a routine.

Alarms are annoying. They can tell you something but not make you want to do it. We can do better. For example in the morning, using a sunlight alarm clock and a space heater will actually make you want to get out of bed. (Use a timer socket with the space heater to have it auto turn on)

It is incredible how effective this the combination is. You can go to bed at 1am and get up at 5am and still wake up in a decent mood, never pressing snoose, never dealing with a noise-maker. When it's hot and bright, your whole body just tries to be awake instead of trying to keep you asleep.

Doing the exact opposite night also helps; use the thermostat clock to make it cold and have lights auto-turn off using timer sockets. It's difficult to keep working when it's really cold.

I find treating the weekend the same as weekdays is helpful. E.g. don't take a break on the weekend.

Then, if you can, get some external enforcement. Ideally this would be something like a class or a short job that requires showing up at the same time each day. It can be as simple as getting a plant that you need to water a bit every day, or a pet. Although be careful with a pet and make sure you can actually take care of them.

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Order from Chaos