Designing a Life That Supports Your ADHD
How to Align Your Daily Routines With Your Brain
Stop fighting ADHD - design your life around it.
Understand your brain’s rhythms and build habits that fit.
Learn practical strategies to support your ADHD in daily life.
One of the biggest frustrations I hear from my clients is how they feel like they’re constantly swimming upstream. “If only I could focus like everyone else,” they say. But here’s the thing: trying to force your ADHD brain to behave like a neurotypical brain isn’t the answer. In fact, it’s exhausting.
The good news is that your ADHD brain is perfectly capable of doing all the things and well and while feeling good. You just need to learn how to design your life in a way that works for it. Let’s talk about how evolution created our brains to do it our way, not anyone else’s way like we have been taught.
Understanding Your ADHD Rhythms
ADHD brains don’t follow the same patterns as non-ADHD brains, and that’s great. They are not meant to be typical according to society’s bias. During the caveman days, to support survival and advancement for the tribe, feel full of energy and hyperfocus, while other days, barely focus at all. Instead of seeing this inconsistently as a limitation, recognize it as part of your brain’s natural rhythm and learn to harmonize in a way aligned with your values and goals. Easy-peasy, right? LOL. This takes someone like me or otherwise.
Take someone who is farsighted and can’t see long distances. Once the right prescription glasses are in place, they now have access to all kinds of methods for navigating their lives optimally. This is how ADHDers feel good and do well when they learn how to ‘see’ through their brain rather than through the non-ADHD lenses society has trained them to use.
Designing Habits That Fit Your Brain
We’ve all heard about “good habits” like waking up early, working in a quiet space, or following a strict schedule. But for many ADHDers, these strategies just don’t fit. The key to designing habits that work for you is to take into account how your brain operates. I tend to rebel against all of that, ADHD can kind of be rebellious that way!
Maybe you need to mix it up throughout your day to stay focused, or maybe a white board (like me!) can help you stay on track. Instead of trying to stick to non-ADHD habits, experiment with creating practices that align with your ADHD. You’ll be amazed at how much easier life becomes when your habits fit your brain.
Optional Strategies for ADHD-Friendly Routines
Here are a few strategies I’ve co-designed with my ADHD clients that work wonders:
Time-blocking with flexibility (key word is flexibility): Set dedicated time for certain tasks, but give yourself permission to adjust and adapt if needed.
Task pairing: Group similar tasks together to maintain focus and momentum (music with vacuuming but for me it’s the TV in the background with laundry or billing).
Alarms the right way: Use them to provide a buffer before appointments, a time block, picking up a prescription before heading to the store. If I have to be somewhere at 2pm, I alarm buffer how long it takes to get ready, built in if I can’t find my keys, etc.
By redefining ADHD-specific habits, you’ll find daily routines feel more natural and manageable.
You don’t have to feel miserable with your ADHD anymore. By designing a life supporting your brain’s natural rhythms, you’ll find that things fall into place more easily. The key is to accept how your brain works and create habits and routines that aren’t forced.
Let’s start designing a life that supports your ADHD so you can live with more peace and pleasure.
