ADHD Tips for Student Success
- When studying, consider ‘chunking’; this means to set aside some uninterrupted time to work on a project. One of the gifts of ADHD is the ability to hyperfocus on projects. Don’t take emails, phone calls etc. Remember that constant interruptions and or moving too quickly from one task to the next may be more difficult for you. You may want to set aside times like this with breaks in-between, with the plan to work on one project/course at a time.
- To stay organized, use an electronic calendar and use the reminder feature. Or if a paper version is more useful for you, purchase a journal and write tasks and reminders in this.
- Spend time daily on planning, and schedule this at the same time every day.
- Build routines into your daily/weekly schedule, including exercise, meals, classes, studying, sleep, social activities etc.
- Create a list of short and long term goals and break long term goals into smaller workable increments. Schedule both on a daily basis.
- For larger projects challenge, yourself by setting a completion date.
- Sleep, diet and exercise are especially crucial to the successful management of ADHD. Go to bed earlier than you have to in order to begin relaxing and to ensure sufficient rest.
Recommended Books
College Confidence with ADD, Michael Sandler
Attention Deficit Disorder, Thomas E. Brown
Delivered from Distraction, Edward Hallowell and John Ratey
Positively ADD, Catherine Corman and Edward Hallowell
Survival Guide for College Students with ADHD or LD, Kathleen G. Nadeau
See also:
10 Tips for College Students with Disabilities by Kathleen Nadeau (from NPR)