The ADHD Survival Guide: Gut-Checks, Collaboration, and Saying No

Living with ADHD is a wild ride

An idea for a new business plan, two book proposals, a clothing brand, and a transformative plan for an app that could support young people along with a script for a pitch to investors ... And that’s just my musings before breakfast.

ADHD, for me, means living on a mental swing, usually high and up in the air, busy dreaming up new ideas and plans and acting on as many of them as I can, but at the other end of the swing, by contrast, I have whole hours, afternoons, and days, where simply doing anything is far too much effort, and I need to rest in a state of paralysis without social contact to repair.

Does this sound familiar to you? If it does, perhaps you are someone diagnosed with ADHD yourself, or suspect that you may have ADHD.

So what are my words of wisdom for navigating this wild ride? Personally, I have found it’s about following my gut. Although every single day sees my brain suggesting new projects, sometimes speaking them out loud to a friend, or even just writing the ideas down into a notebook, is the perfect way to consider if the project actually has legs, and how I feel in my gut about making the project into reality.

Sometimes, it is just about asking myself, ‘why’ should I pursue this idea.

I work through a list of simple reflective questions about each of these new ideas that I have conjured up in my mind:

• Why do I want to do this project?

• What is the value in this project?

• How much time and/or money would be needed to make this work?

• What can this project offer to others?

• How would it enrich my life?

Another strategy that I have found to help make working more manageable is finding other, similar-minded people to collaborate with. I truly believe two brains are better than one, and having someone else to work with often enriches a project through having two perspectives instead of one. It also means dividing tasks and making space for reflection, which is an incredibly valuable tool.

I have spent my life struggling to say ‘no’ to projects through fear of missing out, but with age and experience I have found it’s important to only say ‘yes’ to the things that will really bring my heart joy. If we say ‘yes’ to everything, there isn’t scope to fully implement or explore those ideas that really can make a difference.

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